The Learning Culture Podcast

What happens when AI doesn't just change how we work, but changes the work itself?  For years, organizations have invested in becoming skills-based: defining the capabilities each role requires, identifying gaps, and helping people develop their careers. But as Kathleen Mattie puts it, we can automate tasks, but we can't automate skills.  Kathleen is a global HR transformation and innova...

What happens when AI can do parts of the job you've spent years learning how to do?  For many people, that question isn't merely technical. It touches their sense of expertise, relevance, control, and even identity. Kate Coelho, Director of AI Change and Adoption at Microsoft, argues that AI transformation can't be treated like a conventional technology rollout, because the tools an...

What does it actually take to lead AI transformation without creating fear, resistance, and cognitive overload?  Melanie Steinbach, founder and CEO of L Advisors and a four-time chief people officer, has spent her career helping organisations navigate major change.  Her view is that successful AI adoption needs clear top-down direction paired with bottom-up learning and experimentation, because ne...

As AI reshapes work, who's actually getting the transformation right, and what are they doing differently?  Victoria Pelletier has a rare vantage point on that question. An author, keynote speaker, and executive coach, she spent roughly 180 days on the road last year inside CIO and CEO rooms, watching companies try to become AI native. She earned the nickname "the CEO whisperer" bec...

If AI can gather the evidence, run the analysis, and make the recommendation, what's left for you?  Harry Laplanche, Head of AI Strategy and Transformation at Panasonic, believes the answer is judgment, and that it's the one thing we can't afford to outsource.  Harry's roots are in consumer insights, psychology, and behavioral science, which gives him a rare lens on why AI adop...

What happens when everything you've worked for comes down to one moment and your body just stops working?  For Scott Landers, CEO of Achievers, that moment came on a college baseball mound, and what followed changed the trajectory of his life.  In this conversation, Scott shares the decision that turned his lowest point into a turning point: "I hold the pen. I'm going to write the s...

How do you reconcile the speed of disruption with the time it takes to build human capability?  In this episode, Kahina shares why people leaders need to get comfortable being behind, why vulnerability might be the most important leadership behavior of this moment, and how Workleap is building AI capability through company-wide experimentation. Drawing on her unique journey from law and humanitari...

What does AI transformation actually look like once it moves past experimentation and becomes part of how a company works every day?  Satu Salminen has been building with AI since the early ChatGPT days, and for the past year she's led AI transformation for HR at ZoomInfo, making her one of the earliest pioneers in the space.  In this practical conversation, Satu walks through her journey fro...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these e...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and...

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these e...

Most learning programs fail at measurement because they're asking the wrong questions with the wrong tools.  Eric Grant, who leads learning and content at Figma, has cracked the code on learning analytics that actually matter. With an MS in data science and experience at LinkedIn, Coinbase, Uber, and The Trade Desk, Eric brings statistical rigor to a field that typically runs on intuition.  I...

When employees equate growth with promotion, but promotion opportunities are limited, how do you develop your best individual contributors?  In this panel discussion, Katie Hart from Faire, Sarah Jester from Lucid Software, and Krysta Kasinski from LinkedIn share their battle-tested approaches to developing ICs beyond the traditional promotion path. These three L&D leaders reveal why they&apos...

Most companies take their best sellers and promote them into management, expecting them to magically know how to coach a team.  It rarely works that way. Gail Behun, who leads frontline manager enablement at Zoom across 300 managers globally, learned that lesson firsthand when she made the leap from seller to manager and realized she had no template for what good looked like.  In this conversation...

When your people complete the mandated AI training but nothing changes, you don't have a tool problem; you have a culture problem.  As Director of L&D at Publicis Sapient, Ian Stevens watched mandates and endless emails fail to drive the engagement, adoption, or completions they needed.  The breakthrough came when they stopped teaching tools and started building mindsets. Ian reveals thei...

What happens when the context you're preparing leaders for no longer exists by the time they get there? After seven years as Chief Learning Officer at Citibank building talent systems, Cameron Hedrick sees the cracks in how we predict potential. In this conversation, Cameron reveals why mastery beats potential when everything is constantly emerging, why humans excel at inference with small da...

What happens when AI agents become your direct reports?  Becky Karsh, VP of Talent and Growth at F5, believes we're approaching a fundamental shift: individual contributors won't just complete tasks, they'll manage multiple AI agents to achieve outcomes.  In this episode, Becky reveals why delegation, work design, and crystal-clear communication are becoming essential IC skills, not...

Is your team resisting AI adoption? Are they struggling to see how AI could actually help their work?  Rebecca Scales discovered the real barrier isn't reluctance to learn - it's self-efficacy, people's belief that they can actually use these tools effectively.  As Director of Capability Development at Procore Technologies, she watched initial AI training fail because pressing &quot...

Have you ever sat at your desk, physically present but mentally checked out, your stomach in knots, calling in "sick" when you're really just depleted, feeling like you're giving 110% while running on empty? Ryan Giordano knows that feeling intimately, and his journey from the breaking point of burnout to teaching emotional intelligence at Fleetio reveals a radical truth: we ma...