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learning & development

trends

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In this podcast Dr John McGurk, CIPD Adviser on Learning, and Talent Development, Peter Butler, Director of Learning at BT, Nicky Taylor, Learning and Development at Ginsters and Alan Fletcher, Business Development Manager for KMI, discuss the latest trends in learning and development.

Podcast 42: Pushing the boundaries of learning and development

Is learning and development mostly about science or is it more of a strategic business discipline? Three experts with differing perspectives discuss:  Dr Itiel Dror, Principal Consultant, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bill Parsons, VP for HR at ARM Holdings UK, and Vice President L & D at the CIPD and Martyn Sloman , L&TD academic, consultant and practitioner 

Podcast 66: Learning and development: Science or strategic business disciline

Recent research shows that just 7% of L&D professionals evaluate the impact of learning initiatives on the wider business but in these uncertain and evolving times it’s essential that L&D becomes all about alignment; with both business aims and with evolving ways of learning.

But what does alignment actually look like? In this podcast we speak to three experts to gain their insight. Laura Overton, founder of Towards Maturity, discusses what is holding alignment up and what L&D should really be measuring to assess value, while Julian Stodd, Founder and Captain at SeaSalt Learning describes the new world of learning, of social and community, and why L&D need to act as agile facilitators not controllers of learning. Andrew Jacobs, Talent Management and Organisational Development Manager at London Borough of Lewisham, agrees with the importance of embracing new ways of learning but stresses the need to challenge the use of certain methods and technology to ensure it’s what is needed for the business. Andrew also discusses his experience of stripping back his L&D offering to truly align with what people want and what they’re already using.

Do you feel that more needs to be done to align L&D with business objectives in your organisation? How are you embracing evolving learning methods? Join in the discussion on Twitter @CIPD using the hashtag #cipdpodcasts. 


Podcast 103: Aligning L&D With Business Objectives and emerging practices

CIPD research shows that over two-fifths of organisations have reported an increase in mental health problems in the last 12 months – but rather than simply taking measures to deal with these problems there is growing evidence that it is in employers’ best interest to promote and support good mental health in their workforce.

So how can employers work to tackle the root causes of mental health problems and provide measures to foster good mental health in their organisation? In this podcast we hear from John Binns, a well-being and personal resilience advisor, about his personal experience of poor mental health and how he now uses this experience to advise organisations on how best to support employees who may be suffering from poor mental health, including the importance of carefully considering messaging around initiatives. We also speak to Emma Mamo, Head of Workplace Wellbeing at Mind, about the importance of proactive communication to make mental health conversations normal and remove the stigma around mental health. Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk and former Minister of State at the Department of Health, also gives insight into the work he did as minister to promote mental health support and gives his opinion on the economic and social case for why employers should make this a priority.


Podcast 106: Promoting and supporting good mental health

Podcast 110: Resilience

Amy Stanning is shared services Director at Barclays and in this podcast she discusses her experience of transitioning her gender identity while staying in the same job, the essential support she received from her senior HR business partner and her tips for HR on how to create an inclusive culture in the workplace.

Podcast 112: Interview with Amy Stanning (Bonus)

“All the brilliant people working on the same thing, at the same time, in the same space, and on the same computer.” That’s how Woody Zuill - who coined the term Mob Programming - describes it. He is our esteemed guest on the podcast, and we spend some time digging into his own experiences mobbing.

This is a fun episode for folks looking for novel ways to improve the certainty of their software. 

Remember to like, share and subscribe on soundcloud or iTunes. It helps us reach more people!

Show notes:

The first Mob Programming Conference is happening May 1 & 2 at the Microsoft NERD Center at MIT in Cambridge MA. - http://mobprogramming.org/mob-programming-conference-may-1-and-2-2016/.

Mob Programming: A Whole Team Approach (Book, work in progress) - https://leanpub.com/mobprogramming

We’re mobbing daily at Cucumber HQ and our host Steve Tooke put a post together at the end of last year  - https://cucumber.io/blog/2015/12/21/the-mob-rules-ok


Mob Programming

Podcast 112: Interview with Scott Durairaj (Bonus)

Today we’re going to be talking about communities of practice and how they can support learning in your company . Communities of Practice are “formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor” [1] 

In the organisations we work with, we encourage those with similar skill sets - testers for example - to get together with others in similar roles, who work in different departments. This wider pool of individuals can then support one another in their day-to-day work. 

It could therefore be said agile faces a paradox; we have all battled for smaller, cross-functional teams to improve communication and learning, but are we now losing out on the wider knowledge held in other departments?

Communities of Practice is addressing this. 

To join us to discuss the subject we’ve invited Emily Webber, an independent agile and lean consultant, who has recently published her book “Building Successful Communities of Practice”. This week’s host, Matt Wynne, is also joined by our podcast regulars, Arti Mathanda and Seb Rose.

You can find out more about Communities of Practice and Emily’s book on her website - http://emilywebber.co.uk/building-successful-communities-of-practice

Let us know your own experiences and thoughts on twitter @cucumberbdd or in the comments below.

You can also find this episode on iTunes - itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/cucumber-podcast-rss/id1078896635

[1] http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/


How Communities of Practice can support learning in your company

In this episode we hear from Andy Lancaster, Head of L&D Content, CIPD and Nicola Josephs, Senior Executive Advisor, CEB on the challenges and opportunities facing L&D professionals now, and in the future. We also chat with Derek Bruce, Head of International Development, ABN AMRO and Alexandra Bode-Tunji, Programme Lead - Skills and Capabilities, TFL about how their organisations are preparing their employees for the future.

Podcast 117: Future L&D

In his best-selling book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge outlines the concept of the ‘learning organisation’. These organisations would be agile, innovative and highly competitive. They would emphasise continual learning and work from a shared vision for all employees. Senge was certainly ahead of his time and 27 years after publication, organisations are still seeking (and often struggling) to embody these ideas. 

In this episode we discuss new research from Towards Maturity into the New Learning Organisation, and we chat to learning professionals from Virgin Media, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and British Heart Foundation to find what becoming a learning organisation has meant for them and what steps they’ve taken to put learning at the heart of their business.

Podcast 126: Learning to learn - a new take on Senge's learning organisation

On the podcast this month, Seb Rose and Steve Tooke speak to Allan Kelly, a well-known agile consultant and long-time friend of the pod. 

**On the podcast the three discuss:***

 - Why agile often just means agile software development. 

 - What companies mean when they say "digital transformation". 

 - Advice for ambitious teams who want to spread agile across the organisation. 

 - Allan's personal story into agile consulting.

 - Why he advocates a #noprojects mindset

 - Why Seb shares Allan's Dear Customer blog post with all his post-graduate students. 

Shownotes:

 - Dear Customer - https://leanpub.com/xanpan/c/Trega15

 - Agile on the Beach - http://agileonthebeach.com/

 - How buildings learn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEqfg2sIH0

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966

 - Allan on Twitter - https://twitter.com/allankellynet

 - Allan's blog - https://www.allankellyassociates.co.uk/

Agile Adoption

On the podcast this month Seb Rose speaks to Henry Coles, the creator of Mutation Testing tool PIT.

Here's how they describe Mutation Testing on the PIT Test website - "Mutation testing is conceptually quite simple. Faults (or mutations) are automatically seeded into your code, then your tests are run. If your tests fail then the mutation is killed, if your tests pass then the mutation lived. The quality of your tests can be gauged from the percentage of mutations killed."

*They discuss:*

 - What is mutation testing?

 - How widely adopted is this approach in the enterprise?

 - When and where should you use mutation testing?

 - What can developers learn from academics? 

 - What are the similarities and differences between Mutation Testing and Property-Based Testing

**Shownotes**

PIT Test - http://pitest.org/

Quick theories (Property-Based Testing tool) - https://github.com/ncredinburgh/QuickTheories

Work at NCR - NCR careers - http://ncredinburgh.com/jobs/

Mutation Testing

The past twelve months have seen enormous changes in the social, political and economic landscapes: new policies and changing market conditions; new ways of working and changing employer/employee relationships; and changing values and demands for accountability and ethical practice.

With businesses changing seemingly faster than ever before, the role of HR and L&D professionals has never been more important.

In this episode we explore what top HR, L&D and business experts see as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing organisations and people professionals in 2018. We look at leadership, collaboration, technology and organisational agility and how HR and L&D roles in each of these areas contributes to making businesses more productive and ultimately more successful.

Podcast 132: Look Ahead 2018

On the podcast this month we discuss sexual harassment in tech. It's a subject that's been broadly covered in the news and we wanted to explore the experiences of women in tech and practical things we can all do to combat sexual harassment in our own communities. 

Your host Matt Wynne is joined by Sal Freudenberg, Arti Mathanda, Liz Keogh and Melissa Perri.

Share your thoughts on Twitter - https://twitter.com/cucumberbdd

Sexual Harassment in Tech

This month on the Cucumber podcast, Aslak Hellesøy and Steve Tooke speak to Kenny Baas and Bruno Boucard about the relationship between Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD). 

While both share many similarities, there isn't a great deal of crossover between the two communities. Our two guests want to change that by demonstrating that both practices and communities have more in common than they may think. 

### Show notes

[Kenny's article about DDD<>BDD](http://blog.xebia.com/combining-domain-driven-design-and-behaviour-driven-development/)

[Bruno on Twitter](https://twitter.com/brunoboucard)/ [Kenny on Twitter](https://twitter.com/kenny_baas)

[DDD conference in Denver, Sept 2018](http://exploreddd.com/)

[Event Storming introduction](http://ziobrando.blogspot.com/2013/11/introducing-event-storming.html)

[Example Mapping introduction](https://cucumber.io/blog/2015/12/08/example-mapping-introduction)

[Kanddinsky Conference, Berlin, October 2018](https://kandddinsky.de/)

[Cucumber on Twitter](https://twitter.com/cucumberbdd)

BDD and DDD

This month on the Cucumber Podcast, Sal Freudenberg and Matt Wynne speak to Rebecca Wirfs Brock. Rebecca is probably best known as an author of Designing Object-Oriented Software (1990) and Object Design (2002) and works as an independent software consultant based in Portland.

For the past couple of months, Rebecca has occasionally jumped on the Cucumber Pro Mob (mob programming) to watch the team, observe the team's heuristics, and contribute to the product. The conversation follows that journey and how other teams out there can notice their own heuristics and ultimately deliver higher-quality software. 

You can find Rebecca on Twitter - https://twitter.com/rebeccawb

Observing heuristics

A monthly podcast for people who want to find new ways to deliver high-quality software products. We talk to practitioners, authors, and interesting people who are trying to make a positive difference.

Write to us! Tell us who we should interview, what topics you'd like covered or anything else at hello@cucumber.io. 

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