What's your network if you subtract the work? Your net. Your safety net to be more precise. So says Kimberli Jeter, Constellation Catalyst and founder of River Wolf Group. This week, KJ joins the show to discuss the power of networks, both personal and professional, as well as strategies organizations and leaders can use to help their people expand their networks.

Is it really best to seek "balance" between work and life? The prevailing sentiments around work-life balance seem to be two opposed ideas: Work represents so much of our lives that it only makes sense to do what we love, so it never actually feels like work, or; work and life simply must be kept separate. According to Dan Pontefract, the answer to work and life is not balance, but bloom, and it's a much more nuanced relationship of give and take, growth and renewal.

Olympians, astronauts, Nobel Prize winners... All exemplars of the highest form of human achievement. And they all have traits in common. There are high achievers everywhere: In our organizations, but also seeking an organization to give them a platform from which they can shoot for the moon. This week, Dr. Ruth Gotian joins the show to share her research on what makes high achievers and how to develop them.

Learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. Often, policy, diplomacy, and current events have a direct impact on our organizations, and can even cause us to reconsider our learning goals for employees. We've seen discouraging trends when it comes to layoffs, failures in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and generally slow business cycles for multiple years now. All in all, there's been a clear erosion of trust between employee and organization. This week, Peter Rahbar joins the show to share insights as to how we can rebuild organizational trust.

When we deepen our relationships with our jobs and the work we do, we sometimes let our connections to ourselves and others dwindle. Preserving these connections must be turned into a deliberate practice if we wish to live happy and healthy lives. But being deliberate with these relationships we often take for granted is surprisingly difficult. Lori Saitz joins the show this week to share some insights on the powers of gratitude and grounding to return us to the positive energy that fulfills us.

The curse of knowledge... So many experts succumb to this bias. Whether in minor conversations or high-stakes presentations, it is very difficult to distance oneself from one's expertise--the jargon, the concepts, and the logic that makes something simple to some yet complex to others. And yet, helping others understand what we know as experts is an invaluable skill. Neil Thompson, founder of Teach The Geek, joins the show this week to share some speaking and presentation principles that will help experts reach their non-expert audiences much more effectively.

For this 50th episode, we take a look at the top moments from the show since our last highlight episode. Guests include best-selling author Roberta Matuson, globally renowned Executive Transition Coach Navid Nazemian, getAbstract book award winners Minette Norman and Kevin Wilde, and Donald Taylor in his return to discuss the annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey.

The Human Resources function has undergone many transformations, not least of which took place over the last 4 years. At any given time though, HR professionals from different industries and organizations are likely to have different ideas as to what their primary purpose should be. Beyond that, even those who might be in agreement as to HR's central function are likely to disagree as to how to achieve it. This week, Jon Ingham joins us to offer his insights on HR from decades teaching, writing, and practicing in the world of people strategy.

When so much of our organizational focus is locked on hitting on quarterly goals and keeping up with unpredictable technological change, playing it safe feels right. Rather than dive headlong into an uncertain future or challenge our assumptions about how we serve our customers, “business as usual” avoids risk. But what if it was bold action that was most likely to achieve our goals? Courage catalyst Ryan Berman joins us this week to share how leaders can release themselves from feeling stuck, scared, stale or safe, in favor of bravery.

With the deeper reach--both across the world and into our lives--many companies and their products have, the leaders of these organizations are taking on increasingly complex responsibilites. In fact, according to globally ranked #1 Executive Coach Navid Nazemian, organizations are up to 35x more complex than they were 15 years ago. And perhaps even more concerning, when it comes to maintaining strong leadership, the cost of a failed CEO transition can be as much as 30x that of the executive's annual salary. This week, Navid joins the show to share his Double Diamond framework for maximizing the chances of success during an executive transition.

Happy One-year Anniversary, L&D In Action! That's right: We've been delivering L&D insights from the greatest minds in learning for 365 days now--366 thanks to the leap year. In this special-edition episode, host Tyler takes the reins and delivers a brief reflection on the power of... reflection! It's a topic that many guests have covered, the impact of reflection on the learning process. Science supports it, and we've all seen it in action, even if we have to look as far back as our school years. So, use the time saved from listening to this concise episode to reflect on yourself and your own experiences. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!

Last episode we discussed the “feelings” of thousands of L&D pros, via Don Taylor’s Global Sentiment Survey. Nearly one out of every 4 respondents had AI top of mind, though the sentiments varied from speculation to confusion to excitement, and few addressed application. Enter: Ross Stevenson, an L&D veteran who has been filling an ever-growing gap by regularly educating the L&D world with practical insight on using generative AI and AI-enabled learning tools. In this episode, Ross shares his advice for getting started individually and organizationally with AI in learning.

It’s that time of year again: The results of The L&D Global Sentiment Survey are in! And this year, to no one’s surprise, Artificial Intelligence reigns supreme. In fact, AI “won” the primary question, “what will be hot in workplace L&D this year?” by an unprecedented margin, earning more than 21% of selections from the 3,200+ respondents. But of course, we want to dig deeper, so Donald Taylor joins us to discuss the free-text responses he received, how respondents are feeling about AI (and why), the change in significance of social learning, a hopeful focus on showing learning value, and much more.

Far too often, we classify our emotions as “soft” skills, effectively secondarizing them behind the skillsets we think of as critical to our work. Ironically, communication with others is perhaps one of the few “skills” almost all of us share across our professions, and practice every single day. This week, Dr. David Caruso joins the show to help us better understand how and why our bodies and brains experience emotions, as well as how we can best control and utilize them as managers, learning leaders, and human beings.

What is the most effective way to assess learning among employees? What is the most efficient way? What's the most affordable? What's... the best way? It's likely that the answers to each of these questions is unique, and could even be different from organization to organization. If you're anything like the rest of us with too much data and not enough time, you may be hoping that AI will eventually step in and support the learning evaluation process, addressing at least most of these concerns simultaneously. This week, we speak with CEO of Bongo, Josh Kamrath, whose service offers a unique perspective on the efficacy of AI-enhanced learner feedback.

Conversations at work are different from conversations everywhere else. Whether you’re speaking with your boss, an external partner, or an internal stakeholder, it’s likely your dialogue won’t resemble what you might experience with a friend or family member. All too often, a greater degree of detachment from the people in our professional lives means that we’re more likely to fall into bad communication habits. This week, mindset and mental wellness coach Kirsten Larsen helps us identify and work through the thought patterns and conversation traps that have negative impacts on relationships of all kinds.

Evidence continues to build that building diverse teams with high grades of psychological safety greatly increases the chance of organizational success. Many leaders understand the organizational, social, and ethical need to build such inclusive teams, but feel as if they lack the resources or knowledge to do so. Minette Norman, award-winning author and this week’s guest, describes how leaders can overcome the traditional expectations of emotionless, hard-nosed leadership, and build thriving, joyful, creative teams.

Artificial Intelligence has made a noticeable impact on the world of learning–especially since the launch of ChatGPT and the advent of generative AI. However, the degree to which AI-enabled tools are being implemented and delivering positive impact for organizational learning remains unclear. To help determine what kind of progress has been made in the world of L&D, Egle Vinauskaite, co-author of AI in L&D: The State of Play joins us on this week’s episode.

It’s no secret that Human Resources departments often receive the eye of skepticism from C-suite leadership. But what is it that results in HR taking on the stigmas of being a blocker to progress, or just a compulsory administrative arm for hiring and firing? According to Jessica Winder, there’s a lack of forthright communication between HR and leadership, and HR has a tendency to operate within existing bureaucratic expectations. Jessica shares her insights on the kinds of conversations and initiatives that get leadership on the same page as HR early and effectively.

The more an organization grows, the more complex its Learning and Development function must become. And in the modern business landscape, learning and development professionals have a duty to be increasingly ambitious about the impact their programs have on learners. As we observe greater competition, more scrupulous consumers, and an ever-growing pool of technology with which to optimize work, L&D can have a greater business impact than ever before. Join Litmos’s Chief People Officer, Kyile Stair this week for insight as to how to drive an organization through integrated, precise learning initiatives.