Elliott Masie: Experiences in Learning

This month's featured guest was Elliott Masie, industry thought leader and founder of the Elliott Masie Learning Collaborative. The conversation was facilitated by i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone. Here are some highlights and insights from the meeting:

• Masie is pivoting his own focus by rebranding his organization as the Elliott Masie Learning Collaborative (from Consortium). He said 75 or so organizations will collaborate together on a variety of initiatives, including some real ABC tests as comparison exercises on challenging questions, such as pivoting learning to best support a hybrid workplace.
• Masie continues to host his series of online Empathy Concerts (over two dozen since March 2020), which feature Broadway and television performers, learning leaders and business leaders, and a variety of perspectives on the importance of Empathy in these changing times. Areas of focus have included the pandemic, racial injustice, the power of laughter, the importance of voting, a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and much more. To learn more or to register for upcoming events, visit www.masie.com.
• We are seeing a greater emphasis on experiences in learning, and some movement away from courses/classes being the fundamental unit. Masie noted that the recent announcement of Microsoft Viva as an employee experience platform will tie into this trend.
• Coaching is becoming more widespread, as the average employee wants to get smarter every day, but doesn't want to be a student every day. AI capabilities will further the trend of scaling up coaching, as will the push to democratize coaching -- both who gives and who receives coaching, e.g., coaching occurring for employees before they are officially selected as "high-potentials."
• L&D certainly has had increased pressures in the past year, such as the need to figure out learning approaches in new areas such as medical, safety, cyber, and more. Masie noted that our businesses have needed L&D professionals for more than instructional design expertise, and increasingly for evaluation, assessment, appraisal, and other skillsets.
• Many organizations have had to rethink their onboarding process over the past year, because hiring for many firms didn't stop and in some cases increased, even while employees were not meeting together in-person. L&D has had an important role in this transformation and will continue to as the process becomes a hybrid one in the future.

Be sure to see the schedule of upcoming meetings in i4cp's Next Practices Monthly series.