In this excellent interview, Brigid sits down with Lavinia Mehedințu of Offbeat.

Lavinia is a co-founder and Learning Architect at Offbeat, with 12 years of experience designing learning experiences and career development programs. She specialises in applying adult learning principles to help L&D professionals connect, collaborate, and grow.

In this episode, Lavinia challenges the popular buzzword "learning culture" and offers a more tangible, systemic alternative. Lavinia provides a masterclass in systems thinking for L&D, including:

1. Deconstructing "Learning Culture": Why the concept is often too nebulous to be useful and why the responsibility for creating it can't fall on L&D alone.
2. The Four Conditions for Learning: Lavinia outlines the tangible elements that truly shape learning in an organisation: structure, procedures, information flow, and incentives.
3. Introducing Learning Architecture: A more systemic approach that focuses on identifying and removing blockers to learning and adaptation across the entire organization.
4. The Sensemaking Cycle: How to move from raw data to real impact through a cycle of sensing information, making sense of it collaboratively, experimenting with small changes, and scaling what works.
5. The Role of AI: How AI can free up L&D to become true learning architects, improve information flow, and how organisations must now manage learning from both humans and machines.

Lavinia provides a clear, actionable framework for moving beyond buzzwords to build organisations that truly learn. If you are looking for a more practical and systemic way to foster learning, this is a must-listen-to episode.

Connect with Lavinia on LinkedIn: Lavinia Mehedințu

And check out OffBeat: Offbeat Learning & Development Platform

Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out assembleyou.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

In this excellent interview, Adam sits down with Pooja Shemar.

Pooja is a senior L&D leader and passionate mental health advocate with over 20 years of experience, including 17 years driving transformation at Microsoft. Fuelled by her own personal journey, Pooja is on a mission to normalise conversations around mental health in the workplace, creating environments where people can truly thrive.

In this powerful and practical episode, Pooja shares her personal story and provides an essential guide to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). She offers a masterclass in creating psychologically safe spaces, including:

1. What is Mental Health First Aid?: Pooja breaks down the role of an MHFAider – not as a therapist, but as a crucial first point of contact to recognise signs, offer support, and guide colleagues toward professional help.
2. How to Spot an Issue: Learn the simple, observable steps to recognise when a colleague might be struggling, centered around the powerful question: "Are you okay?"
3. A Practical Toolkit for Offering Support: Pooja provides a step-by-step guide on how to help, including how to create a safe space, listen without judgment, show empathy, and encourage without forcing.
4. Starting with Care, Not Assumptions: Discover the importance of framing conversations with concern for the individual, rather than labelling their behaviour or assuming you know what they're going through.
5. How L&D Can Lead the Charge: Pooja outlines actionable ways L&D and HR can champion mental health, from embedding it in onboarding to making it a top-down leadership responsibility.
6. The Power of Language: A crucial reminder to be mindful of casually using terms like "depressed" or "anxious," and the impact this can have on those with lived experience.

Pooja offers a deeply human and actionable framework for anyone looking to build a more supportive and mentally healthy workplace. If you want to learn how to open up the conversation and make a real difference, this is a must-listen-to episode.

Connect with Pooja on LinkedIn: Pooja Mehta Shemar (FLPI)

Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out assembleyou.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

In this excellent interview, Brigid sits down with Jayne Mather.

Jayne is an author, consultant, and expert in technology adoption, focusing on digital transformation and intelligent automation. She is the author of Humans and AI: The Future of Work and Super User Networks for Software Projects and specialises in helping businesses integrate emerging technologies to deliver long-term value.

In this episode, Jayne walks Brigid through understanding and leveraging AI within learning and the wider organisation.

Jayne gives a masterclass on the practical application and human side of AI, including:

1. The "Netflix of Learning": How AI and machine learning can finally deliver on the promise of creating truly personalised learning paths for employees.
2. The Gift of Time: What organisations should do with the time they gain from AI, including re-skilling for the future and moving toward a four-day work week.
3. Moving from Insight to Impact: Using AI to rapidly analyse data (like training evaluations) so your people can focus on high-value, strategic work.
4. Practical Ways to Start: How to begin exploring AI, from experimenting with prompts to training chatbots on your own company policies and procedures.
5. The Importance of Trust: Why technology projects must be done with people, not to them, and how to get buy-in for AI adoption.
6. Diversity in AI: Jayne discusses the risks of biased AI and why having diverse perspectives at the table is crucial for creating technology that benefits everyone.

Jayne provides a clear, strategic framework for thinking about AI. This is a must-listen episode if you want to understand how AI will shape the future of work and L&D.

Connect with Jayne on LinkedIn: Jayne Mather

And check out her website: Jayne Mather - Author | Speaker

Jayne's books:

1. Humans and AI: The Future of Work
2. Super User Networks for Software Projects: Best practices for training and change management

Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out assembleyou.com and follow us on LinkedIn.