THE PRACTICE
learning, brand & culture.
Learning shapes how we grow. Brand shapes how we show up. Culture and collaboration shape how we work together. These are the threads that run through everything we do, and everything we write about here.
hr world summit: a recap
๐ต๐น Just wrapped HR World Summit.
The mood wasโฆ honest. ๐ฅด๐ Thereโs mild trauma-bonding even among seasoned People leaders: anxiety around AI, as everyone works out how to match the speed of the technology, + the push from higher up, with the slower realities of how orgs adopt it.
Trust is a legit barrier and this challenge goes beyond our respective company walls: when politics + permission structures โrewardโ big-name companies for making sudden, drastic cuts, it ripples through our collective consciousness, and our People teams are left to rewrite these narratives from the inside.
My thoughts + favorite takeaways for impact right now:
Learning & Collaborationโs Sweet Spot (2-min)
There's a recipe for creating impactful learning & collaboration experiences. It comes down to a sweet spot I've found working with some of the world's most recognizable brands.
โWhat Is A Learning Philosophy?โ (1 min)
Many orgs have Marketing / Product / Design / Service philosophies to guide how decisions get made across teams, regions + roles and how we show up for customers. Why not articulate what our companies believe about People Development (and share these ideas with the world)? ๐โโ๏ธ
L&Dโs True Value (1 min)
L&D teams can deliver speed, scale & metrics yet I would argue our value lies in shaping subtler dynamics.
Designing For Alignment, Collaboration & Belonging (1 min)
Belonging, alignment, and collaboration need to (and can be!) designed for.
Scaling Organizational Culture (2 min)
Cultural ambition has to be explicitly expressed + given guardrails, especially when scaling. Otherwise the strongest or loudest voices will create it.๐๏ธ I've seen this firsthand (with varying degrees of success, candidly) at renowned brands like lululemon, Zalando, Adidas, Apple and On and talked through a couple of ways I've worked to impact it w/ Adam Lacey & The Assemble You team.
U.S. Soccer Federation: High-Performance Leadership
โPeople need to know their input will impact the work, not just validate a leader's thinking.โ
Human-Centered Onboarding
๐โโ๏ธ Ever felt imposter syndrome on Day One of a new job? You're not alone โ 65% of us have, 22% say it dragged down our first-week performance, and ~50% experienced some sort of physio-emotional response ๐ฅด (Forbes)โฆ So what to do about it?
Speaking @ Go Tech World 2025, Bucharest
๐ To CEOs, CHROs & CPOs in my network:
"Is your L&D function a culture amplifier โ or have you relegated it merely to content creation + workshop facilitation?"
I'm speaking at GoTech World 2025 in Bucharest on November 11th about this exact distinction.
"๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐น๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ, ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฑ: ๐ ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ฒ"
In an era where AI is changing how we learn, a clear cultural North Star can keep growth aligned + on-brand.
Community Exploration: The Human Side Of A.I. In L&D (w/ Sana)
It was refreshing โ and, candidly, moving โ to have real conversations about everything from excitement to the nerves people might feel around AI. Using Sanaโs state-of-the-art product, we surfaced the feelings, insights + real conversations many of us are having with our teams about integrating AI into learning & collaboration.
A one-pager for your team.
A one-page overview of how we work, ready to forward.