Future-Focused with Christopher Lind

As an L&D or business leader, does improv immediately jump to mind as a solution to a number of the human challenges we’re facing amidst the coronavirus pandemic? I wouldn’t be surprised if many answered no to that question. However, I’d advocate it should be. Amidst the ever-growing, gloomy news about the coronavirus and the negative impact it’s having on the world around us, this conversation is a breath of fresh air that’s focused on solutions instead of problems. In this episode we talk with Bob Kulhan about how he has focused his experience and team at Business Improv to harness the power of improv and translate it into a solution that solves real business problems. He’ll also share more about how their latest solution that is not only preparing people to operate in a virtual and distributed world but creates an opportunity for people to see how to do it in practice.

With the coronavirus continuing to spread, social distancing is one of the most effective strategies for flattening the curve. However, this leaves many organizations scrambling to figure out how to communicate and collaborate in a world where employees are suddenly required to work from their homes. Given the speed and agility required to address the crisis, there isn’t time to explore new technologies and navigate the implementation process. Fortunately, many organizations already have a number of tools in their portfolio that can help them bridge the gap. In this episode I’m talking with Jordan Fladell from mLevel about the current state of affairs and how to successfully leverage your existing tech stack to quickly adapt to employees rapidly shifting into the remote work world and some of the resources they’ve created to help.

Greater speed and efficiency while at the same time delivering content with a greater degree of relevance than ever before? Impossible, right? Wrong. That’s the beauty of today’s leading technologies. By modeling a learner’s skill signature and pairing that with #machinelearning, modern technology can quickly and efficiently determine what content will be particularly important to the learner, and when it gets it wrong, #machinelearning allows it to learn from its mistakes, so it doesn’t happen again. And, by allowing the machines to take most of this time-consuming activity off our hands (and do it better than we ever could), it allows us to focus on the higher-order activities. Listen to our conversation with Toby Harris and Rob MacAllister about how magpie by Filtered is making this a reality.

Emotions like learning are brain activities and are far more deeply interconnected than we often give them credit. The way we feel dramatically influences the way we think and perceive the world. As a result, it can have a dramatic influence on what and how we learn. That means it’s critical that we do our best to take them into account when we think about learning and learning technology even though it’s a complex variable and not universal for all our learners. Listen as I talk with Mike Kirk & Lea Sorrentino from BI Worldwide about the impact of emotions and feelings on the learner experience and ways we can be more intentional about ensuring we’ve accounted for that in our planning. You’ll also hear more about their Learning eXchange platform designed to keep that at its core.

For many organizations, the challenge in supporting employee’s knowledge management needs is not a lack of content. The content exists, but it’s everywhere, lacks context, and is impossible to find. The act of curating that content through traditional methods is near impossible. Curating it and delivering it in a way that’s personalized to the end user and reaches them where they are, absent of technology, is beyond reach. Enter in the Learning Experience Platform or Intelligent Learning Platform. Designed to sit on top of all your existing content sources, curate based on industry relevance, and measure skill progression while connecting into the platforms where your employees are actually working, they’re designed to deliver relevant information to employees where they need it most. Listen as I talk with Nelson Sivalignam and Jon Magnus from HowNow about how their platform is using Artificial Intelligence to tackle these problems with speed and at scale.

If you’ve been in L&D for a while, you’re probably familiar with the buzz around microlearning. And, if your even vaguely familiar with learning technology, the platform Axonify probably rings a bell. However, microlearning means a lot of things to a lot of different people, and there’s no shortage of companies that have attached that term to their brand. Add to that, simply distributing bite-size chunks isn’t a silver bullet solution to any L&D problem. It’s about breaking content into manageable chunks, delivering it to employees when it’s relevant, reinforcing the desired knowledge and behaviors, and measuring the impact are all important elements of a successful learning experience. However, pulling all that together often proves to be a challenge. Listen to my conversation with JD Dillion, Chief Learning Officer, at Axonify about what microlearning means to them and what else their platform has to offer that makes it a full-service solution.

There’s an overwhelming and continually growing number of capabilities and applications for the latest in emerging technologies. Some of them you may not have even imagined possible. However, the potential being there and it being the right time to consider incorporating into your strategy are two very different things. While your organization may not be ready to implement and support these capabilities yet, don’t be discouraged. A large majority of organizations aren’t even close to ready either, or the ones that are still have a long road ahead. In this episode I geek out with my friend Mike Pino with the goal of helping you reimagine the possibilities while considering how to pragmatically bring them to life. Here’s a hint. It doesn’t start with tech.

The learning tech purchasing process may feel like an overwhelming and unfamiliar quagmire, and believe me, it has no shortage of challenges. While there are definitely some process similarities like determining your needs, finding a few providers, and evaluating their offerings, there’s a lot more to the process than you may think. However, half the battle is knowing what you’re in for and having as many of your ducks in a row before you even start an RFP. Will you still be navigating a bit of a minefield?  Candidly, yes. And, there will always be a few curveballs you won’t see coming, but if you chart a solid path, I promise you can safely make it to the other side. Listen as I talked with Jordan Fladell from mLevel share candidly what it’s really like and share strategies for success.

Video is a powerful tool for capturing the attention of your audience, and we can further extend that impact by making it an interactive experience. However, creating that kind of content may feel like a stretch for some. It’s a process to plan and capture the video, make it production ready, deploy it to your audience.Add to that, without the right system behind the video, it can’t provide the insights and data required to evaluate whether it achieved your desired outcomes. Check out my conversation with John Hudson from LumaOne where we explored the power and ease of interactive video content designed to tell compelling stories that create impactful results. John also shared more about the technology and services LumaOne offers and how they connect to some of the problems we’re trying to solve in L&D.

There’s a reason the term LMS makes people cringe. It brings to mind memories of painful content delivered through a painful user experience. Now, to be fair, there’s a lot more going on that has resulted in those painful memories, but the LMS is a leading actor in that movie. But, what if it didn’t have to be that way. What if the content and experience could be created and delivered in a way that was relevant, valuable, and accessible? What exactly would that content and experience look like? Listen as I talk with Steve Dineen and Shys Gilles from FUSE Universal about how their platform is designed to break down the traditional barriers and create an experience that contributes to the learning culture needed for your organization’s success.