Future-Focused with Christopher Lind

Automating, accelerating, and personalizing our digital content all the while measuring experience and impact must require an entire ecosystem of technology and another experience platform, right? Despite all the efforts and technology out there driving to improve when and where our workforce consumes the content they need, there continues to be opportunity to transform the way it’s developed. Many organizations continue to rely heavily on traditional content development tools that, while valuable, don’t quite address the entire opportunity. On today’s episode, Joel Hellermark and I will talk about the latest technological advancements in content development. We’ll share why the way we’ve historically approached it isn’t wrong but is no longer how we have to operate. We’ll also explore the capabilities of Sana Labs and see how their team is building in the latest in tech into a core capability within every L&D organization.

Prevailing ideas on futuristic training simulations are starting to blur the line between fiction and reality with emerging technology. Learning leaders (and dreamers) often have envisions of a believable training environment that isn’t taught but experienced, with the ability to provide real-time data points to highlight achievements AND failures within the design and learner journey. We are only beginning to see the profound ways that virtual and augmented reality is changing the way we view, well, just about everything in the workplace! Never has there ever been a more appropriate use of the technology than in the learning space. In this episode, I'll be talking with Peter Wittig, co-founder and director of customer experience, of Motive.io about the advantages of adopting immersive training and the ways that it is providing more confidence to trainees and creating a more productive work environment.

Access to content is not equivalent to access to opportunity. Having a library card doesn't mean you have the ability, motivation and triggers to go to the library, and then when you are there have the knowledge to both find and learn what is relevant and important. With the continued pressure to hack the upskilling code, many continue looking for ways to grow and develop their workforce despite the sea of new technology. Perhaps that’s because the right technology and content pathways are only part of the solution. In this episode, I’m joined by David and Taylor Blake, founding members of Degreed who wanted to go even further because they recognized access to content does not directly translate to access to opportunity. We’ll talk about how to move away from the talk of upskilling and focus on the implementation while highlighting what infrastructure is needed to remove blockers and create a proactive, perpetual talent-building pipeline to inclusively advance today's workforce. We’ll also hear how their new venture LearnIn can help solve every barrier that stands in the way of creating tomorrow’s workforce.

Upskilling is no longer a conversation of necessity. It is a matter of SURVIVAL. 2020 has shown us that the entire global workforce is vulnerable and the supply and demand for skills is at an order imbalance. Will you be added to the list of endangered skills? The impact of skills only being to scratch the surface with compounding effects on mental health, productivity and retention. And they are all AT RISK. In this episode, I'll be talking with Sarah Danzl and Todd Tauber with Degreed about the global workforce skills shortage and highlighting some insights that were discovered in the #StateofSkills2021 global report and what they are doing to help organizations flourish in a time of change and disruption.

It’s time we have a tough conversation. Diversity and inclusion programs AREN’T working. 2020 has shown us that WE aren’t there yet and WE need to improve. The search for the answer to a viable and sustainable program is pertinent to the #futureofwork. Organizations NEED to take positive steps to remove systemic barriers and promote inclusion. In this episode, Elisabeth Cooke and I are talking about the exciting new ways Dignii is helping organize demystifying D&I training with a holistic view of diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement.

Too frequently our learning leaders are draining resources on a multitude of external systems that work against the environment they are trying to create. It’s not you, it’s me. In reality, building a larger capability map to design and weave both internal and external systems to work together in tandem is how a true ecosystem should function. There is no “I” in team with the #futureofwork and collaboration is key in a blended learning environment. Let me ask you this. Is your organization’s learning ecosystem self-sustaining? Have you identified the components of your ecosystem and are there ways restructuring would provide nourishment to those wilting components? Are you MAXIMIZING your learners collaborative experience? In this episode, Matt Donovon with GP Strategies Corporation helps us to answer these questions by demystifying the learning ecosystem and provides the tools to combine learning ecosystem components to create an XL blended smoothie learning experience with whipped cream on top. Yum

VR with VR. Value Realization with Virtual Reality. We are witnessing the new age of products that require a sales pitch like nothing we’ve ever seen before. How do we present products in the #immersivetechnology sector to businesses that HAVE a need but HAVEN’T realized it yet. Leaders are seeing the importance of LISTENING in on these important conversations that concern the #futureofwork to learn how these technologies may be deployed and plan accordingly for their impact on the workforce. In this episode, James Watson and I talk about his experience in the immersive technology sector and the challenges that companies face when building a sustainable business model and effectively marketing to the right customers.

Organizations often make the fatal assumption that their leaders already have the skills they need to thrive in the current business environment. Unfortunately, many leaders have received little to no development on these critical skills. As a result, avoidable mistakes are frequently made, and countless opportunities are missed. However, when it comes to developing leaders, it takes a lot more than getting people the right content and curriculum is important. Like developing any skill, it’s about architecting a comprehensive experience that brings together content aligned to skills with plenty of opportunity for practice. In this episode, I’ll be talking with Matt Confer about what it takes to develop leaders from all levels of the organization at scale and with impact. We’ll also dig into the way Abilitie is using immersive simulations designed to develop the behaviors your leaders need most.

Mikael Wornoo, Co-founder of Techwolf, dives into the revolutionary impact of AI on skills data analysis for workforce planning. He explains how massive datasets generated by employees can be harnessed to provide organizations with unparalleled insights into their skills landscape. The conversation covers the challenges of navigating skill gaps, the importance of ethical AI use, and how real-time data can empower talent management. Wornoo also shares the transformative journey of Techwolf from student job matching to a vital tool for enterprises.

In complex organizations many people work, we collaborate with people from around the world to solve important problems together. Given that’s the way work is done, why aren’t more learning opportunities designed around that kind of experience? It’s a good question and a gap worth discussing as we kick off 2021 and continue to enhance the way we develop real skills digitally. However, one challenge when encouraging people to engage in their development is showcasing the purpose and outcomes that development is driving toward and providing a clear pathway to get there. Tomorrow on Learning Tech Talks I’ll be talking with Matthias Klein and Guido Schnarwiler about a fun and engaging way to do by architecting a mission-based simulation that aligns people to their development pathway and steps them through the journey. You’ll also hear how theMission is making this a reality.