Year-End Wisdom: Key Takeaways from Talent Development Experts
Episode Overview
In this special year-end episode of Making Better, we dive into the transformative lessons learned in 2023 with a lineup of dynamic industry leaders. From Matthew Daniel's work to build new workplace skills to Sarah Cannistra's fateful embrace of change, our guests reflect on growth and strategy. We hear about aligning passion with business needs, the shift from expert to facilitator, and the courageous pursuit of rejections. As we round out the year, thoughts turn to anticipation of 2024's endeavors. Wisdom flows on building community, practicing mindfulness, and learning the art of saying 'no' for greater impact. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, pushing us towards a more intentional, values-driven approach to work and life.
Full Transcript
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Matt Gjertsen [00:00:00]:
Hello, and welcome to the Making Better podcast, where we talk about making ourselves, our teams, and our organizations better. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different than normal. Typically, I have a single guest on and we talk through a particular challenge within talent development. But being that it's the end of the year, this is the last episode of 2023. I wanted to do something a little bit different. So I actually set up conversations with about a dozen industry leaders. These are people in talent development. Most of them are external, I will say external practitioners.
Matt Gjertsen [00:00:33]:
They have a wide scope on kind of what talent development is looking like across the whole industry. And I just asked them a couple of simple questions. First, I asked them, what's something that they learned in 2023 and how did it make them better? And then I asked them, what's something they're looking forward to in 2024? So I think you're going to get a lot of fun out of listening to them. I certainly did. But before we turn it over to them, I should obviously be answering this myself. And so when I look back at 2023, the number one lesson that stands out to me, without a doubt, is learning the difference between being a freelancer and building an agency. And I want to be very clear when I say this, I don't think there is anything wrong with being a freelancer. Like, absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Matt Gjertsen [00:01:24]:
Plenty of people, that's their goal. But when I started better, everyday studios, being a freelancer wasn't my goal. I got into it knowing that I wanted to build an agency. And through this year, this was the second year that I've been out fully on my own. I think for the first time I really realized what it means to be doing one of those two things in terms of the kinds of customers that you're looking for, the kinds of projects that you're looking for, the kinds of processes, internal processes that you have to set up are very different when you're trying to go for that scale. That is really what I'm going for. So as we've closed out this year, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the processes, the procedures that we have inside the organization, really excited about some of the changes that we've made. So it's certainly made me better as a business person.
Matt Gjertsen [00:02:19]:
It's made me better as an instructional designer. It's made me better as a salesperson. I'm really excited about everything that it's done. And so then that's making me really excited going into 2024, and I'm actually not going to answer the second question right now of what I'm looking forward to in 2024 because I have a whole lot and this is my podcast, so I'm actually going to steal the next episode. The first episode of 2024 is going to be kind of a breakdown of the path that better everyday studios has made, what we're looking to become in 2024. And I'm going to give you kind of a hint at the product. For the first time ever, we actually have a product roadmap of what we are building and the things that we're going to be bringing to clients for next year. I couldn't be more excited.
Matt Gjertsen [00:03:07]:
So for now, please get excited. Listen in to the conversations with all these great and amazing people for the rest of this episode, and I will see you again in 2024.
Sarah Cannistra [00:03:20]:
Hi, I'm Sarah Cannistra. I'm the founder of the overnight trainer and good learning. And my biggest lesson in 2023 was that people will still support you even when you change course. And that allowed me to play, to have more fun, to be more creative without being in fear that people won't want to hear from me or be around me or be part of my community. So that is what I learned in 2023. And so with that, what I'm looking forward to most in 2024 is building on what I built on in 2023, scaling more, but having a lot more creativity, a lot more fun, and simplifying things as well.
Matthew Daniel [00:04:03]:
Hey, it's Matthew Daniel, senior principal of talent strategy at Guild, on the first question, which is what's one thing I learned in 2023? I had a manager who said a really hard thing to me at the end of 2022, and she said, I deeply appreciate all of the passion and energy you bring to challenges, and also it's the tool that you've most developed in your toolkit. And I need you to start bringing other tools to the equation. I think I love the idea of strength finders of like play to your strength. I had taken it too far and I appreciate her taking the time to pull me aside and say, actually, I need you to develop other tools. And so some of the tools this year were getting better at the reframe, finding ways to in the moment where I lost some coworkers at work, not bringing passion and energy to it, but being quiet, reserved, going back to paper, thinking through how I needed to solve the issue. Working with a coach this year was really helpful to get through that, make sure that I wasn't a one trick pony in terms of what I brought to the table, but instead to actually spend some time and energy on developing some of those places that weren't as strong. For the second question, what do I look forward to in 2024? I think this is going to be, here's how I reframe, which is 2024 is going to be hard if you're in HR and talent strategy, if you're in l and D, the environment, the budgets are going to be tighter, expectations are going to be higher. We're seeing turnover in the people in roles.
Matthew Daniel [00:05:53]:
We've got AI on the scene, which is a really exciting opportunity that's actually going to bring a lot of challenges to governance and how we work, what do we do? And so I think when I look across all of that, I think there's a lot of opportunity to learn. That's what I think I'm looking forward to in 2024. It's going to be unlike any year that we've had for those of us who've been in the industry for a long time. I lived through recession in this field 15 years ago. This is going to be different. This is a different level of technology evolution. It's a different level of context that we're all dealing with in our jobs. And I think there are going to be a lot of opportunities to learn and I'm really looking forward to it.
Nicole Papaioannou Lugara [00:06:40]:
Hi, I'm Nicole Papaioannou Lugara, the founder and principal learning strategist at your instructional designer. And I feel like my whole job is just learning lessons daily. But I think a big one this year for me, maybe it's one that I already knew, but it is about bringing your problems to the team. And so as a leader, I know that my inclination is to shield my people from problems and from the things that are hard because I want to make sure they stay happy and stay engaged, and I want them to feel like they're working in a good place. And I've really had to check myself this year and realize that I was kind of shielding them from opportunities to grow by doing that. It wasn't just me helping them. In some ways, it was not good. And every time I go to them, I get all of these wonderful, brilliant ideas that I wouldn't have come up with by myself.
Nicole Papaioannou Lugara [00:07:36]:
So transparency is one of our guiding principles. And I think it was just a really important reminder this year to be transparent with my people and let them step up into leadership sometimes.
Megan Galloway [00:07:48]:
Hi, I'm Megan Galloway. I'm the founder of Everleader and I am so excited to be here to talk about what I learned in 2023. This year, I think the one biggest piece of learning that I had was no matter what you're going through, whether it's really great or really hard, what really matters is how you do what you do. And really grounding in your values is the most important thing. No matter if you have your dream job or your job searching or anywhere in between, just being true to you is the best thing you can do. And I am most excited about in 2024, I am launching my new business called the Ever agency, offering a couple of really incredible products like dual executive coaching to help two executives find common ground, aligning executive teams, working on other things for your manager, learning or leadership development, like workshops or keynotes coaching, and also launching a new cohort for learning and development professionals, all about how to build leadership development programs internally to really amp up what they're doing inside of your organizations, too. So, so excited about all the things to come and so grateful for all of the incredible experiences, community and support in 2023.
Kevin Alster [00:09:02]:
My name is Kevin Alster. I'm a learning strategist here at Synthesia. I head up our customer education program and help people learn how to communicate better using AI video. One lesson I learned in 2023 and how that made me better, well, I learned that I consult with a lot of different clients and a lot of folks who are getting into AI and different AI tools. And I've learned that I don't always have the best answer, even if I think I do. By that, I mean sometimes it's easy to listen to somebody's problems and then immediately go into solutions mode where you think that you've seen these problems before and you immediately want to jump with a here's what you do in three steps. Or maybe that's the way my mind is working because I think about LinkedIn a lot. But really, I found that where I'm most effective is just really living out that model, which is don't be the sage on the stage, be the guide on the side.
Kevin Alster [00:10:00]:
And a lot of what I do now, and that's changed in 2023 and when I work with clients is I'm often in the role of facilitator, where I'm often pairing, finding out what the specific problem is, what context this problem is happening, and then try and find other people within the same context or the same company. You're trying to solve the same problem and facilitate a scenario where these two people who are having the same problem are coming up with solutions and knowledge sharing with each other, because I think that ultimately, when you are consulting, it's not about getting to what you think is the end solution, but really, how do you create events, experiences and moments for people to be successful, share their ideas, and communicate with each other. So, looking forward to doing more of that in the next year as well. Now, in 2024, one thing I'm looking forward to is actually something less. I'm looking forward to less talk about chat, GBT, large language models and AI as this big thing that's either going to take our jobs or save humanity. And instead I'm looking forward to a return to identifying the problems and outcomes that actually matter. I think I've really, especially towards the end of this year, struggled with how many people. I think it's okay to have opinions on the tool.
Kevin Alster [00:11:23]:
I think it's even better to share your experiments and how you use these tools to engage in your work. But I think the amount of authority and the titles that people have changed, you have really started to weigh on me in terms of what are we actually trying to achieve with this wonderful new general purpose technology that we have. And so what I'm looking forward to is less talk about AI tools, and I think it's okay to be excited about them and share what you're doing. But the authority, I think nobody really knows what's going to happen. There hasn't been that much academic research that's been conducted both in an academic setting or a professional setting just yet. And so looking forward to people, everyone taking a collective deep breath, having a great holiday season, and then coming back and revisiting what is the actual thing I'm trying to do, and then looking at how might this AI tool impact that problem for the better.
Kristi Oliva [00:12:23]:
Hi, my name is Kristi Oliva. I am the host of the podcast leaving the classroom, and I help teachers transition out of the classroom and into their dream roles by helping them with their resumes and interview prep and get them on track. So what I learned in 2023, the most about myself is that I'm too hard on myself. I really want to change that. Moving into 2024, I tend to build ideas up in my head, both personally and professionally. And when they don't go the way I have mapped it out and thought about over and over and over again, I'm devastated and in turn really hard on myself. So taking that into 2024, I want to have a mindset of gratitude and abundance. And I set a goal for myself to get 100 rejections or failures in 2024.
Kristi Oliva [00:13:20]:
And I think that's going to help me combat that fear of failure and also to help myself not be so hard on myself when things go wrong. I am just going to start expecting that things are going to go wrong. What I'm looking forward to in 2024 is actually expanding my leaving the classroom brand. I want to help at least 100 teachers in 2024 to transition out of the classroom. So that's another goal, I guess. The number 100 is the name of the game for 2024. I hope that means something good. So I'm really looking forward to what this means for myself as I venture out into this passion that I have.
Kristi Oliva [00:14:04]:
I'm so passionate about helping teachers since I once was one and successfully transitioned out. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what that business does for myself and for what I can show my girls, being a new business owner since I'm a single mom and then just my big goal that it's hard to even voice is I really want to disrupt the whole education system. And that starts with helping teachers leave and show that they are not happy where they are. So I'm really excited to see what that's going to do next year. So stay tuned for that.
Kelly Merbler [00:14:39]:
Here we go.
Kelly Merbler [00:14:40]:
So I'm Kelly Merbler with the Kelly Merbler company here in West Palm Beach, Florida. And the one lesson I've learned in 2023 is really the power of building community. As an entrepreneur, I can't even explain how important and how needed and valued this has been to me in my entrepreneurial journey. Going from solo when I first started almost six years ago now, six years in January, to what I call Synergy solo, to synergy, building community has truly been a blessing because we all have ups and downs. We all are going to have challenges, we're going to have peaks and valleys in this journey in life and to have people that I know I can always just pick up the phone, reach out to. Whether it's just a question that I have or advice that I need in my business, or just someone to listen to an idea I have that has been so valuable to me to continue to build my business and thrive in my business and never feel that I'm the only one going through something. And for 2024, what I'm most interested in doing and looking forward to is really continuing to build my community, continuing to spread my message and build the community that is currently surrounding me so we can do even more things together and collaborate. I believe that we all have a light within us, that we have a choice.
Kelly Merbler [00:16:11]:
My mentor taught me that we have a choice to either curse the darkness or turn on the light. And I truly believe in the community that has been created around me that we choose to turn on the light. And together we have created the biggest number of a watt light bulb that I can even explain that is really going around the world and making it a much brighter place when sometimes it can seem so dark. So thank you. Hi there. I'm Dr. Heidi Kirby. And the lesson that I learned in 2023 wasn't exactly a new lesson, but maybe just a reassurance of an old lesson.
Kelly Merbler [00:16:51]:
And that is that it's critically important now more than ever, especially in this economy, to align what we're doing and learning and develop to the business. And if we don't do it fast enough and if we don't show value fast enough, it can be really detrimental. I've just seen my team get laid off and then a lot of other subsequent tech layoffs. And so that's really been the biggest takeaway for me in 2023 is being more intentional about how we connect to the people that we're serving, not just our end learners, but also our stakeholders and SMEs. And how has that made me better? It's allowed me to really kind of peel back and go back to the basics of why are we choosing the solutions that we're choosing? Why are we focusing on the things that we're focusing on, what is the outcome? And it just kind of has let me rely on those more fundamental practices of instructional design and learning and development. That's been really nice. And what am I looking forward to in 2024? I'm really looking forward to creating more useful stuff for LND professionals.
Betty Dannewitz [00:18:01]:
Hi, I'm Betty Dannewitz. You may know me as if you ask Betty, I have the if you ask Betty podcast where you can learn about all different types of development topics for all kinds of learning professionals. You can also hear me on making better podcast. So check that out. What have I learned in 2023? I'll tell you, I've learned a couple of things. The most important being that when I tell people that growth is painful, I'm actually right about that. So I feel like I have that conversation with people a lot. They're always like, we're trying to grow, and it hurts because growth is painful.
Betty Dannewitz [00:18:41]:
And what I have found is that this year, I've suffered some of that pain as I've saw the L and D industry start to grow in different directions, maybe in directions that I was really not interested in, especially know AI came in and just stole the show from everybody. I'm just going to say it. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be talking about AI. I'm just saying maybe we could talk about other things, too. Back it up. What I've learned is that growth is painful, but it's necessary. And so I am open to AI, more open now than I was in the beginning to AI and the use of AI. And I've learned from talking to some of the folks that have really embraced this early on that there's no reason to freak out about this, but rather embrace it, invite it to sit down next to you, have a cup of coffee with AI and try to understand how we can work together.
Betty Dannewitz [00:19:38]:
So that's what I've learned. What I'm looking forward to for 2024 is I am looking forward to learning more so that that growth doesn't feel so painful, right? So I'm looking forward to learning more about AI, how to properly use it, how to dispel some of the crazy out there, right? So there are some zealots out there that AI is going to fix everything and do everything. And then there's the other end of people, which I used to hang out with, which is AI sucks. We don't want to talk about it. I can't believe I'm actually talking about it right now, but that shows growth. Anyways, my point is I am looking forward to learning more about how all of that works together and how that changes our ecosystem and how we can show up in our best selves in that new space. So that's what I'm looking forward to.
Alexandria Clapp [00:20:31]:
Hi, I am Alexandria Clapp. I am a senior content manager at ATD, or association for Talent Development. I learned to commit to progress over perfection, which was really hard. When we were putting together the intensive virtual program this year, it was focused on accessible learning design and accessibility can be overwhelming and intimidating. And when we were looking at evaluating our own accessibility maturity, it was scary. It felt like we weren't ready. So the content and the subject matter of that program was really a reflection of not only just the best practices that LND should be striving for, but a reflection of our own lessons that we learned while creating the event. That means I was learning how to streamline processes that integrate guidelines about color, contrast and alt, text descriptions and screen reader testing navigation order and more into the work that I do with my ATD colleagues.
Alexandria Clapp [00:21:40]:
Something that we weren't doing before, and asking ourselves all sorts of questions like where do we start? Which guidelines should we follow? Why do every different accessibility checker seems like it's being written in a different language? So opting to take on that progress over perfection mindset that Meryl Evans talks about to jump into that offering really helped, knowing that we would make some mistakes along the way. And that has been a recurring theme, mantra and mindset throughout the year that I fully had to embrace to pull off bringing intensive program to life. And it was truly looking at all the different touch points to design an accessible learning experience from the website and registration experience, the intensive branding, the marketing collateral, the virtual platform, the content and attendee experience, the speakers experience. There was so much to learn and again, it felt really daunting. But we had guidance and support from accessibility experts and allies and practitioners and people who were speakers who were helping us along the way. So man, it was such a big team effort and I am so thankful to everyone who helped support that process across different teams, different departments within ATD people. Externally, we have no internal dedicated accessibility specialists at ATD, but we were able to do it and we've gotten really positive feedback and I'm so, so proud. And I think it's because we leaned into that progress over perfection mindset.
Alexandria Clapp [00:23:26]:
Personally, I have a bunch of weddings happening throughout the entire year. So many friends and family are getting married, so I'm very excited to travel all over to celebrate friends weddings. And then at ATD we are going to continue with our demo day series, which are like half day events where folks can look at a bunch of different vendors all at once, which I know would have been so helpful when I was working at my old organization. You're trying to schedule those and you're in decision making mode comparing all them. So I'm really excited for those and looking forward to planning future intensive programs next year. And we're looking at TK and seeing how we can continue to evolve and change up a little bit what that conference looks like. It is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and one of the things that I remember talking about with my manager when I joined ATD was that that conference is always getting a little bit of a shake up. We're always looking for a way to make sure that we're being receptive to the community and what people need.
Alexandria Clapp [00:24:47]:
So I'm excited to see how we can continue to change it up for TK in the future.
Dr. Robin Sargent [00:24:52]:
Hi, I'm Dr. Robin Sargent, the owner and founder of Idle Academy, which is the first and only vocational school for instructional design and online learning. So this year, my big lesson is that subscriptions are great for SaaS companies or software as a service companies, and they are terrible for learning. And that was my big lesson. I thought that I would be so clever and I would turn the vocational school into a subscription model. But as you can imagine, because it's my lesson learned, it didn't work out. And the reason why is because if you are learning, it is challenging and it is hard and it is difficult. And so once you reach that place where it starts getting challenging and hard and difficult, if you are on a subscription plan, then there it is.
Dr. Robin Sargent [00:25:53]:
I mean, you just cut it. You just unsubscribe, you don't overcome the wall in the learning pit and you don't reach your goals. And so that's my big lesson. That's my big takeaway, is that subscriptions are great for SaaS companies, terrible for learning. And so what I'm looking forward to in 2024 is that I have actually taken this lesson learned and I have completely redone the vocational school. It is a completely new training that has been built after years of experience and all of my experience and all of the learner feedback over the years. And you invest into your education up front. And we include one on ones.
Dr. Robin Sargent [00:26:40]:
It's a very high flex learning. It's one on ones. It includes group coaching, it includes a live facilitated lesson as well as the self directed. And it's a whole program that includes all the training. And then you graduate, and then you get one on one career coaching for the rest of the way. And that's really what people needed. And so that lesson that I learned of trying to just get the most amount of people into the vocational school as possible actually made me take it back and realize it's not about getting the most amount of people. It's about how can I get people into the transformation that they need in order to reach their goals to become an instructional designer and e learning developer.
Tonille Miller [00:27:24]:
Hi there. I'm Tonille Miller and I'm the founder of EXT Experience and transformation, which is a consulting firm. And over the last year, I think one of the most important things that I've learned is that in order to really flourish as a human being, and of course, in our communities and our workplaces, I had to get better at balancing just being along with all the doing. And I think a lot of us can relate to that in the sense that my default, like most people, is really to focus on the doing. Doing. What am I getting done? And this year I've been really exploring and learning new ways to just be and focus on ensuring my energy is amazing and not just knocking everything off the to do list without worrying about my health, my well being, how I'm showing up for others. Because again, we're very contagious to each other, whether we realize it or not. And so for me, this has been something as simple as getting enough sleep, getting a lot of sleep, actually going for a walk with no destination, just kind of strolling along, journaling, exploring new ways of playing and just kind of perceiving the world, just learning to perceive it in different ways through new eyes, that kind of thing.
Tonille Miller [00:28:27]:
And it's really changed my life and it's made me a lot more present. And one of the things I find interesting is, as I've done this, not only has it helped me a lot and those around me, because I'm showing up differently, of course, but over the years, I've also noticed that as individuals, practitioners, leaders, et cetera, in organizations, I don't think anyone does this enough. And I think that's why we have so much of the reactivities, burnout, firefighting, non strategic ways of working. Sometimes I think that comes from not pausing and just being and thinking and giving yourself space and that type of thing. And so I think what I would say is, I think we need to learn how to focus on the, how work gets done these days, not just what gets done and what's being done. So that's really been the biggest learning, I think, for me, and again, made me better in all of those ways. And then for 2024, I think I'm looking forward to everything. I think we've now come out of the pandemic for so long.
Tonille Miller [00:29:19]:
I think I'm just really looking forward to hopefully just exploring and embarking into this new world because it is a new world and really doing that, hopefully all of us with as much creativity and again, kind of play and just exploratory mindsets as possible.
Al Dea [00:29:33]:
Hi, everyone. I'm Al Dea. I am the host of the Edgework podcast and a talent and leadership development consultant. So one thing I learned in 2023 is that you can say no to things and that the house won't burn down. In fact, in many cases, if you say no to things, it'll actually either free up more time to work on something that you can make a greater impact with, or it'll open you up to other opportunities that you can eventually say yes to. And something that I am looking forward to in 2024 is practicing said lesson of learning how to say no to things so that you can free up time to do other things or make a bigger impact with some of the other things that are on your plate.
Matt Gjertsen [00:30:12]:
Okay, I lied. I know in the introduction I said you'd see me again in 2024, but obviously I have to close out the show. So thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you got a lot out of it. I loved having these conversations. So many interesting lessons from all of these people. It's great to see the different takes that people had on their reflection of the year. I hope you got just as much out of it as I did.
Matt Gjertsen [00:30:36]:
If you are not subscribed, make sure you subscribe. Next year is going to be awesome. The things that I'm hoping to do with this podcast, I couldn't be more excited. Some of the guests we're bringing on, it's going to be absolutely amazing. For the final time, sign off for 2023 and see you in 2024.
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