Continuing our special Learning Uncut Elevate series on Skills Development, Learning Uncut Co-Founders Ravina Bhatia and Michelle Ockers discuss the seven key elements of skills development. They explore what it means to have these elements in place and how they can help organizations set up a successful skills development journey. Whether you're just starting out or already on the path, this episode provides valuable insights into building and developing skills successfully.  This is the...

Michelle speaks with Fabrizio Conrado, the Director of AI and Technology at Avado, about building an integrated learning technology infrastructure. Fabrizio discusses Avado's journey in selecting Thought Industries as their LMS provider and how they successfully integrated it with other technology elements. He also shares key considerations for selecting the right technology and partner and provides valuable tips for integrating learning technology to create a seamless user experience....

Skills development has gained significant attention in L&D in recent years, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly changing business landscape. In this Elevate episode Learning Uncut co-founders Ravina Bhatia and Michelle Ockers discuss how skills development has evolved in recent years and fundamentals for getting started with contemporary approaches to skills development. Ask the right questions and get the foundations in place up front for successful skills...

In this episode, James Kennedy, a civil engineer and change practitioner, discusses the contractor safety management program at Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC). He shares how his childhood passion for LEGOs sparked his curiosity about how things work and how his team used data to rectify their initial misconceptions and bolster program design. Learn about “Hearts and Minds,” an initiative that creates a personal connection to safety through stories and experiences, and why behavioral...

Join Michelle Ockers for a compelling conversation with Dustin Lacasse, the L&D Lead at the San Diego Zoo, as they delve into the world of non-profit L&D. Lacasse shares his personal experiences, highlighting both the challenges and possibilities. He brings to light his team’s strategic approach to performance management by moving away from a “needs improvement” to a "developing towards standards" model. He also discusses data-driven refinements and meaningful learning pathways all...

How Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport has piloted a customised micro-credential to develop storytelling skills across their workforce. Our guests are Stacie Swindon, a learning and development consultant from Waka Kotahi and Marcus Garrett, an instructional designer from RMIT Online who partnered on this project. Our host, Michelle Ockers, from Learning Uncut also worked on this pilot, shaping the requirements, and leading the evaluation. Host: Michelle Ockers Transcript and related...

Marc Howells, VP of Global Talent and Development at AstraZeneca, discusses the company's radical learning transformation. He dives into cultivating a culture of lifelong learning, experimenting with journaling for learning reflection, and fostering continuous learning through their "Learning for Life" campaign. Howells also explains the shift toward learning democratisation, making resources accessible to all employees in multiple languages. With a significant tech overhaul, they streamlined...

In a special podcast edition Laura Overton takes over the mic to speak with Michelle Ockers and Ravina Bhatia about some exciting developments in the Learning Uncut business. Having collaborated on many projects in recent years Michelle and Ravina have brought their two businesses together to create an even stronger L&D consultancy – still called Learning Uncut. In her usual curious style Laura digs deep into who Ravina and Michelle are, why they’ve made this change and their mission of...

Deb Van Rensburg, who leads Enterprise Regulatory Learning at National Australia Bank (NAB) discusses how they have evolved their approach to regulatory learning. We cover the 3-stage approach they used to streamline content and improve the learner experience. This includes the use of real-world scenarios and inclusive design practices to ensure that every participant feels seen and finds relevance beyond their specific roles. We also discuss how Deb got critical stakeholders on board with...

Join us for this episode of Learning Uncut as we delve into learning transformation with Bendigo Bank's Capability team leaders, Caroline Petha, Jo Doody, and David Maiolo. They discuss their individual responsibilities and collaborative strategies in capability, learning design, ecosystem and learning culture development. Their work demonstrates the value of integrated efforts across teams, and the role of partnerships with business leaders and external partners. Though longer than our usual...

We explore highlights of the Learning Technologies UK 2023 conference (LTUK23). Our guests, including the conference organiser, thirty under 30s cohort leader, speakers, social media team member and a session chairperson to share their different perspectives on the conference. Explore the major themes that emerged, including the curiosity about generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), the significance of adaptability in the face of change, and the enduring importance of impactful learning...

In this episode of the Learning Uncut podcast, Matthew Mould and Emma Shirlaw from ANZ Bank and Simon Dewar from BSI eLearning discuss their award-winning onboarding program. The program won the Best Onboarding award and was a runner up in the Best Blended Learning category at the 2022 AITD Excellence Awards. The team redesigned their Branch Banker onboarding program to increase speed to competence and build confidence in their bankers' ability to apply skills flexibly in a range of customer...

Michal Niezgoda, a Leadership Development Specialist at Amazon Data Services, shares how Carl Hodler, from Learner Lab, helped him run a storytelling challenge for leaders from multiple business units. Using StoryTagger, leaders recorded short videos on the theme of Thriving versus Surviving in challenging times. Carl and Michal discuss how they shaped the campaign and the importance of capturing and sharing stories on video to build human connection and support people in thriving. This...

Viv Burgess, formerly from the Tasmanian State Service knows how to patiently and persistently get things done across the 18 agencies in this state government. She walks us through how she led a cross-agency working group to break down silos to develop and implement a single Manager Essentials program. Now in its sixth year, this award-winning program emphasises application in the workplace and has helped managers to create a more positive workplace environment. Host: Michelle Ockers ...

Diane Hickman from the Australian Public Service (APS) Commission speaks about the success of the APS-wide organisational learning strategy that was launched 20 months ago. Di shares the process they used to create a strategy that is relevant for their diverse workforce of over 150,000 people working in more than one 150 different agencies – many with their own L&D team. She discussed the importance of stakeholder engagement, creating leadership buy-in and developing a collaborative...

Adam McKinnon, the People Data and Analytics Leader at Reece, joins me to talk about the fascinating world of People Analytics. Reece is using a People Analytics platform to gain some serious insights into their business questions and issues related to people, and Adam’s here to share some real-world examples with us. He dives into how Reece is using data from a variety of sources, including their HR Information System, safety data and Service Now, to surface valuable insights – including in...

In this episode, we discuss the latest innovation in HR and learning and development - the talent marketplace. Josh Bersin has described how it helps employees access opportunities within and outside their hierarchies, benefiting both the employer and employee. Our guest, Dean Summlar, the VP of Talent Management & Learning at Schneider Electric, shares insights into implementing the talent marketplace in his organisation and its benefits. Join us to learn about this innovative approach...

Lalaine Gedal, the Associate Director of Leader Development in the US for Takeda shares Takeda’s intentional approach to supporting their people to adopt a hybrid working model from their consultation on what hybrid working should look like to developing a toolkit to support people to adopt this change and engaging Cindy Huggett to run virtual sessions on leading in a hybrid environment. Cindy, a leading expert in virtual facilitation, joins the conversation to provide insight and tips on...

In this episode of Learning Uncut, I speak with Catriona Malcolm (or Cat as she is also known). She is the Enterprise Design Practice Lead at Westpac Group. With a workforce of around 40,000 people across seven business entities whose core service is banking, Cat’s role was created four years ago specifically to address the complexity of designing skills development solutions across these seven entities. We cover a lot of elements of the Westpac approach in this episode. We look at approaches...

Welcome to our first episode for 2023. To kick off our podcasting year, Anthea Piening, the Capability and Change business leader for the sales team at Lion Australia shares a story about changes to onboarding at Lion Australia. She discusses how onboarding has been redesigned from a two-day event to a blended 12-week program. She discusses the key drivers and how the shift also reflects a move into digital learning with a mix of self-directed, leader-led and virtual activities – as well as...

It’s been a huge year for Learning Uncut – both the podcast and the business! The podcast celebrated its 100th episode in May and there have been almost 50,000 downloads in the past 12 months alone. In the final episode for 2022 Michelle is joined by Ravina Bhatia, Director and CLO of Learning Tribe. Together they have been supporting Learning Uncut’s clients to develop and implement organisational learning strategy since mid-2021. In this episode, they look back on the year – covering...

Listening is a critical skill to increase the impact of Learning and Development professionals. Our guest, Shaheen, shares her personal journey with deep listening and how that has increased her effectiveness in her work. We weave this theme in with the story of Project Oxygen Mask, a mental health campaign conceived after noticing her own mental state and listening to others in the organisation to understand their experience. The campaign, designed in conjunction with a mental health expert...

Siva Kulasingam, the Digital Learning Manager at Coles, believes that “data is a beautiful thing.” He joins me with Andrew Bloye from ClearXP to discuss how his team is working with xAPI data after implementing a Learning Experience Platform (or LXP) and Learning Record Store (or LRS) several years ago. We discuss how both guests think about the learning technology stack and the case to invest in both an LXP and LRS so that you can work with xAPI data. Get a clear explanation of the technical...

Following the pandemic, the nature of work and the expectations people have of the workplace and employers have shifted significantly.  In this episode of Learning Uncut, I am joined by Hannah Conkey, the Head of Learning and Organisational Development at the Royal Automotive Club of Victoria – RACV for short. Hannah shares how the RACV have reviewed their Employee Value Proposition, updated leadership development and how her qualification in neuroscience helped to inform their approach. ...

Kate Fraser from the Australian Association of Social Workers joins me to discuss a blended learning program for clinical supervisors developed in partnership with Family Safety Victoria. She is joined by Dr Kuva Jacobs from RedPoint Consulting who worked on the design and development of the program. Some interesting design considerations shaped this program, including a high need for psychological safety for participants due to lived experience of trauma, peer support through coaching...