This episode contains a recording from a panel for the Service Now Skills Intelligence accelerator. Host Kelly Ryan Bailey was joined by Dr. Yustina Saleh, Kristen Steuben, and Nancy Romanyshyn. With a special guest appearance by Kelley Steven-Waiss - Founder of Hitch.works and an audience of CHROs, the panel discussed the daily challenges of helping leaders grow and optimize their talent.  

This episode is sponsored by Visier, the market leader in workforce analytics with a purpose to reveal the human truth about your workforce to contribute to a better future. Learn more at visier.com.

Guest Social Handles and Websites:

Yustina Saleh LinkedIn / Visier

Krista Steuben LinkedIn / PayScale

Nancy Romanyshyn LinkedIn / Syndio

Keep up with us at Skillsbaby.com

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

This week’s episode features not one, but two guests! Kelly sits down with Phil Komarny, the Chief Innovation Officer at Maryville University, and Dr. Mark Lombardi, the President of Maryville University, and co-author of the book Pivot – A Vision for the new University.

They talk about the technological approach they are using to center students in their own educational journeys, so learners can discover the pedagogy that best works for them, and collectively we can create better access to higher education at an affordable price and in a flexible way.  

Takeaways: 

1. The reality is that everyone can be successful & achieve & learn. You just have to find the right key to unlock that lock.  

2. Empowering students means you're not the sage on the stage anymore--you're the guide on the side.  

3. Revolution in higher ed has to be based on the student, on student data, and on the democratization of knowledge. 

Follow Phil, Mark, and Maryville University on LinkedIn and Twitter.  

Learn more at https://www.maryville.edu/ 

Skillsbaby.com  

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

Kelly is joined by Bill Jensen for some truly inspiring conversation about following your passions and living your best life. Bill is the CEO of the Jensen Group, a best-selling author eight times over, a global speaker, thought leader, futurist, and simpleton. 

He believes in simplicity, and that we can make everything simple if we design backward from the receiver's needs.  

Check out his new book “The Day Tomorrow Said No”.

Big Takeaways: 

1. The way we have learned throughout human history is by telling stories. To make things easy to understand, we simply tell a story.  

2. The most important number in business is 1440 - the number of minutes in a day. None of us get any more than that so we have to use them right.  

3. The top skills for success are the 3 P's: Perseverance, Personal Agility, and Passion. 

Skillsbaby.com  

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

To kick off Season 3, Kelly sat down with the amazing Van Ton-Quinlivan to discuss how the healthcare industry is changing and what she believes the future healthcare workforce will need to succeed. Van is the CEO at Futuro Health, the host of Workforce RX podcast, and best-selling author of her newly published book titled “Workforce RX.” 

Van believes “at this moment in time, we just need all hands on deck, all parties, whether you're an employer, whether you're an educator, a public policymaker citizen all of us need to have all hands on deck to match workers with the right skills for the right jobs.” 

Big Takeaways: 

1. The new norm is that we're all constantly needing to upgrade our skills. This means that we have to design "on-ramps" for adults - who don't have the appetite for cumbersome degrees that have a brief shelf life - to skill up.  

2. Historically there has been a big gulf between education and employment, but at this moment in time, given the state of the country and even all the updates in public policy, there's a call to bring those two worlds together.  

3. Healthcare workers today must have 3 main competencies: clinical skills, technological skills, and cultural competence. 

Skillsbaby.com 

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

Welcome to season three of Let's Talk About Skills, Baby! This season, our theme is the great resignation. Not only have so many people been shifting jobs, paths, and careers at an accelerated rate, but organizations and educators are struggling to keep up with the shifts as well.

Each episode will feature a guest exploring their experience of change and how they are innovating during this challenging time. So, tune in to learn what skills and strategies can be most helpful for you in navigating this change!

skillsbaby.com

This is a Growth Network Podcasts production.

Kelly Ryan Bailey is joined by Producer Sari Weinerman and Entrepreneur in Residence Michelle Smith, to discuss the behind-the-scenes process of making our sister podcast Got Skills.  

Learn why they felt a bite-sized show for career seekers was so important to build, what to expect in future seasons, and what they learned while making it! 

Big Takeaways: 

1. There is so much language in societal narratives that tries to separate work and life, maintaining they are two distinct things that need to be balanced. But actually, work and life can’t be separated. They exist together like colors blended on a palette.   
2. We have spent really the better part of the last century planning our lives around work - planning where we live around where our office is located. But there has been much greater flexibility in that over the past decade and we are so glad to see it continuing to grow.  
3. Everybody's kind of going around using their own vocabulary when discussing skills. We want to be able to dissect it from each different perspective, so eventually, everyone can speak the same skills language. 

Check out Got Skills wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more about Sari and Michelle at skillsbaby.com 

In this special episode, host Kelly Ryan Bailey is joined by Lynz Floren, GM, and Executive Producer at Growth Network Podcasts to discuss his career transition during the Great Resignation. Lynz went from his marketing job for the LA County Bar Association to starting a podcast company! Learn what skills he used to make this transition, and why he feels we shouldn’t follow our passions, but our curiosities.  

Big Takeaways: 

1. Sometimes people know they are unhappy, but they don’t know what sets them on fire. That’s when they should pursue something they love, whether work-related or not, just to increase their skills. 
2. There are just so many ways we can use our hobbies or interests. What we'll see is that a thing that expressed itself in our teenage years resurfaced in our twenties, in our thirties, and our forties, until it was treated with the dignity it deserved and given a spot in our lives. 
3. “I would say the number one thing that helped me actually push through from wanting this career to actually doing it was investing in myself. I've been going to therapy almost every week for seven years....that had to help. I've been attending workshops, really intending to learn and network. It sometimes feels like a sideways trip, but I came here with more tools than I would have, had I come directly.” - Lynz Floren 

Learn more about Growth Network Podcasts and check out the other awesome podcasts they produce! 

As a lead-up to Season 3, host Kelly Ryan Bailey is joined by Producer Sari Weinerman and Entrepreneur in Residence Michelle Smith, to discuss why The Great Resignation is the theme for the upcoming season of the podcast.  

The Great Resignation refers to the mass exodus from the workforce we have seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers have had to confront why, where, and how they work, and businesses have had to confront how they operate, compensate employees, and adapt to this big change. Hear from Kelly, Sari, and Michelle about why this is so important, and get a glimpse at what’s to come in Season 3.  

Big Takeaways: 

1. The 9 to 5 workday was created 100 years ago, which is why it makes perfect sense that we are now reckoning with the structures, laws, and skills we need in today’s workforce.  
2. There is a lot of complexity around the ways businesses have to run to survive, which unfortunately often prevent them from providing the necessary benefits to their workers.  
3. “I often wonder why work is still time-based, why we're paid off of the amount of time we work versus the outcome. Something might be able to be accomplished in a shorter amount of time. And does that mean it's less valuable?” - Kelly Ryan Bailey

Check out Got Skills wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more about Sari and Michelle at skillsbaby.com

This is a Growth Network Podcasts production.

The Skill: Strengthening your self-discipline and self-leadership, so you can have the biggest impact. 

This week, we’re diving into Season 1 Episode 7 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode, Kelly speaks with Frank Britt, CEO of Penn Foster Group about the importance of helping others for your own personal journey. He believes we all need people to remind us that we are awesome from time to time and that we all have the opportunity and a responsibility to provide that vote of confidence to others. 

Key Takeaway: Genius comes in many forms, from mental to physical to spiritual, and more. We all have genius inside us, we just have to figure out what that genius is. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts 

The Skill: Cognitive abilities and personality traits. Yep, these are skills!  

This week, we’re diving into Season 1 Episode 9 of Let’s Talk About Skills, Baby where Kelly speaks with Denise Leaser, President of Great Biz Tools, about the skills and competencies-based platform they created to match job seekers with the jobs they were born to do. Denise explains that what they are not assessing is knowledge. Knowledge can always be learned and added in to supplement someone’s innate strengths. Rather, they are assessing innate cognitive skills, abilities, and personality traits. 

Key Takeaway: Instead of trying to measure your knowledge, focus on your capabilities. This will help you find the opportunities that are truly meant for you. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts

The Skill: Emotional Intelligence and Social Capital are two skills that you should consistently work on strengthening to not only improve your hire-ability but your quality of life in general!   

This week, we’re diving into Season 1 Episode 6 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode, Kelly speaks with Gayatri Agnew, Senior director of Walmart Giving at the Walmart Foundation about the immense value of social, emotional, and relational skills, and the power of skills to unlock human potential. 

Key Takeaway: Social capital is not about knowing fancy people, it’s about having relational value in the relationships you do have, and constantly working to add to and grow your relationships.  

Transform your social capital with The Reach Out Party. Learn more at carlyvalancy.com 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts 

The Skill: Being able to develop and articulate your ideas. 

This week, we’re diving into Season 1 Episode 3 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode, Kelly speaks with Elizabeth Leiba, Director of Instructional Design and Innovation at City College in Florida, and Cohost of The EdUp Experience Podcast. They discuss the types of skills Elizabeth feels students should work on strengthening most during their higher education experience, and that while the practical application of these skills in the workplace often looks very different from their application in academia, they are actually highly relevant.  

Key Takeaway: Being able to articulate your ideas, and write and speak in a way that explains them clearly to others is really the currency in the workplace.  

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts

Join Kelly as she sits down with Kelley Steven-Waiss to discuss what skills have fueled her career. Kelley is the Founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Product Officer of Hitch Works, a skills intelligence and talent mobility platform. She talks about why she is so passionate about revolutionizing HR practices, what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and why she wants to increase access to education and skill-building opportunities.  

Kelley believes in disrupting HR to allow for jungle gym careers.  

Takeaways: 

1. One of the most interesting things about humans is that we are amalgamations of our life experiences and our professional experiences.  
2. Leverage your network, do your homework, and then be fearless.    
3. I would argue that the more adversity you have, the better you can overcome objections or difficulties in the future.  

Follow Kelley on LinkedIn and Twitter and learn more at hitch.works 

Skillsbaby.com  

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

The Skill: Blending your various interests into one niche perspective. 

This week, we’re diving into Season 1 Episode 2 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode host, Kelly Ryan Bailey speaks with Tony Tsai, Director of Leadership Development at University of Utah’s School of Medicine about the changes to higher education that he feels would most benefit students. Tony believes that while every student chooses a degree to pursue, they are still responsible for their own skillset. It is not enough to just take the classes offered in your program, you really have to take command of your own education, pursue things that interest you, and get a well-rounded exposure to different areas of study. 

Key Takeaway: Higher Education no longer draws a straight line to employment, rather it is a training ground for life’s more durable skills – like how to think critically, manage time, and navigate competing perspectives and deadlines.  

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills

The Skill: Staying Curious 

This week, we’re diving into Season 2 Episode 15 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode host, Kelly Ryan Bailey speaks with Jay Latta, CEO at Stint about the importance of staying curious and creative when it comes to both our professional and personal lives. He is interested in learning what happens when we stop looking at humans as resources and start looking at them as assets, whose constant curiosity fuels our collective development.  

Jay believes our main human need is to stay curious, and that eliminating competition is the key to moving past a scarcity mindset.  

Key Takeaway: Your Skills Story is way more than the tasks you were asked to complete on a job. It explains how your curiosities have manifested into specific skills that will help you continue learning and growing throughout your life. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts 

Subscribe to Got Skills for more episodes!

The Skill: Human skills, that cannot be easily replicated or taught. The ones that continue to make us relevant as technology improves and machines take over many jobs. 

This week, we’re diving into Season 2 Episode 14 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode host, Kelly Ryan Bailey speaks with Leonor Stjepic, CEO of Montessori Group about what she calls essential life skills or human skills. Just so we’re clear, these skills Leonor is referring to are often labeled “soft skills,” however, she is very passionate about changing that vernacular.  

In her experience hiring, she says she has never picked a candidate because of their hard skills or credentials, she picks them for who they are. 

Key Takeaway: A technical skill might help you get a job, but a human skill helps you keep the job, and ultimately grow in the job. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts

Subscribe to Got Skills? for more episodes!

The Skill: Caretaking is a professional skill. Period.  

This week we’re diving into Season 2 Episode 9 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode host, Kelly Ryan Bailey speaks with Riccarda Zezza, CEO of Lifeed. Lifeed is the only learning platform in the world that transforms life transitions and care activities such as parenting, caring for an elderly person, or going through a crisis, into opportunities to train workplace skills.   

Riccarda explains some of the skills that stand out as key learnings from parenthood, and how they directly build essential professional skills. Now, if you’re scratching your head trying to figure out how cleaning spit up or taming a temper tantrum has prepared you for your next job, tune in to learn how!  

Key Takeaway: The more you can see your time spent caretaking as an asset, not a distraction, the more you can tell the complete story of your skills, and more importantly of who you are. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts 

Subscribe to Got Skills on your favorite podcast app for more episodes!

The Skill: Framing Your Life Skills As Professional Skills 

This week, we’re diving into Season 2 Episode 5 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. In this episode host, Kelly Ryan Bailey interviewed Omer Molad, who is the co-founder and CEO of Vervoe, a computer software company that helps organizations make great hiring decisions based on how well candidates can do a job, rather than how good they look on paper. 

Omer discusses why being a generalist rather than a specialist, can be more helpful in the long run of your career, and how you can showcase your life skills as professional skills.  

Key Takeaway: Your past performance isn’t necessarily a predictor of your future success. It’s the collection of skills you’ve honed over time and how you apply them to a new role that determines your success. 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts 

Subscribe to Got Skills wherever you get your podcasts to continue listening!

The Skill: Talking about your skills with a hiring manager 

This week, we’re diving into Season 2 Episode 4 of Let’s Talk About Skills Baby. On this episode, host Kelly Ryan Bailey interviewed Cynthia Hansen who is the head of the Adecco Group Foundation. Being able to frame the skills you have from past experiences to someone who has not worked with you before or is not familiar with your industry, is really important.  

In order to craft the story of your skills, you have to take a critical look at all of the collective personal and professional experiences you’ve had and identify what skills and behaviors you used in each. That way, you can consider and highlight what skills best demonstrate your potential for success in the specific opportunity you are after, and arrange them in an easy-to-follow narrative order. 

Key Takeaway: Sharing your skills story doesn’t only occur in job interviews. The ability to talk about your skills also helps you write a much more effective resume and cover letter! 

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills  

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts   

Subscribe to Got Skills wherever you get your podcasts to continue listening!

Introducing our newest podcast from the Skills Baby Team!

Skills talk is hard. Talking about what you do why you’re good at it is a challenge for most people at all stages of their careers. Introducing, “Got Skills,” a podcast where we explore how to understand the skills you’ve got and talk about them with other people. We’ll help you breeze through the next family reunion, interview, or mentorship opportunity by better understanding your skills and how to talk about them!   

Learn more at skillsbaby.com/gotskills 

Got Skills is produced by Growth Network Podcasts  

Season two of Let's Talk About Skills, Baby featured guests from all around the world who are all making an impact on the future of skills. On this special bonus episode, Kelly is joined by Producer Sari Weinerman to discuss the reoccurring themes throughout the season and share some exciting announcements.  

The most prominent themes across the 19 interviews we did this season were social-emotional learning, transferable skills across industries, re-imagining education systems, and achieving equity through skills-based hiring. Get a glimpse at what we learned about these themes, and hear about our new show Got Skills! 

Takeaways:  

• (6:00) “Learning happens all the time in every interaction that you have. I feel like this moment, not only will teach parents, that learning is happening all the time, but that we can start checking in with students' emotions.” 
• (12:00) “Skills are something that you don't just pick up one time and you know, it forever. I tend to use the analogy of either parenting or playing sports, I didn't just pick up a basketball and become amazing at basketball that day, I worked at it every day for years. And as a parent, you're working at those skills every day, all the time at home and at work.” 
• (18:00) “For a person applying to a job right now, remember that the systems are set up to read basic skill information from your CV or resume, and on there are your basics, it's your education, it's the last jobs you held...Is that really a true picture of what you're capable of? No is the answer it's not a good picture, and that's such a shame.” 

Skillsbaby.com/gotskills 

For a long time now, skills assessments have been fairly unreliable. Asking a candidate for a review of their skills will only provide one-sided feedback. Trusting anonymous credentials is also not providing a clear enough picture. That is where Skill Survey comes in. They are working to create a system where peer feedback will help tell the skills stories we need to hear for most effective hiring.  

Hear from Randy Bitting, Co-Founder of the Career Readiness Project, and Jake Burke, VP of Sales at Skill Survey, about how changing the way we collect and report on skills data will help all involved.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (9:15) The gap between who a student thinks they are and how they present themselves to the world can be very large. It's the role of the career services or student employment supervisor to point out that gap so the student can take it with them on their journey to their first full-time job. 
• (12:33) The big shift is from hard skills to soft skills; hard skills are typically what you're hired for, and soft skills (or behavioral competencies) are either the reason you're let go or the reason you grow in a certain position. 
• (23:28) Punctuality and attendance are in the top 10 areas that students and job candidates need to improve nationwide, and they are a huge predictor of future success. 

Skillsurvey.com/career-readiness 

Let’s talk about finding your passion. Sometimes it is less than obvious, but it is always a journey! Kelly is joined by Fumbi Chima, CIO and Executive Vice President at BECU to discuss her career journey, and the skills she honed along the way. One of the most important skills being curiosity. Staying curious and constantly innovating was the key to Fumbi’s amazing success!  

Fumbi believes you have to ask for help and not be afraid of doing so.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (8:29) It's not being scared to say 'here's what I want to do--here's my aspiration.' It's the admission of 'yes, this is what I want and this is who I want to be' that is so important.
• (11:06) "I ascribe innovation to natural curiosity. Whether it's process, functionality, or people; how do you refine it? I'm constantly curious, trying to make things just a little bit better than they were before." 
• (15:35) I would say 'no' is not an option. 'I cannot' is not an option either, because you've got to explore everything. Ask for help. Tell people what your aspirations are so they can find ways to help you. 

BECU.org

Skillsbaby.com

Kelly is joined by Fernando Rodriguez-Villa. Fernando is the co-founder and chief executive officer of AdeptID. They discuss their shared passion to make job mobility easier for everyone, regardless of their level of education, applying machine learning to transferrable skills, and why it can be so challenging to talk about skills. 

Learn how Fernando is using similar AI to Netflix to better match skills to jobs.  

Takeaways: 

1. “All the really exciting things I’ve learned, I learned after I graduated from school.” 
2. It’s impossible to disentangle technology from the people who make it, which is why it’s so important to have diverse, representative teams building our tech.  
3. Being able to align something you want to have happen in the world with your personality and your business model is the ultimate goal.  

Follow Fernando on LinkedIn and Twitter @frodriguezvilla 

Learn more at adept-id.com 

Skillsbaby.com

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

Let’s talk about society’s data issue. In today’s world, we’ve got a bunch of things that should be happening with our data that aren't and a bunch of things that shouldn't be happening with our data that are. When it comes to skills, why isn’t our data more readily accessible to us? Why should we have to pay our colleges and educational institutions for copies of our transcripts and degrees? Matt Gee, data scientist, and CEO at BrightHive joins Kelly to discuss what liberating skills data would do for the future of learning and work.  

Matt believes that liberating skills data will allow a lot more people to be gainfully employed, loving what they do. 

Big Takeaways:  

• (5:49) We've got a bunch of things that should be happening with data that aren't and a bunch of things that shouldn't be happening with our data that are happening all the time. We've got to renegotiate the social contract around data. 
• (10:39) Liberating skills data is a key part of helping everyone have more direct control over their own stories and outcomes.  
• (26:07) If we can provide everyone with a higher level of insight into themselves and the market, we'll end up with a lot more folks, not just gainfully employed, but loving what they do and able to adapt to changes as they come. 

Brighthive.io 

SkillsBaby.com

Struggle is relative, but no matter how deep, can lead to the discovery of your purpose. In this episode, Kelly is joined by Michelle Daniel, founding member and chair of the board of Constructing Our Future. She is interested in the collateral consequences of criminal convictions for people and families directly impacted by mass incarceration. Through her own experience with incarceration and her journey to re-entry, Michelle developed an incredible passion for helping other incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women survive and thrive. Her work with Constructing Our Future is committed to removing the stigma of incarceration so that people that re-enter society and find both support and success.  

Michelle’s favorite quote is “To whom much is given, much is required.” 

Big Takeaways:  

• (24:50) Constructing Our Future is a transitional safe, welcoming home for formerly incarcerated women. When they are living in our home, they have two options on the educational track or construction track so that they can either finish a credential that they started in prison or before, and didn't get done, or they can go the vocational track. 
• (29:55) There are over 45,000 collateral consequences of criminal convictions that are legal barriers to formerly incarcerated people reentering society. But legal derives from the social and the social collateral consequences of criminal convictions literally apply a taint of criminality upon formerly incarcerated people that follow them throughout their entire life. 
• (34:00) I would say "To whom much is given much is required." And if you look about your life and you see that you have, you are required to give. You haven't been given just for your own personal enjoyment--much is required of you beyond yourself. And when you find what that thing is that you're supposed to be doing for others, you will have a warmer heart, you will sleep better and your life will be far more rewarding." 

Constructingourfuture.com 

Twiiter: @COF_Michelle 

LinkedIn: @Michelle Daniel 

IG: @michelle_thetruth and @constructingourfuture 

What happens when we stop looking at humans as resources and start looking at them as assets? Eliminating competition can help us live happier more fulfilled lives where we follow our passions, rather than working to live. Kelly is joined by emerging technology strategist Jay Latta for a conversation on how we can build the future he envisions, so we can move past our scarcity mindset and lead with curiosity.  

Jay believes our main human need is to stay curious.  

Big Takeaways:  

• "My recommendation is mostly reading. Reading starts the fire in your imagination. We need to get back to our curiosity. There are no wrong questions, and there are no wrong answers--it's about discovering. It's about getting curious and listening to what makes you happy." 
• "Ecosystemic thinking is about collaboration and cooperation. It eliminates the outdated idea of competition. You don't need to be the biggest of the biggest simply to become a monopolist – that competitive approach is toxic." 
• "People don't go into corporate jobs to stay for the next 35-40 years anymore. After one & a half or two years, they simply go somewhere else because they're curious. That's how we break out of the linear thinking that you need your career in order to marry, have children, build a house, etc. Linear thinking does not serve our main human need, which is to stay curious." 

Skillsbaby.com

You’ve likely heard about the Montessori group, a framework of education with schools around the globe, that follows the pedagogy created by Marie Montessori in the 1900s. Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning, and collaborative play. It centers on human skills in developmental education. However, because it was built in the 1900s it often is labeled outdated or old-fashioned. Leonor Stjepic, the current CEO of the Montessori Group, joins Kelly to explain why the Montessori method is so relevant and valuable today, and how even as adults, we can employ Montessori teachings to strengthen our essential life skills 

Leonor believes human skills should be called essential life skills because the often-used term “soft skills” does not accurately describe their importance and effect.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (7:00) "[At Montessori] we're teaching children [life skills] at such a young age that they become ingrained, they become muscle memory. It's like when you learn how to drive a car as an adult--once you've learned and you've driven several times, you do it because you remember how to do it. You have that skill now. We're teaching these young children to have essential life skills, and I refuse to call them soft skills because they're not soft skills." 
• (20:00)"I've always employed people based on who they are as people rather than what skills they have. You can get some people who look amazing on paper and are awful employees because they're missing key human skills. And I've employed people who don't have qualifications or haven't finished school and they've been brilliant."  
• (25:00) "Teams are all about building relationships, respecting differences (because not everybody's the same), and being able to work with people you don't like--that's a really important skill. You have to be able to show them respect. You have to be able to interact with your customers or stakeholders, and that's all about relationships. It's all about being a well-rounded human being." 

Montessori-group.com 

Resilience is the key to thriving in a time of crisis. Resilience is an immensely valuable skill that is like a muscle needing to be used, trained, and built. In this episode, Kelly is joined by Amelie Yan Gouiffes. Amelie is a coach, speaker, and author specializing in resilience building and thriving in the time of crisis. Her experience speaking many languages and living and working all around the world gives her valuable insight into the skills it takes to succeed in times of flourishing and in times of crisis.  

Amelie dreams of a world where we can all belong and become.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (6:55) If you look at continents like Africa that are used to crises, they are managing much better through Covid than us in the Western world because we aren't used to it. Our resilience is not that strong because we've not practiced. 
• (12:56) When I worked with communities, instead of telling them what to do or guiding them or advising them, I wanted them to connect with their inner wisdom, their inner knowledge, because it's really empowering when you're able to do that. 
• (14:42) The main thing I'm hearing from team leaders in Spain and France is: 'Amelie, before Covid I was coming to work and not asking my people how they're doing because we wanted to focus on work... Now I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think is of my people. I don't know how to tell them how important they are to me. I don't know how to ask them about how they feel and listen to what they have to say because I've never done that. 

 Amelie Speaks: www.ameliespeaks.com 

EPitch Mastery Course

Book : Speak And Live Your Legacy

Did you know students spend only 20% of their time in the classroom? This means they are only focused on dedicated learning 20% of the time. That leaves huge opportunities for creating learning spaces outside of classrooms. Lifelong learning doesn’t only happen behind a desk, it should and could happen at the grocery store, the bus stop, or anywhere else. That is what Sebastien Turbot is dedicated to unveiling with his work. To build learning ecosystems at the city level, beyond traditional educational models. Sebastien is the CEO and chief strategist of EKO6, a Canadian-based consultancy that guides governments, cities, businesses, and civil society, and creating, engaging platforms that turn ideas into action, as well as a research fellow at WISE, the World Innovation Summit for Education. 

Sebastien believes education must be less siloed and support learner agency.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (8:00) “We have 21st-century students with 20th-century teachers, a 19th-century curriculum, and an 18th-century school calendar... how do we move away from that? Making sure that learning and education is less siloed, more connected to the real world. It's really about lifelong learning.” 
• (18:00) “This link between formal and informal really encourages a skills-based learning approach...It's hard skills, soft skills, social, emotional skills, collaboration, communication, creativity, empathy, foresight, [and] adaptability. So skills are really front and center of this learning ecosystems conversation.” 
• (28:00)“For me, personalized learning has been kind of taken over by the tech conversation [its] how do we develop software and algorithms that can push content to me depending on how the software assesses my level in any given topic... [instead,] how can we design systems where the learners are really in the driver's seat of their own learning?” 

Follow Sebastian: on Twitter @sturbo 

Linkedin: @Sebastien Turbot 

Follow @ekosixcommunities 

WISE - World Innovation Summit For Education

One of the most effective ways to hone life skills is through immersing yourself in other places and other cultures. Whether through books, podcasts, or actual travel, diving into other people’s stories helps you develop empathy and understanding. Kelly talks to Kyra Assibey-Bonsu about the skills she developed while traveling the world, and how that inspires her work at Blackspace, an organization that utilizes the black space manifesto for neighborhood design strategy in Black and Brown communities 

Kyra believes storytelling provides everyone with the ability to empathize and understand the marginalized and unheard voices that are not commonly foregrounded in media, history books, and beyond. 

Big Takeaways:  

• (12:30) The Blackspace manifesto “enables you to walk in a way in which you are empathizing or at least actively listening...one of the principles is be a humble listener...you don't listen to respond, you listen to actually listen.” 
• (16:00)” I do think it's incredibly crucial that we walk in a world with an empathetic eye and that we are more cognizant of the struggles of those that we don't typically see.” 
• (17:00)” Whether it is, you can travel physically traveling in your mind through books, through stories or audio stories of conversations are important...you can travel to those places by movies, by audiobooks, by reading, and that's one thing...I hope that everyone is also still making an effort to really broaden their mind in a way that will lead to a better society.” 

Blackspace

Follow Kyra: IG @kymab  

LinkedIn: @Kyra Assibey Bonsu 

Twitter: @KyraBonsu (https://twitter.com/KyraBonsu/) 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyra.bonsu 

Podcast Instagram: No Country for Moving  

The future of skills is at the intersection of technical skills for the digital economy, higher cognitive functioning, and social-emotional learning. The way we look at our education structures needs to shift in order to satisfy these future-ready skills needs. This week, Kelly is joined by Mark Sparvell, an award-winning educator with over twenty-five years of experience leading improvement for schools, systems, higher ed, and professional associations. In his current role with Microsoft, Mark is interested in how we can empower every learner on the planet to achieve more.  

Mark believes the aim isn't to develop second-class robots, it's to develop first-class humans. 

Big Takeaways:  

• (7:00) “Emotions are the gatekeeper to motivation, to cognition and attention. They are the contributing factor to personal success, to organizational success, to health, to well-being, to productivity as an inoculation against uncertainty and ambiguity and stresses in life.” 
• (21:00) “One of the things that I think is the greatest kind of a misname is when people talk about soft skills, because there are a lot harder to learn or a lot harder to apply. And they're hard, unfortunately, to measure, which is what their greatest challenge is because you can't really easily measure that on a standardized test. And we avoid that. Unfortunately, we treasure what we measure.” 
• (30:00) “At the end of the day, you know, we want young people to be able to, get a job, to keep a job. Or to create a job because we know that ultimately if we want young people to be active and informed citizens who are capable of making ethical and responsible decisions and contributing purposefully and positively to society, you know, they need this beautiful blend of this new future in skills.” 

Follow Mark on Twitter @sparvell 

Join Mark’s Facebook Group: Social-Emotional Learning in Education: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SELinEDU 

Microsoft Education  

Workplaces cannot afford to miss out on one of the most valuable resources. Parents, and more specifically, mothers. There is an incredible power that is gained from the responsibility of caregiving that is an asset to any business, organization, or institution. The trick is to apply self-awareness to your experiences so that you can translate them to other opportunities and spaces.  

Kelly is joined by Ricarda Zezza, the founder and CEO of Lifeed to discuss how caregivers can step into their power at work. Lifeed is the only learning platform in the world that transforms life transitions and care activities such as parenting, caring for an elderly person, or going through a crisis into opportunities to train soft skills, or as we like to call them, life skills. 

Riccarda believes that caregiving is a superpower. 

Big Takeaways: 

• (5:28) “What we can do, the kind of caregiving attitudes we have, the capacity we have of communicating, of understanding the instance we have, the empathy we can bring to the workplace, but also to the world they are needed. And we can see that now. I mean, it's pretty clear that the world needs more care.” 
• (7:03) “While our children grow, our mind keeps on growing with them. They change every day and they challenge us to understand every day, a new reality. And that's an incredible exercise of mental agility...It will be easier for you to keep on learning as you are asked to do nowadays.” 
• (20:50) “Time is a very little factor nowadays, because...machines have changed the idea of time. Humans are about capacity. Humans are about attention intuition. It's about creativity. It's about how we manage change or those skills that we only have and machines can have them.” 

Lifeed.io: https://lifeed.io/en/ 

Follow Riccarda on Linkedin @Riccarda Zezza 

Book mentioned: The 100 Year Life by Lynda Grafton: http://www.100yearlife.com/ 

One of the most devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is that social distancing has made learning extra challenging. Particularly, social-emotional learning. The skills such as confidence, and self-awareness that are developed through social-emotional collaboration with others are essential for not only students in school, but adults in any walk of life.

Danielle De La Fuente created an incredible solution to this problem with her work at Amal Alliance. Amal Alliance is a non-governmental non-profit organization that provides displaced and disfranchised children worldwide with social development programs that help cope with the invisible scars of trauma and the learning fundamentals that guarantee them future opportunities to succeed. 

Danielle believes learning can and should take place anywhere and at any time.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (5:50)“Forget about living in a war zone or surviving conflict. Even just in everyday life, you need to really have these bases to be very accepting and just put yourself in other people's shoes and just remove judgment. It really makes for a much better society at large.” 
• (16:15)“Let's look at just self-awareness, I think right now, even just being able to name your emotion is something that a lot of people are unfamiliar with...So naming it and then figuring out different ways that you can manage that I think has been a key to the children.” 
• (26:10)“The COVID pandemic obviously had so many challenges and, we have to make note of that, but I also think it was a real opportunity to re-imagine how we learn and how learning can take place anywhere at any time. And that includes all ages.” 

AmalAlliance.org: Follow on IG, FB, LI, and Twitter 

Follow Danille on LinkedIn @Danielle De La Fuente and Instagram at @dani_delafuente 

 Social-Emotional Learning Graphic

This week, Kelly speaks with Bridgette Gray. Bridgette is the Chief Customer Officer at Opportunity At Work, a founding member of Chief DC, and Leap ambassador. They discuss why STARS (people who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes) are such a valuable untapped resource in today’s workforce, Bridgette’s ultimate career goal, and what it was like being on a Zoom call with Michelle Obama. 

Takeaways: 

1. Talent is always equal, opportunity is not. 
2. Diversifying talent at work will also help us work on some deep systemic issues in our country.  
3. Don’t ever think that there is a place where you can’t continue to grow, learn, and beef up your knowledge, because knowledge is not written in a textbook. It’s the things you have to watch, listen to, and learn about by asking questions. 

Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter @BridgetteFGray 

Learn more at opportunityatwork.org

Skillsbaby.com

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production 

How can we make learning fun? Whether you are in a formal school setting, or in an office, lifelong learning is core to success and that’s why it should be fun! The better curriculum and teachers can be at centring individual human experience in their design, the better learning individuals will be able to do.  

This week, Kelly is joined by Erin Huizenga, a teacher, designer, and co-owner/studio director at DeskLight. She designs to help people learn. She helps organizational leaders connect learner-centred research insights with design thinking to build new programs and tools. 

Erin believes listening well is a key skill not only to design but to business in general.  

Big Takeaways:  

• (13:20) "The mission and vision of DeskLight is really to work with learners across the lifelong learning spectrum. We don't just work in K-12. We don't just work in higher ed. We don't just work in learning and development and trainings... Something that we're thinking about as an insight for early learning could easily be a very cool, thoughtful thing that we can bring to a learning and development project because there's a lot of truth and similarity about how people learn as humans over the course of time as they age.” 
• (21:00) “K-12 schools have a need for problem-based learning and project-based learning. The skills that come from project-based learning and the confidence and the self-actualization and the relevancy of the learning and how students will ultimately remember those things better and more effectively than they would have if they learned it from a textbook or even from their teacher lecturing at them.” 
• (23:00) “Historically learning has been for the sake of some kind of objective that's part of the employee's job description...that's really changing where businesses, employers, big organizations are, starting to think more about how can we embrace and enrich this individual as a human and what they want to do with their lives and with their work. And how can we think about this more as an employee benefit and less of a thing that's about us as a business or organization.” 

LinkedIn @Erin Huizenga 

Desklightlearning.com 

When we shift our hiring and leadership practices to a human-centric model, we see the incredible ways our skills and experiences blend together to problem solve. For leaders, this means celebrating that you are the sum of all your parts. For jobseekers, this means learning how to tell the story of your skills in language your future employer can understand. 

This week, Kelly is joined by the wonderful Cynthia Hansen former World Economic Forum global leadership fellow. Following a career in the private and nonprofit sectors, Cynthia joined the Adecco Group in 2017 to start the new Adecco Group Foundation, and spearhead social innovation. 

Cynthia believes empathy is crucial to collaboration, to consultation, and co-creation. 

Big Takeaways:  

• We need to train leaders to be “the connecter...[To be able]to think about who else might bring something interesting to the table.” 
• The key to success for jobseekers or those changing careers is learning how “you frame what skills you have...in a way that an employer will understand... So whether you're an elite athlete or an elite musician, you know how to be self critical. You know how to listen to or watch your own performance and critique it. You know how to work in a group. You know how to motivate people around you. You know how to get and give feedback, and all these great things that you might think, well, I've never worked in an office. I don't have the skills I need for an office. But you probably do. You just need to think about them differently, and then maybe translate them into slightly different language.” 
• “With the current situation, and with more people working from home, more people going through a career transition, that it's really important that we're all looking at that interconnected nature of what we do, how we relate what we contribute, what we take away. And so if I can encourage people to really be more holistically minded to think in a systemic way. To think not just about what you're doing now, but what you might want to do in the future, and how you would get there, and who you need, then in your circle.” 

Follow Adecco Group 

https://www.instagram.com/adeccogroup/ 

https://twitter.com/adeccogroup 

adeccogroupfoundation.org 

In order to center people in our hiring practices, we must change the way we assess skills. In this episode, Kelly is joined by Omer Molad, the Co-Founder and CEO of Vervoe, a recruitment platform that helps companies hire the very best by focusing on who can do the job, not just who looks good on paper. Vervoe predicts job performance using skills assessments that showcase the talent of every candidate. 

Omer believes the key to hiring is that "context matters. When you do it in context, you bring out not just the functional or job-specific skills, but how they're going to contribute. How are they going to apply themselves? How are they going to learn? How are they going to work with others? These things are critically important. It about experiences and performance, not chronological job histories."

Big Takeaways:  

• Grades don't necessarily correlate. If someone got good grades, that's great. But the way we teach in school and in university, in college, doesn't necessarily translate into the way that we do things practically in the workplace. (10:00) 
• Previous employment can be thought of as apprenticeships. They all contribute to your future jobs. You don't have to have worked in the same thing, in the same field, in the same place in order to be good at X. There are other paths. (25:00) 
• What you have done in your life, no matter how sort of eccentric or weird or unrelated to anything tangible, it counts. It's made you a richer person, it's made you a better person, it's who you are. And whether you are doing it consciously or not, you are applying it in your current role. (47:00) 

Books mentioned:

David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Mastery by Robert Greene

Follow Omer on LinkedIn @Omer Molad

Vervoe

A wicked problem is one that can’t be solved because as you work with it, it continues to change. It is said that you can’t solve a wicked problem, you just run out of resources. The problem is, we have all been trained to solve problems that are solvable. We are naturally inclined to search for a solution. What happens when we accept that some problems can’t be solved, but that our mindsets around them are what need to be changed?  

Margot Cairnes joins Kelly to explain wicked problems, and how widening our perspectives will make our businesses and lives happier and more prosperous. Margot is an international best-selling author with six books on transformational leadership, working as a coach and advisor to boards and top teams in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Australia. Margot has used her compelling approach to strategy development to help leaders widen and deepen their thinking, develop creativity, effectively problem solve and develop stronger, more robust stakeholder relationships. 

Margot believes “Happy consequences [of a mindset shift] are, people feel happy. They grow as human beings. Their marriages improve. Their health improves. They go out and they work in the community. They just have to open their mind to sustainability.” 

Big Takeaways: 

• Building our capacity to solve wicked problems is often more important than solving the problem itself so that whatever problem turns up, you can work with it better next time. (5:00) 
• Business can make the world a better place. It can also make the world a worse place. We need to develop the skills necessary to make the world a better place. (16:00) 
• We can all have companies filled with love that improve the environment, that improve the community, and help people flourish, it just takes a mindset shift. (25:00) 

Follow Margot on LinkedIn @Margot Cairnes 

Her website is https://margotcairnes.com/ 

Books mentioned: 

Peaceful Chaos by Margot Cairnes

Approaching The Corporate Heart by Margot Cairnes

Skillsbaby.com

Retaining key talent mandates more support and encouragement for workers in the minority. So many of our current systems are set up to help men succeed. We must create similar systems for women and people of color so that they are supported in returning to, and remaining in the workforce.  

Diane Flynn; Co-Founder and CEO of Reboot Accel joins Kelly to discuss ways we can better nurture the skills of those who feel like the lonely or the only in the workplace.  

Diane believes; “ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) are a critical piece to creating more inclusive environments. "They are really sessions to embolden people, to give people a majority experience, many of whom never feel it throughout their day. They are the "onlys" or the "lonelies" in a lot of meetings, and all of a sudden, they can show up in a space that is safe, where they can express their full self.” 

Big Takeaways:  

• Informal networks are just as important as formal networks when it comes to landing opportunities and new experiences. (15:00) 
• Women and people of color are so often subject to a minority tax in the workplace. This isn’t just a women's problem or people of color problem. It is all of our problems and we must all be part of the solution. (24:00) 
• Every role today requires constant learning on the job. Lifelong learning is a skill everyone needs no matter how old they are. (35:00) 

Resources mentioned:

McKinsey Report: Women In the Workplace 2020

Ikigai and The Four P’s

Follow Diane on LinkedIn: @Diane Johnson Flynn 

Email Diane: diane.flynn@rebootaccel.com 

Follow Reboot Accel on LinkedIn @Reboot Accel 

How can we disrupt our economic model and our education systems to celebrate a diversity of skills, and put joy over profitability? 

Omar Samra is an entrepreneur, adventurer, motivational speaker, and astronaut candidate. Following a career in banking and investing, he founded and lead several companies, including starting a charity in his late wife’s honor. Throughout his educational career, Omar has been fascinated by the correlation between skills and job opportunities, work/life culture, and education structure. He believes we must disrupt our economic model as well as our education model. Helping his daughter through school has shown him the value of individualized learning, and creating systems that prioritize joy and happiness. Omar encourages you to tap into your child-like spirit and marry it with your adult wisdom. 

Omar believes you need to find joy in what you do. You won’t be able to find joy everywhere, especially not by comparison, but if you prioritize joy in what you do and who you work with, it becomes clearer what is meant for you. 

Big Takeaways: 

• Specialization is the way of the past. Now we see the value in mastering many different things and the ability to pivot quickly 
• People want to do the things that they're good at, or that they've achieved success through. It's not necessarily the same thing as what brings you joy, what you should continue to do, or the way you should impact the world. 
• Bottom-line profitability first, putting the shareholder first, is an obsolete model. It satisfies a lot of interest but a new economic model needs to come about that creates a balance between profitability, environmental sustainability, and social impact. Every company should have a responsibility to give back to its own community. 

Follow Omar on Instagram: @omarsamra 

How can employees put their transportable skills to use in times of change? Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director of Global Talent & Organization / Human Potential Practice at Accenture joins Kelly to discuss the work she is doing to help businesses reskill their employees to put their transportable skills to use in new roles. Learn about Eva’s wide career in skillifying and skills building, what she feels is important about skills training, and how we can identify the transportable skills we have to apply them to new job tasks.  

Eva believes one of the greatest skills right now is the ability to have a safe, clean environment where there's little risk of infection. 

Big Takeaways: 

• Creating pathways for skill reinvention allows everyone to be employed with a little bit of training and logical support. 
• the wonderful thing about artificial intelligence and the ability to analyze is you can see signals of skills experiences that can be converted into a core skill baseline 
• modern HR should embrace the idea that you have to look at a whole person, not just employability or financial, but relational, wellness, and physical safety 

Eva recommends Super Minds by Professor Tom Malone. 

National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development

Follow Eva on LinkedIn

Follow Eva on Twitter: @sageeva3

This special episode of the podcast is all about why I started Let's Talk About Skills Baby. My entire professional working life has led me to this point, one where I have learned the immense value of skills-based learning, hiring, and living.

These skills are what allow us to live happier lives. They are also skills that are hardest to find, but most sought after. I want to encourage the conversations on work skills and life skills to join together. You don't only have to focus on education, you don't only have to focus on work and moving up the ladder. There's so much more to life than that. Let's get this conversation about skills to the forefront of BOTH our personal and professional lives because they are actually not separate at all.

Skilly Baby

Growth Network Podcasts

Get in touch: info@skillsbaby.com

Welcome to season 2 of Let's Talk About Skills, Baby! the podcast where we discover what skills can help you live your best life. We are on a mission to change the world by prioritizing life skills both at home and in the workplace. Each week tune in as Kelly Ryan Bailey chats with inspiring visionaries about the skills that make them successful. You'll get a first-hand account of how they develop those skills and their innovative approaches to improving skills-based hiring and learning around the world. 

Skilly Baby

Growth Network Podcasts

Get in touch: info@skillsbaby.com

Three Emsi Doctors, Dr. Yustina Saleh, EVP of Analytics, Dr. Stuart Muller, Director of Higher Education Consulting, and Dr. Wayne Gearey, Location Economist, join me to chat about what to expect from Skills in 2021.

Kelly is joined by Peter A. Cabral, a faculty member on Digital Mobility, the Future of Cities, and Disruption at Singularity University. He is also the Managing Partner at Mount Olive Partners, a serial entrepreneur, author, and startup business advisor in the areas of urban mobility, disruptive technologies, big data, and artificial intelligence. 

They discuss the benefits of being a T-shaped professional, how technology will make us even more human, and the significant effects of disruption and democratization. 

Big Takeaways: 

1. The ability to connect the dots in a multidisciplinary fashion is what makes a leader.  
2. “Our world is not local anymore, it is global. Our world is not linear, it is exponential. Abundance and prosperity create a life of opportunity.” 
3. “The future is bright for the ones that understand that technology's here as a great, phenomenal tool, that is targeting to seek solutions for our greatest problems.” 

Follow Peter on LinkedIn and IG @Peter_Cabral 

Learn more at Mountolivepartners.com and via Singularity

Skillsbaby.com  

This is a Growth Network Podcasts Production. 

Caitlin Baron, CEO of Luminos Fund, a philanthropic initiative dedicated to advancing education innovations for the world’s most vulnerable children, and Dominic Regester, Program Director of Salzburg Global Seminar & Founding Member of the Executive Committee for Karanga, the global alliance for social emotional learning (SEL) and life skills, join to kick off Karanga’s Q4 series of online SEL activities this week. We chat about how Luminos Fund and Karanga are supporting education transformation through social and emotional learning.

Andrew shares his journey into education, the importance of transferable skills in healthcare, and the innovative approach to healthcare education at DHGE.

Learn more about Let's Talk About Skills, Baby

Jenn shares the innovation evolution of human resources technology systems, how Randstad is helping people gain skills to take the next step in their career, and ideas to make scalable change in our economy right now.