Leading Learning - The Show For Leaders In The Business Of Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education, And Professional Develop

In physics, momentum is the product of a body’s mass and velocity. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele define strategic momentum as the product of an initiative’s strategic weight and its execution speed, and they discuss why momentum matters, common barriers to maintaining momentum, and strategies for creating and maintaining momentum.Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode448.

Because good strategy is organic and responsive, it needs to be revisited periodically. There are predictable, recurring whens that are be natural times for you to reassess your strategy, like the start of a new budget year.There are also less predictable whens that are important times to revisit strategy, like a global pandemic or government policy changes.While it’s easier to plan for revisiting strategy at predictable points, it’s as important to reassess strategy when the situation shifts. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele offer Marian Urquilla’s Strategy Triage Tool as an approach learning businesses can leverage for some of those unexpected times when a strategy reassessment is needed.Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode477.

For learning businesses, bringing in revenue is an essential function. Revenue is what keeps the organization going and delivering on its mission, whether that mission is solely focused on learning and training or whether it’s a broader mission tied to improving a field, industry, or profession.In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele offer five ways to increase the revenue from your portfolio that don’t involve massive investments of time or money: raising prices, packaging products, borrowing to expand, running flash sales, and offering free courses.Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at: https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode446.

Culture, mindset, money—these are big and important concepts for any learning business. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 445, we talk with Erin Pressley about all three.Erin Pressley is senior vice president of education, training, and events at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Erin describes herself as being passionate about serving NRECA’s members and making money while doing it. She’s a thoughtful and energetic leader with practical and aspirational advice for other learning business leaders.Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at: https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode445.

Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele share four actionable ideas grounded in survey data collected by Leading Learning and informed by their experience with and observation of learning businesses and the global market for continuing education, professional development, and other lifelong learning.All four ideas tie to the common theme of resourcefulness—Cobb and Steele’s watchword for learning businesses in 2025.Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode444.

Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele share key data points from Leading Learning’s latest year-end survey of learning businesses. They cover top strategic goals and the strategic drivers behind those goals, trends and issues impacting strategy, challenges with maintaining or growing enrollments and registrations, barriers to innovation in education offerings, and top areas of investment for the year ahead. Your learning business can use this data for benchmarking and to help frame internal discussions about what you’re doing, what you’re not doing, and why. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode443.

Innovation is an aspiration of many organizations, including learning businesses. This episode, number 442, features a conversation with Mary Byers. Mary is an author, speaker, facilitator, consultant, CEO coach, and mastermind facilitator, and she’s deeply knowledgeable about innovation. Mary wrote Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations, and her work focuses on helping organizations remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode442.

A learning business must understand learning theory and put that theory into practice if it is to create offerings that result in positive change and impact. This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 441, features a conversation with instructional psychologist Dr. Ruth Colvin Clark and co-host Celisa Steele. Ruth has spent her spent her career translating academic research into practical guidelines and advocating for the use of evidence-based approaches to learning. She’s the author of many articles and books, including Evidence-Based Training Methods and E-learning and the Science of Instruction. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode441.

In Leading Learning Podcast episode 440, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele share the questions and topics probed in Leading Learning’s annual survey on learning businesses—questions and topics that can provide a solid basis for strategy conversations in your learning business. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode440.

COVID changed how we live and work in many ways. One example is the increased need for remote communication and for managing and leading hybrid teams. Wayne Turmel is part of the Kevin Eikenberry Group, and he and Kevin co-wrote The Long-Distance Leader, originally published in 2018, with a revised edition out in 2024. Wayne’s work focuses on remote and virtual communication in the evolving workplace. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 439, Wayne and Leading Learning Podcast co-host Jeff Cobb talk about what leadership is; how leadership does and doesn’t change in the context of remote, virtual, and hybrid work; the importance of trust and of choosing the appropriate communication tools for the situation; and what mules and hybrid work have in common. Whether you lead a team, are part of a team, or both, you’ll benefit from the advice and insight Wayne offers around effective communication. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode43

Effort contributes to lasting, durable learning, which means learning businesses have a responsibility to expect learners to put in effort and an incentive to support them in doing so. Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss the role of effort in learning and how learning businesses can scaffold effort in this episode, number 438. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode438.

Content marketing at its core is educational. It’s about raising awareness not only of a brand but of that brand’s ability to help and to act as a partner. For many learning businesses, content marketing is the start of the learner journey and the way they establish both expertise and trust with prospective learners. Deirdre Reid is a writer, a content marketer, and the publisher of Association Brain Food, a weekly list of free Webinars and other events and recommended reading. In this episode, number 437, Deirdre talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about content marketing, AI’s influence on marketing, data analytics, the role of taxonomy in personalization, search engine optimization, customer acquisition and retention, partnering with employers, cohort-based learning, unconferences, and self-assessments as marketing tools. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode437.

Impact is a theme we circle back to again and again on the Leading Learning Podcast because we believe that any learning business needs to create impact for the learners and other stakeholders it serves. And measurement and evaluation are critical for knowing if we’re creating impact and for showing that impact. Dr. Alaina Szlachta is author of the book Measurement and Evaluation on a Shoestring. In this episode, number 436, Alaina talks with co-host Jeff Cobb about what measurement and evaluation are (listen for her short but elegant definition). They also talk about data, ways to go beyond smile sheets and completion stats to get at long-term impact, the importance of an impact hypothesis, and automation and AI. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode436

If the goal of so much professional learning is improving the skills and abilities of learners on the job, then why put theory and methods before practice opportunities? That question gets at the core of reflective practice-based learning, which is an approach that emphasizes practice before theory. Annasofie Wædeled-Møller, a learning and development expert, is passionate about helping educators and leaders create more practice-based, learner-centered experiences. In episode 435, Annasofie talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about how reflective practice-based learning works and how it’s being applied in various contexts, including her experience with the Danish defense. Celisa and Annasofie also discuss the importance of psychological safety in learning environments, emotional intelligence in leadership, and how self-determination theory aligns with reflective learning. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode435.

As parents, as partners, as colleagues, as professionals, people are constantly being asked for some of their time, and learning businesses are part of the clamor for people’s time. Learning requires time, yet many people feel they don’t have enough of it. How do learning businesses secure a share of people’s limited time, and how can they help learners make the most of the time they do invest? In this episode, number 434, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele focus on the small matter of time for learning and for learning businesses. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode434.

Amrit Ahluwalia is executive director of Continuing Studies at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, where he’s focused on growing Western’s professional and continuing education reputation and approach to match the reputation and approach the institution already brings to its research and undergraduate programing. Before joining Western, Amrit founded The EvoLLLution, and he ran the publication for a little over ten years. He also hosts the EdUp PCO podcast. In episode 433 of the Leading Learning Podcast, Amrit talks with co-host Jeff Cobb about the revenue imperative facing most professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education units; the need for the 60-year curriculum; collaboration between higher ed and associations; COVID’s impact on learner expectations; the value for many learning businesses of moving beyond a content producer mentality to being a curator and a guide; and Pink Floyd. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode433. 

Nuno Fernandes is president of American Public University System. One of the pioneers of online education in the United States, APUS now offers 200 programs serving more than 90,000 students in 50 states and almost 50 countries around the world. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 432, Nuno shares how he came to lead a higher education institution, and he and co-host Jeff Cobb talk about the current state of higher ed, the rising costs of a university degree, marketing and education, the impact of artificial intelligence on education, the role of partnerships in the future of adult learning, and more. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode432

Motivation and mindset are two of the baseline requirements for effective, lasting, and enjoyable learning. Through thoughtful design and delivery, learning businesses have the ability and opportunity to influence the motivation and mindset of the learners they serve. In this episode, number 431, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele look at these two related but different concepts and talk about how each impacts learning. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode431.

Impact is one of the core goals at the heart of most learning businesses, and we believe that impact should be as broad as possible—meaning ideally your learning business delivers significant and relevant results for learners, for the organizations that employ those learners, and for the fields, professions, and industries those learners work in. In this episode, number 430, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele look at how providing learning paths, offering valued credentials, and aligning with employer needs are three activities that can deliver impact on their own and how the combination of all three is more potent—and a bullseye learning businesses might want to aim for. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode430.

Having a strategy is part of what any learning business needs to thrive. But what does establishing a strategy look like? In this episode, number 429, we get a peek behind the strategy-developing curtain in a conversation. Pam Rosenberg, director of education for the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, has been in the exciting role of helping to develop ASNT’s first formal education strategy. Pam talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about build, borrow, and buy choices for creating a catalog; the need to assess the quality of learning content; competition from subject matter experts; the reality and challenge of serving check-the-box learners; the importance of connection; and more. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode429.