Apex Mind: Recent Episodes
Apex Mind
Learn to teach and train better. Whether you work at a large company, for a smaller company will fewer resources, or you run your own business - Apex Mind can help you to get better results with more engaging and effective training. Each episode features practical tips, analysis of current trends and news, and expert interviews.
Bonus Episode
For our first episode of 2023, we are offering a bonus episode form my interview on the Distant Job Podcast.
Enjoy this opportunity to hear Adam switch from interviewer to interviewee.
The Distant Job Podcast features interviews with people who are experts in remote work and management.
You can find the Distant Job Podcast on all podcast players, and their show archive can be found online: https://distantjob.com/blog/podcasts/
Our first year producing The Learning Evolution Podcast has come to an end.
Thank you to all who listened, interacted, provided feedback, and shared the show.
On this episode, we discussed:
- The gaps with most modern education and learning
- How to make remote training effective
- Performance and development as a new way of education
- Strategies to make trainings in the workplace more effective
- Why mentors bring a lot of value to the workplace
- Tips to make engaging webinar
Connect with Adam:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
Our first year producing The Learning Evolution Podcast has come to an end.
Thank you to all who listened, interacted, provided feedback, and shared the show.
This final episode of the year contains my top five lessons learned in 2022.
- Brief 2022 recap (0:42)
- Lesson 1 - Put yourself out there (2:34)
- Lesson 2 - Gamification is more about driving behaviors than adding gaming elements (5:05) - Reference episode 25 with Yu-kai Chou
- Lesson 3 - L&D Teams alone do not create learning (7:45) - Reference episodes 57/58 with JD Dillon
- Lesson 4 - Formal learning programs are often not the best way to drive change (9:32) - Reference episode 37 with Matt Bibby
- Lesson 5 - Diversify your skillset to create more impact (13:23) - Reference episode 54 with Dan Gallagher
We will see you with more new episodes in the new year. Enjoy your holidays and end of year wrap up.
Connect with Adam:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
JD Dillon is the founder of LearnGeek, CLO at Axonify, and the author of the recently published book The Modern Learning Ecosystem.
On part 2 of my interview with JD, we discussed:
- How to support performers when things go wrong for them (1:52)
- Reinforcing what people need to know (5:51)
- Using learner personas to create individualized learning solutions (11:21)
- How to help managers create a coaching culture (14:43)
- Why training should be the last deliverable that L&D teams should spend their time on (18:48)
- How L&D teams can get past the order taker mentality (22:29)
- Why all training should be microlearning (25:54)
- How Axonify helps train and support the front line (30:36)
Connect with JD:
- Modern Learning Ecosystem Book
- LearnGeek
- Axonify
Connect with Adam:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
JD Dillon is the founder of LearnGeek, CLO at Axonify, and the author of the recently published book The Modern Learning Ecosystem.
On this episode, JD and I discussed:
- His focus on developing frontline employees (1:30)
- How training can appeal to people's motivators (9:30)
- What we can all learn from Wile E. Coyote (16:08)
- Why modern today is antiquated tomorrow (20:21)
- How we can hold people accountable for learning in the workflow (23:52)
- How to take advantage of the ecosystem employees are already using (28:44)
- Being comfortable with giving up control (33:50)
- Why the foundation of modern learning is shared knowledge (40:21)
- Tune into part 2 of this interview on our next episode!
Connect with JD:
- Modern Learning Ecosystem Book
- LearnGeek
- Axonify
Connect with Adam:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas is a remote work & learning expert. She has more than 12 years of experience in virtual training, coaching, events, and collaboration.
Barbara has founded Virtual Space Hero, a collection of ****remote work and hybrid leadership experts who work with organizations from across the globe delivering keynotes, workshops, coaching and more.
On this episode, we discussed:
- Barbara’s extensive background in virtual training and team leadership
- How you can make your virtual training more engaging
- Making virtual training more real and applicable for participants
- How to deliver long-term results from your training sessions
- The best ways to develop trainers to deliver better virtual training
- Her company’s award from the Wharton Global Case Study Challenge
- The top things company’s struggle with in the remote and hybrid space
Connect with Barbara:
- Personal Website
- Virtual Space Hero
Connect with Adam at:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
Hannah Frankman is the founder of Rebel Educator - a resource that provides professional development for schools to build a concept and project based learning culture, and resources for entrepreneurs starting their own schools.
Hannah had a non-traditional schooling experience and is an advocate for fostering critical thinking, mental models, philosophy and argument formation with children in order to set them up for success in life.
On this episode, we discussed:
- How Hannah’s non-traditional education experience set her up for success in her career and life (1:08)
- Modern alternatives to college (14:15)
- What Revel Educator is doing to evolve the K-12 education space (25:56)
- Innovators to follow in the schooling space (37:13)
- How transitioning teachers can become involved in the K-12 evolution (49:10)
Connect with Hannah:
- Website
Find Rebel Educator
- Website
Connect with Adam at:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Podcast introduction music used with full permission from Anthai the Protagonist and PenSwift, 7 1 Raw records from the album Quintessentials vol. 1 - The Original Intent ft. PenSwift.
Dan Gallagher is responsible for line management of Quality, Talent & Development within the insurance industry in the UK.
Dan marries talent development and quality processes to support his people. His diverse interests and background have lead him to incorporate unconventional L&D methods based on systems thinking and behavioral economics.
On this episode, we discussed:
- Making Compliance Training Effective (1:06)
- Offer more than just courses (3:33)
- Linking Training and Quality Programs (9:06)
- Purpose Measures Methods (11:51)
- Systems Thinking (16:40)
- Avoiding the checklist mentality with quality audits (28:23)
- Resources to learn more about Systems Thinking (31:16)
- Behavioral Economics (33:17)
- How to use Behavioral Economics to nudge employee behavior (41:04)
- Motivating employees with autonomy, mastery, and purpose (47:11)
- Get to know Dan (52:45)
Curated Systems Thinking Resources
- “Thinking in Systems” by Donella Meadows
- Russ Ackoff on YouTube
- Systems Thinking Network on LinkedIn
Connect with Dan at:
Connect with Adam at:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Jerome Myers is a developer of people and places. He is the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of DreamCatchers and The Myers Development Group.
Through these entities he gets to live out his childhood dreams of helping people manifest the things they imagine and create social proof that dreams should be real.
Since leaving corporate America after building a 20MM division, Jerome has become one of the most sought after thought leaders in the multifamily development space. In addition, Jerome offers leadership training to businesses that want to be the top leaders in the industry.
On this episode, we discussed:
- Escaping the Matrix (1:19)
- Transitioning from corporate work to doing what fuels you (7:59)
- The employee dissatisfaction crises (12:00)
- Building trust and communication skills with leaders (17:26)
- Maximizing long-term impact of learning programs (27:14)
- Steps to take to exit the Matrix (30:12)
- How to reduce stress and ascend into timelessness (36:22)
- How employees can gain fulfillment (40:04)
Connect with Jerome:
- Website
Connect with Adam:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Joe Dunlap is a Learning leader with over 15 years of experience and a comprehensive background in continuous learning and performance improvement, skills/capability/competency modeling, social & collaborative learning, cross-disciplinary learning teams, measures, technologies and analytics.
Joe is a keynote presenter, panelist, podcast guest, author and influencer for the transition of traditional Learning and Development to transformational continuous learning and performance improvement.
On this episode, we discuss:
- Why classrooms - both virtual and in-person - are often the worst ways to facilitate adult learning
- How to provide learning and performance support solutions closer to where the work is being done
- How Joe has driven results in large bureaucratic organizations, including NASA and the US military
Connect with Joe:
Connect with Adam at:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Kate Tonda is the Senior Director of Learning and Development at Walmart. Over the last 20 years, Kate has worked for several large companies in roles of increasing responsibility in the L&D function.
Kate has managed employee training for multiple verticals and has overseen all aspects of the L&D function in her various roles. Kate’s teams have delivered innovative and award-winning learning solutions, experiential events, and have trained many thousands of employees.
On this episode of The Learning Evolution Podcast, we discussed:
- How Kate has partnered with senior company leadership and navigated both bureaucracy and silos at the companies that she has worked for to deliver training solutions that drive real performance impact
- What she has done to progress her career and how she develops the L&D professionals that have worked on her team
- The projects and impact that have made her the most proud over her almost 20 year L&D career
- How she has become involved within her community and with organizations like Fierce Lab to learn and grow
Connect with Kate:
Connect with Adam at:
- YouTube
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Welcome to the Learning Evolution.
This episode discusses our show’s rebrand and how it helps us to drive our mission to help you get better at making other people better.
We will discuss the mindset behind where the show is going and what to expect going forward.
Connect with Adam:
YouTube
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Matt Smith has worked for over 20 years managing people across a wide range of industries, 12 of those in formal L&D roles. He has worked as an employee at larger businesses, run his own business, as well as operated independently.
His wide range of experience has given him a unique perspective on what it means to provide effective training.
Find Matt at:
- Useful Stuff
Connect with Adam at:
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
L&D is often seen as a cost center, and for good reason.
With the economy slowing and recession likely on the horizon, some companies are laying off staff and many others are cutting budgets.
Prepare yourself for what is ahead and prove your value to business leaders to navigate the coming uncertainty.
CLO Article
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Heidi Kirby transitioned from being a college professor into a more than 9 year working in a variety of L&D roles.
She has worked as an instructional designer for NASA, a large health insurance company, a small tech startup, and a software company in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. She has led instructional design functions for small and mid-sized organizations throughout Northeast Ohio.
For her PhD program, she is studying leadership competencies instructional designers need to be successful. She is focused on growing new learning and development professionals and to bring positive change and a sense of belonging and learning culture.
Heidi is the host of the BLOC podcast and recently founded Useful Stuff.
On this episode we discussed:
- How she has combined her academic background with the practical experience she has gained working with multiple companies
- The top skills that somebody transitioning into a career in L&D need to be successful
- Where a lot of professional training is missing the mark and how to avoid these pitfalls
- How the perspective of Gen Z can lead to a better future for L&D
Find Heidi at:
- Useful Stuff
Connect with Adam at:
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
There is a perception amongst many employees and business leaders that their training teams are not providing value.
But they want more training.
We've talked over many episodes how to create and deliver trining and support experiences that drive better performance.
Today we are going to look at skills that may seem unconventional for a training team to have, but are absolutely needed.
This episode is full of resources and references galore:
- Business Wire Article
- Episode 17: Influence is a Super Power
- Episode 34: How you Can Influence Senior Leaders to Avoid Being an Order Taker and Gain Buy-In for Your Learning Solutions
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdiani
- This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin
- Follow Ashley Sinclair on LinkedIn for Marketing in L&D tips
- Hemingway App for copywriting improvement
- The Ogilvy Podcast
- What is Agile Methodology on YouTube
- The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Stainer
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Katja Schipperheijn is an internationally recognized learning strategist, consultant, author, guest lecturer and keynote speaker on innovation to support learning and knowledge sharing. Her area of expertise focuses on the symbiosis between humans and machines to achieve sustainable growth with attention to engagement and well-being.
From her experience with multinationals, learning institutions and start-ups, Katja launched a non for profit organization in 2017 to support children and young people with the challenges of digital citizenship and the competences that go with it. More than 15,000 children participated in these workshops. This was also the inspiration for the first book 'Digitale Burgertjes' (Little Digital Citizens) published in Dutch in 2018 to support educators and parents in guiding children in an increasingly virtual world.
Based on her experience with organizations and her work with children, Katja published the book 'The LearnScape, Learning as Oxygen for the Nimble Organisation' also in Dutch in 2021. In this book, she focused on the symbiosis of humans and machines to enable organizations to achieve sustainable growth from human talent and to support the expectations of the future of work.
On this episode we discussed:
- How Technology can impact how we learn and train others
- The future of work and what companies and workers need to do to be successful in it
- What we can implement from how children learn
- How to be a lifelong learner in the rapidly evolving future
Find Katja at:
- Habit of Improvement
- Learning Ecosystems book
Connect with Adam at:
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
People that work in L&D don’t get enough development.
Their entire career focuses on helping other people to get better at what they do. But most of the time, they have to own their development or they don’t get any.
They can complete certifications. Go through courses. Join a mentorship group. Or read a book.
Those things are all great. But L&D leaders must evaluate work, provide feedback, and offer development paths.
While the roles and scope of work may differ, here are some simple ways to do this:
1️⃣ Have a clear and objective way to measure work.
2️⃣ Regularly evaluate performance and provide specific and actionable feedback.
3️⃣ Provide Development paths and work to help your people get better.
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Sharon Koifman is all about remote management. He has over two decades of experience running three companies 100% from his computer, with two toddlers in the room!
He is the President of DistantJob, a remote recruitment agency that focuses on soliciting full-time remote workers worldwide. Along with a rapidly-expanding new media company, Think Remote, Sharon's organization has also created a successful podcast featuring interviews with tech industry professionals about remote management and leadership.
During the wake of the COVID crisis, Sharon wrote a best-selling book on multiple Amazon categories, "Surviving Remote Work." His goal was to help businesses thrive in this new environment. Koifman has studied and researched not just how to operate remote companies but also how to establish an exceptional work culture, one where people love to work in.
Find with Sharon at:
- Distantjob.com
- Distant Job Podcast
- Surviving Remote Work Book
Connect with Adam at:
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
This episode is fourth and final part in our Trainer Roles series.
Everybody who leads learning sessions - whether a business leader, a subject matter expert, or someone in a formal L&D role - has multiple roles that they must fill. Over the coming weeks, we are going to highlight each of these roles and provide actionable tips to deliver when in each role.
So far we have discussed how to be a good host, how to make training real and relevant, and how to be engaging. This final part in the series covers how to be adaptable with unexpected things that come up - AKA: how to roll with it.
Best laid plans can often be interrupted, disrupted, or interfered with.
On this episode we discuss the 4 ways to be adaptable and ensure that you are able to achieve your goals no matter what happens.
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Harris Fanaroff was drafted to play for the Washington Nationals baseball team out of high school.
While in college, he ran into a mental block that resulted in him pivoting from his planned career as an athlete and focus on academics.
He finished college and pursued a career in both coaching and in onboarding.
Now, Harris helps businesses to get better results from their employee onboarding. He focuses on pre-boarding - the period between offer acceptance and Day 1 - as a way to help employees feel like a part of the company culture. This focus on pre-boarding has lead to companies seeing more people show up and stay.
On this episode, Harris and I discuss:
- How his background playing, and pivoting from, baseball has helped him in the business world
- How to help employees feel like they are a part of the company culture
- What companies can do to improve their employee onboarding programs
Find Harris at:
- Activate Onboarding
Connect with Adam at:
- Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
This episode is part three in our Trainer Roles series.
Everybody who leads learning sessions - whether a business leader, a subject matter expert, or someone in a formal L&D role - has multiple roles that they must fill. Over the coming weeks, we are going to highlight each of these roles and provide actionable tips to deliver when in each role.
So far we have discussed how to be a good host, and how to make training real and relevant. This week we will discuss how to be engaging.
Most training is boring and does not give people a reason to want to learn.
On this episode we discuss 4 ways that you can make your training sessions more engaging so people learn more, participate more, and come back to you asking for more training.
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Matt Dicks is a man of many talents.
56 time Moth StorySLAM Champion and 9 time grand champion, Matt is an expert on storytelling. He even wrote a book on it, called Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling.
Matt is also the internationally bestselling author of a number of fiction and nonfiction titles, which have been translated into 25 languages worldwide.
In addition, Matt has authored a rock opera, several musicals, and comic books. He is a columnist for multiple magazines and has been published in many more.
In his day job, Matt has been an elementary school teacher for more than 25 years. He also works as a marketing and storytelling consultant, a speaking coach, a blogger, a wedding DJ, a minister, and is the Lord of Sealand. Matt works with many business organizations and has taught at a variety of higher education establishments.
Somehow, Matt has managed to do all this, while also raising two children with his wife Elysha - who he runs a podcast with - called Speak Up Storytelling. (He has a second podcast too).
How does Matt manage so many activities and remain so productive in his life? He has developed a system of simple and actionable ways to manage time and propel his creativity. His new book - Someday is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life - shares these techniques.
On this episode, Matt and I discuss:
- His recommendations for how you can maximize your time
- How you can think like your future 100 year old self will to help you prioritize your time
- Why "Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good" is a poor life philosophy
- What the most important element of a story is
- How anybody can create effective stories from their day to day life, no matter how normal or mundane
Find Matt at:
- Matthewdicks.com
- YouTube Ted Talk
- Speak Up Storytelling Podcast
- Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
- Someday is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
This episode is part two in our Trainer Roles series.
Everybody who leads learning sessions - whether a business leader, a subject matter expert, or someone in a formal L&D role - has multiple roles that they must fill. Over the coming weeks, we are going to highlight each of these roles and provide actionable tips to deliver when in each role.
Last week we discussed how you can be a good host for those that you conduct learning sessions for. This week we will discuss how to make the training you deliver real and relevant.
Far too many training sessions are plagued with hypotheticals, unrealistic information, and just do not prepare people to do the things that they need to do.
On this episode we discuss 4 ways that you can make your training sessions more real and relevant so that people perform better afterwards.
Connect with Adam:
Apex Performance Group
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
On this episode, I am happy to welcome to the show Matt Bibby.
Matt has worked in L&D and instructional design for more than two decades. During this time, he has experienced a lot of change in how businesses support their people, delivered thousands of trainings at countless companies, and has developed a unique view of what the role of training should be. This interview has the potential to ruffle some feathers in some L&D circles as we discuss:
- Adam & Matt's backgrounds that led to views of what at-work training should be
- Challenges with the traditional training delivery model
- Why most eLearning does not provide value
- What good at-work training and development should look like
Connect with Matt at:
Website
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
This episode is the first of a series. Anybody who leads learning sessions - whether a business leader, a subject matter expert, or someone in a formal L&D role - has multiple roles that they must fill. Over the coming weeks, we are going to highlight each of these roles and provide actionable tips to deliver when in each role. The first role that everyone who leads learning sessions must fulfill is to host the participants. Must like somebody hosting people at an event at their house, when hosting a learning session the gaol is to help people to feel welcome and comfortable so that they are able to learn and perform better afterwards. On this episode we discuss:
How being a good host can ensure that participants' base needs are met Setting up the location Making people comfortable Treating your guests as adults Ensuring your guests enjoy their stay
Connect with Adam: Twitter LinkedIn Apex Performance Group We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
This episode features Apex Mind's first two-guest interview!
We are pleased to welcome to the show Dr. Kuva Jacobs and Charles Masuku. Dr. Jacobs has worked for years provided evidence-based instructional design in a variety of industries and verticals. Charles has leveraged his extensive sales and marketing background to deliver performance impacting learning solutions.
They have recently partnered together to found Emergent Learning - a learning consulting firm that combines Dr. Jacobs' background in evidence-based learning design and Charles' experience with creating performance impact.
On this episode we discuss:
- L&D myth busting
- How L&D professionals can get better at sales and marketing
- The proprietary EMERGE model and how it combines sound learning science and a performance focus
Connect with Charles at:
Connect with Dr. Jacobs at:
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Many people who work in support roles, like training or enablement, struggle with influencing senior leaders. It is easy to feel imposter syndrome that leads to being an order taker, a content factory, and not being able to implement the solutions that you know will drive results.
In this episode, I share the blueprint for a process that has worked for me to influence business leaders to accept quality training and performance support solutions, has prevented my teams from just taking orders, and has lead to better performing projects.
Article:
https://hbr.org/2002/05/change-the-way-you-persuade
Connect with Adam:
Website
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Pat Michaels is the Director of Business Development at Great Circle Learning. Pat works with instructional designers, instructional writers, subject matter experts, and training industry professionals to make it faster and easier to design, develop, and maintain professional facilitator guides, participant guides, speaker notes, audience handouts, and more.
On this episode, Pat and I discuss:
- Techniques to drive more effective training
- How to create quality participant and leader's guides that drive consistent results
- Delivering virtual training that is engaging and applicable
Connect with Pat at:
YouTube
Great Circle Learning
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
While working with her husband, who is a pilot, Linda Reynolds identified a pattern that most training in the aviation industry was boring, was not interactive, and had opportunities for improvement. To address these gaps, Linda developed a Solomon's Facilitative Model to develop other training professionals in the aviation industry to train adults well.
On this episode we discuss:
- The models and training methodologies that she follows
- The gaps in the aviation training space and what she is doing to address them
- How she develops other training professionals to drive greater impact in what they do
Connect with Linda at:
Flight Level Group
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Joshua Remerowski is a strategic thinker with a knack for creating new ways of working through strategic planning, training, talent development, technology, and execution. He is a self-described learning and development nerd whose works have led to awards from Brandon Hall Group, Association of Talent Development, and Training Magazine.
Joshua is a seasoned L&D leader and is currently a Senior Director at Fortive.
Connect with Joshua at:
LinkedIn.
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Recently, a story went viral online about a CEO of a small start-up tech firm that laid off a handful of staff.
Some people supported this CEO's openness and vulnerability.
Others found the CEO to be tone deaf and alleged that he was using the situation as a publicity stunt.
So what is the truth?
Nobody truly knows his intentions behind the original post, but on this episode we break down:
-
What happened with this company and how the CEO responded publicly
-
The consensus of people that are attacking and supporting what happened
-
What we can all take away form this situation
Articles:
CEO’s teary post selfie goes south
Connect:
Website
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Fred Baker has more than a decade of experience in Instructional Design and Project Management, having worked in both higher education and in business.
On this episode, Fred and I discuss:
- His experience working in higher education and its influence on his approach to L&D
- How systems and processes can help organizations to run better
- His approach of using project management techniques in the L&D space
Connect with Fred at
Integrated Human Consulting
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Liz Reveles has worked for over 25 years developing high-impact leaders and Training professionals. Today, Liz consults with businesses to provide leadership development, business coaching, life coaching and speaking engagements.
On this episode, we discuss:
- Common leadership gaps and how to overcome
- Providing consistent frameworks for leaders to follow and drive performance results
- Techniques to develop both new and tenured leaders
- The Future Leader by Jacob Morgan
Connect with Liz at:
https://lizreveles.com/
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
On this episode, we look at how the skill of learning effectively and efficiently is necessarily in today’s world.
This episode will provide you with a 4-step model to learn just about anything as quickly as possible.
We also explore a Business Insider article that features the Microsoft CEO promoting being a learn-it-all.
Connect:
Website
We'd love to hear from you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Guy has been an external consultant since 1982 and is known for his writings and presentations on both Performance Analysis, and Curriculum Architecture Design. On this episode, we dive in to Guy's experience, what he thinks about the change to L&D teams over time, and what we all can do to focus on performance improvements.
You can connect with guy at:
Homepage
Follow Apex Mind on:
LinkedIn.
Yu-kai Chou is an Author and International Keynote Speaker on Gamification and Behavioral Design.
He is the Founding Partner and Chief Creation Officer of the premium consulting/design firm The Octalysis Group, as well as Co-Founder and Chief Experience of Metablox – an NFT platform powered by Real World Places and Real Life Memories.
Yu-kai is the Original Creator of the Octalysis Framework, and the author of Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards.
Yu-kai has been a regular speaker/lecturer on gamification and motivation worldwide, including at organizations like Stanford/Yale/Oxford, Google, Tesla, IDEO LEGO, BCG, the governments of UK, Singapore, Kingdom of Bahrain, and many more.
His design work has empowered over 1 Billion users’ experiences across the world.
You can find Yu-kai at:
https://yukaichou.com/
Connect with Adam at:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
There are a lot of people that seem miserable and complain constantly these days.
While there are certainly problems that need solving, I believe that these people just lack perspective.
By most objective data, we live in the greatest time in human history.
We need to take advantage of this. For ourselves, for those around us, and for how we motivate and engage ourselves in our careers.
We look at two articles today and discuss how they can help us to gain perspective and how we can use this data to support our people.
We don't have to do things the old ways anymore.
Articles:
What a Time to Be Alive by Jack Raines
Digital Around the World
Connect:
Website
We'd love to hear form you about what you are liking, and what you want to hear more of. Connect and engage on socials or send us a message through the website.
Today we welcome on our first guest - Jason Klietz.
He has an inspiring story about self-improvement, accountability, and learning.
Jason started a health journey and has inadvertently experienced social media fame. He talks about his unexpected attention and what he is doing to allow his experience to motivate others.
This is a great episode to learn from. We can all improve ourselves in multiple areas of our lives.
You can connect with Jason at:
-
Twitter: @earbuds_music
-
LinkedIn
-
Tik Tok: @accountabilitynation
Join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
On this episode, we discuss:
- More employers are embracing Hybrid work
- Microsoft is focusing on employee ‘thriving’ over engagement
- How to help your employees thrive
Previous Apex Mind Episodes mentioned:
0: Origin of Apex Mind
15: I've Solved the Return to Work Debate
19: How Better Training Can Address The Great Resignation
Join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Oops, I did it again - We continue to have technical issues with the video. We will be adding video soon once we sort this out, but I did not want to hold this episode back any longer. Despite what is mentioned during the episode, this is audio only
Episode 21
The Economy is slowing and we are likely heading for a recession.
Many large tech companies have already been laying off staff.
Your company may be tightening budgets or reducing staff.
Times like this can be scary, but there are opportunities.
On this episode, we discuss:
- Proving your value to your company leadership
- Doing more with less when budgets and resources are reduced
- What to do if you are impacted by job cuts
Join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Apex Mind is back!
After a brief break away from the podcast and socials in order to reassess and focus, we have returned.
This being our 21st episode (counting Episode 0), Apex Mind has now entered the top 1% of podcasts, based on episode count.
Thank you to everybody who has listened, engaged, and helped us to grow.
On this episode, we shared some excited upcoming changes to Apex Mind - like the inclusion of video and some upcoming interviews.
We also look at the concept of the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) and how it applies to your top performers.
We share what you can do to support these performers so you can retain them, unleash their "rockstar" qualities, and improve business performance.
Articles discussed on this episode:
- Engineering Study
- Netflix Article
Let's connect on Social:
Join the conversation onTwitter andLinkedIn.
Companies have been having more trouble retaining their people for the last few years. We are going to dive into the reasons why this has been happening and how your employee performance and development programs can help you to navigate this and keep your people.
Articles referenced in this episode:
- Great Resignation Stats
- Great Resignation Here for Good
- Should Your Company Be Concerned?
Let's connect on Social
Join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
In this episode, we are going to look at the world of video games to see how they teach players to learn the rules and immerse themselves in the world. There are some key lessons that many businesses can learn from how video games teach their players.
We dive into the most popular video game of all time - Super Mario Brothers for the original Nintendo system and analyze how the thrifty game developers built in innovative teaching tools into the game.
What can at-work training learn from these innovative teaching tools?
The article referenced on this episode can be found here.
The song played at the end of the episode is Mega Man 2 from the Minibosses.
Join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
This episode is all about influence.
The best ways to have more influence.
How to change minds.
How to have more of an effect on others without the use of force.
This is an invaluable skill for anybody that is trying to develop others, for making a difference with people who don’t report to you (or may be a higher position), or when you have to change minds.
First, we look at an article from Arthur Brooks in the Atlantic entitled A Gentler, Better Way to Change Minds. This article presents a 3-step process to approach extreme disagreements, whether they be socio-political disagreements or challenges with other people or teams in the workplace.
After that, we dive into six influence principles from the definitive book on the subject - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Chialdiani. These six principles will help you to get people to do what you want them to do, without force or coercion.
Twitter LinkedIn
Most education and attempts and learning fail.
Why is that?
This episode breaks down the top reason why - a lack of affective context.
Human memory does not remember everything that you experience. Instead, your memory remembers the emotional reactions to things and then you fill the rest in when you have to recall it.
This is why people often do not remember, or learn, from most of the content they read, watch or listen to. It either is not important to them or it was not presented in a way that created an emotional connection.
After listening to the episode, if you'd like to learn more about affective context, you can check out these resources from Nick Shackleton-Jones:
Video - Understanding Learning: The Affective Context Model
Book - How People Learn: Designing education and training that works to improve performance
Connect on Social:
Twitter LinkedIn
In 2020, companies had to completely redesign their work arrangements. Most white collar workers went remote. Most offices closed. Now that many parts of society are returning to normal, some business leaders want to as well.
The problem is that many workers do not want to go back to the old normal.
There is a great debate going on today - Should we return back into our offices or stay remote? And this debate has impassioned people on both sides of it.
In this episode, we are going to look at some recent news and comments from political and business leaders. We will provide analysis and share what the best steps forward should be.
Articles shared in this episode:
- Biden urges return to office
- Executives are eager for workers to come back
- Workplaces offer flexibility
- Challenges of Remote Mentorship for younger employees
Connect on Social:
Twitter LinkedIn
This is a packed episode folks.
Today we look at some recent news and tie it together by sharing a technique to learn anything.
First, we see why College enrollment has been decreasing.
This is a trend that has been happening for several years and there are multiple reasons why.
Next, we look at the Highest Paying Tech Certificationsand the Google Cloud Certifications that are an option that are cheaper and faster than a college degree.
Is this a solution that more companies will adopt? Can this truly be an alternative to a 4-year college degree program?
Then, we analyze why there has been an Increase in trades.
This is absolutely a good thing. We need people in these trade positions to support any functioning society and these types of jobs were shunned for too long.
Last, we look at the Feynman technique.
Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning physicist, who was considered the father of quantum computing. He taught at both Cornell and Cal Tech, so he knew a thing or two about learning and teaching complex subjects.
His 4-step technique to learn anything was to:
- Choose a concept and do your research
- Teach someone else
- Learn more focusing on your gaps
- Simplify to be able to explain to a child.
Twitter LinkedIn
20% of new hires leave within the first forty-five days of employment. Onboarding new employees into your business can be time consuming, it can affect your company's performance, and it can be a waste of time. These are some common gaps that many businesses make when onboarding their people:
Onboarding is a one-and-done event Inadequate prior planning was done The information is not easy to absorb or access
This episode will help you address these gaps if they exist at your business. Onboarding Retention Whitepaper Twitter LinkedIn
Byte Dance, Tik Tok's parent company, recently reduced 100% of their talent development team.
Was this a good idea or will it leave their staff with inadequate development opportunities in the future?
What lessons can you and your business takeaway from this significant restructure at a large tech company?
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/31/tiktok-owner-bytedance-laid-off-a-global-hr-team-in-december.html
Keep these conversations going on Social: Twitter LinkedIn
Many businesses use Slack, Microsoft Teams, or WebEx to connect and collaborate. A missed opportunity is in using these powerful tools for training and employee support.
This episode builds on our two previous episodes that focused on microlearning and performance support. Platforms like Slack, Teams and WebEx can be used effectively for employee training and development.
This episode will teach you how to use these platforms for:
- Virtual Training & Presentations
- Huddles, Collaboration & Coaching
- Linking to internal and external training content
- Using Chat groups to support and develop employees
Keep these conversations going on Social:
70% of what people learn is on the job. Formal training can help to set the foundation, but people need help as they are doing their jobs too.
Workers may not remember what they were trained on. Something unexpected could go wrong. There may have been a change and this is their first time encountering it.
Performance Support encourages you to focus on the resources that employees will use as they do their jobs. These resources are focused on helping employees complete their work.
Keep these conversations going on Social:
Microlearning is the more engaging, less time-consuming, and cheaper-to-produce sibling of regular training. It involves stripping down a skill or idea to its most essential parts, and delivering them one at a time.
People begin to forget information between 20 minutes and 24 hours after learning it. We are better able to recall information and concepts if we learn them in multiple, spread-out sessions. We can leverage this effect by using spaced repetition to slowly learn almost anything.
We can use Microlearning and the Spacing Effect to deliver short bursts of learning spaced out regularly to maximize learning retention and minimize cost and development time.
Home RenoVisionDIY YouTube channel
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Keep these conversations going on Social:
On this episode, we look at how to best prepare yourself, and your learners to the extent that you can influence them in these areas, to learn optimally. The things that we will discuss in this episode can be categorized into health and wellness. These things won’t just make you healthier, they will make you a better learner.
There are four primary categories to help you prime your body and mind to learn better:
- Sleep
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- General Wellness
These are the resources that were referenced on this episode:
- Science Direct COVID weight gain study
- Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
- The Genius Life by Max Lugavere
- Exercise and Brain Health Study
- Weight Gained During Pandemic
- The Resistance Training Revolution
Keep these conversations going on Social:
Gamification is the use of game-design elements and game principals in non-game contexts.
It's been used for years. The Miracle Piano for NES was an early example of teaching a skill (piano playing) and adding gaming elements through the Nintendo. these days, you can use apps like Wave, Duolingo, Foursquare, and FitBit. Each of these provides users with gaming elements to partner with navigating, learning, being places, and getting moving.
Today we dive into Octalysis gamification from Yu-Kai Cho, who is the head of the The Octalysis Group.
Octalysis is unique because it focuses on eight core drives, balances right brained and left brain learning,
If you'd like to learn more, listen to Yu-Kai's Ted Talk on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Qjuegtiyc
This episode talks about failure and how to learn from it.
Many successful people, like Michael Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, have overcome failure and rejection to become some of the most successful people in their industries.
This episode dives in to Arthur Brooks' Atlantic article entitled “How to Succeed at Failure”. This article discusses how failure can be a positive and strategies to move past failure.
The key takeaways from the article were:
- Think about others’ past failures (as well as your own)
- When going in to something, your should be improvement and learning rather than only success
- Put your “Why” front-and-center
Then, we tie in how adding challenge and allowing people to fail during training, can lead to better learning and performance. The top tips to add challenge to training and to make failure ok were:
- Set the environment up for success by making it ok for learners to stretch, try, and fail
- Provide an outlet or resources so that when your employees fail, they can grow and learn from it
- Build the coaching and development skills for the leaders at your company so that they can help employees improve upon their shortcomings
Keep these conversations going on Social:
Content Curation is the process of collecting and arranging training content from a variety of different sources and publishing it online to share with your audience. To curate content, you not only have to find the content that is relevant to your audience, but you also have to present it to them in a format that will be beneficial to them.
On this episode, we will discuss:
- Why Content Curation is an important strategy for all businesses
- The steps to follow to curate content
- Sources of where to curate from
- Outlets to share curated content
- Important things to make sure you do when curating
In today's episode, we are going to talk about how to get better at Virtual Training. Most of us know that a vast majority of virtual training is terrible. It’s not engaging, we don’t tend to learn or get better at what we are supposed to be getting trained on, and it’s not going anywhere.
If you’ve ever lead a virtual session and had trouble with effectiveness, engagement, achieving your goals, or anything else, the tips in this episode will help you to get more raving fans and to see better results.
This episode provides an overview to the most in-demand skills of this year. Power skills are rebranded soft skills for the digital age that cannot be replaced by machines and automation. Tactical Skills are the universal skills that everybody needs to succeed, regardless of role and industry. Technical skills are role-specific skills that all companies need to succeed today. Listen to this episode to see which skills that you should be learning, and which you will be supporting this year and in the future.
Like most things, COVID has impacted how companies train their employees. On this episode, we look into Training Magazine's 2021 Industry Report, which provides industry-wide analysis on the top trends in workplace learning during 2021, and the top things to expect in 2022.
These days, everybody is involved in training others to be better. Whether you work in a formal training role, you work in another part of the business where you informally train others, or you work in a small company or run one of your own - you find yourself helping others to learn things, learn their jobs, and build new skills. This first episode of Apex Mind will address the top 5 gaps in at-work learning today, and some tips to address them.