
L&D Disrupt
The world and the L&D space are changing faster than ever, but are you evolving with it?
L&D Disrupt brings you tactical advice, proven tactics and honest experiences from people in the industry, helping you drive more impact every day.
Every week, join Gary Stringer and Nelson Sivalingam for the podcast that's powered by HowNow, to empower every L&D professional.
Latest episodes

Dec 21, 2021 • 32min
Supporting Employees to Become Autonomous Learners with Sara Frasi | Episode 6
In this episode of L&D Disrupt we’re joined by Sara Frasi, Senior People Partner L&D at Native Instruments. Throughout this conversation we explore a really important and exciting part of L&D; supporting employees to become autonomous learners. Stay tuned to hear Sara and I delve into topics from learning budgets and time blocking right through to empowering employees to own their development.
Running order:
01:23 The importance of a bottom up approach
03:14 Changing mindsets within an organisation
05:00 Getting employees to look at L&D in a different way
06:31 A good manager conversation blueprint
07:43 How can we get managers more involved?
09:58 Empowering employees to own their development
11:42 Choosing learning budgets
14:41 Defining and measuring ROI
17:58 Creating a culture of learning
21:06 Curating content
23:00 Time blocking: does it work?
25:30 Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Sara on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarafrasi/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Dec 14, 2021 • 30min
Scaling L&D in High Growth Organisations with Deb Gallo | Episode 5
Deb Gallo, Learning & Development Director at SentinelOne, joins us this week to discuss the highlights and challenges of scaling L&D in a high growth organisation. Deb shares fantastic advice on a wide range of topics, from managing the changing requirements of a fast-growing business to bringing a company culture to life. The episode is packed with expert insight that you certainly don’t want to miss, so sit back and enjoy!
Running Order:
01:18 When should you make your first L&D hire?
03:29 The pros and cons of implementing L&D in different sized businesses
06:24 How do you work out what the business needs?
07:34 Pre-empting the changing requirements of a fast-growing business
09:15 Minimum Viable Product mindset
11:58 Walking the walk in L&D
12:54 How do you know if your solution is working?
15:12 Delivering learning in a hybrid setting
21:10 When does it make sense to create rather than curate content?
22:55 L&D’s role in scaling culture
26:32 Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Deb on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deboragallo/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Dec 7, 2021 • 32min
Serving the internal customer with Doug Ellin | Episode 4
In this week's episode we speak with Doug Ellin - People Partner L&D at GoHenry. Doug is incredibly passionate about serving the internal customer, and shares his experiences of using this insight to carve out successful, tailored L&D solutions. Throughout the conversation we cover everything from getting to know your internal customer to tracking whether your interventions are successful or not. This conversation is a wonderful testament to the fact that L&D should always be about people before anything else and we can’t wait for you to listen!
Running order
01:13 How do you get to know your internal customer?
04:46 Using this knowledge to help you deliver better L&D
06:00 The steps you need to take before developing the L&D strategy
09:38 Identifying the influencers within a business
12:43 Striking the balance between addressing people’s training requests but giving the business what it actually needs
17:15 Working out what to include in an L&D solution to make it successful
20:26 Ways to track if your interventions are working
24:07 Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Doug on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-ellin/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Nov 30, 2021 • 27min
Harnessing the Power of Knowledge Sharing with Lavinia Mehedințu | Episode 3
Lavinia Mehedințu, Learning & Development Content Curator at Offbeat, is our podcast guest this week. There’s no doubt about it, Lavinia has a genuine passion for learning, and her enthusiasm in this episode is bound to rub off on you. This episode will help you level up the knowledge sharing within your organisation, and features some great advice on how to make your curated content more relevant than ever before. Enjoy!
Running Order:
01:58 Why content curation - how did it all begin?
04:11 Using analytics to shape content curation
06:23 What L&D can learn from other fields
07:40 Putting the focus on our user’s needs
10:19 The unrealistic expectations faced by L&D teams
12:31 Building an L&D community
14:09 Fostering a collaborative environment
16:55 Lavinia’s 3 personal learnings from building an L&D community
18:34 How L&D can use behavioral science to influence work
21:39 The future of Offbeat
22:25 Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Lavinia on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laviniamehedintu/
Offbeat Website: https://offbeat.works/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Nov 23, 2021 • 36min
Creating and Scaling a Progressive Company Culture with Tina Phillips | Episode 2
Creating a progressive company culture is a challenge in itself, but once you’ve nailed this, how do you then effectively scale it within a high-paced organisation that is growing rapidly? Luckily, we have Tina Phillips joining us on this episode to offer some insight. Tina has a truly impressive wealth of experience to share - from training hiring managers to acknowledge their unconscious bias, to creating a culture where everyone feels safe enough to give and receive feedback - if company culture is your thing, this one’s for you.
Running order:
0:00 Introduction to this week’s episode
1:57 Unique challenges around scaling cultures in high-growth organisations
4:09 The benefits of hiring slow
6:54 Training interviewers to be aware of unconscious biases
12:43 How do you change people's mindset around bias and bring them on that journey with you?
15:36 Successfully communicating the company culture
19:34 The leaders in a business aren’t acting in line with the company culture - what now?
24:46 Creating a culture where everyone feels safe enough to give and receive feedback
29:18 Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Tina on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinateeto/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Nov 16, 2021 • 33min
Implementing Agile L&D with Patrick Mullarkey | Episode 1
Agile L&D, you’ve probably heard of it, but what the hell does it actually mean? In this episode Patrick Mullarkey, Learning and Development Lead at Snyk, shares his first hand experiences of implementing Agile learning, explains why it’s worth doing and how to manage the change in your organisation, as well as how exactly to measure the impact of Agile L&D on your business.
Patrick explains to us how Agile L&D can encourage companies to waste less time on unsuccessful projects by speeding up the ‘failing fast’ process, and how important it is to engage with stakeholders using the right language in order to gain the trust necessary to start working in this way. Whether you have no experience of implementing Agile L&D or you consider yourself an expert - listen in as we demystify the buzzword of the moment and bring some real meaning to Agile L&D.
Running Order
1:39: What the hell is Agile L&D?
4:32: Why we look to Agile L&D in the first place
8:40: What do you gain from moving to a more Agile way of working?
11:00: Failing fast
12:06: Using the right language to get stakeholders on board
17:53: I want to go Agile - where do I start?
21:35: How to measure if it’s working
25:36: Quickfire round
How to connect
Find Patrick on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mullarkeypj/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hownowhq/
Our Website: https://gethownow.com/

Jul 22, 2021 • 45min
The Best Of Series One | Episode 14
All good things must come to an end. And sadly, that’s true for Series One of 99 Problems But Work Ain’t One. But we couldn’t just let it fizzle out! So we’ve compiled our favourite nuggets of knowledge from every episode. Get ready for some brilliant insights into the worlds of L&D, HR, People Development, Talent Management and forward-thinking workplaces.
Thank you to anyone who’s tuned in and supported the show so far and to our 13 amazing guests who’ve joined us for some really insightful and fascinating conversations. We’ll be back for a second series soon - so make sure you’re subscribed wherever you’re listening.
Each clip is timestamped below with a note of the guest and episode number, so if you want to head over to any of the conversations you missed, you can!
Running order:
0:00 > Introduction to the episode.
0:51 > Paul Matthews, Episode 1: L&D’s credibility.
4:14 > Emma Leonis, Episode 2: HR's changing structure and skillset.
7:43 > Ross Stevenson, Episode 3 Who should L&D be working with?
10:56 > Kevin and Laure of Livestorm, Episode 4: Shifting to asynchronous learning.
14:08 > Esther O'Callaghan, Episode 5: Increasing entry-level talent and diversity.
16:23 > Toby Newman, Episode 6: Should you add colleagues on social media?
18:38 > Tushar Agarwal, Episode 7: The case for shared physical workspaces.
23:09 > Valerie Mann, Episode 8: Codifying and scaling culture in the workplace.
27:14 > Bob Mosher, Episode 9: Basing learning around when it's applied.
30:42 > Kevin M. Yates, Episode 10: What should L&D be measuring?
33:56 > Pam Hamilton, Episode 11: How companies can prepare for asynchronous work.
37:22> Jacquie Gay, Episode 12: How OKRs have changed behaviour and what's measured at TomTom.
40:55 > Angela Guedes, Episode 13: The optimal onboarding journey for new starters.
45:00 > Outro to the episode.
Where you can find these episodes:
Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNtHJIUeVUyIybZBlnsgUW3ypL4dLQhKh
Listen to every episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/70k8Cfn70DcPD0CEBA1ySs
Listen to every episode on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/99-problems-but-work-aint-one/id1572432505
Read shownotes for every episode: https://gethownow.com/podcast/
How to connect
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hownowhq
Our Website: http://gethownow.com/

Jul 14, 2021 • 33min
How The Pandemic Changed Customer Success And How We Can Respond | Angela Guedes | Episode 13
It goes without saying that customer success has changed since the pandemic, but the better questions are how has it evolved? What can leaders do more effectively in response? And how can we learn socially from our CS colleagues and other departments in the world of hybrid work?
Angela Guedes, Head of Customer Success at Belvo, joined us on this week’s episode to answer these questions and plenty more.
We talked about her transition from a similar role at Typeform (where she worked for seven years), the best starting point for building a CS function at a young company, the importance of recognising internal customer needs, the optimal onboarding journey, and whether there’s a pressure to know all the answers when you’re leading a team.
Running order
0:00 Intro to Angela Guedes.
1:52 How the pandemic has changed customer success.
4:17 What’s it like joining a new company and building a CS function?
6:16 What does an optimal onboarding journey look like for a new starter?
10:33 The roles and responsibilities of a Head of Customer Success.
15:05 Is there a pressure to know all of the answers?
17:24 How Angela approaches learning and becoming better at her role?
19:47 Replicating social learning in the hybrid and remote CS world.
23:08 The voice of the customer programs.
25:42 Quickfire questions.
How to connect
Find Angela on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaguedes/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hownowhq
Our Website: http://gethownow.com/

Jul 7, 2021 • 36min
How Moving To An OKR Model Improved Purpose, Culture And Measurement at TomTom | Jacqueline Gay | Episode 12
Why would a company move from KPIs or that standard goal-setting model to objectives and key results? Or, as you might know them, OKRs. That’s the big question we put to Jacquie Gay, Program Manager of Talent Development at TomTom, in this week’s episode of 99 Problems But Work Ain’t One.
From finding a North Star that everyone in the company can follow to how OKRs can move us towards more effective measurement, Jacquie shared some great experiences of how that OKR shift works in practice. We also found time to chat about the impact on TomTom’s learning culture, how the pandemic drove positive changes that they’ll stick with moving forward and how Jacquie is helping managers prepare for this new world of work.
Running order
0:00 Intro to Jacqueline Gay, Program Manager, Talent Development at TomTom.
2:23 What prompted the move towards OKRs at TomTom?
5:52 How to have a conversation about HR’s purpose and OKRs.
9:28 An example of an objective and key result.
11:54 Have OKRs changed behaviour and what’s measured at TomTom?
15:31 Implementing OKRs in a distributed workforce.
18:15 Has the pandemic changed TomTom’s learning culture?
20:15 How has Jacquie approached preparing managers for the new world of work?
24:13 Quickfire questions.
How to connect
Find Jacquie on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquie-gay-a0a7859/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hownowhq
Our Website: http://gethownow.com/

Jun 30, 2021 • 43min
How To Supercharge Your Teams: Tools For Great Teamwork | Pam Hamilton | Episode 11
Just because we sit in the same room or department, that doesn’t make us a team! In fact, a lot of companies have lost sight of what a great team is because they’re just doing things the way they’ve always been done.
Those were just a couple of the hard truths Pam Hamilton shared with us in this week’s episode. Pam recently released her second book, Supercharged Teams: Power Your Team With The Tools For Success which offers 30 tools for great teamwork. And she was kind enough to share some of them with us in this conversation.
From why we all have a responsibility to call out opportunities for better behaviour to how sending voice notes can be far more effective than writing long emails, and the need for shared goals in creating effective teams - this episode is packed with ideas for supercharging teams and resetting the rules around how we collaborate.
Running order
0:00 Introduction to Pam Hamilton
1:57 Why should someone supercharge their teams?
3:17 What has changed since the pandemic in terms of this team dynamic?
5:32 What does a supercharged team look like? And who’s accountable for it?
9:12 What should you be looking for in your culture to drive that behaviour?
10:15 How do we set goals effectively for our teams? And what comes next?
16:16 Pam’s thoughts on synchronous and asynchronous learning and working.
21:07 Effective ways to share knowledge in the hybrid working environment.
25:35 Interesting ways people have implemented Pam’s tools.
28:11 What could managers be doing to lay the groundwork for supercharged teams?
30:25 How should people be approaching offline collaboration and workshops today?
38:47 Quickfire questions.
How to connect
Find Pam on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamihami/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/paraffinpam
Find Pam’s Supercharged Teams book here:
https://www.superchargedteams.com/
Find Nelson on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatNelsonDude
Find HowNow on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hownowhq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hownowteam
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hownowhq
Our Website: http://gethownow.com/