Learning & Development Stories Podcast

Careers pursuits evolve over time. Take for example when you were entering college. There is a good chance that your aspirations as a young adult changed by the time you were a few years into a career. Probably, as we progress through mid to the end of our careers, interests and goals shift as well. Consultant and podcaster Andy Storch can vouch for this, both through his own career as well as the research he did in his new book Own Your Career, Own Your Life. On episode 17 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast, Andy shared some key advice from the book on goal setting, networking and communications strategies that can support career development and a continuous learning mindset. (Note the book was not published at the time of the recording, but is now available). After college, Andy was involved with some start-ups that didn't work out the way he envisioned and then entered the corporate world before working at two different consultancies, the latter focused on L&D. He decided to go out on his own and run his own consultancy, launching membership communities, events and now a book. "Everything has been about the network I built; they lead to so many different opportunities," he said. "I am always thinking about building a brand that allows me to pivot and try different things. If it doesn't work, then I will try something else." How Content Creation Support Pivots For Andy, conversations help him learn about others' challenges and how he can help. "Podcasting has led to so many interesting conversations that has led to different opportunities," he said. "It also brings a bit of authority that helps open doors to connect with people." An example of this is when Andy tried connecting with a talent development executive to explore business opportunities. Initial requests for a meeting went unanswered. Andy reached out to the executive to have him on the podcast. The executive agreed. The interview led to a great conversation and eventually this individual became one of Andy's clients. Another example is when Andy had Multipliers author Liz Wiseman on his podcast. She became one of the speakers at Andy's conference and has provided inspiration. "Getting to know Liz and her content has spurred so many ideas in me," Andy said. "I have another book that is now burning inside of me on the topic of leadership." Andy points to how the many conversations with L&D experts on his podcast have made him more educated and provided inspiration. He advises listeners looking to build their network to provide added value to the individuals they are reaching out to. Own Your Career, Own Your Life Andy wrote the book to help young professionals grow in their careers. "Many people get into jobs for different reasons. Usually we pick a random major in college. There is no judgement with that. I want people to be more intentional about what they are doing and where they are going. The first part of the book is about owning your career. It is about setting a vision and connecting to a purpose so you know why you are going to work every day." Andy warns that we can't wait for the "career fairy" to come along and direct our careers. We need to own this, define where we are going and make a plan. The second part of the book is about setting people up for the future, particularly around building a brand, networking and continuous learning. The third section is dedicated to being more intentional around life choices. Learn more about the Own Your Career, Own Your Life book and read Kevin Anselmo's related blog post Faith-Based Goal Setting. The Learning and Development Stories Podcast is brought to you by the Global Innovators Academy's Workforce Development Partnership. Recent college graduate employees, new hires and/or young high-potential talent conduct interviews with senior leaders. Based on that conversation, a short article is written and disseminated via different internal and external communications channels. This fosters meaningful mentoring conversations, knowledge sharing and employee engagement. Learn more.

A brilliant report from McKinsey notes we need to foster intentional learning by feeding our curiosity. The report states that "inspiration is strongly correlated with an intrinsic desire to learn. Curiosity sparks inspiration. You learn more and more frequently because you are curious. Second, curiosity marks the beginning of a virtuous cycle that feeds your ability as a self-directed learner." There are various ways to feed this curiosity. One such way is by connecting with individuals and interviewing them, just like popular blogger, podcaster and author Mitch Joel has done throughout his career. Joel started his Six Pixels of Separation podcast back in 2005 to complement his daily blog. Since then, he has published a new interview with various thought leaders every Sunday. On episode 16 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast, Joel shared how the interviews serve as a source of education and inspiration for him. "I was asking questions that I would selfishly ask if I could have coffee with these authors," Joel said. "It was education for me. I wanted to learn. I wanted to understand. If I felt I had a particular perspective, I wanted to have it challenged. In that journey of a content creator I learned a lot. I found it stimulating and it spoke to my core." Joel also shared examples of how conversations from his podcast interviews have sparked his own career innovation and offered advice for students and young professionals on communications and career development. The Learning and Development Stories Podcast is brought to you by the Global Innovators Academy's Workforce Development Partnership. Recent college graduate employees, new hires and/or young hi-potential talent conduct interviews with senior leaders. Based on that conversation, a short article is written and disseminated via different internal and external communications channels. This fosters meaningful mentoring conversations, knowledge sharing and employee engagement. Learn more at www.globalinnovatorsacademy.com/wdp.

IBM executive Naguib Attia was facing a difficult task. It was January 2014 and in his role as Chief Technology Officer, Naguib was involved in a project in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). There was a lack of talent in the region to deliver on a particular project's objectives. To address this challenge, he considered the following question: how can I take an individual and after just six months, prepare that person for an IBM career? Naguib convinced his senior level colleagues that he could leverage his background in academia and experience as a practitioner to create an educational experience that would deliver on this ambitious goal. As Naguib explained on this podcast, the plan worked. He created a practical experience that not only developed the talent for this particular project in the MENA region, but also laid the groundwork for what is now a global educational initiative that has enabled IBM to address the skills gap in the marketplace. After 11 years as CTO of IBM's Industrial Sector, Naguib was appointed VP of Global University Programs. As part of this initiative, IBM partners with institutions to provide technology, support research and create assets to advance relevant skills for today's workforce. To date, 68,000 people have been trained worldwide. "We want to take an individual from point A to point B – be a practitioner – in areas like data and cloud computing," he said. "We provide background to understand the topic. We give them the opportunity to understand the tools of the field and we provide hands-on experiences." According to Naguib, IBM doesn't replace faculty content, but rather complements it through a partnership. This could involve coaching faculty, embedding IBM's content in existing curriculum and providing some 2,900 IBM subject matter experts who are available to be guest lecturers in classrooms around the world. "It is a matter of survival – companies need expertise," he said. "What does the future of each country hold if you don't have talent?" As an example of impact, Naguib points to a university in Kenya in which the students earned their digital badges – credentials showcasing earned skills – even before their professors. The students shared with Naguib at a ceremony that the course experiences inspired them to take action and start a company around data security. Regardless of what industry a student wishes to pursue, it is imperative that they have an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset. To develop this, Naguib advises that students "get outside of the box or curriculum. Explore the world behind the course title and collaborate with students across different disciplines. When you have this interaction, it creates the spark for you to innovate. The world doesn't revolve around you; it revolves around the collaboration with others." Learn more about IBM's Global University Programs at the following link. The Learning and Development Stories Podcast is brought to you by the Global Innovators Academy's Workforce Development Partnership. Recent college graduate employees, new hires and/or young hi-potential talent conduct interviews with senior leaders. Based on that conversation, a short article is written and disseminated via different internal and external communications channels. This fosters meaningful mentoring conversations, knowledge sharing and employee engagement. Learn more at www.globalinnovatorsacademy.com/wdp.

Instead of just encouraging employees to consume learning content, have you ever considered mobilizing them to actually create videos and share their knowledge with others in the organization? On episode 14 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast, Toby Newman made a compelling case on why you might want to consider doing this.

What is the return on investment for a company to invest significant amounts of money send their up and coming talents to different business schools to earn an MBA degree? Dan Pontefract, currently the founder and CEO of the Pontefract Group, was investigating this question back in 2011 in his role as Chief Learning Officer at TELUS, Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company. In summary, the ROI was not optimal and required a different solution. Dan detailed the journey on episode 13 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast. Tying learning to business objectives "I started to chat with our chief corporate officer," Dan recalled during the podcast. "And I said, you know, it depends on the year but we're spending between $400k and $800k a year on MBAs. And those MBA players come back to us. And sure, they're more learned, and hopefully, they're smarter and more productive. But what really does TELUS on the whole get in return?" Dan then shared with the Chief Corporate Officer his idea of creating a unique TELUS MBA program. He laid out the vision: "Imagine if we created our own MBA, and we stopped funding individuals going to individual universities or colleges for their MBA and we created our own cohort, and that cohort of people ranging from 20 to 30 people would work together. Just imagine the return that we might get in terms of the work that they could do for tell us, let alone learn." That initial conversation was a seed planted, that took root two years later when Dan was asked to look into the feasibility of actually creating an MBA program. "I proceeded for the next year to put together an RFI, request for information, across Canada, where TELUS is headquartered and asked 10 business schools across Canada if they might be interested to entertain the idea of a customized, tailored MBA just for one organization." After a lot of research, TELUS ended up choosing the University of Victoria Gustafson School of Business. "They inculcated an entirely different kind of pedagogy that that took our values, our culture, our attributes, our TELUS leadership philosophy, our pervasive learning model, which I introduced in the Flat Army book, which is learning should be equal parts formal, informal and social," Dan noted. They created a model called the 40 Model of Leadership. This included multiple short-term residencies over a two-year period that culminated in a six-month final project. This program has ended up being a great success story at TELUS. Thus far, half of the graduating class from this past June has already been promoted to higher roles with increased responsibility. Roughly speaking, TELUS is spending about $1 million per cohort. As part of the different company-specific projects, the students were able to identify some $37 million of savings inside the company. In addition, student projects during the MBA led to several new business ventures that are currently in operation within TELUS and have generated $275 million for the company. Knowledge transfer Dan shared how the knowledge the program participants gained is used to benefit the company as a whole. "We not only teach them to be coaches, and not only provide them an executive coach during the program, but we asked them to continue that model post-graduation so that they are taking on a couple of clients and giving that kind of knowledge back," Dan said. Lessons from mistakes Dan shared that one of the mistakes he made was not always providing clear instruction of what the TELUS learning experience expectations were with the professors in the program. "I probably should have taken action earlier to provide the feedback that a particular style may not be working for the TELUS culture." The link between training and employee engagement Dan has seen that the people who participate in the MBA program have a greater sense of engagement in the company as a whole. "We're betting on these people to be the most enlightened, purpose-driven, engaged leaders that we might ever have at the organization." Communications tactics The story of the TELUS MBA partnership with the University of Victoria has won different awards from the likes of the AACSB and EFMD that has garnered media attention. Dan has been able to highlight the story via his column on Forbes and other platforms. He stressed the importance of humble communication. Resources for L&D professionals Tool every L&D professional should leverage: Dan explained that he utilizes the tool Evernote as a way to help him with the practice of writing things down. "We are losing the ability not just to think but to remember and recall. So, I urge people to find a way in which "the Great's" of this world like General Patton, Branson, and Oprah. They walk around with a Moleskine notebook and they break everything down that comes into their head, in essence, because they know that they'll need those nuggets of goodness." Resources: Dan recommends The New Philosopher Magazine because it is an incredible resource of philosophy and thinkers. You can find Dan at www.danpontefract.com and on LinkedIn. He is the author of Open to Think, Flat Army and The Purpose Effect.