
The Learning Hack podcast
What are the significant innovations shaping the future of learning? How is digital technology and scientific discovery changing the way we learn, train, teach and educate? Join John Helmer in conversation with the people who are visioning and actively creating that future. Published fortnightly (don't forget to subscribe!).
Latest episodes

May 9, 2022 • 52min
LH #60 Repeat Performance with Guy Wallace
This episode will be highly relatable to anyone who works in L&D within organizations, but is of more general interest too. Now semi-retired, Performance Analyst and Instructional Architect Guy W. Wallace proves more than happy to spill the beans about the wiliness that is often need to keep programmes on track amidst the sturm und drang of corporate politics and misapprehensions about learning in the C-suite. Guy has been designing Enterprise Learning since 1979, has been a partner/owner at 3 consulting firms, and has served more than 80 consulting clients, primarily in the Fortune 500. In 2010 he received the Honorary Life Member Award from the International Society for Performance Improvement. 0:00 - Intro 2:41 - Guy's career/academic history 17:34 - First Exposure to Human Performance Technology (HPT) 27:06 - Influences in Evidence-Based Performance Improvement 34:56 - Current focuses for learning 38:00 - Is anything in progress? 39:56 - Misused Performance Improvement Terms 50:02 - Parting words of wisdom Follow Guy: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guywwallace Twitter: @guywwallace Website: http://www.eppic.biz/ Contact John Helmer: Email: john@learninghackpodcast.com Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Apr 19, 2022 • 49min
LH #59 Access All Areas with Susi Miller
Susi Miller is Founder and Director of eLaHub Ltd, the only provider of eLearning accessibility specialised services in the L&D industry. The company provides training, auditing services and consultancy on every aspect of eLearning accessibility for clients including Amazon, Thomson Reuters, London Stock Exchange Group, and Govt of Canada. In this episode, John talks to Susi about the prevalence of disabilities in working populations, and how to meet all access requirements in production of learning content. And will the metaverse be more or less accessible than what went before? Recent developments in online gaming may hold the answer. 0:00 - Intro 4:50 - Definition of Disability 12:25 - Access Needs 20:55 - Accessibility for E-learning 29:04 - Will the metaverse be accessible? 43:00 - Tips for successful digital learning A special discount offer on Susi's book, Designing Accessible Learning Content – 20% discount code AHR20 and free ebook if you order directly from the publisher’s site using this link: https://www.koganpage.com/product/designing-accessible-learning-content-9781789668056 Other useful links: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Quick Reference: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/ Last of Us Part II: Is this the most accessible game ever? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53093613#:~:text=The%20game%20has%20already%20been,of%20customisation%20and%20fine%2Dtuning. Making the Metaverse Accessible Is Better for Everyone: https://www.lifewire.com/making-the-metaverse-accessible-is-better-for-everyone-5218160#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,could%20help%20those%20with%20disabilities. Follow Susi: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susimiller1 Twitter: @elahub1 Website: http://www.elahub.net/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Apr 4, 2022 • 51min
LH #58 Learning in the Social Age with Julian Stodd
John talks to Julian Stodd, Captain of Sea Salt Learning, a strategic consultancy that partners on the design and delivery of global solutions around leadership, culture, learning transformation and change. Julian has an academic background in communication theory, psychology and neurophysiology, learning design, educational psychology and philosophy. He has written 14 books, including most recently, 'The Humble Leader', released in March 2022. 00.00 Intro 02:56 'The Humble Leader' 04:34 Definition of The Social Age 07:50 Relationships between workers and their organizations 16:34 Is he an idealist? 24:31 Important areas for learning professionals 31:13 Julian's origin story 34:29 His work with organizations 43:32 Myth & storytelling 47:29 Where to follow Julian's thought Follow Julian: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-stodd-6774377 Twitter: @julianstodd Julian's websites: http://www.julianstodd.wordpress.com/ (Blog) http://www.seasaltlearning.co.uk/ (Company Website) https://dailyquestions.substack.com/welcome (Social Leadership Daily) Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Mar 21, 2022 • 55min
LH #57 Rising Star with Federico Presicci
Federico Presicci is Head of Sales Training & Enablement at GDS group, an accredited personal coach (ACC) and a certified Meditation Teacher. He won the Gold Award in the Rising Stars category at the 2022 UK Learning Awards. Impressive achievements for any 27 year-old – but Federico came to the UK only five years ago. At the time he knew nobody here, and didn’t speak English. John, who was one of the judges of the Rising Stars award that Federico won, listens to his story, and hears his aspirations for the future. 0:00 - Intro 2:27 - Learning Awards win 5:08 - Life when arriving in the U.K. 9:48 - How his career kickstarted in the U.K. 17:27 - Making the move from Sales to Learning 21:54 - Federico's work in Onboarding 32:00 - The submission's evaluation 41:42 - How Covid shaped his learning practice 49:16 - Hopes and Goals Follow Federico: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/federico-presicci/ Twitter: @FedPresicci Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Mar 7, 2022 • 42min
LH #56 What's Hot? What's Not? with Donald H. Taylor
John's guest this time is Donald H. Taylor, Chair of the Learning Technologies Conference, of the Learning and Skills group, of the Learning and Performance Institute, Network Chair of Emerge Education, Editor of Inside Learning Technologies Magazine and a Non Executive Director of Filtered. He's also been called the James Bond of learning. Each year since 2013, Donald has produced his L&D Global Sentiment Survey, which asks the question: ‘What will be hot in workplace L&D next year?’ John and Don discuss the results of the latest survey and what it shows about an industry transformed by the global pandemic. 0:00 - Intro 2:42 - The Global Sentiment Survey 4:29 - What's hot & what's not? 12:16 - Pandemic's effect on L&D 17:00 - What's going to be big in demand? 26:04 - Possible generalisations 34:19 - David's beginnings 39:27 - How people can access the report Follow Donald: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldhtaylor/ Twitter: @DonaldHTaylor Website: https://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/

Feb 21, 2022 • 52min
LH #55 Hold Your Horses, Trish Uhl!
When a car accident brought an untimely end to Trish Uhl's athletic career, equestrian sport's loss became a massive gain for IT and learning technologies. Trish is founder and CEO of Owl's Ledge LLC, a firm that helps learning professionals improve their performance, drive business results, and produce organizational outcomes. She works with Global 500 and Fortune 500 clients on four continents. Describing herself as someone who, in words often attributed to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, is always skating to where the puck is going rather than to where the puck currently is, she tells John about treating L&D like an engineering problem and what Web 3 has in store for learning and HR. 0:00 – Intro 3:14 - Why Trish became a learning engineer 8:48 - L&D as a business partner 22:56 - NFTs within Web3 & learning 42:24 - Recruitment factors within these organizations 47:40 – Will L&D be outsourced? 49:47 – How to follow Trish’s thought Follow Trish: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishuhl/ Twitter: @trishuhl Websites: owls-ledge.com/yaycake (Company Website) nft.owls-ledge.com (#CryptoOwls NFT) learningonblockchain.com/ (Learning on Blockchain) Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/

Feb 7, 2022 • 47min
LH #54 What Rough Beast with David Lockie
John talks to David Lockie, an entrepreneur and investor in leading-edge web technologies who is Co-chair of the British Interactive Media Association’s Blockchain Counsel and passionate about blockchain, open source software and crypto. Over the last two decades, the internet and the world wide web have had transformative effects on workplace learning. Now around the corner is Web 3, and everything’s about to change all over again. So what is Web 3, and will it be good news for those now forging careers in the learning profession – or bad? 0:00 - Intro 4:02 The BIMA Blockchain Council 6:56 What is Web 3.0? 18:11 - Implications for Learning 29:14 How ideal is this vision? 37:57 - DAOs 42:18 - Advice for L&D people 44:47 - Where to follow David's work David's links on microcredentials and DAOs: https://galaxy.eco/ https://www.accredible.com/ https://info.credly.com/ https://www.pwc.co.uk/blockchain/smart-credentials.htm/ Balaji Srinivasan: https://tim.blog/2021/11/15/balaji-srinivasan-2/ , https://tim.blog/2021/03/24/balaji-srinivasan/ 1729: https://1729.com/ Follow David: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlockie/ Twitter: @pragmaticweb Website (includes a link to his Notion): https://www.divydovy.com/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the new white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/

Jan 24, 2022 • 51min
LH #53 The Curious CLO with Stefaan van Hooydonk
John talks to Stefaan van Hooydonk, Founder of the Global Curiosity Institute. Stefaan has lived, worked and studied all over the world, in a learning career spanning three decades. He has held numerous leadership roles in large companies. As Chief Learning Officer at Cognizant he was in charge of L&D for 300,000 people. Last June he published The Curiosity Manifesto: How Curiosity Helps Individuals and Workplaces Thrive. Curiosity, he believes, is the key to an organization's success in the 20th Century. So what is L&D's role in making an organization, and its employees, more curious? Timestamps 03:35 Being CLO to 300k Learners 07:44 3 Tips for talking to the business 13:07 How does he define curiosity? 23:20 Are algorithms bad for curiosity? 33:36 Is curiosity rationed? 41:06 How can you make a company curious? 48:46 Where to find out more ... Links HBR on Curiosity: https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity The Global Curiosity Institute: https://www.globalcuriosityinstitute.com/ Stefaan's book: The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto: https://www.globalcuriosityinstitute.com/shop Contact Stefaan: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stefaanvanhooydonk Twitter: @stefaanvanhooyd Contact John Helmer: Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the new white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/

Nov 29, 2021 • 45min
LH #52 Here Comes Summer with Summer Salomonsen
Josh Bersin describes Cornerstone's new platform, Xplor, as a ‘skills-based, AI-powered platform designed as an LXP, talent mobility, career, and skills platform, [with] the potential to change the L&D landscape.' In this episode, last of the present season, John talks to Summer Rivers Salomonsen, VP Content Product at Cornerstone. Is this type of huge, all-inclusive system that brings together LXP, talent management system and skills really what organizations and learners need right now? 0:00 – Intro 3:41 – Summer’s role at Cornerstone 6:18 – What does Xplor do? 12:55 – The learning business and the talent business 17:19 – Is this the right direction for the business? 22:48 – The state of microlearning 28:51 – Applying learning science to the system design 34:53 – Summer’s hopes for the learning and talent business 43:20 – How to follow Summer’s work Seasonal Competition Time! What else are YOU doing when you listen to the Learning Hack podcast? Tell us, attaching your photos and videos for proof, to kate@learninghackpodcast.com Winner will be announced next season, and will bag a bottle of champagne! Cornerstone Xplor http://www.csod.info/futureready Contact Summer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/summer-salomonsen/ Company website: https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the new white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/

Nov 15, 2021 • 43min
LH #51 Ain't Nothing But an xAPI Party with Megan Torrance
John is joined by Megan Torrance, Chief Energy Officer of Torrance Learning, a custom development company based in Michigan USA. With an MBA from Cornell and a consultancy background, Megan has a firm grasp of the business value of learning initiatives. But her two decades of experience in learning technologies also includes a strong bent towards using data for learning. She is strong advocate for xAPI, and organizes the 'xAPI Party'. How does she feel about the slow rate of adoption of xAPI among learning departments? 0:00 – Intro 2:09 – How she leads Torrance Learning 6:03 – Normalising Data in L&D 10:42 – Current state of xAPI 15:17 – xAPI Examples 20:43 – Learning as a process 30:33 – Women in L&D 39:42 – How to follow her activities The xAPI Party https://xapicohort.com/xapi-party/ Megan's work can be found at ATD: https://my.td.org/search?query=megan%20torrance and Learning Solutions https://learningsolutionsmag.com/author/megan-torrance Professional development workshops: http://www.torrancelearning.com/shop Contact Megan Twitter: @MMTorrance LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megantorrance Website: http://www.torrancelearning.com/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/ Download the new white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer & Ben Betts – Suite Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Learning Systems https://learningpool.com/suite-dreams/ Don’t miss Cornerstone Convergence on November 16 and 17. With an incredible lineup of speakers focused on helping talent and learning leaders like you gain the tools to create a better experience for your people, you won’t want to miss this all-virtual, all-free event. Register today at https://www.cornerstoneconvergence.com/?utm_campaign=EMEA_UK_PROS_2021_Q4_10_EN_Convergence-2021&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_source=the-learning-hack&utm_content=registration