Listen to senior Learning and Development leaders and professionals, from companies big and small, to learn what it takes to build and grow a successful L&D department. We talk about concepts such as presenting learner data to senior leadership, what big (and small) challenges they face, how to successfully build an L&D brand, what to look for when hiring the right people, and more.

Checkout our first two interviews and follow us wherever you get your Podcasts!

In this episode, we are joined by Tara Cohn. Tara is a Director at Wipfli, a Data Storyteller, and Analytics Translator! Together we discuss how to go from order takers to business partners, helping stakeholders & L&D identify and measure outcomes, and telling a better story with data that inspires the business to take action.

​Take Aways

• Understanding over efficiency.  Don't be afraid to ask questions and really understand the needs of a project request. Take the time to think through how to empower and support your colleagues. It may seem like a waste of time but this information can mean all the difference to the success of your project.
• Educate your peers. Don't expect your colleagues to know the intricacies of your process and how they relate to positive outcomes. Time spent educating your organization on what you do, the value you bring, and the what it takes to get there, will help you to build a brand at your organization.
• Speak in plain language.  Have discussions at the business level vs. technical level. Ask questions such as "what does good look like"? "What does it mean if something is failing"? "How would we know that"? Then move backwards from there to more technical needs. This gets us beyond looking only at metrics and understanding the process more thoroughly to find better solutions.
• Use industry standards and benchmarks to fill in any data blanks!
• Own your data! When selecting vendors, make sure you own and can access your data! 
• Build relationships. Get to know your peers and stakeholders! Relationships are the most important thing for L&D and BI Data & Analytics.
• Build your acumen. Learn how your organization functions. What does success for your company look like? How does that happen in every area of our organization? How can you align your efforts together to make that happen? Shadow team members, if you have the opportunity.

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In this episode, we interview Steffaney Zohrabyan a Digital Sales Enablement Leader and Host of The Digital Adopter Series. Together we discuss the value of digital adoption platforms (DAP), how digital adoption efforts differ from training, and how to make the case for digital adoption tools and processes at your organization.

Take Aways

• What's the intent? Take the time to learn the business reasons behind investment in technology. It can help you to understand how to best support it.
• Define success at the employee level. How can users to get the most value out of the platform? That’s when you start to get buy-in.
• Believe in your solution! Be courageous when proposing a new tool like a DAP. Take the time to understand the scope of digital adoption and be an advocate!
  
  

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In this episode, we interview Angie Flynn-McIver, a leadership coach, author, theater director, and founder of Ignite CSP (Coaching, Speaking, and Presenting), Together we discuss how to have better conversations with our stakeholders, team members, and how to say “NO” to those tough project requests.

Take Aways:

• Positive Intent: Have a positive disposition when interacting with colleagues and discussing those challenging project requests.
• Write down your intent: What are your goals for this communication, meeting, or discussion? Write it down and bring it with you so you can come back to it if necessary.
• Know your default Intent: When challenged do you typically get angry, passive, or something else? This is your default intent. Identify this behavior so you can recognize when you are relying on it and determine whether that’s going to serve your purpose during this situation.
• Be courageous:  If you are presented with a request that requires more information, resources, people, technology, etc. to successfully complete it, be courageous and ask for it. It's OK to be up front about the capabilities of your team with the resources you have today.

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Note: Turn up the volume! I'm experiencing some microphone issues in this episode. I've invested in a BlueYeti microphone to fix this issue going forward.

When prioritizing projects, does the loudest voice get top priority? How do you determine where to spend your time and resources? In this episode, Rory and I use the RICE framework from Intercom to re-imagine project prioritization for L&D.

Take aways

• Effort and Impact count: Audience size and urgency aren't the only things to consider when prioritizing work. Include effort to implement and impact to customers as variables to help make a decision.
• Don't let emotion get the best of you: Using a framework like RICE can help to take the emotion out of project prioritization
• Improve stakeholder conversations with a framework: Implementing a project prioritization framework can help you to have better conversations with stakeholders and the business about the value of new and existing work. 
• Training isn't always the answer:  Overly complex products and customer confusion with a product may not be a training issue. It might be a product problem.

​​Check us out on istrainingtheanswer.com, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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What does it mean to be an evangelist for training? Get inspired about learning with Zach Napolitano, Product Marketing Director at Splash (SplashThat.com).

Take aways

• ​Treat your learners like a customer: Commit to creating compelling content that's worth their time.  Satisfied customers will evangelize your services!
• Be data driven: Measure your efforts, don't be afraid of the results. Welcome feedback from learners and stakeholders.  
• Market your services: Your learning product should always be in motion and evolving. Market your LMS, content, programs, etc. Go on a roadshow!
• Training isn't always the answer:  Overly complex products and customer confusion with a product may not be a training issue. It might be a product problem.

​​Check us out on istrainingtheanswer.com, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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As part of my own personal development I'm donating one dollar for every filler word I speak in an episode. I tried this out with my last public speaking event and ended up closing one DonorsChoose project and supporting another work towards completion.

This episode helped to complete Calculate to Educate, a project by Mrs. Smith.