Many learning businesses know they need to innovate, but moving faster and experimenting can run headlong into culture and the fear of being wrong. This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast looks at why that happens and what to do about it. Elizabeth Engel and Jamie Notter, co-authors of the white paper “Lean at Ten: Culture Eats Methodology for Lunch,” join co-host Celisa Steele to discuss the core elements of lean startup, the cultural patterns that can undermine using the methodology, and ...
Jan 20, 2026•38 min
Strategy is about making choices—where to focus, what to invest in, and what to stop doing. Data can help bring clarity to those decisions, especially in a complex and competitive environment. In this episode, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb share insights from a survey of learning businesses to help you think about strategy in 2026. They explore top strategic goals and drivers, key trends and challenges shaping learning businesses, and three themes that emerge from...
Jan 06, 2026•29 min
Mindset shapes how adults approach learning, challenge, and change—and it has important implications for learning businesses. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 468, co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb explore Mindset , the influential book by psychologist Carol Dweck, and the broader concept of mindset. They unpack the distinction between fixed and growth mindsets; examine how mindset affects learners, leaders, and organizations; and discuss practical ways learning busines...
Dec 23, 2025•21 min
Content is everywhere, governance is slow to change, and technology expectations keep climbing—association learning businesses are feeling squeezed. Most are still operating like catalog providers in a market that now needs architects. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb share a Rumelt-style diagnosis based on conversations with 27 association CEOs. They unpack the issues hollowing out the old education model—and what learning leaders can do to d...
Dec 09, 2025•26 min
Building or refreshing certification prep, reviewing prices, or expanding into new formats? This conversation offers concrete examples of how to move fast, listen well, and align your portfolio with both mission and margin. Letty Kluttz, senior vice president of membership, education, and programs for the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about launching three certification prep courses in under a...
Nov 25, 2025•31 min
Unsure about AI guardrails, AI data risks, or which artificial intelligence project to pick first? You’re not alone. Tori Miller Liu, president and CEO of the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about treating artificial intelligence initiatives as data initiatives, picking one to three practical use cases that augment people (without replacing them), writing a lightweight AI usage policy that’s easily understandabl...
Nov 11, 2025•31 min
Artificial intelligence often magnifies what’s already happening in an organization. If your metadata is a mess, an AI recommendation engine might help you give prospective customers recommendations faster, but those recommendations aren’t likely to be effective. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb place AI in the Learning Business Maturity Model to help you pick the next move for where your learning business is. While AI can’t fix an immature le...
Oct 28, 2025•41 min
Do you want your learning business to be more than a provider of programs, to truly operate as a learning-centric organization? This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast offers a real-world example of how to do just that. Mike Moss, president of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), joins co-host Jeff Cobb to talk about how SCUP is reshaping itself around learning. They discuss revising bylaws and governance, deconstructing curriculum, experimenting with membership and commu...
Oct 14, 2025•37 min
If you’re concerned about how your learning business can keep pace with rapid change—AI, growing risks, shifting learner expectations—this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast can help. Associations, credentialing bodies, and other learning businesses face mounting pressure to do fewer things of greater value, and success requires both courage and careful risk management. Glenn Tecker, chair and co-CEO of Tecker International, joins co-host Jeff Cobb to talk about the forces reshaping continu...
Sep 30, 2025•37 min
If you’re wondering what role artificial intelligence should play in your learning business—or how to prepare your people and processes to use it effectively—this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast is for you. Many learning businesses are just beginning to grapple with AI’s implications, and the gap between the potential and the current reality is big. Amith Nagarajan, chairman of Blue Cypress and founder of Sidecar, joins co-host Jeff Cobb to talk about how learning businesses can build th...
Sep 16, 2025•48 min
Associations have long played a role in supporting learning and education, but they may be overlooking the full extent of their potential. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele explore why associations are education’s sleeping giant and how they can awaken to the opportunity before them. They discuss the distinction between learning and education, examine what’s often holding associations back, offer concrete ideas for moving forward, and highlight...
Sep 02, 2025•28 min
If you know your learning offerings need to evolve, but you’re not sure where to start or how to bring others along, this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast can help. Whether you’re struggling with risk tolerance, engagement, or relevance, you’re not alone. And you don’t have to figure it out alone either. Mary Byers is an association consultant and author of the books Race for Relevance and Road to Relevance . Co-host Celisa Steele talks with Mary about how learning businesses can evolve t...
Aug 11, 2025•36 min
If you’re a leader navigating change, shifting expectations, or questions about your organization’s identity and future, this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast is for you. It features Lowell Aplebaum, CEO of Vista Cova. Lowell works with association leaders and boards on visioning, governance, and strategy—and he brings a thoughtful, deeply human approach to the challenges facing organizations today. Co-host Celisa Steele talks with Lowell about how identity has to come before strategy bec...
Aug 05, 2025•38 min
If you’re leading a learning business right now, you’re almost certainly navigating uncertainty—political, economic, technological. It can be hard to know how to lead well, plan strategically, and stay responsive without burning out. Our guest in this Leading Learning Podcast episode, number 457, is someone who has spent years helping association leaders. Seth Kahan is the founder of Visionary Leadership and the author of the books Getting Change Right and Getting Innovation Right . Co-host Jeff...
Jul 22, 2025•34 min
What will it take to keep your learning business relevant and thriving in 2030? In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele unpack seven strategic shifts that are reshaping continuing education—from personalization and AI to credentials and commoditization and more. You’ll come away with ideas to apply now and questions to help you think more strategically about what’s next—and what will keep your CE responsive and successful over the next five years and...
Jul 08, 2025•21 min
Udemy, Coursera, and edX are part of the competitive landscape your learning business operates in, so it’s valuable to understand how your learners might view your catalog in light of the catalogs of Big Learning providers. This episode, number 455, features a conversation with Dhawal Shah, founder and CEO of Class Central, which Dhawal describes as a Tripadvisor for online education. Class Central aggregates reviews of hundreds of thousands of courses from platforms all over the world, bringing...
Jun 24, 2025•33 min
This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 454, is the second installment in a two-part look at how learning businesses can best navigate uncertainty. Co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss five practice levers: pulse monitoring, scenario planning, revenue model innovation, ecosystem partnerships, and tech awareness. These levers can help you translate the four habitsets discussed in episode 453 into action. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.le...
Jun 10, 2025•21 min
If one thing is certain these days, it’s that uncertainty is top of mind for many leaders. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 453, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss four habitsets that can help learning businesses navigate uncertain times: informed agility, strategic foresight, stakeholder intimacy, and portfolio thinking. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode453 ....
May 27, 2025•21 min
Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss the powerful and sometimes limiting role of credit (CE, CME, CLE, CPE, etc.) and subject matter experts (SMEs) in learning businesses. Both are mainstays, but they can restrict innovation, often unintentionally. This episode unpacks how credit and SMEs function as enablers and as limiters—and what learning businesses can do to navigate those dynamics more intentionally. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at...
May 13, 2025•22 min
Drawing on their own experience and insights from experts like Richard Rumelt, Roger Martin, and Michael Porter, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele look at the importance of coherence and posit that strategic coherence occurs when a learning business’s choices and actions reinforce each other in the service of its strategy. They unpack what coherence means, how to spot when coherence is missing, and ways to build and sustain coherence to help make your learning busines...
Apr 29, 2025•21 min
Flexibility is an essential skill for those leading learning businesses. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 450, we talk with Kevin Eikenberry about flexible leadership. Kevin Eikenberry is chief potential officer of the Kevin Eikenberry Group and an author, most recently of Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence . The conversation covers three pillars of flexible leadership (mindset, skillset, and habitset) and four types of contexts leaders must...
Apr 15, 2025•30 min
This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast looks at why and how learning businesses can and should segment their audience—what it looks like in practice and how it can lead to more engagement, better learning outcomes, and, yes, better business results. If you’re already segmenting learners, the episode will provide food for thought and an opportunity to reassess your approach. If you’re new to segmentation, then you’ll walk away with how to start. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are ...
Apr 01, 2025•28 min
In physics, momentum is the product of a body’s mass and velocity. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele define strategic momentum as the product of an initiative’s strategic weight and its execution speed, and they discuss why momentum matters, common barriers to maintaining momentum, and strategies for creating and maintaining momentum. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode448 ....
Mar 18, 2025•29 min
Because good strategy is organic and responsive, it needs to be revisited periodically. There are predictable, recurring whens that are be natural times for you to reassess your strategy, like the start of a new budget year. There are also less predictable whens that are important times to revisit strategy, like a global pandemic or government policy changes. While it’s easier to plan for revisiting strategy at predictable points, it’s as important to reassess strategy when the situation shifts....
Mar 04, 2025•30 min
For learning businesses, bringing in revenue is an essential function. Revenue is what keeps the organization going and delivering on its mission, whether that mission is solely focused on learning and training or whether it’s a broader mission tied to improving a field, industry, or profession. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele offer five ways to increase the revenue from your portfolio that don’t involve massive investments of time or money: ...
Feb 18, 2025•19 min
Culture, mindset, money—these are big and important concepts for any learning business. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 445, we talk with Erin Pressley about all three. Erin Pressley is senior vice president of education, training, and events at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Erin describes herself as being passionate about serving NRECA’s members and making money while doing it. She’s a thoughtful and energetic leader with practical and aspirational...
Feb 04, 2025•31 min
Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele share four actionable ideas grounded in survey data collected by Leading Learning and informed by their experience with and observation of learning businesses and the global market for continuing education, professional development, and other lifelong learning. All four ideas tie to the common theme of resourcefulness—Cobb and Steele’s watchword for learning businesses in 2025. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.lead...
Jan 21, 2025•27 min
Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele share key data points from Leading Learning’s latest year-end survey of learning businesses. They cover top strategic goals and the strategic drivers behind those goals, trends and issues impacting strategy, challenges with maintaining or growing enrollments and registrations, barriers to innovation in education offerings, and top areas of investment for the year ahead. Your learning business can use this data for benchmarking and to help frame intern...
Jan 07, 2025•26 min
Innovation is an aspiration of many organizations, including learning businesses. This episode, number 442, features a conversation with Mary Byers. Mary is an author, speaker, facilitator, consultant, CEO coach, and mastermind facilitator, and she’s deeply knowledgeable about innovation. Mary wrote Race for Relevance: Five Radical Changes for Associations , and her work focuses on helping organizations remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment. Show notes and a downloadable transcript a...
Dec 31, 2024•32 min
A learning business must understand learning theory and put that theory into practice if it is to create offerings that result in positive change and impact. This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 441, features a conversation with instructional psychologist Dr. Ruth Colvin Clark and co-host Celisa Steele. Ruth has spent her spent her career translating academic research into practical guidelines and advocating for the use of evidence-based approaches to learning. She’s the author o...
Dec 24, 2024•26 min
