The Learning Xchange

How many times do you or your team face objections when attempting to change training and development? Perhaps you’ve been asked to design training that you know just won’t work.

Often, customers or business partners bring requests to the Learning and Development team with preconceived ideas about what the content should be, how it should be formatted, or how it should be fulfilled. 

If you want to change those outdated methods and try out new learning styles, you’ll find that sometimes people just don’t like change – but why?

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s Chief People & Culture Officer, shares personal scenarios where he has faced objections to changes in training. He shares invaluable insights and provides tips on how to counter these objections. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Some common reasons why you face objections to changes to training
• How to handle requests that are about communication and not training
• How generational codes could be influencing people’s reactions 
• How to overcome people’s fears about changes to learning formats

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

It’s fair to say that virtual training is here to stay.  

Now that it’s become the new normal, it’s vital to learn how to manage participants while keeping them engaged.  

One way to do that is to hone in on the different personas that turn up in virtual training sessions. That’ll make it much easier for them to get the most out of their learning experience. 

On this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s Chief People & Culture Officer, identifies eight specific personas you’ll typically find in the virtual training space. He also offers general tips and technical strategies for managing learner engagement.  

Listen to this episode to find out:  

• How to manage different personas in a virtual training setting 
• Why being prepared makes trainers more flexible 
• How to boost learner engagement 
• Why it’s beneficial to have a producer 
• How to manage your use of the mute button 
• Why it’s great to have break out rooms 
• The importance of delivering clear instructions   

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!  

How do you learn? 

You could ask a hundred people that question, and each one could give a totally different answer. Many wouldn’t even know what to say. 

The truth is that everyone learns in different ways, and yet schools and workplaces follow a very one-size-fits-all approach. Matthew Brown, Schoox’s Chief People & Culture Officer, explores this topic in this episode of The Learning Xchange.

Matthew shares some food for thought and breaks down different ways we can improve our mindset around learning. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Why we should think carefully about how we learn
• How to identify learning goals 
• How to take specific action for your learning
• Why learning should be a habit
• The importance of planning and scheduling time for learning
• Why mistakes are good learning opportunities 
• Why your journey to improve learning shouldn’t be done alone 

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

Without a doubt, the nature of the workforce has changed drastically over the past couple of years. And with that has come an overhaul of ideas, concepts, and methodologies that simply don’t fit the bill anymore.

At the top of that list is learning engagement. An increasingly remote and hybrid workforce has made the traditional methods of delivering training a bit more complicated. 

As Schoox’s Matthew Brown (Chief People & Culture Officer) explains, this change is an opportunity to revisit the very idea of learning engagement to find more fun, exciting and tailored ways to deliver knowledge.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast, he explores different ways the workforce has evolved and what needs to evolve with it. He also points out a few ways to inspire true learning.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• How the pandemic has changed the workforce
• Lessons the pandemic taught the L&D community
• Why learning engagement is so important
• How compliance and mandates affect learning engagement
• Ways to make learning more fun and exciting

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

When was the last time you really stopped to think about the concept of trust in your workplace?

If you think about it, on one side, the workplace is where it all starts. It’s your home base. When seeds of distrust are scattered, it’s bound to cause a bit of unwanted friction internally. 

On the other side, your general efforts around trust often feed into most, if not all, interactions with learners and customers alike.

To get ahead of this, it’s become increasingly vital to take a more hands-on approach toward trust-building, and that’s what Matthew Brown (Schoox’s Chief People & Culture Officer) delves into on this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast. 

He discusses the role of trust in the workplace as well as its unique place in the training process. Matthew also shares four ways to incorporate the trust-building process into your training.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why trust is vital in the workplace and the training process
• The effect of a lack of trust can impact organizations
• How the notion of trust in L&D has evolved
• How to build trust with both your employees and learners
• Four ways to address the trust conversation

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

What can employers do to improve the employee experience and create positive changes?  

In the last couple of years, one thing has become crystal clear. Nothing stays still for very long. The speed of change we’ve all experienced over the past two years is not only here to stay, but also accelerating. 

As a result, learning and development professionals must understand that learning has to change also. We must be willing to tackle new conversations and consider how we can use our tools and talents to help improve the broader employee experience. 

To start with, there are a few areas where L&D can really pitch in and help move things forward. Matthew Brown, Chief People & Culture Officer at Schoox, shares some ways L&D can lend a hand in this episode of The Learning Xchange. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• How change is accelerating in the workplace
• How L&D professionals can help to improve the employee experience
• Why health and wellness should be a priority  
• Why it’s so important to consider employee needs
• Why we should nurture the next generation of leaders

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

What are you doing to take control of your own career? How about your employees? 

How we navigate our career journey depends on many factors, but it all starts with how much control we believe we have over it.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) talks about career mobility and the problem of conditioned paralysis. Sometimes the biggest roadblock in our careers is our own limiting beliefs, so Matthew explores a way to rethink career mobility.

He explains the three biggest ways our conditioning and workplaces can get in the way of us sitting in the driver’s seat of our careers. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Why career conditioning can have both good and bad consequences
• Why we need to unlearn our conditioning
• How learned helplessness can affect career mobility
• Why not all career paths are linear 
• How to encourage employees to improve the skills they need

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

Far too often, people find themselves struggling to connect with other people in the workplace. Sometimes it’s a case of a personality mismatch. Other times it can be a difference in communication styles. 

Whatever the reason, this inability to connect with others in a meaningful or productive way can cause a blockage. It can affect productivity, collaboration, and even trust if everyone is struggling to connect.  

As Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) explains, it all comes down to one key thing – self-awareness. In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew discusses why self-awareness and adaptability are overlooked but critical skills for any workplace. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• How difficulties connecting to others largely comes down to self-awareness
• How self-awareness can help us address unconscious bias
• Why organizations should try to teach self-awareness
• Why organizations need to revisit and adapt processes in real-time
• How to create a safe space for all to understand each other
• The best ways to open up honest conversations in the workplace 

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

The learners’ needs are at the heart of any training program’s success. Part of the role of learning and development is to develop training that sticks and that learners can digest.

However, not all learners are the same. Everyone has various needs, and this is especially true for neurodivergent people in the workplace. 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) explores the topic of neurodiversity and where it relates to learning and development. He explains that in order to make our training more accessible, we need to consider how different people think and behave.

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• What neurodiversity means 
• Why businesses should be equipped to help neurodiverse people
• Where neurodiversity fits into different learning styles
• Why you should consider the environment and tools you use in your training
• Tips on how to make learning more inclusive

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!

Vulnerability, authenticity, and a partnership mindset are crucial elements of the employee experience. Yet, many organizations overlook them. 

Showing vulnerability in the workplace is not a priority when other important things like profitability are on the line. However, if you want to develop a workplace culture that’s open, supportive, and trusting, you need to consider these elements.

In the 50th episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success), discusses how to develop a partnership mentality in your workplace. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Why showing vulnerability should be a two-way thing in workplaces
• Why many employees don’t know how to ask for help
• How you can make your workforce feel more comfortable asking for help
• What L&D teams can do to improve openness at work
• Why you need to lead by example
• The importance of meaningful interactions 
• Why we should strive for a partnership mindset at work

If you enjoyed this episode, please share what you love about The Learning Xchange by leaving us a rating and review!