Women in L&D: Insights from Leading Experts on Driving Innovation and Growth

11/21/24 • 25 min

The Digital Adoption Show | Upskilling the Future Digital Workforce

Summary
In this episode of The Digital Adoption Show, we explore the vital role of women in Learning and Development (L&D), with a panel of experts sharing their insights on empowering employees, aligning L&D initiatives with business goals, and fostering a culture of continuous growth. From managers adopting a coaching mindset to organizations using AI and data-driven decisions, the discussion covers practical strategies for scaling communities, addressing skill gaps, and nurturing organizational culture. Experts also delve into the importance of aligning L&D with industry needs and shaping a learning culture that drives adaptability and performance.
Key Points Discussed:

Managerial Coaching for Empowerment: Managers can empower employees by adopting a coaching mindset. This involves guiding them through challenges and encouraging problem-solving, fostering a culture of continuous development.
Defining Skills and Identifying Gaps: Organizations should prioritize skill gap analysis and implement pilot initiatives tailored to address specific needs within different departments. These pilots must be scalable and adaptable to various teams.
Fostering Continuous Learning Culture: To embrace a culture of continuous learning, organizations must assess leadership maturity, identify skill gaps, and align learning initiatives with industry trends and benchmarks. This ensures that development programs are relevant and impactful.
Leveraging AI in L&D: L&D professionals can use AI to automate tasks and streamline processes, but it’s essential to maintain the human element in learning. AI should enhance, not replace, the depth and value of L&D expertise.
Data-Driven Decision Making: For effective L&D, organizations must have the right data and tools to make informed decisions. By analyzing relevant data, they can better understand skill gaps and measure the effectiveness of training programs.
Scaling Communities with Meaningful Engagement: Successful community scaling requires a clear purpose, identifying the right audience, and focusing on genuine engagement rather than vanity metrics. This helps ensure that communities remain active and aligned with organizational goals.
Aligning L&D with Business Objectives: L&D initiatives must be aligned with company goals. This requires continuous evaluation of skill gaps and leveraging data to ensure that training efforts contribute to overall business success.
Shaping Organizational Culture: Using Edgar Schein’s framework, organizations can assess and monitor their culture through artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions. This ongoing process ensures the culture remains aligned with organizational goals and values, adapting as needed.

Conclusion: In this episode of The Digital Adoption Show, we explored a diverse range of insights from prominent women in L&D, focusing on how organizations can effectively empower their workforce and align learning initiatives with business goals. From managers adopting a coaching mindset to drive problem-solving, to using data for informed decision-making in reskilling and upskilling, the discussion emphasized the importance of understanding both the industry and the organization's goals. Key takeaways included the need to nurture a continuous learning culture, the strategic use of AI to enhance L&D efforts, and the significance of measuring true engagement over vanity metrics when scaling communities. The episode also highlighted the importance of using frameworks like Edgar Schein's to understand and evolve organizational culture. Together, these insights provide a roadmap for organizations striving to build resilient, skilled teams and remain competitive in an ever-evolving business landscape.

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Managerial Coaching for Empowerment: Managers can empower employees by adopting a coaching mindset. This involves guiding them through challenges and encouraging problem-solving, fostering a culture of continuous development.
Defining Skills and Identifying Gaps: Organizations should prioritize skill gap analysis and implement pilot initiatives tailored to address specific needs within different departments. These pilots must be scalable and adaptable to various teams.
Fostering Continuous Learning Culture: To embrace a culture of continuous learning, organizations must assess leadership maturity, identify skill gaps, and align learning initiatives with industry trends and benchmarks. This ensures that development programs are relevant and impactful.
Leveraging AI in L&D: L&D professionals can use AI to automate tasks and streamline processes, but it’s essential to maintain the human element in learning. AI should enhance, not replace, the depth and value of L&D expertise.
Data-Driven Decision Making: For effective L&D, organizations must have the right data and tools to make informed decisions. By analyzing relevant data, they can better understand skill gaps and measure the effectiveness of training programs.
Scaling Communities with Meaningful Engagement: Successful community scaling requires a clear purpose, identifying the right audience, and focusing on genuine engagement rather than vanity metrics. This helps ensure that communities remain active and aligned with organizational goals.
Aligning L&D with Business Objectives: L&D initiatives must be aligned with company goals. This requires continuous evaluation of skill gaps and leveraging data to ensure that training efforts contribute to overall business success.
Shaping Organizational Culture: Using Edgar Schein’s framework, organizations can assess and monitor their culture through artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions. This ongoing process ensures the culture remains aligned with organizational goals and values, adapting as needed.

Subscribe to The Digital Adoption Show:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3W7uoul
Apple: https://apple.co/4cD0Ewo
Website: https://bit.ly/3XWXtew

Previous Episode

Unlocking the Future of Learning with AI Avatars & Global L&D Secrets (Top 4 Insights) | Podcast

Podcast Summary: Embracing AI and Global L&D Innovations

Intro: In this episode of The Digital Adoption Show, we delve into the exciting world of AI-driven learning innovations and global learning and development (L&D) strategies. Host Dhisha Suresh is joined by industry experts Kevin Alster, Learning Strategist, Head of Synthesia Academy and Andrew James Viglione, Director - Global Commercial L&D, Gilead Sciences. They share their insights on how AI avatars are transforming personalized learning experiences and how global organizations are designing and delivering learning programs to enhance skills and competencies across their teams.

Key Points:

AI Avatars in Learning:

Kevin discusses the power of AI avatars in revolutionizing L&D. These avatars are enhancing learning engagement by delivering personalized, interactive experiences that improve knowledge retention.
By using AI avatars, organizations can scale learning solutions faster while ensuring they are engaging and cost-effective compared to traditional video-based training.

Heineken’s Internal Communication Shift:

Heineken is moving away from long, tedious webinars and shifting to short, digestible videos for internal communication.
These bite-sized learning modules empower employees to engage with content on their own time, making the learning process more flexible and impactful.

Global L&D Strategy at Gilead Sciences:

Andrew shares his journey in L&D, from his pharmaceutical and med-tech sales roles to his current role at Gilead Sciences. He highlights the challenges and opportunities of developing global learning strategies across diverse teams and markets.
A focus on balancing competence (core skills) and confidence (market competitiveness) drives the L&D strategy at Gilead, empowering regional teams to own their learning while leveraging global resources for efficiency.

Modular Approach to Learning Content:

Andrew also emphasizes the importance of designing modular learning content to cater to different therapeutic areas and regional needs. This approach allows for quick adjustments and tailored content while ensuring scalability.
The key challenge is to ensure global teams are equipped with the right resources and data to deliver impactful, localized learning experiences.

Strategic Use of Learning Data:

L&D teams at Gilead use data-driven insights to drive effectiveness and measure ROI. By focusing on performance metrics and long-term learning outcomes, they aim to demonstrate the value of continuous learning in improving organizational success.

Conclusion: This episode highlights how AI and strategic global L&D programs are reshaping the future of work. From AI avatars creating personalized learning experiences to organizations like Heineken and Gilead optimizing their internal learning programs, the future of L&D is evolving to be more agile, data-driven, and globally connected. Tune in to more episodes of The Digital Adoption Show to explore these transformative trends further.

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Next Episode

Maximizing Productivity: Data-Driven Learning in the Flow of Work

Summary: Data-Driven Learning & Development
In this episode of The Digital Adoption Show, we explore the transformative power of Learning and Development (L&D) in today’s dynamic workplaces. The topic, “Ditching the Guesswork with Data-Driven L&D,” highlights the significance of leveraging analytics to optimize training outcomes and bridge performance gaps.
Featured Guests

Vivian Blade: Top 100 HR influencer, leadership development expert, and bestselling author of Resilience Ready.
Jimmy Nelson: Seasoned L&D consultant with expertise in implementing transformative organizational frameworks.
Andrew Jacobs: CEO of Larn Learning Services, focused on enhancing workplace learning quality.
Fran Harrison: Learning technology strategist at QA Limited, specializing in lifelong learning and inclusion.

Key Insights

Optimizing L&D through KPIs

KPIs such as revenue, employee retention, and engagement surveys can connect L&D efforts to organizational goals.
Vivian emphasizes aligning data collection with organizational needs, role-specific KPIs, and balancing technical and interpersonal skills.
Jimmy highlights the need for embedding L&D KPIs into organizational systems to track effectiveness, suggesting evaluations (Level 1 and 2) and ROI analysis as starting points.

Real-Time Learning Opportunities

Andrew Jacobs introduces the "Three A's" framework:
Awareness: Refreshing forgotten knowledge at the point of need.
Acquisition: Avoiding information overload by delivering only what’s necessary.
Application: Providing safe opportunities to practice and apply learning.
Fran Harrison advocates for “just enough, just in time” learning, focusing on drip-fed content and addressing real-time challenges.

Root Cause Analysis

Fran and Andrew emphasize the importance of identifying core problems using methods like the “Five Whys” to ensure effective solutions, moving beyond just training to address systemic and structural issues.

Closing Thoughts
This episode underscores the shift from traditional L&D approaches to a more data-driven mindset, ensuring impactful and measurable outcomes. The panelists highlight how strategic alignment, continuous improvement, and targeted interventions can make L&D initiatives more effective.
Stay tuned for more insightful discussions, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave your feedback!

Subscribe to The Digital Adoption Show:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3W7uoul
Apple: https://apple.co/4cD0Ewo
Website: https://bit.ly/3XWXtew