Learning ecosystems, learning engineering, learning in the flow of life and work—these could be a list of top buzzwords. But each has gained attention for a reason. Each is important in the design and delivery of effective lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development, and each gets its due in this episode, which features a conversation with Sae Schatz. Sae formerly served as director of the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, and she was there when she first came on the Leading Learning Podcast. Though she no longer directs ADL, she continues to work at the intersection of human cognition and learning, technology, and data and is founder and CEO of the Knowledge Forge, which helps advance organizations through human performance and learning. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele and return guest Sae Schatz talk about learning in the flow of life and work, with Sae sharing insights from her work in Ukraine. Sae also shares her vision of how learning experience design, learning ecosystems, and learning engineering fit together to help organizations create and deliver effective products. Along the way, they touch on data analytics, competency-based learning, verifiable credentials, distributed identities, integration, privacy, artificial intelligence, and more. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode369. We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode, WBT Systems. *** TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs. The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams. WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.

Innovation is crucial to the continued success of any organization, and that’s arguably truer for learning businesses than it is for many other types of organizations because of their focus on external learners and the field, industry, or profession those learners serve. In this episode, we unpack that assertion while also breaking innovation down. Innovation isn’t monolithic and uniform. Rather innovation is variable and nuanced, and that’s what we want look at, with an eye specifically to external innovation in the context of learning businesses. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode368.

Managing content well and communicating effectively with audiences are two key competencies needed by a learning business that wants to thrive, and taxonomies and metadata can play an important role in both. Stephanie Lemieux is an information management consultant specializing in taxonomies and metadata. Educated as a librarian, Stephanie is now president and principal consultant at Dovecot Studio, which helps organizations optimize the way they structure and manage their mission-critical content. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Stephanie about what taxonomies are and the negotiation that has to take place between an organization and its audience to create an effective taxonomy. They also discuss the role of taxonomy in search, findability, integration, analytics, and personalization, and they talk about how content has gotten more targeted and more granular in Stephanie’s years of work. They also touch on artificial intelligence and how AI and machine learning can both benefit from and contribute to tagging and taxonomies. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode367.

Empathy is essential to both learner-centered design and effective leadership, and empathy with doubly disadvantaged individuals, like Black women, can be that much more important—and rare. L. Michelle Smith is a certified executive and personal coach whose work is informed by positive psychology and neuroscience. She’s the author of three books, including Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite. L. Michelle’s specialty is moving women and women of color to the C suite and E suite. She focuses on both professional and personal success, working with women so they can lead organizations they love while also living the lives they want. In this episode, co-host Celisa Steele and L. Michelle Smith talk about the difficulty women of color and women in general face in the workplace because of microaggressive behaviors and gender biases. They also touch on intrinsic motivation, positive emotions like gratitude and amusement, demographic changes to the workforce, the importance of sponsorship and mentorship, and the role of empathy both when leading and when designing learning. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode366.

Travel can serve as a field laboratory for learning. Whether a trip is short or long, near or far, done alone or with others, travel offers an opportunity to learn. In this episode, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss the pre, during, and post phases that make up both travel and learning experiences; feelings of belonging and othering that can arise; and the value of learning business professionals reflecting on their own experiences to help them design better and more empathetically for others. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode365.

If we had to pick just one thing as the key to the success of a learning business, we would argue for the learning experiences offered because those learning experiences are at the core of what learning businesses do. In order to offer effective learning experiences, we need a solid understanding of adult learning theory. Although many of learning business professionals are already familiar adult learning theory, there can be tremendous value in taking time to periodically revisit it. In this redux episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb examine three principles of adult learning theory and the implications each has on designing, developing, and delivering meaningful learning experiences. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode364.

It’s an old debate in education, whether learning needs to be for something or whether learning in and of itself is of value. Looking at the rise of STEM and the growing focus on skills-based, job-relevant training, one might conclude that the for-something side is winning the debate. And, yet, soft skills and less immediately applicable subjects endure. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with Jeffrey Scheuer about the role of the liberal arts in creating critical thinkers and the essential part critical thinking plays in democracy and community. They shed light on how the individuals we educate and train can contribute positively and intelligently to society at large. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode363.

The traditional long summer break from school in the U.S. can mean fun in the sun—and summer learning loss (SLL). While SLL is a documented phenomenon, not all K-12 students lose the same skills and knowledge over the summer. In fact, some make gains over the summer holiday. One of the most important things students can do to improve is read. And reading can be a powerful driver of learning for adults as well as K-12 students. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele offer a preview of their summer reading list, each sharing one book of nonfiction, one of fiction, and a wildcard—with a few bonus books thrown in for good measure. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode362.

To be a learner, we have to identify as a learner, and belonging is critical to self-identification. That means all learning businesses need to think about how they can create situations and offerings where individuals feel a sense of belonging. Dr. Susie Wise is a learning experience designer and author of the book Design for Belonging: How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration in Your Communities. Susie coaches leaders in equity design and innovation practices and teaches at the d.school at Stanford. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Susie about the fundamental role of belonging in learning, eight moments of belonging she’s identified, and ways to intentionally design learning experiences where belonging can emerge. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode361.

Competition from free and low-cost offerings is a reality for many learning businesses. But it’s also true that most learning businesses do offer—or should offer—free or low-cost options in their own portfolios. CMEpalooza offers an interesting case study to examine both for competitive insight and as a potential model to emulate. Scott Kober and Derek Warnick produce CMEpalooza, a free biannual virtual conference for CME and CE professionals. CMEpalooza is a side gig for these fearless co-producers. By day, Derek Warnick works as a grant officer on the global medical team at Pfizer, and Scott Kober is managing director at Excalibur Medical Education. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with return guests Scott and Derek about how COVID did—and didn’t—impact CMEpalooza and how competition does—or doesn’t—factor into their thinking. They also discuss how producing the conference provides them with invaluable market insight and how their value proposition has evolved organically over the years but has always been guided by three principles: high-quality, easy, and free. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode360.