252: Leading in Disruptive Times with Seth Kahan

Seth Kahan is founder of the consulting firm, Visionary Leadership and author of the business bestsellers,Getting Change Right,Getting Innovation Right, and, most recently, Visionary Leadership: How Association Leaders Embrace Disruption in the 21st Century. He's worked with leaders of large multinational organizations and over a hundred association CEOs. Some of his most exciting work with those CEOs involves Grand Challenges—big, bold goals that organizations take on, partnering with others to make a difference with problems that society has thus far not been able to resolve. And learning how to navigate the major disruptors we’ve seen unfold in 2020 related to the pandemic, politics, social issues, and our economic situation, have certainly created a new set of related challenges for organizations, particularly for those of us in the learning business. In this second episode in our seven-episode series on the learning business in disruptive times, Jeff talks to Seth about how organizations have responded and evolved due to recent circumstances surrounding not only the coronavirus pandemic, but to other major disruptors such as climate change and racial injustice.They also discuss Seth’s 100 CEOs and 100 Days initiative, the various resources he’s created to help organizations in this time of crisis, and the lasting – and in some cases, positive – impact that all of this will potentially have on society. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode252.

251: Times of Disruption

It’s been a couple months since we released episode 250 of the Leading Learning Podcast and we're excited to be back with a new, revamped series approach to the podcast (rather than single, independent episodes as we’ve done in the past). With our new approach, over the course of several episodes—seven in this case—we’ll explore a topic from a variety of viewpoints, drawing on multiple interviews as well as offering our own thoughts and providing context for the conversations with others. And the first topic we’re going to explore is that of the learning business in disruptive times. In other words, what’s going on in the world right now in 2020. We are all experiencing unprecedented levels of uncertainty and change and, of course, a major reason for that is the coronavirus pandemic. But there are also major social, political, and economic issues deeply impacting how we live and work. In this first episode of the very first series of the Leading Learning Podcast, we explore these key areas of disruption and their implications on learning businesses. We also preview the interviewees we will feature in the series and the varied perspectives they will bring to the topic of leading learning in times of disruption. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode251.

250: Turning the Lens on Leading Learning Listeners

In yet another exciting milestone for Leading Learning, we are thrilled to have officially reached episode 250 of the podcast. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for roughly five years at this point and have grown from zero listeners to more than 7,000 downloads a month! In this turning-point episode, we express our tremendous gratitude to everyone who has made the podcast possible. We also focus on input received from listeners that we think would be valuable to all learning businesses and the entire Leading Learning community. Finally, we share some recent reviews of the show submitted through Apple Podcasts as well as touch on our plans for the podcast going forward. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode250.

249: The Upskilling Imperative with Shelley Osborne of Udemy

In this episode, Jeff talks with Shelley Osborne, Vice President of Learning at Udemy, about Udemy’s model as a global learning provider and about her new book, The Upskilling Imperative: Five Ways to Make Learning Core to the Way We Work.

248: Off-Trail and Self-Directed Learning with Blake Boles

Blake Boles is the founder and director of Unschool Adventures, a company that gives self-directed teens and young adults—mostly unschoolers—an opportunity to explore cities all over the world. Well-known for questioning our traditional approaches to schooling, Blake is a thought-provoking speaker, host of the Off-Trail Learning podcast, and author. His books include The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Better Than College, College Without High School, and the recently published, Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?. In this episode of Leading Learning, Jeff talks with Blake about key concepts from his latest book related to alternative paths of education in K-12, a particularly relevant topic given the current disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.They also discuss the importance of engagement, self-directed learning, and connection in young learners and how they inevitably impact adult learners. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode248.

247: Transactional to Transformational with Micène Fontaine

Micène Fontaine is the executive director at Design Arts Seminars (DAS), an accredited provider of continuing education for design professionals that aims to inspire their clients to become catalysts of change andto design a world in which all of us can thrive.

246: 3 Conditions of Learner Engagement

Learner engagement is one of the holy grails of learning businesses—if the learner isn’t engaged, learning is unlikely to happen. So what are the necessary circumstances that need to exist in order for engagement in learning to happen? In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, we delve into three conditions that have to be met to foster learner engagement: meaning, safety, and availability. We also discuss some examples and ideas of how you might support those conditions in the products and services you create and deliver, and why your learning business should care. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode246.

245: The Indispensable Community with Richard Millington

Feverbee founder and return podcast guest, Richard Millington has spent over a decade helping hundreds of companies around the world develop successful, indispensable communities. He is also an international speaker and author of Buzzing Communities: How To Build Bigger, Better, And More Active Online Communitiesand The Indispensable Community: Why Some Brand Communities Thrive When Others Perish. In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Jeff talks with Rich about the evolution of online communities and ways the current pandemic is impacting them. They also discuss the relationship between virtual events and online community and Rich shares specific and practical tips about how to successfully launch and grow a community. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode245.

244: E-Learning Uncovered with Diane Elkins

Diane Elkins is co-founder of Artisan E-Learning, a custom e-learning development company, and E-Learning Uncovered, a company specializing in training services, books, and resources for e-learning development using the major rapid e-learning authoring tools. She frequently speaks at events (in fact she led a session at Learning • Technology • Design 2019), and she’s co-author of E-Learning Fundamentals: A Practical Guide and the E-Learning Uncovered book series. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Celisa talks with Diane about all things e-learning including common mistakes and keys to success with e-learning design and development. They also discuss ways to foster learner motivation and engagement in the context of e-learning as well as her view on designing effective microlearning. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode244.

243: Revisiting the Learning Business Maturity Model

The current coronavirus crisis is necessitating major changes in how many learning businesses meet existing needs. For example, a change like investing in expanding and improving your online learning portfolio as so many organizations are currently considering. But before making any major changes or investments, it’s important to first have a solid understanding of where you are as a learning business. That’s why in this episode, we are revisiting the Learning Business Maturity Model, a simple yet powerful tool we created to provide a framework for helping organizations assess the maturity of their learning and education businesses.And in case you aren’t already familiar with it, we explain what the Learning Business Maturity Model is and why we created it. We also discuss how you can get value from using it, particularly amid current circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode243.