The Learning Culture Podcast

Andrew Barry
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Join your host Andrew Barry, the Founder and CEO of Curious Lion, as he interviews learning leaders practicing the cultivation of Learning Culture; experts who tease out critical theoretical components of this idea; and shares learning nuggets from real-world experiences, and our own research and writing.By following along, you’ll learn:• How a shared vision sets the tone for a Learning Culture. • How shared assumptions determine our current reality. • How shared stories foster commitment to a Learning Culture. • How shared experiences, or Cohort Learning Experiences to be specific, instill the practice of a Learning Culture.Stay curious, my friends.

  1. Oct 26

    #131 - How to Build the Capabilities Your Business Actually Needs

    What happens when AI doesn't just change how we work, but changes the work itself?  For years, organizations have invested in becoming skills-based: defining the capabilities each role requires, identifying gaps, and helping people develop their careers. But as Kathleen Mattie puts it, we can automate tasks, but we can't automate skills.  Kathleen is a global HR transformation and innovation leader who has spent her career leading enterprise learning initiatives. In this conversation, she explains why leaders must now look beyond skills to understand the work being done, the tasks within it, and which parts belong to humans, AI, or a partnership between the two. She shares her vision for talent and workforce intelligence: using better data to uncover hidden talent, anticipate capability gaps, and connect learning directly to business priorities.  Kathleen also reveals why prompt engineering remains the most underestimated capability gap, why judgment and critical thinking matter more than ever, and why managers must be prepared to lead both people and AI agents through continuous change.  At its heart, this episode is about a new mandate for learning leaders: stop creating programs for their own sake and start building the capabilities the business actually needs, at the speed the future demands.  If you're rethinking your approach to skills, learning, or talent development in the age of AI, this conversation gives you a clear place to start.

    #131 - How to Build the Capabilities Your Business Actually Needs

  2. Oct 13

    #130 - Kate Coelho on Why AI Transformation Isn't a Technology Rollout

    What happens when AI can do parts of the job you've spent years learning how to do?  For many people, that question isn't merely technical. It touches their sense of expertise, relevance, control, and even identity. Kate Coelho, Director of AI Change and Adoption at Microsoft, argues that AI transformation can't be treated like a conventional technology rollout, because the tools and the end state are changing too quickly.  Instead of preparing people for a fixed destination, leaders have to help them build the muscle to keep adapting. In this conversation, Kate explains why apparent resistance to AI usually has something deeper beneath the surface, why psychological safety and leadership vulnerability matter more than ever, and how organizations can create space for people to experiment openly.  She also digs into one of the most urgent capability gaps emerging in the workplace: judgment. As AI makes it easier to produce polished work at extraordinary speed, how do you stop people from outsourcing their thinking, and how do you reward discernment and impact rather than adoption, volume, or velocity?  If you're leading change with no stable end state in sight, this conversation will help you focus on what actually matters: whether your people are becoming more capable alongside AI, not less.

    #130 - Kate Coelho on Why AI Transformation Isn't a Technology Rollout

  3. Sep 22

    #129 - How to Lead AI Transformation Without Losing the Humans

    What does it actually take to lead AI transformation without creating fear, resistance, and cognitive overload?  Melanie Steinbach, founder and CEO of L Advisors and a four-time chief people officer, has spent her career helping organisations navigate major change.  Her view is that successful AI adoption needs clear top-down direction paired with bottom-up learning and experimentation, because neither works on its own. In this conversation, Melanie walks through her four R's for building an AI org charter: refine, retain, redesign, and recommit. She explains how to identify a real business problem for AI to solve rather than fabricating one, why you have to name the human moments you're protecting, and why leaders must explicitly decide what people will do with the capacity AI frees up.   If you're rolling out AI and worried about what it's doing to your people, this conversation gives you a framework and a starting point.

    #129 - How to Lead AI Transformation Without Losing the Humans

  4. Sep 14

    #128 - How to Get AI Transformation Right with Victoria Pelletier

    As AI reshapes work, who's actually getting the transformation right, and what are they doing differently?  Victoria Pelletier has a rare vantage point on that question. An author, keynote speaker, and executive coach, she spent roughly 180 days on the road last year inside CIO and CEO rooms, watching companies try to become AI native. She earned the nickname "the CEO whisperer" because she tells clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear, and she comes at AI without a traditional tech background, which is exactly what lets her see what the technologists in the room miss.  The reframe at the centre of this conversation is deceptively simple: most companies measure AI by usage, while the ones getting it right measure outcomes, even when usage looks low. Victoria explains why so many AI transformations are failing, why the people side can't be an afterthought, and why reimagining processes matters more than automating the ones you already have. She also gets into the harder questions this opens up, including what happens to the work and the people when the tasks get automated, and whether companies will choose to redeploy talent or simply cut it.  If you're leading an AI initiative and want to know what separates the companies getting real value from the ones shelving projects, this conversation is a good place to start.

    #128 - How to Get AI Transformation Right with Victoria Pelletier

  5. Sep 8

    #127 - How to Protect Your Judgment When AI Does More of the Work with Harry Laplanche

    If AI can gather the evidence, run the analysis, and make the recommendation, what's left for you?  Harry Laplanche, Head of AI Strategy and Transformation at Panasonic, believes the answer is judgment, and that it's the one thing we can't afford to outsource.  Harry's roots are in consumer insights, psychology, and behavioral science, which gives him a rare lens on why AI adoption actually fails: giving people access to tools is nowhere near enough. Adoption depends on connecting AI to the real work people are measured and rewarded on.  In this conversation, Harry shares what it looks like to lead AI transformation inside a global hardware conglomerate, why the change has to come from the top down and bottom up at the same time, and his idea of the missing middle, the space between a big transformation vision and the messy reality of making decisions day to day.  The highlight is his decision architecture workflow, where AI gathers all the evidence but withholds its recommendation until Harry has made his own call, so he can compare the two and build his judgment like a muscle. He walks through it in enough detail that you can build your own version.  If you're worried about outsourcing your thinking to AI, or wondering how to help your people keep making good decisions as AI does more of the work, this episode gives you a practical way forward.

    #127 - How to Protect Your Judgment When AI Does More of the Work with Harry Laplanche

  6. Aug 10

    #126 - Holding the Pen: Scott Landers on Fear, Agency, and Leadership

    What happens when everything you've worked for comes down to one moment and your body just stops working?  For Scott Landers, CEO of Achievers, that moment came on a college baseball mound, and what followed changed the trajectory of his life.  In this conversation, Scott shares the decision that turned his lowest point into a turning point: "I hold the pen. I'm going to write the story." He explains how he deliberately walked toward everything that scared him, saying yes to opportunities that terrified him, and how that hard-won sense of agency shaped him into the leader he is today.  He also gets honest about why the fear of failure never goes away, and why becoming comfortable in your own skin can trump it.  That same belief in agency sits at the heart of Scott's take on AI: only 1% of CFOs are seeing ROI from it, and he argues it's because AI is happening to people, not with them. Press play to hear how one moment of panic became a philosophy for leading through the biggest transformation of our time.

    #126 - Holding the Pen: Scott Landers on Fear, Agency, and Leadership

  7. Aug 5

    #125 - How to Reconcile AI's Speed with Your Team's Capacity to Learn

    How do you reconcile the speed of disruption with the time it takes to build human capability?  In this episode, Kahina shares why people leaders need to get comfortable being behind, why vulnerability might be the most important leadership behavior of this moment, and how Workleap is building AI capability through company-wide experimentation. Drawing on her unique journey from law and humanitarian diplomacy into people leadership, Kahina brings a deeply human perspective to AI transformation. She explores why high performers may be more at risk of cognitive overload, how AI is turning individual contributors into mini-managers, and why critical judgment may be the defining capability of our time.  Kahina makes the case for shared language, context, and precision as the foundations for teams to work effectively with AI and each other.  If you're navigating AI transformation and looking for a refreshingly honest take from someone in the thick of it, this episode is for you.

    #125 - How to Reconcile AI's Speed with Your Team's Capacity to Learn

  8. Jul 29

    #124 - Satu Salminen on Building AI Workflows: Lessons from an Early Pioneer

    What does AI transformation actually look like once it moves past experimentation and becomes part of how a company works every day?  Satu Salminen has been building with AI since the early ChatGPT days, and for the past year she's led AI transformation for HR at ZoomInfo, making her one of the earliest pioneers in the space.  In this practical conversation, Satu walks through her journey from building a simple manager feedback coach to designing full end-to-end HR workflows. She shares how she identifies use cases worth investing in, why documentation and workflow design matter more than the technology itself, and how bringing legal and HR into the process early saves you from costly rebuilds.  Satu also gets into the human side of adoption, explaining why critical thinking and systems thinking are the skills that matter most, why you can't outsource accountability to AI, and how ZoomInfo reached nearly 100% daily AI adoption across the company. Her advice for leaders is refreshingly direct: don't wait.  If you're trying to understand what real AI transformation looks like inside a company, this conversation gives you a practical place to start.

    #124 - Satu Salminen on Building AI Workflows: Lessons from an Early Pioneer
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About

Join your host Andrew Barry, the Founder and CEO of Curious Lion, as he interviews learning leaders practicing the cultivation of Learning Culture; experts who tease out critical theoretical components of this idea; and shares learning nuggets from real-world experiences, and our own research and writing.By following along, you’ll learn:• How a shared vision sets the tone for a Learning Culture. • How shared assumptions determine our current reality. • How shared stories foster commitment to a Learning Culture. • How shared experiences, or Cohort Learning Experiences to be specific, instill the practice of a Learning Culture.Stay curious, my friends.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrew Barry
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    176
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Learning Culture Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Learning Culture Podcast

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