As you guys will know, Season 4 of the Learning Futures Group podcast, ‘Learning Is The New Working,’ is entitled ‘Learning 4 Good,’ and is focused on the fascinating dialectic that is happening between the world of corporate Learning and the genuine innovations happening in the non-profit sector.
What we’re attempting is an in-depth exploration of the global $200bn global aid sector in terms of what it can teach us in the Workplace Learning community. One of the most dynamic, intriguing, hard-pressed, for sure, but vital parts of the human story, the work that’s going on in the voluntary and NGO space to make the world a better place deserves all of our attention; from government agency to the millions of local helping hands, from the public-private partnership to the intervention of the well-funded tech benefactor, we’re trying to map how the same factors of change and disruption we have talk about in other parts of ‘Learning Is The New Working’ are playing out here.
And tomorrow, with our first 2020 podcast, we get even more insights into that interchange in nearly an hour of great interaction with my guest, Humentum’s Chris Proulx, Interim CEO and Global Director, Membership Engagement & Learning. Full disclosure: I serve, proudly, on the Humentum board, so this one’s close to my heart. In any case, Chris’s organization, formed in July 2017 by the merger of three previous Learning sector entities, InsideNGO, LINGOs and Mango, is all a consortium of hundreds of NGOs working together to improve operational excellence and improve the skills of their employees round the world. In our chat, we stretches to nearly an hour, Chris discusses a range of important topics, like how one NGO’s local driver did a 12-week Project Management course on his phone, and was able to get a much better job – just while waiting round for jobs!
Chris has a range of equally interesting anecdotes and guidance, from the importance of appropriateness for any training you want people to take seriously, why it always has to be accessible, and much more; I think it’s genuinely fascinating stuff, and I hope you do, too. ‘Learning 4 Good’ is co-curated by my esteemed co-host Lutz Ziob – long-term colleague, mentor, friend and all-round, proud and out-loud fellow ‘Learning Geek’! Lutz, who many of us will know from his many years at Microsoft, including at Microsoft Africa, now runs Ziob Consulting. That’s a company 100% focused on the dynamic interaction between technology innovation, skills and job transformation, and the changing approaches to learning and skills development.
Just as I do, Lutz sees digital transformation, often described as the 4th Industrial Revolution, as a truly global process, which is why he is so interested on its impact right across the African continent, as well as the opportunities opening up through collaboration between Africa and Europe (and his native Germany in particular). So – I really hope you agree ‘Learning 4 Good’ sounds interesting to you, and that you have enough time to listen to this discussion with Mr Proulx.
And if you feel you want to hear more about Learning 4 Good topics like what Humentum’s doing, just click to subscribe directly to ‘Learning Is The New Working’, where ‘Learning 4 Good’ is running on alternate 2-week cycles with our regular LITNW episodes over on Apple Podcasts Spotify GooglePlay SoundCloud
Let me know what you think of what we’re trying to do, take care – and let’s all work together to make 2020 a landmark year for non-profit Workplace Learning.