Workplace Stories by RedThread Research

Artificial intelligence is transforming not just our workplaces, but the very nature of education and professional development. Our guest this week, Michael Noble, Vice President of Academic Program Development at Western Governors University (WGU), shares his views on how higher education can rise to the current moment, bridging the gap between academic learning, employable skills, and the changi...

Learning and Development (L&D) is at a crossroads. As artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates changes in the workplace, L&D’s traditional stronghold—the creation and curation of content—is rapidly losing its strategic value. In this episode, I discuss the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and Learning & Development (L&D) with Don Taylor and Egla Vinauskaite. Our conversation exp...

Organizational change is now a constant rather than a phase. Few stories illustrate this better than Hearst Networks’ journey, as shared by Dean Possenniskie, CEO, and Lucy King, Chief People Officer, on this episode of Workplace Stories. Moving from a legacy cable business into a diversified, higher-margin media powerhouse, Hearst proves that reinvention is possible not just for startups but for...

This week on the podcast, we welcome Heather Stefanski, Chief Learning and Development Officer at McKinsey & Company. We explore how organizations like McKinsey are reimagining employee development for the age of AI, shifting learning into the flow of work, focusing on systems and purposeful apprenticeships, and embedding L&D directly into workflow design. You'll also hear all about the ev...

Frontline workers form the massive, beating heart of the global workforce, constituting up to 80% of all employees. But their enablement, experience, and upward mobility often remain quietly neglected. We sit down with J.D. Dillon, author of the upcoming Frontline Enablement Playbook, to dissect the persistent challenges these vital employees face and explore how organizations can better support a...

In this episode, we sit down with John Barrand, CHRO for the State of Utah, to discuss an inspiring transformation in public sector performance management. John led a bold effort to overhaul Utah’s performance management system—moving it from a culture of “adequacy” and silence to one focused on learning, growth, connection, and accountability. John shares how he and his team achieved legislative...

In this episode, we welcome Lisa Kay Solomon, designer-in-residence at Stanford's d.school and host of the "How We Future" podcast, and Jeffrey Rogers, principal of Learning and Facilitation at Radical and co-founder of Projectory. We discuss why foresight—the ability to anticipate and design the futures we want—is everybody's job, not just the domain of senior leaders or specialized futurists. Th...

This week, we’re sitting down with Ron Storn, Chief People and Culture Officer at Truckstop, to discuss culture—how it forms, who owns it, and how it scales in growing organizations. We explore the relationships between systems, processes, and cultural values, and discuss signs of cultural breakdown and the keys to recovery. We also discuss how AI is reshaping workplace dynamics, hiring practices,...

On this episode, we’re with Jenna Filipkowski, the Head of Learning and Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. With a background in organizational psychology and research, Jenna brings a fresh, outsider perspective to the world of L&D, challenging traditional approaches and driving innovation within the unique environment of the Fed. We discuss the importance of team development...

Strategic workforce planning is back, and not in a nostalgic “this trend is back around” kind of way. It is back because the old staffing model, react late, hire fast, hope the market delivers, is failing more often than it works. The biggest misunderstanding is still the same one: strategic workforce planning is not long-term headcount forecasting. It is not a spreadsheet exercise dressed up with...

From overcoming initial anxieties through hackathons and playful experiments, to setting an ambitious organizational roadmap for AI, Dessalen Wood shares how Syntax is embedding artificial intelligence across departments, focusing on pragmatic progress rather than hype. You’ll hear stories about driving excitement, learning by doing, and the all-important challenge of measuring real impact. More t...

The way organizations think about artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace has shifted dramatically over the past few years. While early conversations centered on isolated experiments and technological hype, organizations now face the much harder task of integrating AI into the fabric of how work gets done. We welcome Melissa Reeve, author of “Hyper Adaptive: Rewiring the Enterprise to Become...

Manuel Smukalla, Global Talent Impact, Skills Intelligence, and Systems Lead at Bayer, joins Workplace Stories to unpack one of the most ambitious organizational transformations underway today. As Bayer confronts significant market, legal, and profitability pressures, the company has taken a radically different approach to how work, leadership, and talent are structured, rethinking everything from...

Christine Crouch, Senior Director of Learning at General Mills, joins Workplace Stories to discuss a massive shift in how one of the world's legacy food companies approaches talent development. General Mills has recently transitioned to a centralized and integrated learning model. In this episode, Christine lays out one of the clearest cases for centralization we have heard. While efficiency is a...

On the latest episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Koreen Pagano, author of "Building a Skills-Based Organization," to talk about one of the hottest and most complex topics in the world of work: how organizations can become truly skills-based, and what that really means in today’s rapidly changing, AI-driven landscape. The conversation was loaded with practical insights, candid stories,...

In this episode, Stacia and Dani sit down once again with Cole Napper, author of “People Analytics: Using Data-Driven HR and Gen AI as a Business Asset.” A year after his first appearance, Cole returns with bold insights about the seismic changes facing HR and people analytics, and why now is the time to rethink how we define value in the workplace. Cole argues that the future of HR depends on she...

In this episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Lori Niles-Hoffman, global learning strategist, EdTech advisor, and author of The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation. With over 25 years of experience implementing large-scale learning systems, Lori brings a no-nonsense, deeply human perspective to how organizations can thrive at the intersection of technology, data, and talent. Lori reveal...

Just two years ago, AI was a shiny new object in L&D, with most professionals dabbling in small pilots and content creation experiments. The latest findings reveal an inflection point: the majority of L&D teams are now actively using AI, not merely testing it. This week, on the podcast are Donald H. Taylor and Eglė Vinauskaitė, the minds behind a groundbreaking new report, "AI & Learni...

Artificial Intelligence is transforming corporate learning, but not every organization is doing it in ways that employees actually trust. In this episode of Workplace Stories, we talk with Peter Manniche Riber, Digital Learning & AI Leader, about how his team built AI-powered learning tools that employees truly believe in. From creating the “Dilemma Coach” and “IDP Coach” to redefining persona...

On the show this week, Nadia Uberoi, Head of People at Garner Health, joins us to explore how HR can move beyond compliance to become a solution-centric and outcome-driven function, aligning closely with the business’s mission and deliverables. Nadia shares practical details on how Garner Health has developed agile people systems and cultivated a high-candor culture rooted in real-time feedback an...

Haley Glover, Senior Director of UpSkill America at the Aspen Institute, is on a mission to build a world where skills—not degrees or pedigrees—are the primary currency of career opportunity. In this expansive conversation, she challenges organizations to think bigger, arguing that investing in frontline workers isn't just a corporate responsibility but a societal imperative that strengthens commu...

Dr. Serena Gonsalves-Fersch, Global Head of Talent and Academy, shares her refreshingly candid perspective on the evolving role of Learning and Development (L&D) in today’s organizations. You’ll hear her challenge traditional approaches to employee learning, advocate for seamless integration between learning, talent, DEIB, and performance, and call out industry complacency. Serena also shares...

In this episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Zane Zumbahlen, Chief People Officer at Wedgwood Veterinary Pharmacy, to explore how vulnerability in leadership can catalyze organizational change. With a 30-year career spanning IBM, CTCA, and global roles in Sweden and Japan, Zane shares candid stories that reveal the power of low-ego, high-confidence leadership. From active listening sessi...

Many organizations see learning and development (L&D) as a cost center rather than a strategic driver of value, but what if that mindset is costing them far more than they realize? In this episode, Dr. Keith Keating explains why we’re moving from a “knowledge economy” to a “value economy,” where it’s not what we know but what we do with it that matters. He shares practical ways for L&D tea...

Most organizations claim to care about employee development, but upon closer examination, their approach to skills is often vague, subjective, or downright confusing. They might assume people will simply "figure it out" on the job or resort to one-size-fits-all training. If you've ever wondered why your learning investments don’t seem to translate into impact, it might be because you’re still gues...