SureSkills Learn to Grow Podcast

In the next number weeks on the Learn to Grow Podcast, I’ll be outlining my perspective on the “learning landscape”.

I’ll be doing that in 5 (and a half 😊) parts.

First, I outlined three ubiquitous trends that highlight the evolution of workplace learning

Today, in week two, I’ll give real world examples of the need for constant change and reinvention.

In week three, I’ll dispel some myths about AI coming for our jobs and focus on the opportunities in a world where uniquely human skills are king.

In week four, I’ll provide tips (in two parts) on how to become a better learner – something sorely lacking in many conversations about learning in the workplace.

And finally, in the last episode, I’ll make a case for the importance of a learning culture and try to make concrete some words that can be dismissed as woo woo (culture, purpose, gratitude – you know the ones I’m talking about 😊)

Enjoy, and feedback welcome as always!

My latest guest on the Learn to Grow Podcast is Erika Ullmann, Learning and Development Director at Virgin Media Ireland.

Erika is one of the most conscientious L&D leaders I have met, and she is doing incredible work not just providing learning opportunities, but opening peoples eyes to their identities as learners.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to align learning with a strategic vision
• The importance of a holistic approach to learning that considers the human at the core
• Why great learners are happy learners
• Why self awareness is the basis of effective learning
• The role of deliberate practice in learning and growth
• The importance of organic (inspirational!) conversations between learners with shared passions
• The evolution of L&D and the need for empathetic leadership

You can find Erika on LinkedIn!

To get in touch with me, Simon Behan, reach out on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]

At SureSkills, we deliver learning services to the worlds leading technology companies and global organizations.

To learn more, head over to www.SureSkills.com or download this eBook: Foundations of a Successful Learning Experience. 

Thanks for listening!

In the next number weeks, I’ll be outlining the learning landscape as I see it.

And I’m going to do that in 5 and a half parts 😊.

First, I’m going to outline three ubiquitous trends that underpin the learning landscape.

Then, in week two, ill dive into the “Now of work” because the future is here after all! And give real world examples of the need for constant change and reinvention

In week 3, I’ll dispel some myths about AI coming for all of our jobs and focus on the opportunities in a world where uniquely human skills are king.

In week 4, ill provide tips (in two parts) on how to become a better learner – something sorely lacking in many conversations about learning in the workplace.

And finally, in the last episode, ill make a case for the importance of a learning culture and try to make concrete some of the words that are dismissed as woo woo or just straight up annoying (culture, purpose, gratitude – you know the ones I’m talking about 😊)

Christopher is the dynamic and engaging host of Learning Tech Talks and founder of Learning Sharks, both projects that feature as part of his mission to shape the future of workforce development.

He is the Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed and a vastly experienced learning professional with a passion for exploring not just how we do things, but why we do them.

Let me quickly explain the premise of todays conversation – at the beginning of the year, top trends reports and 2022 predictions tend to pour out of the woodwork. They are often hugely helpful, and sometimes they can lead to overreactions, exaggerations, and old fashioned mistakes.

So we are putting our own spin on a trends episode – we are calling it the airing of grievances, which I will explain in more detail at the beginning of the conversation with Christopher.

In the show, we discuss:

• Trends that are so obvious they’ve been there since 2001
• The desire of companies to retreat back to in-office
• Why the most important reasons are at the bottom of priority lists
• The misconception that we can only connect in person
• The great resignation as a collective airing of grievances
• The need and opportunity for internal job marketplaces

To get in touch with me, Simon Behan, reach out on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]

At SureSkills, we deliver learning services to the worlds leading technology companies and global organizations.

To learn more, head over to www.SureSkills.com or download this eBook: Foundations of a Successful Learning Experience. 

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to another episode of learn to grow shorts. Usually in these episodes, I reflect on a topic of interest from my latest guest but in the next few weeks, ill be doing something different!

I created the Learn to Grow podcast as an anecdotal supplement to “industry trends”.

Top trends articles and reports are incredibly helpful, but I wanted to explore what the world of workplace learning, the learning landscape, looked like to those who experienced it every day and prepared their respective companies for the so-called future of work.

I wanted to talk to leaders in learning about the learning landscape.

But through two seasons, something has nagged at me, lingered in the background and popped its head up on numerous occasions.

I have never fully defined or explained what I mean by the learning landscape. And that landscape is a vast, interconnected system.

So, that’s what I’m doing here!

In the next 6 weeks, I’ll be outlining the learning landscape as I see it.

And I’m going to do that in 5 and a half parts 😊

First, I’m going to outline three ubiquitous trends that underpin the learning landscape.

Then, in week two, ill dive into the “Now of work” because the future is here after all! And give real world examples of the need for constant change and reinvention

In week 3, I’ll dispel some myths about AI coming for all of our jobs and focus on the opportunities in a world where uniquely human skills are king.

In week 4, ill provide tips (in two parts) on how to become a better learner – something sorely lacking in many conversations about learning in the workplace.

And finally, in the last episode, ill make a case for the importance of a learning culture and try to make concrete some of the words that are dismissed as woo woo or just straight up annoying (culture, purpose, gratitude – you know the ones I’m talking about 😊)

So that’s it! Consider this a trailer – we will jump in next week with the first part.

Learning has never mattered more, and this is my manifesto of sorts – a look at the outsized role learning plays as we move towards an unpredictable future.

Thanks as always for taking the time to listen, and I hope you’ll do the same in coming weeks!

I am delighted to kick off Season 3 of the Learn to Grow Podcast with Todd Moran, Chief Learning Strategist at NovoEd.

Todd is one of the industry’s great thinkers, a learning professional deeply attuned to what’s happening right now in the world of workplace learning and development. The conversation is filled with insights and practical tools, and includes an invitation to learn with NovoEd.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• The role of platforms as work hubs
• How learning and culture are intertwined in a healthy workplace
• What a truly collaborative experience looks like
• The importance of growth mindset, resilience, and adaptability
• The needs behind the great resignation
• Putting purpose at the center of everything
• The upcoming (free) Learning Experience Design course starting in January 17 at NovoEd (https://www.novoed.com/resources/learning-experience-design-course/)

To get in touch with me, Simon Behan, reach out on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]

At SureSkills, we deliver learning services to the worlds leading technology companies and global organizations.

To learn more, head over to www.SureSkills.com or download this eBook: Foundations of a Successful Learning Experience. 

Thanks for listening!

This week’s episode comes in the form of a reading recommendation!

In our most recent episode we discussed the fact that learning can’t simply take place at the beginning of our “careers” it has to happen throughout.

That is exactly the point Michelle Weise makes in her excellent book “Long Life Learning”.

Weise highlights the fact that our careers now span 60 years or more and that our systems of education were never designed for continuous learning.

Her book looks at the status quo and suggests a new model for a learning ecosystem that supports continuous, lifelong learning.

Thanks for listening!

My guest this week is content guru Kirk Werner who is the VP of content at Udacity. Kirk played a major role as Lynda.com revolutionized online learning and continues to push the envelope at Udacity helping learners build future-focused skills.

If you are at all interested in where the future of learning is going, this is the podcast for you. Kirk is so knowledgeable when it comes to learning trends, and has some fantastic insights on how and why we learn.

We discuss

• the evolution of content and its increasing importance as part of a successful learning experience
• The future workplace and its emphasis on lifelong learning
• The importance of learning something new every day and becoming adaptable in the face of change

I could have talked to Kirk all day long – he knows his stuff, knows the industry inside out, and has a prescient ability to identify what’s coming next.

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Today I am following up on the conversation with Ruth Gotian, Chief Learning Officer at Weill Cornell Medicine and author of The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance – I will add a link to the pre-order Ruth’s book in the show notes.

(pre-order here 😊)

My favorite aspect of this conversation was the focus on the practical aspects of learning.

As I have discussed with numerous guests, AI and machine learning will revolutionize the future of work by automating repeatable tasks.

At a very basic level, the demand for physical, manual, and basic cognitive tasks will fall, while the demand for higher cognitive technological skills will rise along with the need for social and emotional skills.

In the face of accelerating change, we will need to upskill and reskill continually to keep pace with the demands of the workplace. In short, we will have to be come better learners.

But, there’s a problem. Tell someone they need to become a better learner, and they might not even know what that means or where to start. The thought of learning how to be a better learner feels like a concept that folds into itself a bit – it’s intimidating!

I have become fascinated with frameworks for becoming a better learner, and I loved chatting with Ruth about the conscious competence model. And I loved the simple, practical tips Ruth gives for becoming a more efficient learner, taking small steps starting with becoming aware of the things you want to learn and grow in.

We need to become more adept at recognizing the skills and process we want to learn and systematically applying an approach of continual improvement to take incremental steps to accomplish our goals, and I think Ruth gives some great suggestions for how to do that.

Self awareness is crucial to learner progress and is crucial to everything we do.

That’s why the framework of becoming better at identifying the things you need to learn, then deliberately taking steps to close the gaps, taking time to be reflect and take action in a repetitive cycle.

If you are interested in the science of learning, I also want to plug what has for me been an invaluable resource.

Andrew Huberman, Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine has a wonderful podcast called the Huberman Lab Podcast.

His goal is to bring simple, actionable insights from scientific research to the general public, and he devotes several episodes to subjects like how to increase focus, how to learn faster, and how to optimize your brain.

The episodes are filled with simple, actionable, practical insights that will change the way you think about your brain and how you go about your day.

Next week, Kirk Werner, VP of Content at Udacity!

My latest guest on the Learn to Grow Podcast is Dr. Ruth Gotian who is the Chief Learning Officer at Weill Cornell Medicine and Assistant professor of education anesthesiology, former assistant dean of mentoring and executive director of the mentoring academy at Weill Cornell. Ruth is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Psychology today.

Ruth interviews Nobel laureates, professional athletes, and other elite high achievers, and tries to understand what they do differently that allows them to achieve at such a high level.

She has taken the wisdom from that conversation and distilled it into book titled: The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance.

Ruth shares some of that wisdom in this conversation and we dive into some practical suggestions for how to be a more efficient and effective learner here, things you can take away and apply right now as you learn and grow personally and professionally!

We discuss how elite high achievers define success, practical frameworks for learning absolutely anything, and why L&D functions are becoming increasingly like mentors among many other things.

In this episode we discuss:

• How elite high achievers define success
• A practical framework for how to learn anything
• How to take an incremental approach to big tasks
• The importance of discovering your passions as a way to grow
• Intrinsic motivation as the driver of productivity
• How to leverage your schedule to make the most of your learning style
• Why adult learning is imperative for career success
• Why good L&D programs are increasingly like mentors
• The importance of mentors and how to find them
• How to practice your power skills

On the episode, Ruth discusses a resource for those looking for tips on how to build a mentoring team – you can find that here!

And here’s where you can pre-order Ruth’s upcoming book: The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance

To learn more about Dr. Ruth Gotian, you can check out all the latest on Ruth's website here!

On the episode, Ruth discusses a resource for those looking for tips on how to build a mentoring team – you can find that here!

And here’s where you can pre-order Ruth’s upcoming book: The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance

To get in touch with me, Simon Behan, reach out on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]

At SureSkills, we deliver learning services to the worlds leading technology companies and global organizations.

To learn more, head over to www.SureSkills.com or download this eBook: Foundations of a Successful Learning...