Be surprised we see a bit of a delay there. Okay, here we go
Lindsey Lee Hobson. I am so excited for you to be the finale of this day long Fiesta of lessons learned in focus areas for 2024 Thank you
for being here. I'm standing here my Christmas. I've got my coffee because first thing on a Friday morning and I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Of
course. Well, your energy is just matching mine. As we chatted in the pre live. You asked how I was doing after such a long day and I was like I'm great. The energy that I get from doing these kinds of events is through the roof and you're in my energy together is quite lovely. So this is going to be an amazing 30 minutes together. So before we dive into your lessons for anyone who's listening that might not know you, and this is being recorded, so for any listeners who listen to this conversation later, Lindsay give us in a few words or maybe a sentence. Who are you in the world of learning and development
I can see a couple of people on the call and the wrestler Katie who know me already but for those who don't know my name is pointedly obstinate, I work specifically with both thinking organizations to elevate leaders and create the ultimate next generation of leadership. I'm also found a company called the Learning and Development collective my driven and passionate l&d professionals come together to exchange trendy topics, innovative ideas and the best place for their training calendars. And that's my elevator pitch. Karolina
it's a beautiful elevator pitch and I can tell that you are very practiced and sharing it. And if I could share one or two words from all of that beautiful content, it's that you really care about learning and development professionals having the trends and insights and information they need to do great work.
I say that right? So lately what a lovely way to put it. I'm gonna take that from now on.
Awesome. Well, again, a pleasure to have you here and it's such a pleasure to have you wrapping up this day long event of sharing information for us all to improve our work and ultimately elevate the industry of learning because learning is truly a tool for growth and change and ultimately making the world a better place. And I believe that each and every person who is listening to this live or listening to this recorded conversation, they are in this sector because they care about using learning as a tool for that important growth. And we want to know how can we continue to incrementally improve the quality of our work and let's be honest, the quality of our lives. And so, to help us with that, Lindsay, you have a learning and development collective. You host a community. You do training you pair people who are looking for speakers with speakers, so you're doing a lot of incredible work. Tell us what are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned out of all the things that you've done and pursued in 2023?
So member base is very much relationship began during COVID. For those who don't know, began during COVID. And when I was talking to emerging leaders clients, and they had a lot of questions about what was happening out there in the market. What other l&d professionals were doing, and how they were overcoming the digital challenges and what their budgets look like and redundancies and those sorts of things that I was Chinese whispers or I can get you on a Zoom Room and you can add yourself which would be more beneficial. So we were originally a word of mouth and invite only from myself or other members. Or we grew organically that way. And what I really liked with that is it definitely has a glass ceiling around how many people could join because only so many people that we cannot talk to you in a day. Of course, well, it's my passion and I'm doing nothing else. But this. l&d professionals have entire lives lives that don't involve my collective. So which which is absolutely amazing. And I wanted to grow faster than we could but not only that, people are missing out on things and that's what was really can make people would find out about things to the fact and because we couldn't spread the word fast enough. And I wish I could be there. I'm so disappointed. You have to get involved with the next thing, which is an amazing feeling in one sense, but on the other side. It was so disappointing. So I wanted them to have that experience and they wanted that experience. So one of the things are doing that through 2023 is absolutely relationships have to make everything and still to this day. Our members are invite only for myself or other members and I make every single one of them as they come into the membership as well. So we have a conversation and I share how they can get value out of the community. But you still need to be more visible to people that have the ability for them to see what's happening outside of you telling them because again, if we've got over 500 Members, I can't tell 500 people personally and not everybody sees emails and things and LinkedIn posts, what's going on. So I needed to find a way to make what we were doing more visible to our members but for others as well so they could get involved and we didn't have to have those disappointing conversations about what they've missed. And they could have gotten out of it because that was always very sad. So that's one of the things I've definitely worked through and rectified.
Yeah, that piece about visibility, whether you're in the position that you're in and you are a host of a learning and development collective or you are a learning and development professional that is either internal and builds amazing learning experiences, and people either don't know about them, or similarly they learn about them after the fact and wonder why they weren't invited. This visibility piece is big, and it's not just for business owners. It's sort of for everybody, that we do great work, and sometimes people just don't know about it. And how do we overcome that? And I'm sure Lindsey, you will have how you will be overcoming that visibility challenge as we talk about what you're focusing on next year. But before we jump to that, what are some of the other big lessons that you've taken away from all of your great work this
year? Yeah, for sure. So I'm an Aries and if anyone knows what that means, they know what that means. And me and plans don't go together meaning spontaneity and impulsive behavior. Definitely go together. I've always shied away from making plans for us as a collective and then particularly leaned on what do you want to do this year's what's what's fun, like what can we achieve? What do you what experiences what do you want to wear? What new technology Shall we try? And last year as we are this year started, we're still in 23 when we entered 2023 A lot of people were asking me what I have planned for the collective. And I was like, I don't know let's see where the wind takes. What I didn't realize until about July or this is what they were really asking me for which is like some sort of plan something they can put in their diary, something that's a little bit more solid than just let's see where the wind takes us because most people will laugh and I am so one of the things that we're doing differently next year. And one of the things I really liked this year is having a plan in place with a calendar of events is super important, but that doesn't mean you have to be locked into it. So if you don't have enough wiggle room in it, you won't miss the cool fun and positive things that my spirit yearns for. But at the same time, you'll be able to organize your life, organize things around what's happening, decide what you want to do on advance and make sure that you can be there. So again, you have to have those discipline conversations. Definitely the next thing would be Yeah,
so visibility and planning. I am going to ask you a follow up question on the planning piece. I think so many of us we have audiences we have learners or employees or community members. What have you learned that works the best about determining and prioritizing what should you include in your plan because you can do anything I mean, that's the benefit, right? You could literally offer anything. So how do you prioritize that?
Great question. And that was one of the challenges I had with it because I wanted to do everything and also didn't want to miss any last minute opportunities. So I approached by being really in tune with what our members were looking for. So we did lots of polls in the group. We sent emails around asking my continent conversations with people in our actual forum sessions. Little pieces would pop up and from there, I could collect all the data and then go, okay, so what do we want to do? And then what's also plausible, so for example, one of the in person things we've never run an in person learning experience. I've always been virtual and in person events, we've always kind of go casual. So we wanted to do an in person event next year, particularly the second half of what was voted for and what our members were particularly interested in doing was the l&d retreat. So I looked into it and it wasn't feasible to do was such a short run in so we will definitely do that in one of the following years. So because for example that was what they wanted, but it wasn't something that we could do. On that timeframe. We put that to one side or the backburner for another year and now we're assessing other opportunities for adverse events that we can put together, because that's with all the opportunity to collecting them and then looking at what can be done and what can't be done all in alignment with what is most beneficial with the community in mind and what they're looking to do, what they would like to learn and how they would like to evolve as l&d professionals as well.
And it's great to me it sounds like a combination of some organic like trial and error originally with some really intentional data collection, and then some strategy around what makes sense from the triangulating the goals of the community with timing and finances and just time involved in putting all that together. That makes a lot of sense. I think sometimes we over prioritize what people want and we under prioritize what's feasible for us to do. And it's great to say yes to all things and then you stress yourself out and you overcome it. And then the quality isn't what you imagined it might be and so I really am happy to hear that you're balancing your needs along with the interests and ideas and values of those that are in your community. That sounds fantastic.
Absolutely. And and to above and beyond that happens I found in communities if you just do what everybody is looking to do, you end up doing lots of things that don't fully succeed, or shape or form because they're all small groups and small pockets. And because of that the results that we're looking to be achieved often by those members who wanted to do that one thing and not necessarily achieved. So finding a common denominator. For example, if you have one of the things we did this year was a festival in the metaverse and we did that because we had a lot of different people wanting to do lots of different things. And we found a way to pull it all together that made sense for the majority of the community and we'll still achieve those outcomes. So we're much thinking outside the box to to add one of the things we said
well, that's great. And you mentioned that you were a virtual first community and so there's a lot of value and thinking okay, how can because virtual usually means accessible. When you're doing things in person, it cuts off so many accessibility pieces because then you can't really record an in person experience. It's just not the same. There's a lot of other things to coordinate and so I think when you started your community, you had that technology first that sort of virtual and accessible first and now you're adding in these other pieces once people already have a connection because once you have connection with people then of course you want to go in person. You can't help yourself, you want to extend those relationships outside of the virtual world.
So true and absolutely what we're doing. Yeah.
So now let's lean into what you'll be focusing on in the new year. So the lessons learned are super important and wonderful reminders. And I really want to start with this visibility piece because I know that each and every one of us has that challenge and probably it shows up in different ways. But visibility, exposure, just letting the world know that what you're doing is out there. That's something we all resonate with. So what have you decided to focus on to help address that visibility challenge?
So took us a long time to figure out how we were going to overcome. Let's say we I mean me and all my personalities, how we were going to overcome this particular challenge because the average open rate on anybody's emails doesn't matter which company you are is around 20 to 30%. And we've got about 80% of people aren't finding out about us that way and not everybody checks LinkedIn. So we looked at multiple options, what we landed on was publishing. Don't have events on LinkedIn page because we can then pull that through an iframe or something like that to our website. People who don't, we can still publish in the one place it's one source of truth and automatically pulled through to our website, if anyone shows that and then continue to let everybody know, better communication in our sessions as well, just by letting people know what's happening next. That helps a lot during our sessions and calendar invites. So we've been doing this throughout us membership websites, our existence actually but we only ever sent the next calendar invites to our members to the next events. So yesterday the pool members received that 10 different calendar invites for the forum and then other groups received more than one for the different things as well. So having that in people's diaries. Feedback is really useful for people even though it's, oh no, this is so many emails, that has been appreciated. So that's good. And so that's how we decided to overcome it. I
love the one source of truth. And I think when you've got a lot of things going on and they're in different platforms and we do we each use email, text, LinkedIn, or your other social media platform of choice, and then your website, right, we're sending people and communicating with people in all these different places and it's overwhelming and it's a burden. And so I appreciate that one source of truth. And in transparency, that's feedback that I'm also getting myself and from someone who's managing whether it's you're managing a community of practice or you're managing a learning program, when you have all those different technological components. It's a lot to administrate yourself and it's easy to drop balls and easy to not have the quality of experience that you're wanting. So yeah, that one source of truth makes so much sense. And of course, you probably can anticipate my question how did you how did you come to that one source of truth as helping people by using the diary or the schedule to manage all the things that are going on? How How did you come to that being the priority?
So I back when I was an employee I was in marketing and sales and I knew from that point in time, whilst people like to check out to different places, if you can keep it on a sale officially come to you. You just need to that's where they get it. So that was already something I had in my head as the best option, but trying to find what was best because, for example, how many people have ever tried using a project management system, and it becomes more of a hassle to put things in there than to and communicate it. That was my promise. We're trying to find something that was going to be useful and Hendricks was the tricky part more so.
Yeah. I love the idea to have having using a platform where people are already communicating or used to communicating. So you know, being a part of your community. I know that LinkedIn has been something you've been doing for a long time. So people are they're already there. They're familiar with that, but then how you can pull it through into a place that also works for you, which sounds like is your website and keeping all those things integrated? And thank goodness for technology that's so much easier to do now than ever before. I'm so grateful for the time that we live in today for all of us doing entrepreneurial activities.
Yes. Absolutely. I mean, without it we never would have met which is sad. But yeah, here
we are. Exactly. So we are at the point in our 30 minutes where we can open things up for questions. And Lindsey you have so much more stories and expertise that you can share based upon the challenges or things that others are experiencing who are tuning in. So if you would like to ask Lindsay or myself a question related to whether it's community building or some of these challenges that Lindsay is, you know, overcoming through her strategies, please do raise your hand we'll bring you up on stage and we can dig in a little bit more. So have a think about what question you might want to ask. And I'll kick us off by asking my own question. And Lindsey that is, how will you know that these strategies or solutions that you've put in place how will you know they're working? What are some of those indicators or things you plan on monitoring that will help you go this is working or this isn't working? And then adjust accordingly?
Absolutely. So we the first one would obviously be people and no longer saves me. I'm so bummed I missed out on yet. So that's my first indicator. But secondly, that our member numbers are growing faster than they were before and we actually did a little litmus test on this strategy before we implemented it with our for our Christmas party, which those who are members like grasp on Katie may have seen we've had publish that event as an event on LinkedIn. And then we were walking on members to attend others in l&d, who hadn't necessarily yet realized that they didn't flash into the forum, you know, because you can send these things out but doesn't mean everybody sees them, inviting them. That way as well. So we were rolling as a result of that little litmus test, which was fabulous. And there wasn't a single person who said to me, I know I missed the Christmas party off the back of it. So it definitely worked. So there are two key metrics we're looking for originally, but the third one to add to that is a place for people to be able to go and see the events. We used to get asked on a semi regular basis and can we be me my personalities on a semi basis that where can we see what's happening? Where can we see what's coming up when the stage for this event? And I don't have nowhere to send them other than just tell them so now that we'll have that ability to send people to that page will be able to see if they register or not, or if they have any further questions and things and that will be useful as well. So there are three things that we are using it for but the two first ones we've already tested.
With success. That's great, and it's so simple. And one of our previous conversations today, I asked the same question to the industry leader and she said how I feel is going to be the indicator that I'm moving in the right direction. And I always like to call out that data indicators. are all around us and they can be small and simple. A lot of times people overcomplicate metrics, and, you know it can be as simple as I feel really good about what's going on and I'm checking in regularly or it can be as simple as people aren't saying how disappointed they are that they missed an event and that you can kind of gut check that frequency has gone down as a result of your systems and solutions. And so, yeah, start simple, don't overcomplicate the indicators that you use to know you're going in the right direction.
So Senator,
yeah, since we haven't had any takers for questions, I'm gonna keep putting them on you because I love getting your expertise. Everything that you've done has always helped me in my own work. And so another question for you. And that is, you've had this community. How many years has it been now Lindsay? Is it three or four or two? I honestly I don't even know I suppose I've known you my whole life.
We had our second birthday in September,
two years. So you've shared some of the lessons learned where you've been in the weeds. If you were somebody who was starting a community, whether it's a community of practice or a membership, program, I think there's a lot of opportunity and learning and development for using those kinds of tools to help people connect to share best practices more organically than doing more formal learning. If somebody was starting that from the beginning, what would you tell them to do thinking through all this? You've been in the weeds and you've learned things and you've course corrected but if you want to start out with minimal course corrections and sort of start right or on the right foot? What would you tell them to do thinking through these lessons that you've shared with us today?
This question I get asked this question quite a lot. And there's three key things one of them is be really clear on the outcomes for the community. So for our community is creating safe space for people to be able to connect with each other and support each other and everything else going on from that? Second thing is have zero idea on how you going to achieve that because if you set your mind, it has to look a certain way I guarantee you, you end up serving your ideas and not the ideas of your community and if it's not gonna work, then you're not going to achieve your outcome. So be super open minded on how you would or could look and you can tap into your potential members or your members for that and have a look at what's around as well and see, you feel might work as to what other businesses or other memberships or other companies are doing with their team members. And that's something that to begin with, but continue to evolve it. And thirdly, understand that building anything is like a ladder. Do you remember that game Doodle Jump on your phone where you had the little guy and he jumped from platform to platform and if you missed the platform, you fall down and be very sad.
You remember that? Yeah, sort of
you guys don't remember I highly recommend you looking at so have fun. It's been a lot of my childhood, us playing it, building anything. So just know where you are to begin with, understand what your outcome is, and know that every time you take a step forward, you may not always get it 100% Right, and that's okay. And that's part of being open minded and trying new things. And serving your community as a person, your outcome as opposed to serving your idea of how it has to go. Yeah,
that's so critical in the sense that and I've been guilty of this myself. I've had a couple of different communities of practice that I've tried and they were based on my ideas and my experience of what was a limitation or what was a challenge and then serving up something that would have helped me but I'm just one person and the idea generally was good, but how to deliver on the value could have looked a myriad of ways. And so learning from my own lessons, I'm a big believer in experiment and sometimes if you don't have a pathway, but you feel like okay, I'm going to try a variety of things and then get some good data to know like what worked and what didn't from those pathways. I think to me, that feels like a way of being open minded, and being open to whatever path you do by just setting up experiments and testing out the waters and making sure that you have good data and insights to know what worked and what didn't. But that is where I'm leaving the year this year with yet another series of experiments and feeling really good that I can put a plan in place based on that data and I don't have to have all the answers from the beginning that we can start with a good idea and just let it unfold organically or experimentally and that that can be okay, versus trying to have it all figured out when we start something
lately if you had all the answers to everything you would be president of the world already. So
that's right. And you mentioned at the end when we went backstage just now you said that your goals are lnd World Takeover and it sounds like the pathway for that is unclear but that that's by design and that you can offer value and connection and just continue doing all of your great work without having everything figured out and change is just such such a predictable unpredictable sort of rock that we have to walk in our shoes with constantly. And so being comfortable not having a plan entirely or not having it all figured out is a really incredible muscle to build because change is only going to become more unpredictable I imagine as the future of AI and other technologies continue to evolve, evolve.
So agree so agree. You've just gotta roll with it. You know what tomorrow's gonna bring. You have no idea you're gonna get up and be happy and spring it around or if you find yourself in another pandemic, so at the end of the day, just don't give up today and figure it out. Yeah,
well, that sounds like quite an amazing call to action. But if that's not the one you wanted to leave us with, now is the time to share if you're in the world of learning and development, if you're an entrepreneur, or if you're an entrepreneur in learning and development, what would be one thing that you would suggest people do to elevate their work from your experience this year?
That's really true, right? I think the best thing that anyone on this planet can do and particularly l&d, because it's actually critical people it's been really clear on your outcomes, to be really open minded about how they may be achieved because we think it's not necessarily going to be and I found with members of the collective as well. The more open minded you can be the weirder and stranger places you go people that businesses don't regularly say noticing that you have evidence and passion. They regularly say notice that they think or not going to work because they can't see it in your the way you're communicating it with them. So back yourself 100% Be clear on what you want to achieve and just go with the flow of the rest of it. Yeah,
that's fantastic. It's a safe call to action. Have a good idea. You don't have to be 100% Clear. But be brave and bold and be okay with being the flow or riding the wave as they say as things organically come
to the present. Yes, amen to that.
Well, thank you Lindsey. For this time, thank you, our small and mighty group of listeners for tuning into this conversation. I always enjoy our time together. Lindsay, thank you for sharing your wisdom and listeners. Thank you for giving your time to us as we unpacked Lindsay's lessons learned and focus areas for next year. Thank you again, enjoy the rest of your day. And we'll see you on LinkedIn. Thanks, Lana. Thanks, everyone. Take care Buh bye.