In this episode, I chat with my new L&D pal, Caner Akova, about how we learn in real life, how we can bring some of those best practices into workplace learning, and why it isn't happening more often.

Caner is an L&D expert with global experience in higher education and multinational corporations and he’s here to shake things up.

He’s passionate about cutting through the fluff, and uses real life learning to make workplace learning actually work.

He likes tackling the brutal truths about L&D, delivering practical, no-nonsense solutions that work without the need to invest in a ton of different software and hardware.

Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/canerakova

Caner's advice for those who want to start making changes to learning at their organizations:

1. Watch how the people (and pets) around you are learning in real life.
2. Make one small change at your workplace (without asking for permission).
3. Assess the results, and add more changes or adjust accordingly.

Thanks for listening to the BLOC!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/

In this episode, inspired in part by my new friend Molly's LinkedIn post about undergoing 10 job interviews for a contract L&D position, I talk about the dreaded job interview assignment.

This episode is both for job seekers and hiring managers because I give best practices for what you should be looking for in a job interview assignment, including the following:

• Every job interview should be part of a structured process that is clearly communicated to candidates. This is what we DO as L&D professionals, we should be clearly communicating up front how many interviews, if there's an assignment, and the goal start date of the candidate.
• If given, job interview assignments should NOT be arbitrary - the assignment should clearly align with its purpose and HAVE a purpose. Is the purpose to show proficiency with a particular tool? Then, it should do that. It shouldn't be "create a 30-minute eLearning module on the topic of your choice" because that's what their portfolio is for.
• If the assignment is going to take the candidate more than 3 hours, it should be paid. Also, you should never use a candidate's work or ask for source files.

If a job interview assignment feels icky, you should trust your gut!

Thanks for listening to the BLOC!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/

On this episode, I celebrate the BLOC turning 4! Can you believe I started this podcast 4 years ago?

I talk about the origin story of the podcast, some of the tips I've learned along the way, and recap the most popular episodes!

Here's to more episodes of the BLOC! Thank you all so much for your support.

Thanks for listening to the BLOC!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/