The Talent Equation Podcast with Nolan Hout

Infopro Learning
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The Talent Equation Podcast with Nolan Hout (formerly known as The Learning and Development Podcast) explores how organizations unlock workforce performance and solve today’s biggest talent challenges. Featuring conversations with CXOs, L&D industry leaders and award-winning authors, each episode covers talent strategy, leadership development, skills transformation & AI in workforce planning. Sponsored by Infopro Learning and trusted by a community of 150K+ L&D and HR professionals, talent partners worldwide. Subscribe and catch a new episode every Tuesday.

  1. 5d ago

    PAUSE: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World

    What if the best leaders aren't the fastest ones, but the ones who know exactly when to pause? In this episode of The Talent Equation podcast, Shawn Vanderhoven, Partner, The Wiseman Group and collaborator on the NY Times bestseller Multipliers, joins Nolan Hout, SVP, Growth & AI Strategist, Infopro Learning, to unpack the leadership strategy behind his debut book, PAUSE: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World (out August 4). Leading brilliant work is the idea at the center of it all, and it starts with rethinking what speed is actually for. The conversation traces the moment a furious executive stood up in a workshop and named the real problem plaguing modern teams: nobody can get deep anymore. From there, Shawn and his research partner studied hundreds of leaders to find out what separates the ones who create focus from the ones who accelerate chaos. What they found flips the usual advice on speed. The best leaders aren't slower; they're better at knowing when to tap the brakes so their teams can make real progress on the work that actually matters. Nolan and Shawn dig into the difference between a bias toward action and a bias toward impact, why saying no to good ideas is harder than saying yes, and how AI is reshaping (and sometimes worsening) burnout. For CLOs, CHROs, and senior talent leaders trying to protect their team's best thinking, this episode is a practical case for pausing on purpose. You can also tune in to this episode on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

  2. Jul 14

    The Business Case for Leadership Development: Why Most Investments in Leaders Fail

    Most leaders fail at leadership development for the same reason: they never build a business case for it. In this insightful episode of The Talent Equation Podcast, Tina Robinson, founder & CEO, WorkJoy and author of Developing Your Business Leaders (ATD Press, 2026), joins host Nolan Hout, SVP, Growth & AI Strategist, Infopro Learning, to explain why and what to do instead. Tina breaks down what she calls the business case triangle, the process of tracing a leader's behavior back to the external forces actually driving business strategy. They also debate a question he brought straight from a session with his own CEO: is capability the right stopping point for proving L&D's value, or does the industry need to keep chasing revenue attribution? The conversation moves into hiring and why most companies promote and recruit leaders based on functional performance rather than the behaviors that leadership actually requires, and why onboarding may be the single most overlooked leadership investment for most companies. Watch this episode on YouTube.

  3. Jul 7

    The Multipliers Framework: Are You Growing Talent or Shrinking It?

    Every conversation about talent growth eventually comes back to the same question: what is leadership actually doing to the people underneath it? In this episode, Liz Wiseman, CEO, The Wiseman Group and author of the New York Times bestseller "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter," walks Nolan Hout, Senior Vice President, Growth, Infopro Learning, through the multiplier framework she built after 17 years as a vice president at Oracle. Liz explains why diminishing leaders, often well-intentioned, access less than half of their team's actual capability. She unpacks the three habits that quietly diminish talent: pacesetting, rapid responding, and rescuing. She shares the personal systems she built to catch herself, including her 24-hour rule and the day-old donut strategy. For any CHRO, CLO, or people leader focused on talent growth, this conversation reframes what leadership impact really looks like. Follow The Talent Equation on Spotify for weekly conversations on talent strategy, AI, and workforce performance.

  4. Jun 30

    Leading Through Chaos: How C-Suite Leaders Turn Friction into Competitive Advantage

    What if the chaos hitting your team right now isn't a crisis to fix, but a permanent condition every C-suite leader has to learn to operate inside? Kevin Black, Founder, Kevin Black Consulting, Author of the book "Strength in Chaos," joins Nolan Hout, SVP, Growth & AI Strategist, Infopro Learning, to unpack why chaos and crisis are not the same thing, and to outline a four-part framework leaders can use to diagnose where their team actually stands: unity, forward integration, mission command, and trust. Kevin explains why trust is earned last through repeatable reliability, why control-oriented leaders often make chaos worse by gripping tighter under pressure, and why one team's stress level can act as a diagnostic for an entire organization's workforce performance. If you are a senior leader navigating AI disruption, workforce restructuring, or doing more with less, this episode gives you a framework, not just a pep talk. Follow The Talent Equation podcast on Spotify, YouTube & Apple Podcasts for weekly conversations on talent strategy, AI, L&D and workforce performance.

  5. Jun 16

    Humanhood Over Hype: Why Authentic Leadership Matters More in the AI Era

    What does it take to lead with courage when employees are burned out, workplace culture is under strain, and AI is transforming every role across your organization? In this episode of The Talent Equation podcast, Justine Froelker, Licensed Professional Counselor, two-time TEDx speaker, founder, Courage is Built Here™, and author of 12 books, including five Amazon bestsellers, joins Nolan Hout, SVP of Growth & AI Strategist, Infopro Learning, for an insightful conversation about what courageous leadership demands today. Together, they explore why keeping humanity at the center of work is more than a feel-good concept; it's a business imperative. They discuss how leaders can balance accountability with compassion, where organizations often misunderstand empathy, and why authenticity matters more than ever. The conversation also addresses the AI question head-on: Does AI make human leadership skills more or less important? How can leaders guide teams through AI adoption with transparency, trust, and courage? If you lead people, this episode will challenge your assumptions about accountability, empathy, authenticity, and what it truly means to show up for your team in a rapidly changing world.

  6. Jun 9

    The CLO's Blind Spot: Why Capability Beats Hiring Every Time

    Most Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) are solving the wrong problem. They hire more people and build more training programs, yet still can't move the needle. Candice Mitchell, Founder & CEO of Talent Collective and USA Today bestselling author, has spent nearly two decades inside global organizations watching this play out. In this episode, she and Nolan Hout, Senior Vice President, Growth, Infopro Learning, discuss why capability development keeps failing and what senior L&D leaders need to do differently. The conversation covers why training alone is never the answer, what it means to build a learning culture, and why the people function is the most underleveraged growth lever in any business. If you lead talent, learning, or people strategy at a mid-to-large enterprise, this one is for you. Recommended Resource: Impact Toolkit.

  7. Jun 2

    In Conversation with Josh Bersin: Why 2026 Changes Everything About How We Work

    The shift from AI assistant to AI agent to AI super agent is not a product marketing arc. It describes a fundamentally different relationship between your workforce and the systems designed to enable them. Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst, Founder & CEO, The Josh Bersin Company, joins Nolan Hout, Senior Vice President, Growth, Infopro Learning, on the Talent Equation podcast to explain what that shift means for enterprise talent strategy right now and over the next three to five years. They cover agentic workflows in Galileo Mars, how AI agents surface and scale top-performer behavior, why ambient AI in the workplace is closer than most leaders think, and how the L&D function itself will be restructured as super agents take on more of the enablement work. If you are making platform, structural, or investment decisions in talent and learning, this conversation provides the framework. CLOs, CHROs, and senior talent leaders will gain valuable, real-world insights that go far beyond the surface-level discussion.

  8. May 27

    Josh Bersin on The Talent Equation | Episode Dropping Soon

    Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst, Founder & CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, joins Nolan Hout, Senior Vice President, Growth & AI Strategist, Infopro Learning, to talk about Galileo Mars and what it means for organizations trying to figure out AI right now —not someday, but now. They cover the shift from AI as a tool to AI as an active participant in talent decisions, what companies are getting wrong about adoption speed, and how the role of L&D is being fundamentally rewritten. Josh has been tracking this space for over two decades. This conversation reflects it. Full episode coming soon. Subscribe so you catch it the moment it drops.

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The Talent Equation Podcast with Nolan Hout (formerly known as The Learning and Development Podcast) explores how organizations unlock workforce performance and solve today’s biggest talent challenges. Featuring conversations with CXOs, L&D industry leaders and award-winning authors, each episode covers talent strategy, leadership development, skills transformation & AI in workforce planning. Sponsored by Infopro Learning and trusted by a community of 150K+ L&D and HR professionals, talent partners worldwide. Subscribe and catch a new episode every Tuesday.

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