The Learning Xchange

When did you last make time for personal development?

Learning and development professionals work tirelessly to help others develop themselves, but what about their own development? 

L&D is a somewhat one-sided relationship. The job is all about improving education and efficiency within the team, developing new talent, or training the next great leaders. However, rarely do L&D professionals get the opportunity to spend time on their own training and development. There’s not usually another department where the teachers can be taught. 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) talks about the personal development problem in L&D. He shares some ideas on how we can carve time out for personal development and why it should be treated as a priority. 

Listen to this episode to learn: 

• Why the learning and development department is usually overlooked for training needs
• How it can feel awkward to make time for personal development
• How everyone has unique needs that must be met in the workplace
• The best way to make time for personal development
• Why L&D professionals should tell the business what they need

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

Is there enough empathy in the workplace? What about within your training sessions?

Over the past 18 months, empathy has been crucial to holding workplaces together. As learning and development professionals, we often lead with empathy during discussions and interactions with others. But it's often overlooked when it comes to the training content.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) explores the idea of empathy in training and the wider workplace.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why empathy should be a guiding force in training content
• Why L&D professionals can be too focused on box-ticking 
• How you can embed empathy in training and the workplace
• Why employees now demand more empathy in the workplace
• The questions we can ask to be more empathetic
• Why L&D can lead by example and change the workplace culture 

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

Do employees at your workplace feel comfortable sharing new ideas and worries?

It’s important that all people in an organization feel confident to share their ideas and thoughts without fear of repercussions. Not all workplaces are open, and many (without knowing it) do a poor job of ensuring psychological safety for all. 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, delves into the topic of psychological safety. He talks about the four stages of psychological safety and what we can do to help our teams and organizations improve on it.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• What psychological safety is and why it’s important
• Why building trust and confidence takes times
•  The four stages of psychological safety
• Steps you can do to build trust in the workplace
•  Why we should always challenge the status quo

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 attended an in-person event? For many, it’s been months or even over a year. 

As people head back to the office and from virtual to in-person events again, a degree of relearning is in order. For the past 18 months or so, many of us have not really ventured out to professional events and have instead become used to the world of Zoom-based interactions. 

Schoox’s Matthew Brown (VP of Learning and Brand Success) explores this in this episode of The Learning Xchange. He discusses a recent experience where he attended an in-person event and shares his observations about how interactions have changed. 

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why in-person events require relearning
• How body language has changed between virtual and in-person sessions
• Why the physical space in the room affects people’s level of comfort
• What learning and development professionals need to prepare for

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

Sometimes in work and life, we forget about the simplest of things. In the age of COVID and all the stress that comes with it, we need to remember not to neglect the little things.

In a fast-paced, modern world, sometimes it pays to just sit and observe the world around you. In observation mode, you can see the way people interact in different ways and learn so much.

By injecting more kindness and patience into our everyday and professional lives, we can connect with others.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, shares the insights he picked up from a recent trip. 

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why kindness and patience are crucial now more than ever 
• Why we should understand that everyone’s in the same boat
• How to apply this to training and professional development

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

Change is an unavoidable part of life, and it has been at the forefront of people’s minds during the past 18 months.

As things change and we adjust to new ways of working now and in the future, we tend to overlook how this impacts our learners.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, discusses how change can impact learners. Matthew shares the five stages that learners go through when adjusting to change and what you can do along the way to help.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why change affects learners 
• The five stages of adjustment that learners go through
• Why adjustment to change can be so complex
• How to use mobile technology to ease knowledge transfer
• Why we need to focus on skills that can be applied in real-time

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

There’s one thing that’s crystal clear in the learning and development world. Training is never a one-and-done thing. The best kind of training is ongoing and is a constant feature in any workplace.

Many organizations realize the importance of training and are eager to teach new skills, but what about older skills? 

Skills you trained for just a couple of years ago are in danger of being outdated unless you revisit them. We call this a “skills half-life.” 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, joins Karen Clem, Director of Talent Development, to discuss the half-life of skills in the workplace. 

Listen to this episode to find out:

• What a skills half-life means 
• How quickly the need for skills changes
• The difference between durable and perishable skills
• Why should try to plan ahead and anticipate the need for retraining 

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

The conversation around burnout and mental health has increasingly become a focus for workplaces. Yet, with burnout on the rise, many workplaces are not equipped to deal with it successfully. 

If you look on news websites, especially HR or business-specific ones, you can see just how much of a problem burnout has become. Burnout is causing employees to leave their roles, it reduces their productivity, work satisfaction, and it can have a huge effect on company culture. 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) shares his top ways to handle burnout in the workplace. 

He explains how to identify burnout, what could be causing it, and why it’s vital that we don’t just ignore it.

Listen to this episode to find out:

•  What burnout is and what it looks like
•  What can cause burnout 
• How burnout can affect both businesses and individuals
• Why self-care and therapy should be a priority
• How to talk openly in the workplace
• The importance of setting goals 
• How a simple journaling exercise can help you let go of worries

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

When a new hire joins, there’s always a learning curve. What about an unlearning curve, though?  

New hires come with experience, processes, and habits picked up from their old workplace. They may or may not align with your company culture, goals, or processes. 

In this case, a degree of unlearning must happen for a new hire to settle into their role.  

When welcoming any new hire on board, it’s critical to set very clear expectations so they can successfully merge with your company culture. We often welcome new hires intending to do so with open arms to help them get immersed in the organization. However, sometimes we fall short in one area or another.  

This is what Matthew Brown, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, discusses in this episode of The Learning Xchange.  

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Why unlearning is an important part of onboarding 
• How we can alter the onboarding process to make it more effective 
• Why new hires need to know about company culture 
• Why allowing employees to tap into prior experiences is useful for everyone  

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

Whether it’s to keep up with changing technology, a fast-paced market, new regulations, or something else, change is a necessary part of running a successful business.

However, implementing new changes and initiatives can be a tricky process. One simple change can affect every single part of an organization.

If a new initiative is to be introduced in your organization, you need to be prepared. Most organizations focus on project management, process management, or some kind of implementation methodology. However, this overlooks one key area – the people affected by the changes. 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) explores the steps that organizations need to take to implement change effectively. 

Listen to this episode to find out: 

• Why focusing on the people, not just the processes is crucial
• How to manage requirements across the organization
• How to engage different types of people in the process
• Why you need feedback as early as possible
• Communication tips to ensure a successful implementation process

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