The Assembly

In this interview, Adam speaks with Becky West, Head of Learning and Development at Ann Summers. 

Becky started her career as a teacher and moved into the Leisure and tourism industry as a frontline manager. Becky found her niche in the world of learning and development nearly 10 years ago. She’s worked in senior L&D roles for Merlin Entertainments, Entain and, most recently, heads up the learning and development function for iconic retailer Ann Summers. 

She brings to the table experience in coaching, inspiring and developing both front-line teams and senior leaders, with a real passion for creating commercial returns from learning.

In this brilliant episode, Adam and Becky speak about the power of social learning and the profound impact it can have on a business. 

In this interview, Adam speaks with James Hampton, Head of Employee Experience at St Austell Brewery.

James has been supporting people’s organisational performance in the military, further education, retail, hospitality and production for the past 23 years. During this time, he has used this experience to challenge the status quo of traditional people experience approaches. 

James is passionate about the promotion of more regenerative approaches that use business to make real differences in people, their communities, and the planet. Cultivating a learning climate enriched by Inclusive and Conscious Leadership is essential to James’ approach.

In this fascinating interview, Adam and James discuss the effects of seasonal workers and how this affects the delivery of L&D. 

In this interview, Adam speaks with Toby Newman, Senior L&D consultant at CH Robinson.

Toby is an accomplished learning and development professional with 20+ years of expertise in designing and delivering high-impact learning programs. He’s passionate about promoting employee well-being and fostering a culture of continuous learning and is skilled at leveraging technology to help achieve this.

Toby is also a TEDx speaker and also works to mentor other L&D professionals to help them develop their own learning cultures. 

In this riveting episode, Adam and Toby speak about how to create a learning culture that works for your organisation. The importance of not copying anyone else's and giving employees the autonomy to lead their own learning journey. 

Links

• Connect with Toby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theneverendinglearner/
• Find out more: https://www.theneverendinglearner.com/ 

In this episode of the L&D Challenges podcast, Adam and Rich join forces with L&D industry experts Don Taylor and Toby Harris to review the key themes from Series 1.

They discuss the five core takeaways from interviews and offer insightful recommendations on how to implement these ideas.

The five key themes:

1. Listen first and then prioritise
2. Always in beta
3. Build opt-in learning networks
4. Push existing tech before buying
5. Own your own success metrics 

In todays podcast, Richard talks with Phil King, formerly from Roche and Bristol-Myers in L&D leadership roles and now impactfully Consulting and Coaching whilst Co-Hosting his Soulful Leader Podcast.

Take a listen as they explore Phil’s ‘3 C’s’ model, unwrapping the importance of the role leadership play in driving a systemic change towards a learning culture, ensuring capabilities are in place for learners to thrive, and prioritising time and therefore capacity for each employees learning activities.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-king-b8347332/

[email protected]

In this episode of the L&D Challenges Podcast, Adam speaks with Brittany Chamberlin about her experience in the L&D industry.

Brittany has been in the L&D industry for more than 15 years. In that time, she has developed and launched over 500 training courses, built more than ten onboarding programmes and revamped a similar number of new hire training programmes.

In this episode, Brittany talks us through some of the programs she recently rolled out at Doordash and, more importantly, how she thinks about measuring ROI in learning.

This is a fascinating episode and ideal for anyone in L&D looking for practical advice on setting up and running a successful onboarding program.

Connect with Brittany: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-chamberlin-b15657140/

In this podcast, Adam talks to Michael Miller about setting up the first formal learning systems and processes at Sygnature Discovery.

In this fascinating discussion, Michael talks us through the process he followed in setting up the "Sygnature Academy". The first centralised, companywide learning initiative put together at Sygnature Discovery.

What started as an effort to streamline and focus local training activities ended up growing into a cohesive platform. Michael talks us through some easy-to-implement low/no tech solutions and their progress on driving engagement.

If you are setting up a new L&D department in a growing company, this is a must-listen episode!

In this podcast, Adam speaks with Andrew Golightly about a new leadership programme he developed and rolled out.

Andrew is a Learning and Development Specialist at EDF, where he has managed all aspects of the end-to-end training cycle in a complex and large multinational. He's an expert at designing and delivering change programmes that improve performance, and today he's here to share some of his experiences rolling out new initiatives at EDF.

This episode is packed with practical advice for anyone in L&D looking to roll out a new initiative in a large organisation.

Follow and connect with Andrew here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-golightly-04623388/

In this episode, Adam speaks with Ana Silva about a new internal learning community she helped develop and roll out.

Ana is the Learning Business partner at Continental tyres, where she supports the organization's learning strategy, develops training and is passionate about creative problem-solving in Learning and Development.

This episode focuses on how to help develop your internal L&D specialists and leaders. Ana and her colleagues created an internal community to help enable learning managers in the business to grow and thrive.

This is a fascinating insight into how large corporations think about and encourage learning and development - a must-listen!

Follow and connect with Ana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-cristina-silva/

In this podcast, Adam talks to Adele Bradley about a brilliant learning initiative intended to drive better decision-making - a Thinking Environment.

Adele is an organisational Development Manager at a global corporation and specialises in Leadership Talent & Development, Executive Coaching, Culture Change Initiatives, Change management and Coaching Programs.

She's a disciple of Nancy Klein, and in this episode, we discuss how she's helping to create a Thinking Environment in her organisation by training people to hold more effective meetings.

This episode is packed full of practical advice and value on how to ensure a new learning initiative takes hold.