Future-Focused with Christopher Lind

How does your learning technology leverage your spatial cognitive ability to lead learners effectively? Problems surrounding spatial ability with regard to learning performance have been the focus of many learning technology debates over the years. However,  the conversation is almost exclusively centered around the learner with little attention given to leaders and instructors. There is an u...

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backward” – Aldous Huxley    I’ve often wondered about the rate of change with regards to learning technology and solutions. Somewhat analogous to Moore’s Law of Computing, ideally humans should have some formula that demonstrates how technology increases our ability to learn better and faster. With the ad...

How do you know that you know what you know? How do we as learning leaders distinguish justified beliefs shared by our colleagues, and formed by ourselves, from opinion? There are varying degrees of confidence that we all have within different areas of our lives and as we navigate our careers. It's not only important to continually review our levels of confidence in key areas,  but also in ot...

Keep calm, I have the meeting notes for that.  Something I’ve observed while navigating different roles in my career is that highly effective teams are incredibly organized and efficient with their meetings. Like, crazy organized.  I can’t say this is something that I always appreciated, in fact, early in my career it was something that I resented. Documentation is the lifeblood of a sus...

Dear Past, thank you for all of the lessons. Dear Future, I’m ready for you!   While not directly on the topic of L&D, I occasionally delve into some of the broader workplace technology that has significant potential for our industry. The ability to collaboratively connect and facilitate live conversations and share knowledge with industry leaders across the globe and reach people whereve...

“My flying has been mostly solo, but the preparation for it wasn’t.” - Amelia Earhart Humility is something I would argue every successful entrepreneur and business leader has a firm understanding of. You can fly great distances in your career, but to be successful in your aspirations there has to be a team behind you AND in front of you. Learn continuously and create continuous learning opportuni...

“There is a lot of talk  about all the jobs are going to all go away, which probably won’t happen, but it’s also not true that there won’t be an impact” - Stacia  Garr, Berkley Haas Interview with Prof. Greg La Blanc. It seems like every day I’m reading fear-mongering headlines about AI taking jobs away. Leadership has started to come around to the idea that replacing human capital with...

Like a learning culture, your tech ecosystem already exists. It's growing and changing, with or without your input. Lots of choices didn't include your requirements, and there are plenty of things you wish it did that it does not. But, there is something, and that's a start. The real question is, where do you go from here? Now the fun begins as you layer what your ecosystem should look like and pl...

Personal and professional growth is only achieved when another person is with you on your journey.   Individualism is in, but success isn’t found on an island.    As much as we try to figure things out on our own, every success is found with the help and interaction with others.   Mentorship is often sold as a solution with false prospects of gleaning wisdom solely by interacti...

As learning leaders, it's easy to get tunnel vision. We spend so much time creating efficiencies for others that we often forget to create efficiencies for ourselves and our own teams. It's something I have to continually remind myself of when working with high-performing leaders in a constantly changing and fast-paced environment. Using data as a way to challenge me continually has become an incr...

The evolution of corporate learning has shifted.   A learner’s reality is built through the senses, which convey perception to the mind.     Additionally, reflection works with those perceptions to form ideas. Our senses are a fundamental function of learning, and how we harness and utilize it as learning leaders is critical to our success.    #VR is allowing us to co...

The need to think about and design for the broader employee experience is real, but it isn’t new.   People weren’t clamoring for a narrow but slightly refreshed piece of digital content buried in an LMS. Then suddenly, the world changed.  The conversation has been happening since long before entering the industry.   What’s the problem?   Some would point the finger at stakehold...

Education as a benefit is an effective way to attract talent. Unfortunately, many employer education benefits are unintentionally discriminatory in their design by assuming employees have the means to cover costs and wait to be reimbursed. Moreso, we are finding that employees that are already educated have more access to education, and a large chunk of the American workforce is left out of this e...

***Apologies for my stadium audio...I limited my talking as much as possible, but JD Dillon sound fantastic*** Will society ever return to normal post-pandemic? It’s hard to say without society being post-pandemic yet, but I hope not. We’ve had an opportunity to learn a lot over the last two years, and it would be unfortunate if all those lessons faded in an attempt to return to the way things wer...

Work is changing; people are changing; technology is changing.  And, the state of things continues to pour gasoline on the fire.  What does it all mean?  A lot of things, but one that's consistent is the landscape is rich with opportunity for our field to make a demonstratable impact on the performance of our organizations as well as the performance and well-being of our people. &nb...

Effective learning is all about precision. As billions of VC capital flows into reskilling startups, questions arise for practitioners as they look for the right model and content for their learners. A generalized blanket is thrown over the word  ‘reskill’ and often used to market reskilling to everyone for everything! While I believe a proper framework has been developed,  precision res...

Are you leading a digital transformation or a tech refresh? The semantics matter a lot more today than they did a few years ago. Digital transformation is no longer a competitive advantage, but a competitive necessity.  Leadership wants results from their digital investments, and decisions must be quantified to be understood and accounted for.  Too many learning leaders focus on solution...

What is an education without experience?   The argument of ‘education’ vs ‘experience’ is often presented as a  false dichotomy. The idea of one being more valuable than the other is something that I don’t believe can ever be universally established at face value. Education IS experience; however, the application of education is a separate experience that builds on the momentum to create...

How is it that in our ever-connected digital world we can still feel disconnected from our teams? As somewhat of an ambassador for digital learning technology, I’m still waiting for a product that is able to connect me to the same energy I’ve had with in-person teams. I’m not saying it can’t be done virtually as  I’ve had some amazing energy with teams that have operated 100% remote. Yet &nbs...

Coaching and mentoring are often used synonymously in the corporate world, but there are some distinct differences between the two. Mentors often have specialized experience in their field and can say ‘Hey, to be successful at what I do, you need to do xyz’ without the input of the mentee.   Coaches are more intentional in their approach by helping individuals uncover their own knowledge and...

The hunt for skills has only just begun. Investing in skill development has finally gone mainstream over the traditional "hire what we don’t have" approach. Is this shift in strategy driven by free will or forced demand? I’m not convinced that the talent pool is shrinking, but rather a new pool has formed and is waiting to be filled. Talent pools were often a  naturally occurring phenomenon o...

I've seen it too many times. On paper, this 'disruptive' software will save millions, increase productivity, and offer countless benefits from the previous way of  doing things. And then it doesn't. GASP! Top-down management and software don’t always jive well together. It’s more like an interpretive dance. Sweet moves, Zuck! Senior leaders need to make decisions FAST  but often overlook...

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  - Arthur C. Clarke In 1911, Henry Ford won a challenge to the Seldon patent that had been stifling progress in the automotive industry for decades. Moving forward, cross-licensing between manufacturers steamrolled the auto industry to where it is today. In a similar fashion, OpenXR is hopeful in providing standardization...

In this last-minute pivot, I’m bringing back my good friend Ben Eubanks from Lighthouse Research & Advisory to talk about what you can expect in 2022 and how it will affect the work you do. We cover everything from personalized flexibility to hybrid work and what it means to learning professionals around the world.

I’d be a lion if I said that I didn’t take pride in my silly episode puns. Fancy new L & D products often give a false feeling of, “GREAT! I won’t have to do xyz anymore!”. As learning leaders, we still need to take pride in our work. Many organizations claim to offer a wealth of opportunities to transform your workflow and design. While many do, it still takes continual effort to deliver and...