Performance Matters Podcast

Paradigms are dramatically shifting. And the reality is, is we’re not going back to traditional work environments. It will never be like that again. Kerry Hearns-Smith The workforce has changed permanently. What critical skills will your current and future workforce need, what challengers are they facing now, and how will the leaders of tomorrow be developed? Join Kerry Hearns-Smith for an e...

We need to focus on the learner and how we can provide engaging learning that is easy to access and that’s personalized to them. Sally Vlietstra High-impact learning organizations put the focus on the learner and how to help them perform better. Keith Keating, Senior Director of Global Learning Strategies, and Sally Vlietstra, Center of Learning at General Motors, join the podcast to discuss...

It’s really about rethinking the business versus just plugging in a digital tool. Cathy Palochko, Senior Vice President and Global Automotive Lead The retail auto industry has seen some major changes with digital retailing tools being the central part of the customer’s buying experience. Research shows that 80% to 90% of the buying journey is now spent online and independent of the dea...

A lot of this talk about hybrid [is] really the basic principles of managing your people successfully and being a good leader, that doesn’t change. We need the same things. We need trust, we need relationships, we need conversations, we need empathy—but the context is changing. Colleen Casey As the lines for many employees’ professional and personal lives become blurred in the new hybr...

The challenges of hybrid work can become opportunities when people are at the center of every approach. Patrich Calhoun While the concept isn’t new, the hybrid workforce is now arguably more common in the workplace. Patrich Calhoun, joins the podcast to share what he is hearing from leaders about the challenges they face managing and leading a hybrid workforce. Stream this episode to learn how lea...

“Modern hybrid learning is learner driven.” Ben Keher The global workforce is facing a reskilling challenge, but learners can only take on so much until their motivation to learn shifts to focus on what is relevant.  A well-designed hybrid learning strategy helps reach the masses through a customized and continuous learning approach, without reducing effectiveness, putting learnin...

“It’s about transforming the talent they have into talent they need.” Bianca Baumann, Director of Learning Experience Design When organizations hear the word “skills gap”, more often than not, it equates to hiring new employees to fill those demands. This strategy might fill those gaps quickly, but organizations are leaving themselves vulnerable to other potential gaps at greater...

A typical employee at an organization may interact with 10 to 15 different applications in a given day. That’s a lot of pings, dings, and alerts to tend to throughout an already busy day. What if there was another application added to the mix and that same employee was expected to attend a two-hour training session to learn it—that’s an incredible investment of time being asked of that...

Big data is the new frontier for businesses—it’s vast, nebulous, and seemingly infinite. There isn’t any industry that it doesn’t touch from healthcare to retail to learning and development. There is huge pressure on L&D organizations to measure the business impact of their learning solutions, but most don’t know how or where to even begin. Bonnie Beresford, Director of...

In celebration of Pride Month, we are sharing the stories of several GP Strategies employees. Host Keith Keating, Senior Director of Global Learning Strategies spoke with April Hennessey, Digital Learning Specialist; Charlie Larson, Video Project Manager; and Brendan Wilk, Project Management Specialist, who openly shared their journeys that have been marked with great joy and strength, but also gr...

To celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a few GP Strategies employees got together to share their rich and diverse traditions as well as the enduring impact of the negative perspectives on their communities. April Hennessey, Digital Learning Specialist, spoke with Rani Eng, Account Manager; Doug Hsu, Senior Project Manager; and Eric Truong, Program Manager, in a candid d...

You don’t have to know how to post Instagram Stories or any other social media trend in order to be an influencer. If you lead people in any capacity, your role as an influencer is an important one. Katy Bailey, Leadership Consultant, joins the podcast to discuss how leaders can take their influence to the next level in compelling, supporting, and guiding those they want to inspire. The post...

Technology implementation is often like navigating the high seas to a vague destination with several storms along the way. With so many moving parts and inevitable obstacles, organizations often have neither a change management plan in place nor the right focuses driving the transformation. More often than not, organizations are technically focused and budget driven, rather than people focused and...

When we imagine a future workforce, it may spark images of a scene from a sci-fi movie where our everyday lives are completely automated by AI and run by robots that are indistinguishable from human beings. We may not be living in that reality just yet, but the global pandemic has accelerated how we work almost 8-9 years into the future, and we are quickly learning to adapt. It may be tempting to...

Even before the pandemic, resilience, growth, agility, and creativity were buzz words for the ideals businesses should strive toward. Now, in a post COVID-19 world, they have become necessities for survival and relevance, especially for the traditionally risk-averse financial services industry. Turning this global ship in a completely new direction in a short amount of time, has forced people to t...

Innovation cycles of technology, while exciting, can also be anxiety-inducing when it comes to having to adopt new technology. Shifting employees from one mode of thinking to another without a plan can take a tremendous toll on morale and as a result, on ROI. But when there is a limited budget, how can stakeholders effectively communicate the value of investing in adoption strategies when implemen...

When it comes to instructional design, there has traditionally been a lot of emphasis on the delivery of the learning content. Designing for the modern learner needs to move beyond the delivery to the journey as a whole. It requires a systemic strategy that involves the learner in the process early, and often, and builds an experience that drives engagement. Cara Halter, Director of Learner Innova...

Black History Month may be coming to an end, but the conversations and education surrounding the triumphs and struggles of Black experiences should continue all year round. This week’s podcast is joined by, Stephanie Wedgeworth, Product Trainer; Adrian McClelland, Vice President of Diversity and Engagement; and Maurice Bembry, Product Trainer for GP Strategies. Their lively discussion will t...

When employers talk about someone not being a “good fit” for a job, could it actually be code for biased hiring? There is no denying that when it comes to diversity in the workplace, there are countless benefits it plays in driving innovation, increasing productivity, and expanding into new markets. Hiring someone because they connected on a personal level isn’t a strategy. Before empl...

The famous line in the movie “Field of Dreams” goes, “If you build it, he will come.” Your users may come to your new technology platform because they have no choice, but will they know what to do once they’re there? You can design and build the best system out there, but if your users, your people, fail to adopt the system, you will not achieve your intended business...

Businesses that thrive are in a constant state of transformation and the skills and knowledge needed from your workforce continue to evolve. This is when a focus on workforce transformation becomes necessary. But what distinguishes true workforce transformation is recognizing that people are at the heart of the change and L&D solutions need to be designed from a human-centric approach. Matt Do...

As we close a chapter on 2020 and ring in a new year, it’s time to look ahead to what is on the horizon for organizations when it comes to L&D. What should companies do to systemically integrate diversity and inclusion throughout their learning strategies instead of one-off classes that are done once a year? How will “just in time” learning evolve in the new year? How will au...

Most of us have been in a situation where we felt cornered, or defensive, or misunderstood in some way, and in the moment it almost felt like we were taken over by an evil twin. We watched ourselves react in a way that we knew will not end well. But we did it anyway. Ellen Lauterbach, Leadership Development Consultant, joins this podcast, to examine that all-too-common scenario, what it can mean a...

The importance of effective change management tactics and communication cannot be overstated. It has always been the life blood for any change, but now with the majority of executives, stakeholders, project teams, and employees working remotely, it is even more…Read more ›

It is difficult to understand change impacts in a world where many employees are working remotely and it’s not as easy to directly understand how disruptive a change initiative is when you’re not on site and observing firsthand how people…Read more ›