Capability Edge

While everyone zigs toward AI, Candice Mitchell, founder of Talent Collective and USA Today bestselling author of Choose You, is zagging toward people. In this episode of The Capability Edge, she shares five reasons people will never go out of style, and why Talent Development teams will be the glue that holds an AI-powered workplace together.

Candice draws on the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest study of happiness ever run, and Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz's book The Good Life. She covers the US Surgeon General's warning that loneliness is as harmful as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, research linking good managers to lower heart disease risk, and a Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon study showing that the more people trust AI, the less critical thinking they apply.

You'll also get a simple social fitness check to see which relationships energize you and which drain you, at home and at work.

The 5 reasons people will never go out of style

1. People make the good life. Relationship satisfaction at 50 predicted health at 80 better than cholesterol did.
2. The quality of your people decides your energy. A toxic boss can drain you. A great team can carry you through a 12-hour day.
3. Nobody wins anything big alone. Behind Hillary and Tenzing on Everest stood about 350 porters and 20 Sherpas.
4. Good thinking needs other people. Critical and systems thinking get sharper when someone pushes back.
5. Talent Development is the glue. The people who build people will decide which companies make it through the AI shift.

• Lacking social connection is as harmful as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and about half of US adults report loneliness (US Surgeon General, 2023).
• In the Harvard Study of Adult Development, relationship satisfaction at age 50 predicted health at 80 better than cholesterol levels did.
• Time spent with friends in person fell from about 60 minutes a day in 2003 to 20 minutes in 2020 (US Surgeon General, 2023).
• Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement (Gallup).
• It takes about 50 hours together to make a casual friend and more than 200 hours to make a close friend (Jeffrey Hall, University of Kansas).
• 85% of employers name upskilling as their top workforce strategy through 2030, ahead of automation at 73% (World Economic Forum, 2025).

What did the Harvard Study of Adult Development find? Since 1938 the study has followed 724 men and now their children. Its clearest finding is that close, warm relationships predict a long, healthy, happy life better than money, fame, social class, IQ or genes.

What is social fitness? A term from The Good Life for the health of your relationships. Like physical fitness, relationships need regular attention or they weaken. The book suggests listing the people in your life, how often you see each one, and whether they leave you energized or drained.

Can a bad boss affect your health? Research says yes. A Swedish study of more than 3,000 working men found that employees with good managers had a lower risk of heart disease, and the benefit grew the longer they stayed with that manager.

Does using AI reduce critical thinking? A 2025 Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon survey of 319 knowledge workers found that people who trusted AI more applied less critical thinking to its output, while people confident in their own skills checked and improved it.

Will AI replace Talent Development teams? Candice argues the opposite. As AI handles content and process, the human work of building managers, connection, mentoring and judgment becomes more valuable, and that is the work Talent Development teams are built for.

• The Good Life by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
• Robert Waldinger's TED talk: What makes a good life?
• US Surgeon General's advisory: Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation
• How many hours it takes to make a friend (University of Kansas)
• Managers account for 70% of variance in engagement (Gallup)
• Generative AI and critical thinking study (Campus Technology)

Candice Mitchell is a Talent Development Strategist, CEO of Talent Collective, and USA Today bestselling author of Choose You: For the People Who Refuse to Disappear. With nearly two decades of experience building and leading capability functions inside global and Fortune 500 organizations, she founded Talent Collective, a premium capability-building firm for L&D, HR, Change, and People leaders in high-growth companies.

Website: https://talentcollective.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicemitchelltc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candice_mitchell_msc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@candice_mitchell_msc

Talent Development Academy: https://courses.talentcollective.org/bundles/talent-development-academy

Choose You book: https://chooseyoubook.com/

Original music composed by: Paul DeHaven

pauldehavenmusic.com

What happens when being good at your job is not enough?

JD Dillon has spent his career working across movie theaters, Walt Disney World, learning and development, technology, operations, and frontline enablement. Along the way, he learned something that changed how he approached his career:

You cannot always wait for someone to notice your work.

In this conversation, JD shares the unexpected lessons that shaped his career, from working in some of the busiest movie theaters in the world to finding his way into Disney, becoming an L&D leader, moving into technology, and eventually writing about the 80% of the workforce working in frontline and deskless roles.

We talk about visibility, career ownership, cross-training, breaking out of traditional career paths, and why frontline employees have been overlooked for far too long.

This is a conversation about doing good work, understanding the system around you, and being willing to create your own path when the obvious one does not exist.

WHAT YOU'LL GET FROM THIS EPISODE

• Why being a great performer does not automatically make you visible.
• The lesson behind JD literally promoting himself to supervisor.
• How cross-training helped him build the experience he needed for his next opportunity.
• Why waiting for someone to notice you can keep your career stuck.
• How JD moved from operations into learning and development and technology.
• Why frontline and deskless workers deserve a bigger place in the L&D conversation.
• What organizations often miss when designing learning for people who do not work behind a desk.
• Why career paths are not always ladders, and sometimes you have to figure out the route yourself.
• The lesson JD would thank his younger self for learning early: be willing to try.

Get to know JD:

JD Dillon began his career on the frontline, managing movie theaters and theme parks. With 25 years of experience across operations, talent, and marketing with companies like Disney, AMC, and Kaplan, he’s a trusted authority on performance enablement and a passionate advocate for improving the employee experience. A popular keynote speaker, prolific creator, and author of The Modern Learning Ecosystem and The Frontline Enablement Playbook, JD advises organizations on frontline performance strategy, ecosystem architecture, and AI-enabled solutions that power real work every day. Learn more about his latest projects at jddillon.com.

Connect with JD:

Instagram: @learngeekjd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jddillon/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@learngeek⁩

Website: https://jddillon.com/

Book: http://frontlineplaybook.com/

Candice Mitchell is a Talent Development Strategist, CEO of Talent Collective, and USA Today bestselling author of Choose You: For the People Who Refuse to Disappear. With nearly two decades of experience building and leading capability functions inside global and Fortune 500 organizations, she founded Talent Collective, a premium capability-building firm for L&D, HR, Change, and People leaders in high-growth companies.

Website: https://talentcollective.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicemitchelltc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candice_mitchell_msc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@candice_mitchell_msc

Talent Development Academy: https://courses.talentcollective.org/bundles/talent-development-academy

Choose You book: https://chooseyoubook.com/

Original music composed by: Paul DeHaven

pauldehavenmusic.com

The future of talent development in 2027: only 19% of teams are seen as a strategic partner, down from 23%, while budgets and demand keep growing.

Talent Development has never mattered more to business, and it has never had less faith from the business. Only 19% of learning and development teams are viewed as a strategic partner by their own organization (GP Strategies, 2026), down from 23% the year before.

Meanwhile, companies spend around $400 billion a year on corporate learning, 85% of employers name upskilling as their top workforce strategy through 2030, and training and development specialist roles are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, against 3% across all occupations. Companies need us. Now we need to step up. 🎧

In this episode, I walk through the five shifts that separate high-performing people functions from everyone else:

• Start with the business problem before you take the order
• Get into the room where strategy gets built
• Spend your own development budget on strategic thinking
• Use AI for speed and add human judgment on top
• Prove impact with a number the business already reports

This one is for Talent Development leaders, Chief People Officers, and CHROs who want the function seen as a strategic partner in 2027.

📄 Full written breakdown and the State of L&D 2027 booklet on the Capability Edge on Substack - article title: The state of Talent Development: what will win in 2027

📞 Book a 45-minute call: BOOKING LINK

Know someone who needs to hear this? Send it to your work bestie.

Sources: GP Strategies (2026), Josh Bersin (2026), World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2026, LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2025, Gartner, Gallup.

Jason Lauritsen sold copiers out of a minivan in rural Iowa, got sued by his old employer for starting a competing firm, watched his new business partner disappear into addiction treatment two weeks after they opened the doors, and once tried to lay off a colleague out loud in a budget meeting before he had even learned her name. Now he runs Connected Performance Group, helping leadership teams build workplaces people actually want to stay in.

This episode traces that whole arc, from picking rocks out of an Iowa field at ten years old to the insight that changed how he thinks about leadership for good: most workplaces still treat work like a contract to be enforced, when what people actually need is to feel like it is a relationship built on trust.

What you'll get from this episode:

• Why treating employees like units of production is a management model built on a flawed premise, and what to replace it with
• The seven months of zero results that taught Jason the difference between quitting too soon and staying the course
• How a leadership clarity gap, not a performance problem, is usually the real thing costing you retention
• The connected performance framework Jason uses with leadership teams: clarity, alignment, and management capability
• Why the workplace stories that feel the most dysfunctional often reveal exactly what needs to change

Get to know Jason:

Jason Lauritsen is the CEO of Connected Performance Group and an advisor to leaders who are tired of choosing between results and their people.

A former corporate executive, he developed the Connected Performance System to help leaders fix the systems that drive performance by strengthening connection at work. Jason is the author of Unlocking High Performance and a keynote speaker known for pairing provocative insight with practical guidance leaders can use immediately.

Connect with Jason:

Instagram: jasonlauritsen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo

Website/s:

• https://connectedperformancegroup.com/
• https://jasonlauritsen.com/

Candice Mitchell is a Talent Development Strategist, CEO of Talent Collective, and USA Today bestselling author of Choose You: For the People Who Refuse to Disappear. With nearly two decades of experience building and leading capability functions inside global and Fortune 500 organizations, she founded Talent Collective, a premium capability-building firm for L&D, HR, Change, and People leaders in high-growth companies.

Website: https://talentcollective.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicemitchelltc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candice_mitchell_msc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@candice_mitchell_msc

Talent Development Academy: https://courses.talentcollective.org/bundles/talent-development-academy

Choose You book: https://chooseyoubook.com/

Original music composed by: Paul DeHaven

pauldehavenmusic.com

Most leadership teams walk into the build versus buy conversation with two camps already formed and zero diagnosis done. In this solo episode, Candice breaks down why that question is the wrong one to start with, and the three-bucket diagnosis she runs with every client before anyone opens a job requisition or builds a single course.

She walks through the real cost of hiring, why training without a diagnosis is just a slower way to burn the same money, and the financial services client who went from two hundred fifty people to seven hundred fifty in six weeks and solved it without a single hiring sprint.

If your team is stuck arguing hire versus train right now, this episode gives you the one hour of work that ends the debate before it starts.

What you'll get from this episode:

• The real cost of a bad hire, and why hiring only fixes one specific kind of gap
• The three-bucket diagnosis to run before you decide anything: can't do it, won't do it, or the system won't let them
• Why a six-figure leadership academy can be excellent and still fix nothing
• The financial services case where diagnosis, not headcount, got the firm retained through a hiring freeze
• The one-hour exercise to run with your team this quarter before you build or buy anything

Kassy LaBorie built her career on technology nobody wanted to touch and colors nobody told her to wear. She was on the training team at WebEx on September 11th, the day the whole company understood that the tool they were building would change how the world worked. She went on to build a four million dollar business line at Dale Carnegie in four years. Then she left it to build her own thing, in her own colors, on her own terms.

This conversation runs from an ice cream shop in Sacramento to a colleague who once told her, we don't wear red pants here, ten minutes before she took the stage.

What you'll get from this episode:

• Why the confidence that makes someone memorable has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with owning what makes them different
• How Kassy turned a rejected industry into a four million dollar business line in four years
• The exact ChatGPT prompt that changed how she teaches technology today
• Why the people who tell you to tone it down are rarely the people worth listening to

Get to know Kassy:

Kassy is a futurist and Connection Strategist whose personal style may draw inspiration from the past, but whose vision is fixed on the future, sparking excitement and curiosity among audiences nationwide about our evolving digital landscape.

She’s in the futurist space, but not in a weird sci-fi, “let’s populate Mars” kind of way. Instead, she takes a Connection Strategist approach that sees the best of emerging technology and the best of what makes us uniquely human, and thoughtfully integrates both into work and life.

From her early days developing groundbreaking virtual learning programs for L&D professionals, corporate trainers, and HR leaders, to advising Fortune 500 companies on virtual engagement strategies, Kassy has learned a thing or two about fostering genuine connection in digital environments.

But the most profound truth she’s discovered is that the skills we master in the online space don’t just stay on the screen; they become the superpowers that shape how we show up in the real world.

Connect with Kassy:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kassylaborie

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kassylaborie/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassylaborie/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kassylaborie5098

Website: https://www.kassylaborie.com/

85% of employers say upskilling is their number one priority.

71% say they expect to cut their Learning & Development budget when things get tight.

I can't make those two numbers make sense.

I've spent 20 years in L&D, and I've watched this contradiction play out in boardrooms and organizations again and again.

The problem isn't that leadership doesn't value learning.

It's that too often, we haven't made the value visible in the language the business understands.

In this episode, I talk about what I've learned from building L&D functions, working through major business changes, and sitting across the table from leaders who need to know one thing:

What changes because of this work?

I share three stories from my own work and introduce the Five-Spoke Impact Model, which looks at how L&D contributes to:

• Attracting and keeping the right people

• Building capability at every level

• Making high performance possible

• Increasing agility and sparking innovation

• Elevating the employee experience

And I share four things I would do this week to start making that value visible.

Because being called a priority does not protect your budget.

Proof does.

And if we're serious about making L&D a strategic partner, we have to get better at showing what would break if our work disappeared tomorrow.

The full Five-Spoke Impact Model and companion article, 85% Say It's a Priority. So Why Is L&D Still Being Cut?, are available on The Capability Edge Substack.

Substack Post:

https://substack.com/@candicemitchellmsc/note/p-212611003?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=73wbhn

Cheers to the ones who are tired of defending a function that nobody else understands.

You know your work matters. Now go make it impossible to overlook.

What if the career path you were taught to follow is not the only way to build a good life?

In this episode, I sit down with Jenny Zook, a former middle school teacher turned entrepreneur, to talk about career changes, motherhood, entrepreneurship, finding purpose, and the work that brings us joy.

Jenny spent more than 20 years in education before stepping away from the classroom and eventually building Style School, a business that brings together her love of personal style and her passion for teaching. But the interesting part of her story is not just the career change.

It is how she figured out what she wanted her work to give her.

Jenny talks honestly about the hard parts of entrepreneurship, including building something that initially failed, learning to listen to feedback, making expensive mistakes, and accepting that a business rarely becomes what you first imagined.

We also talk about something I think we need to discuss much more when it comes to careers:

Joy matters. But joy alone may not be enough.

The bigger question is how we connect what brings us joy with what gives our lives purpose.Because there is no single career path that everyone needs to follow.

You can work in corporate. You can teach. You can build a business. You can change direction halfway through your career. The goal is not to find the "perfect" career.

It is to build a life and career that actually fit who you are.

What you'll get from this episode:

• How Jenny went from teaching for more than 20 years to becoming an entrepreneur
• Why career paths do not have to follow a predictable formula
• The difference between finding something you enjoy and finding something that gives you purpose
• How motherhood changed the way Jenny thought about her career
• Why her first business idea failed and what she learned from it
• What entrepreneurship really looks like beyond the overnight-success stories
• Why being willing to change and evolve is essential when building a business
• The importance of being careful about who you hire and where you invest
• How difficult experiences can sometimes become valuable skills later
• Why teachers have a unique opportunity to influence the trajectory of a young person's life
• What Jenny believes we should be teaching young people about careers
• Why building a career you enjoy is possible, even if the path looks different from everyone else's
• How to think about joy, purpose, impact, and the kind of life you actually want to build

Connect with Jenny

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-zook-847807168/

Need the full breakdown in writing along with the comparison matrix? Get the full comparison and download here.

You're staring at a resume with three sets of initials after the name. You recognize one. The other two, you're guessing at. This episode fixes that.

Candice Mitchell, founder of Talent Collective and a hiring manager who's built seven L&D functions from scratch, breaks down the six certifications you'll actually see on L&D and talent development resumes: APTD, CPTD, PHR, SHRM-CP, CPTM, and AIHR. What each one signals, what it doesn't, and where a certification should factor into your hiring decision at all.

What are the main L&D and talent development certifications, and what do they actually mean for hiring?

APTD and CPTD are exam-based talent development credentials. PHR and SHRM-CP are general HR credentials, not L&D-specific. CPTM is the only one built specifically around the training manager role, with a live practicum. AIHR is a broader HR program with specializations. None of them, on their own, prove someone can lead your function.

In this episode:

• Why certifications tell you someone studied, not that they can build
• The incentive problem behind paid webinars and "expert" panels — and why it should change how you weigh a credential
• A require, recognize, overlook framework for coordinator, manager, and director-level hires
• The five interview questions that separate someone who passed a test from someone who can run the function
• Real stories from Candice's 20 years across 14 industries and 4 continents — including the 15-minute coaching session a 40-year HR veteran called the most valuable of his career

Want the printable version — all six credentials side by side, cost, format, and Candice's honest take on each, plus the five interview questions written out to pull up before your next candidate conversation? It's already included in The Capability Edge on Substack. Get the full comparison and download here.

Keywords: L&D certifications, talent development certifications, APTD vs CPTD, CPTM certification, SHRM-CP for L&D, AIHR certification, hiring an L&D manager, talent development interview questions, how to evaluate HR credentials

Some careers happen because everything goes according to plan.

Most don't.

David Jones grew up in a single-parent household, became the first person in his family to go to university, built a career in HR, started a business that was later acquired, and learned that some of the biggest career decisions come down to one thing: trusting your own judgement.

David didn't wait for someone else to tell him where his career should go. He paid attention to what gave him energy, took calculated risks, and kept choosing the path that felt right, even when it wasn't the obvious one.

We also talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, building a business with long-term value, and why freedom comes with responsibility.

Whether you're leading an L&D team, building your own business, or simply wondering what your next career move should be, I think you'll find something in this conversation.

What You'll Get From This Episode:

• Why trusting your own judgement is one of the most valuable career skills you'll ever build.
• What growing up in a single-parent household taught David about resilience and responsibility.
• How becoming the first person in his family to attend university shaped his career.
• The career decisions that led him from HR into entrepreneurship.
• What it really takes to build a business that creates long-term value.
• Why every entrepreneur needs clarity on what they're actually building.
• Lessons on leadership, ownership, and creating a career that reflects your values instead of someone else's.

About David Jones:

David B. Jones is a Partner at Mercer specializing in innovative talent assessment, human capital, and technology. With over 35 years of experience, including 27 years in the Middle East, he has advised policymakers and organizational leaders in more than 40 countries on talent, leadership, transformation, and workforce strategy.

David combines expertise in labor market economics, psychometrics, and emerging technology to help organizations elevate their human capital. He has lectured at leading institutions, including the University of Cambridge, ESMT Berlin, and the University of Bradford.

He is the author of several books, including The Future of Assessments, the bestselling Unlocking the Paradox of Plenty, and the award-winning Game Changers, and has contributed to multiple publications on workforce policy and economics.

Connect with David Jones:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-barrie-jones

Candice Mitchell is a Talent Development Strategist, CEO of Talent Collective, and USA Today bestselling author of Choose You: For the People Who Refuse to Disappear. With nearly two decades of experience building and leading capability functions inside global and Fortune 500 organizations, she founded Talent Collective, a premium capability-building firm for L&D, HR, Change, and People leaders in high-growth companies.

Website: https://talentcollective.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicemitchelltc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candice_mitchell_msc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@candice_mitchell_msc

Talent Development Academy: https://courses.talentcollective.org/bundles/talent-development-academy

Choose You book: https://chooseyoubook.com/

Original music composed by: Paul DeHaven

pauldehavenmusic.com