Podcasts about Knowledge transfer

Luis Rivera of Solutions 21 joins host Chip Arenchild to explore the real challenge facing independent insurance agencies: developing the next generation of leaders. From military insights to succession planning analogies, this episode uncovers how brokerages can address generational shifts, preserve institutional knowledge, and build leadership at every level. If you're navigating retirements, M&A, or growth challenges, this conversation is a must-listen. Stick around for practical advice that blends strategy, human behavior, and hard-won experience.Timecodes 00:00 – Welcome and guest introduction 00:52 – What Solutions 21 does and why it started 02:00 – Why the name “Solutions 21” matters 02:35 – The military connection and leadership philosophy 05:09 – Generational shifts in today's workforce 06:32 – The silver tsunami and Gen X talent gap 08:11 – Preparing millennials and Gen Z to lead 09:34 – The baton analogy for leadership transition 11:02 – When leadership handoffs go wrong 13:05 – Ideal clients for Solutions 21 14:15 – Leadership lessons from the military 15:48 – The power of 1-on-1s and influence 18:19 – Solutions 21's work with the Council of Insurance Agents 19:08 – What firms must analyze before investing in people 21:08 – Tools vs. carpenters: how leadership is developed 22:09 – M&A, onboarding, and protecting culture 23:17 – Final takeaways on human capital and agency successResources:Become a member at RiskProNet.comConnect with Luis Rivera on LinkedinConnect with Chip Arenchild on LinkedIn

I, Stewart Alsop, welcomed Alex Levin, CEO and co-founder of Regal, to this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast to discuss the fascinating world of AI phone agents. Alex shared some incredible insights into how AI is already transforming customer interactions and what the future holds for company agents, machine-to-machine communication, and even the nature of knowledge itself.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:29 Alex Levin shares that people are often more honest with AI agents than human agents, especially regarding payments.02:41 The surprising persistence of voice as a preferred channel for customer interaction, and how AI is set to revolutionize it.05:15 Discussion of the three types of AI agents: personal, work, and company agents, and how conversational AI will become the main interface with brands.07:12 Exploring the shift to machine-to-machine interactions and how AI changes what knowledge humans need versus what machines need.10:56 The looming challenge of centralization versus decentralization in AI, and how Americans often prioritize experience over privacy.14:11 Alex explains how tokenized data can offer personalized experiences without compromising specific individual privacy.25:44 Voice is predicted to become the primary way we interact with brands and technology due to its naturalness and efficiency.33:21 Why AI agents are easier to implement in contact centers due to different entropy compared to typical software.38:13 How Regal ensures AI agents stay on script and avoid "hallucinations" by proper training and guardrails.46:11 The technical challenges in replicating human conversational latency and nuances in AI voice interactions.Key InsightsAI Elicits HonestyPeople tend to be more forthright with AI agents, particularly in financially sensitive situations like discussing overdue payments. Alex speculates this is because individuals may feel less judged by an AI, leading to more truthful disclosures compared to interactions with human agents.Voice is King, AI is its HeirDespite predictions of its decline, voice remains a dominant channel for customer interactions. Alex believes that within three to five years, AI will handle as much as 90% of these voice interactions, transforming customer service with its efficiency and availability.The Rise of Company AgentsThe primary interface with most brands is expected to shift from websites and apps to conversational AI agents. This is because voice is a more natural, faster, and emotive way for humans to interact, a behavior already seen in younger generations.Machine-to-Machine FutureWe're moving towards a world where AI agents representing companies will interact directly with AI agents representing consumers. This "machine-to-machine" (M2M) paradigm will redefine commerce and the nature of how businesses and customers engage.Ontology of KnowledgeAs AI systems process vast amounts of information, creating a clear "ontology of knowledge" becomes crucial. This means structuring and categorizing information so AI can understand the context and user's underlying intent, rather than just processing raw data.Tokenized Data for PrivacyA potential solution to privacy concerns is "tokenized data." Instead of providing AI with specific personal details, users could share generalized tokens (e.g., "high-intent buyer in 30s") that allow for personalized experiences without revealing sensitive, identifiable information.AI Highlights Human InconsistenciesImplementing AI often brings to light existing inconsistencies or unacknowledged issues within a company. For instance, AI might reveal discrepancies between official scripts and how top-performing human agents actually communicate, forcing companies to address these differences.Influence as a Key Human SkillIn a future increasingly shaped by AI, Sam Altman (via Alex) suggests that the ability to "influence" others will be a paramount human skill. This uniquely human trait will be vital, whether for interacting with other people or for guiding and shaping AI systems.Contact Information*   Regal AI: regal.ai*   Email: hello@regal.ai*   LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexlevin1/

This insightful episode with Gero Decker dives deep into how AI and quick adaptability are reshaping business landscapes. Learn about emerging trends, the benefits of swift technological integration, and strategies for maintaining a competitive edge. Discover why staying agile and informed is crucial for businesses seeking to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital revolution.

Should innovation be outsourced to specialized teams, or integrated into your existing product teams? That's what Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando are debating today! Listen as we debate the pros and cons of separating innovation from implementation, exploring why "if you build it, you own it" should extend to innovation as well. Join us to learn about the pitfalls of innovation theater, the challenges of knowledge transfer, and how to truly empower your teams to innovate!#Agile #ProductManagement #TeamEmpowermentagile, product management, innovation, team empowerment, product leadership, agile coaching, product discovery, innovation teams, product development, team collaboration, organizational silos, knowledge transfer, MVP development= = = = = = = = = = = =YouTubehttps://youtu.be/Sn7B8zqNlnkSubscribe on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8XUSoJPxGPI8EtuUAHOb6g?sub_confirmation=1Applehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agile-podcast/id1568557596Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/362QvYORmtZRKAeTAE57v3= = = = = = = = = = = =Toronto Is My Beat (Music Sample)By Whitewolf (Source: https://ccmixter.org/files/whitewolf225/60181)CC BY 4.0 DEED (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)

We're back with Steve Dell'Orto, Founder & CEO of Concentric. Our host, Gareth McGlynn, caught up with Steve to discuss key developments in preconstruction.Discussion Points:• Built by Builders Network – What it is and why it matters• Concentric's latest updates – Including the Concept Hub and AI advancements• Knowledge Transfer & Retention – Keeping industry expertise within reach

Welcome to Season 14 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Trina Bediako, CEO of New Horizons Baking Co., shares how she balances generational wisdom and youthful disruption to expand a family bakery business in unconventional ways. Sponsored by Coperion. In Episode 2, Trina talks about the importance of transferring knowledge from generation to generation and shares lessons she's learned on her path to leadership.

Dr. G explores the science of human connection, breaking down how social bonds impact health, why loneliness is a hidden epidemic, and how to build meaningful relationships. Learn how connection shapes well-being and discover practical steps to create a healthier, more fulfilling life. #community #wellness #lonliness ==== Thank You To Our Sponsors! SuppCo Get 100% free access today at supp.co/DRG Jaspr Go to jaspr.co/DRG and use code DRG for $300 off for a limited time. ==== Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Importance of Community and Social Connection 00:00:59 - Practical Steps to Rekindle Relationships 00:01:42 - Evolutionary Roots of Social Bonds 00:02:37 - Importance of Knowledge Transfer in Communities 00:03:34 - Biological Imperative of Social Bonds 00:04:12 - Role of Oxytocin in Social Connections 00:04:59 - Managing Stress Through Social Connections 00:08:06 - Shift from Close-Knit Communities to Individualism 00:09:04 - Importance of Face-to-Face Interactions 00:09:58 - Health Risks Associated with Social Isolation 00:11:12 - The Connection Between Nervous, Hormonal, and Immune Systems 00:12:26 - Building Community for Better Health 00:13:52 - Leveraging Technology for Relationships 00:14:29 - Understanding the Loneliness Epidemic 00:15:15 - You Deserve Community and Connection Be sure to like and subscribe to #HealThySelf Hosted by Doctor Christian Gonzalez N.D. Follow Doctor G on Instagram @doctor.gonzalez https://www.instagram.com/doctor.gonzalez/

Send us a textIn this thought-provoking episode of the Customer Success Playbook podcast, Keith Hanks challenges conventional wisdom about customer profiles. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and adapting to actual customer profiles rather than rigidly adhering to ideal customer profiles (ICP). Keith shares valuable insights on establishing effective sales feedback loops, leveraging experienced sales representatives' knowledge, and creating realistic, replicable customer success stories.Detailed AnalysisThe episode delves into several critical aspects of customer success management and sales alignment:Sales Feedback IntegrationKeith emphasizes the significance of involving sales teams in the post-sale process, particularly during onboarding and quarterly business reviews. This approach serves two purposes:It ensures accountability for promises made during the sales processCreates a valuable feedback loop for refining future sales approachesHistorical Knowledge UtilizationThe discussion highlights the often-overlooked value of experienced sales representatives as organizational historians. Their deep understanding of successful customer relationships can be leveraged to:Improve customer success strategiesGuide newer sales team membersEnhance the overall customer experienceCustomer Profile Reality CheckA crucial insight emerges regarding the verification of marketing materials and case studies. Keith advocates for:Thorough analysis of long-term product usersUnderstanding struggling customer scenariosValidating marketing claims against actual customer experiencesImplementation StrategyThe episode outlines a three-step approach to improving customer profile alignment:Data analysis across cross-functional teamsInvestigation of user behavior patternsVerification of marketing materials against real customer experiencesPractical ApplicationsThe discussion provides actionable strategies for:Conducting effective onboarding handoff callsEstablishing regular cross-functional communicationCreating realistic, achievable customer success storiesNow you can interact with us directly by leaving a voice message at https://www.speakpipe.com/CustomerSuccessPlaybookPlease Like, Comment, Share and Subscribe. You can also find the CS Playbook Podcast:YouTube - @CustomerSuccessPlaybookPodcastTwitter - @CS_PlaybookYou can find Kevin at:Metzgerbusiness.com - Kevin's person web siteKevin Metzger on Linked In.You can find Roman at:Roman Trebon on Linked In.

The HVAC industry is facing a critical challenge: a growing demand for skilled workers amid a wave of retirements. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for HVAC technicians is projected to grow by 9% from 2023 to 2033. With this increasing demand, HVAC workforce development has become essential as companies seek to attract, train, and retain the next generation of talent in this highly technical field.What strategies are effective for building a future-ready HVAC workforce while preserving the knowledge of retiring industry veterans?In Straight Outta Crumpton, host Greg Crumpton sits down with Cole Stewart, Operations and Safety Manager at Gentry Service in Asheville, NC. They explore the steps that Gentry Service is taking to prepare the workforce of tomorrow through hands-on training, mentorship, and forward-thinking career development.Key Takeaways:Fostering future talent: Cole discusses Gentry's proactive engagement with local colleges and apprenticeship programs, emphasizing the importance of structured training and career pathways for new recruits as part of comprehensive HVAC workforce development.Craftsmanship at its core: Cole highlights how foundational HVAC skills—plumbing, electrical, and fabrication—apply to multiple fields, showing how comprehensive training can create well-rounded professionals.Preserving expertise: Greg and Cole address the importance of capturing and documenting the knowledge of experienced workers through mentorship programs, recorded training sessions, and internal knowledge-sharing platforms.Cole Stewart has dedicated 28 years to the HVAC industry, starting his career in 1995. With experience in residential and light commercial systems, Cole now serves as the Operations and Safety Manager at Gentry Service. His focus on workforce development and hands-on mentorship is helping shape the future of HVAC technicians in Western North Carolina.

CTO Series: Navigating Growth, A Playbook for Scaling Engineering Teams With Toni Ala-Piirto   In this BONUS episode, we dive into the journey of Toni Ala-Piirto, a seasoned software leader with 15 years of experience designing and implementing distributed systems. Toni opens up about pivotal lessons from his leadership career, balancing tech strategy with business goals, and the nuances of scaling engineering teams during rapid growth. Whether you're a CTO, a team lead, or a tech enthusiast, this conversation is packed with practical insights.   The Evolution of a Leader: A Journey, Not a Single Moment   “Leadership isn't built in a single defining moment but shaped by many experiences.”   Toni recounts a key challenge early in his career involving a major performance issue for a customer. This experience taught him the importance of viewing systems holistically rather than focusing solely on individual contributions. His “boring” leadership style—marked by forward-thinking and crisis prevention—emphasizes preparation and identifying risks without over-engineering solutions.   Aligning Tech and Business: The Power of Collaboration   “Technology vision and business strategy should speak the same language.”   Toni highlights the importance of close collaboration with product managers, sales, and finance to ensure tech strategy aligns with broader business goals. Regular cross-department discussions foster trust and ensure that the product roadmap is both innovative and achievable.   Key Practice: Build relationships with key stakeholders through daily touchpoints to create alignment.   The Roadmap to Success: Vision vs. Execution   “Short-term details drive long-term visions.”   Toni explains their approach to roadmapping, with detailed 6-month plans that address “how” to achieve goals and a broader vision for the longer term. This allows the team to stay agile while keeping future innovations in view.   Pro Tip: Avoid spending excessive time on estimations; use past experience to guide epic-level planning.   “The first six months are about execution—the rest is about imagining what's possible.”   Scaling Teams During Rapid Growth   “The true challenge of scaling is transferring knowledge while preserving team culture.”   Toni reflects on the growth journey from a small team to a larger organization. As the team grew, onboarding and knowledge transfer became crucial. His solution? Pair testing and collaborative learning to help developers understand the product deeply, not just the code.   Tactical Tips: Implement a “test buddy” system for collaborative testing and learning. Encourage developers to test the product to build domain knowledge and foster cross-functional understanding.   “Your people need to understand the product—not just the code—to scale effectively.”   Maintaining Culture Amid Growth   “Growth changes culture—how you hire and lead defines the next chapter.”   Toni shares how adding new team members can shift team dynamics. The key to sustaining a positive culture is hiring individuals who take ownership and serve as role models. Leaders should seek out those who aim to improve the team, not just perform their tasks.   “The best hires don't just do their job—they make the whole team better.”   Cross-Functional Insights and Learning the CTO Role   “CTOs operate at the intersection of tech and business—a shift from pure development.”   Toni admits that stepping into the CTO role required him to expand his understanding of business operations, strategic planning, and cross-functional collaboration. He emphasizes that this broadened perspective is essential for impactful decision-making.   “The biggest shift for me was seeing the business as a whole—not just the tech stack.”   Key Influences: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team   “Understanding team dynamics is as crucial as technical expertise.”   Toni cites Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team as a pivotal read. The book shaped his approach to fostering accountability and ensuring team commitment. Toni underscores that accountability isn't about blame—it's about ownership and follow-through.   Scaling with a Talent Strategy in Mind   “Growth requires not just more people but the right investments.”   Toni discusses integrating talent strategy into roadmaps by aligning with business goals, including company size and revenue targets. Strategic hiring and investment in growth ensure that the team remains equipped to deliver on future plans.   About Toni Ala-Piirto   Toni Ala-Piirto is a seasoned software professional with 15 years of experience leading architecture and design for projects of all sizes. He excels in creating practical, fit-for-purpose distributed systems and is known for his hands-on approach and commitment to continuous improvement. Toni consistently delivers solutions that meet specific project needs while aligning with broader business objectives. You can link with Toni Ala-Piirto on LinkedIn.a

What are the hallmarks of functional, meaningful knowledge transfer between diverse communication and learning styles? What are the outcomes that spring from effective understanding of ideas between people? What should leaders remember when transferring knowledge to those they lead?

Dan Duckworth is the founder and host of LeaderQuest, an elite leadership program that transforms managers and executives into dynamic changemakers. He speaks, teaches, and writes on leadership and leadership development, and provides one-on-one coaching to leaders aiming to drive transformational change. Dan has served as a board member for Leading Saints since 2019. To learn more, visit idylli.co or find Dan on LinkedIn. Links Sunday School Session Template From Aspirational Principles to Practical Principles Share your thoughts in the Leading Saints community Transcript coming soon Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library Highlights In this podcast conversation, Kurt and Dan explore the challenges faced by local leaders in adapting to changes in church programs, particularly in Sunday School and ministering. They critique the tendency to revert to traditional methods rather than embracing innovative approaches that align with The Church's evolving directives. Drawing on scriptural examples, they illustrate the need for leaders to actively engage in creating a culture that supports spiritual growth and community building. Dan emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of Sunday School, including the nature of its membership, the role of teachers, and the communal aspect of spiritual development. Throughout the episode, they advocate for a shift from knowledge transfer to transformational teaching, encouraging leaders to experiment with new methods that foster engagement and personal growth. By redefining the purpose of Sunday School and embracing a more dynamic, interactive approach, local leaders can create an environment where individuals feel empowered to share their spiritual journeys and support one another. The discussion ultimately serves as a call to action for leaders to embrace their roles in cultivating a vibrant, Christ-centered community that reflects the principles of the gospel. 04:45 - The Connection Between Leadership and Zion 06:15 - The Role of Culture in Leadership 07:50 - The Importance of Transformational Leadership 09:30 - The Need for Change in Church Programs 10:50 - The Allegory of the Olive Tree and Leadership 12:30 - The Natural Order of Church Gatherings 14:00 - The Role of Local Leaders in Cultural Change 15:30 - The Power of Experimentation in Teaching 17:00 - The Purpose of Sunday School 19:00 - Understanding the Unique Characteristics of Sunday School 20:30 - The Role of Membership in Sunday School 22:00 - The Teacher's Role in Sunday School 23:30 - The Nature of Gathering in Sunday School 25:00 - The Shift from Knowledge Transfer to Transformation 27:00 - Engaging Students in a Dynamic Learning Environment 29:00 - The Importance of Energy Management in Teaching 30:30 - The Need for a Clear Purpose in Sunday School 32:00 - The Three Primary Characteristics of Sunday School 34:00 - The Individual Journey in Sunday School 36:00 - The Collective Engagement in Spiritual Development 38:00 - The Shift from Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side 40:00 - Observations on Youth and Adult Sunday School Dynamics The award-winning Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Elder Alvin F. Meredith III, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Kirby Heyborne, Taysom Hill Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich,

Recording of two keynotes given at the event "AI and Security - A multidisciplinary Approach" given in Vienna on November 18th 2024. Speakers: 00:02 Welcome speech by Prof. Dr. Ronald Maier, Vice-Rector for Digitalisation and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Vienna Opening remarks by 05:43 Christoph Campregher, Head of IT-Security, Vienna University Computer Center 08:15 Nikolaus Forgó, Head of the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna 10:45 Barbara Prainsack, Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna Keynote II chaired by Barbara Prainsack: 16:30 Jörg Heidrich, Lawyer for IT law and DPO at Heise Keynote I chaired by Barbara Prainsack: 52:40 Brent Mittelstadt, Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

In this episode of The Art of Consulting podcast, hosts Andy and Cat reunite for a rare “together episode” discussing the nuances and importance of knowledge transfer in the consulting space. As consultants from various fields, they explore the idea of consulting as a temporary yet impactful role, emphasizing the value of effectively transitioning their knowledge to clients and the critical role of documentation and interpersonal skills in a consultant's success. Episode Summary: [00:05] Andy and Cat kick off a special co-hosted episode, reflecting on their individual expert interviews and the rarity of their joint episodes these days. [00:38] They talk about their intense collaboration periods in the past, contrasting it with their recent individual projects. [00:46] Core Topic: The transfer of knowledge. They highlight the paradox of good consultants—working themselves out of a job—while maintaining strong client relationships, with clients often returning for help with new challenges. [01:37] They discuss the necessity of identifying a key person within the client's organization for knowledge transfer, ensuring smooth operations post-consultancy. [04:36] Discussion on the optimal timing for identifying a successor at the client site, stressing the importance of involving them from the start of the project. [06:46] Andy expresses concern about clients deferring knowledge transfer until after go-live, leading to gaps in understanding key project decisions. [10:47] The conversation shifts to the importance of moving from people-centric to system-centric operations and the risks of not having redundancy in organizational knowledge. [14:48] Andy and Cat discuss transferring not only technical knowledge but also the interpersonal skills and sensitivities critical to successful consulting. [16:55] They emphasize the need for user-friendly tools to document technical knowledge and the tact needed to convey information about team dynamics. [22:34] They provide an action plan for listeners on how to approach knowledge transfer. They advise identifying primary and secondary successors, choosing a starting point, using effective documentation tools, and considering the human aspect of knowledge transfer. [39:20] The episode closes by affirming the value of human relationships in the consulting process. Episode Highlights: [00:05] – Introduction: Andy and Cat discuss the rarity of co-hosting due to their individual interviews with experts. [00:38] – Reflection on past episodes and the evolution of their interactions. [00:46] – Consultant's Paradox: Good consultants work to make themselves unnecessary while maintaining client relationships. [01:37] – Key Individual for Knowledge Transfer: The importance of identifying a key person within the client's organization. [04:36] – Timing of Knowledge Transfer: Optimal timing for selecting the right person for knowledge transfer. [06:46] – Continuity Concerns: Issues with waiting until post go-live for knowledge transfer. [10:47] – Shift to System-Centric Operations: Importance of having redundancy in organizational knowledge. [14:48] – Comprehensive Knowledge Transfer: Technical and soft skills are equally important. [16:55] – User-Friendly Documentation Tools: Creating effective documentation for knowledge transfer. [22:34] – Action Plan for Listeners: Steps to approach knowledge transfer in consulting. [39:20] – Conclusion: The human aspect remains central to consulting work. About the Hosts: Andy and Cat are seasoned consultants with a passion for sharing their insights and experiences. They specialize in guiding organizations and individuals through complex projects, advocating for knowledge transfer to ensure sustained excellence and growth. For listeners looking to enhance their consulting skills or gain insights into the art of knowledge transfer, this episode offers valuable strategies and field anecdotes. Join Andy and Cat as they unravel the complexities and rewards of consulting, where imparting knowledge is essential for success.  

These messages make me smile a great deal. Thank you.Join us on The Wake Up for an enlightening conversation with Trevor Wie, a powerful energy worker and an adoptee-lineal belonging to the Larakia and Gunwinggu Nations in Australia's Northern Territory. Trevor shares his deep understanding of Natural Law, consciousness and cultural knowledge, emphasizing the concept of Knowledge Transfer to foster greater awareness and connection with the earth.In this episode, Trevor will explore the significance of cultural heritage, the impact of energy work on personal and communal healing, and the vital role of sharing traditional wisdom in today's world. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights from Trevor's unique (to us) perspective and learn how we can all contribute to a more harmonious existence.Find out more about Trevor's work at https://www.naturallaw-swu.com/ and join his Telegram Channel at https://t.me/TrevorWieFollow The Wake Up on Social Media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewakeup23/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wakeuppodcast23 Twitter - https://twitter.com/wakeup_cocreate Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thewakeuppodcast/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWakeUp_ChannelLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-wake-up/

In this episode, I talk with Jamison Morse, P.E., R.A., principal and director of buildings and structures at PVE-LLC, and Alan Mabry, co-founder of Turbine Workforce, about how tech is reshaping the AEC industry. We dive into solving the challenges of knowledge transfer, boosting productivity, and capturing more business with centralized platforms. ***The video version […] The post TCEP 273: How to Triumph in Knowledge Transfer Among Engineers appeared first on Engineering Management Institute.

Rounding Up Season 3 | Episode 1 – Grouping Practices That Promote Efficacy and Knowledge Transfer Guest: Dr. Peter Liljedahl Mike Wallus: We know from research that student collaboration can have a powerful impact on learning. That said, how we group students for collaboration matters—a lot. Today we're talking with Dr. Peter Liljedahl, author of “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics,” about how educators can form productive, collaborative groups in their classrooms. Mike: Hello, Peter. Welcome to the podcast. Peter Liljedahl: Thanks for having me. Mike: So, to offer our listeners some background, you've written a book, called “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics,” and I think it's fair to say that it's had a pretty profound impact on many educators. In the book, you address 14 different practices. And I'm wondering if you could weigh in on how you weigh the importance of the different practices that you addressed? Peter: Well, OK, so, first of all, 14 is a big number that publishers don't necessarily like. When we first started talking with Corwin about this, they were very open. But I know if you think about books, if there's going to be a number in the title, the number is usually three, five or seven. It's sometimes eight—but 14 is a ridiculous number. They can't all be that valuable. What's important about the fact that it's 14, is that 14 is the number of core practices that every teacher does. That's not to say that there aren't more or less for some teachers, but these are core routines that we all do. We all use tasks. We all create groups for collaboration. We all have the students work somewhere. We all answer questions. We do homework, we assign notes, we do formative, summative assessment. We do all of these things. We consolidate lessons. We launch lessons. Peter: These are sort of the building blocks of what makes our teaching. And through a lot of time in classrooms, I deduced this list of 14. Robert Kaplinsky, in one of his blog posts, actually said that he thinks that that list of 14 probably accounts for 95 percent of what happens in classrooms. And my research was specifically about, “How do we enact each of those 14 so that we can maximize student thinking? So, what kind of tasks get students to think, how can we create groups so that more thinking happens? How can we consolidate a lesson so we get more thinking? How can we do formative and summative assessments so the students are thinking more?” So, the book is about responding to those 14 core routines and the research around how to enact each of those to maximize thinking. Your question around which one is, “How do we put weight on each of these?” Peter: They're all important. But, of course, they're not all equally impactful. Building thinking classrooms is most often recognized visually as the thing where students are standing at whiteboards working. And, of course, that had a huge impact on student engagement and thinking in the classroom, getting them from sitting and working at desks to getting them working at whiteboards. But in my opinion, it's not the most impactful. It is hugely impactful, but the one that actually makes all of thinking classroom function is how we form collaborative groups, which is chapter two. And it seems like that is such an inconsequential thing. “We've been doing groups for forever, and we got this figured out. We know how to do this. But … do we really? Do we really have it figured out?” Because my research really showed that if we want to get students thinking, then the ways we've been doing it aren't working. Mike: I think that's a great segue. And I want to take a step back, Peter. Before we talk about grouping, I want to ask what might be an obvious question. But I wonder if we can talk about the “why” behind collaboration. How would you describe the value or the potential impact of collaboration on students' learning experiences? Peter: That's a great question. We've been doing collaborative work for decades. And by and large, we see that it is effective. We have data that shows that it's effective. And when I say “we,” I don't mean me or the people I work with. I mean “we, in education,” know that collaboration is important. But why? What is it about collaboration that makes it effective? There are a lot of different things. It could be as simple as it breaks the monotony of having to sit and listen. But let's get into some really powerful things that collaboration does. Number one, about 25 years ago, we all were talking about metacognition. We know that metacognition is so powerful and so effective, and if we get students thinking about their thinking, then their thinking actually improves. And metacognition has been shown time and time again to be impactful in learning. Some of the listeners might be old enough to remember the days where we were actually trying to teach students to be metacognitive, and the frustration that that created because it is virtually impossible. Peter: Being reflective about your thinking while you're thinking is incredibly hard to do because it requires you to be both present and reflective at the same time. We're pretty good at being present, and we're pretty good about reflecting on our experiences. But to do both simultaneously is incredibly hard to do. And to teach someone to do it is difficult. But I think we've also all had that experience where a student puts up their hand, and you start walking over to them, and just as you get there, they go, “Never mind.” Or they pick up their book, and they walk over to you, and just as they get to you, they just turn around and walk back. I used to tell my students that they're smarter when they're closer to me. But what's really going on there is, as they've got their hand up, or as they're walking across the room toward you as a teacher, they're starting to formulate their thoughts to ask a question. Peter: They're preparing to externalize their thinking. And that is an incredibly metacognitive process. One of the easiest forms of metacognition, and one of the easiest ways to access metacognition, is just to have students collaborate. Collaborating requires students to talk. It requires them to organize their thoughts. It requires them to prepare their thinking and to think about their thinking for the purposes of externalization. It is an incredibly accessible way of creating metacognition in your classroom, which we already know is effective. So, that's one reason I think collaboration is really, really vital. Peter: Another one comes from the work on register. So, register is the level of sophistication with which we speak about something. So, if I'm in a classroom, and I'm talking to kindergarten students, I set a register that is accessible to them. When I talk to my undergraduates, I use a different register. My master's students, my Ph.D. students, my colleagues, I'm using different registers. I can be talking about the same thing, but the level of sophistication with which I'm going to talk about those things varies depending on the audience. And as much as possible, we try to vary our register to suit the audience we have. But I think we've also all had that instructor who's completely incapable of varying their register, the one who just talks at you as if you're a third-year undergraduate when you're really a Great Eight student. And the ability to vary our register to a huge degree is going to define what makes us successful as a teacher. Can we meet our learners where they're at? Can we talk to them from the perspective that they're at? Now we can work at it, and very adept teachers are good at it. But even the best teachers are not as good at getting their register to be the same as students. Peter: So, this is another reason collaboration is so effective. It allows students to talk and be talked to at their register, which is the most accessible form of communication for them. And I think the third reason that collaboration is so important is the difference between what I talk in my book about the difference between absolute and tentative knowledge. So, I'm going to make two statements. You tell me which one is more inviting to add a comment to. So, statement number one is, “This is how to do it, or this is what I did.” That's statement number one. Statement number two is, “I think that one of the ways that we may want to try, I'm wondering if this might work.” Which one is more inviting for you to contribute to? Mike: Yes, statement number two, for many, many reasons, as I'm sitting here thinking about the impact of those two different language structures. Peter: So, as teachers, we tend to talk in absolutes. The absolute communication doesn't give us anything to hold onto. It's not engaging. It's not inviting. It doesn't bring us into the conversation. It's got no rough patches—it's just smooth. But when that other statement is full of hedging, it's tentative. It's got so many rough patches, so many things to contribute to, things I want to add to, maybe push back at or push further onto. And that's how students talk to each other. When you put them in collaborative groups, they talk in tentative discourse, whereas teachers, we tend to talk in absolutes. So, students are always talking to each other like that. When we put them in collaborative groups, they're like, “Well, maybe we should try this. I'm wondering if this'll work. Hey, have we thought about this? I wonder if?” And it's so inviting to contribute to. Mike: That's fascinating. I'm going to move a little bit and start to focus on grouping. So, in the book, you looked really closely at the way that we group students for collaborative problem-solving and how that impacts the way students engage in a collaborative effort. And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the type of things that you were examining. Peter: OK. So, you don't have to spend a lot of time in classrooms before you see the two dominant paradigms for grouping. So, the first one we tend to see a lot at elementary school. So, that one is called “strategic grouping.” Strategic grouping is where the teacher has a goal, and then they're going to group their students to satisfy that goal. So, maybe my goal is to differentiate, so I'm going to make ability groups. Or maybe my goal is to increase productivity, so I'm going to make mixed-ability groups. Or maybe my goal is to just have peace and quiet, so I'm going to keep those certain students apart. Whatever my goal is, I'm going to create the groups to try to achieve that goal, recognizing that how students behave in the classroom has a lot to do with who they're partnered with. So that's strategic grouping. It is the dominant grouping paradigm we see in elementary school. Peter: By the time we get to high school, we tend to see more of teachers going, “Work with who you want.” This is called “self-selected groupings.” And this is when students are given the option to group themselves any way they want. And alert: They don't group themselves for academic reasons, they group themselves for social reasons. And I think every listener can relate to both of those forms of grouping. It turns out that both of those are highly ineffective at getting students to think. And ironically, for the exact same reason. We surveyed hundreds of students who were in these types of grouping settings: strategic grouping or self-selected groupings. We asked one question, “If you knew you were going to work in groups today, what is the likelihood you would offer an idea?” That was it. And 80 percent of students said that they were unlikely or highly unlikely to offer an idea, and that was the exact same, whether they were in strategic groupings or self-selected groupings. The data cut the same. Mike: That's amazing, Peter. Peter: Yeah, and it's for the same reason it turns out; that whether students were being grouped strategically or self-selected, they already knew what their role was that day. They knew what was expected of them. And for 80 percent of the students, their role is not to think. It's not to lead. Their role is to follow, right? And that's true whether they're grouping themselves socially, where they already know the social hierarchy of this group, or they're being grouped strategically. We interviewed hundreds of students. And after grade 3, every single student could tell us why they were in the group this teacher placed them in. They know. They know what you think of them. You're communicating very clearly what you think their abilities are through the way you group them, and then they live down to that expectation. So, that's what we were seeing in classrooms was that strategic grouping may be great at keeping the peace. And self-selected grouping may be fabulous for getting students to stop whining about collaboration. But neither of them was effective for getting students to think. In fact, they were quite the opposite. They were highly ineffective for getting students to think. Mike: So, I want to keep going with this. And I think one of the things that stood out for me as I was reading is, this notion that regardless of the rationale that a teacher might have for grouping, there's almost always a mismatch between what the teacher's goals are and what the student's goals are. I wonder if you could just unpack this and maybe explain this a bit more. Peter: So, when you do strategic grouping, do you really think the students are with the students that they want to be with? One of the things that we saw happening in elementary school was that strategic grouping is difficult. It takes a lot of effort to try to get the balance right. So, what we saw was teachers largely doing strategic grouping once a month. They would put students into a strategic group, and they would keep them in that group for the entire month. And the kids care a lot about who they're with, when you're going to be in a group for a month. And do you think they were happy with everybody that was in that group? If I'm going to be with a group of students for a month, I'd rather pick those students myself. So, they're not happy. You've created strategic groupings. And, by definition, a huge part of strategic grouping is keeping kids who want to be together away from each other. Peter: They're not happy with that. Self-selected groupings, the students are not grouping themselves for academic reasons. They're just grouping themselves for social reasons so that they can socialize, so they talk, so they can be off topic, and all of these things. And yes, they're not complaining about group work, but they're also not being productive. So, the students are happy. But do you think the teacher's happy? Do you think the teacher looks out across that room and goes, “Yeah, there were some good choices made there.” No, nobody's happy, right? If I'm grouping them strategically, that's not matching their goals. That's not matching their social goals. When they're grouping themselves in self-selected ways, that's matching their social goals but not matching my academic goals for them. So, there's always going to be this mismatch. The teacher, more often than not, has academic goals. The students, more often than not, have social goals. There are some overlaps, right? There are students who are like, “I'm not happy with this group. I know I'm not going to do well in this group. I'm not going to be productive.” And there are some teachers who are going, “I really need this student to come out of the shell, so I need to get them to socialize more.” But other than that, by and large, our goals as teachers are academic in nature. The goals as students are social in nature. Mike: I think one of the biggest takeaways from your work on grouping, for me at least, was the importance of using random groups. And I have to admit, when I read that there was a part of me thinking back to my days as a first-grade teacher that felt a little hesitant. As I read, I came to think about that differently. But I'm wondering if you can talk about why random groups matter, the kind of impact that they have on the collaborative experience and the learning experience for kids. Peter: Alright, so going back to the previous question. So, we have this mismatch. And we have also that 80 percent of students are not thinking; 80 percent of students are entering into that group, not prepared to offer an idea. So those are the two problems that we're trying to address here. So, random groups … random wasn't good enough. It had to be visibly random. The students had to see the randomness because when we first tried it, we said, “Here's your random groups.” They didn't believe we were being random. They just thought we were being strategic. So, it has to be visibly random, and it turns out it has to be frequent as well. About once every 45 to 75 minutes. See, when students are put into random groups, they don't know what their role is. So, we're solving this problem. They don't know what their role is. When we started doing visibly random groups frequently, within three weeks we were running that same survey. Peter: “If you know you're going to work in groups today, what is the likelihood you would offer an idea?” Remember the baseline data was that 80 percent of students said that they were unlikely or highly unlikely, and, all of a sudden, we have a hundred percent of students saying that they're likely or highly likely. That was one thing that it solved. It shifted this idea that students were now entering groups willing to offer an idea, and that's despite 50 percent of them saying, “It probably won't lead to a solution, but I'm going to offer an idea.” Now why is that? Because they don't know what their role is. So, right on the surface, what random groups does, is it shatters this idea of preconceived roles and then preconceived behaviors. So, now they enter the groups willing to offer an idea, willing to be a contributor, not thinking that their role is just to follow. But there's a time limit to this because within 45 to 75 minutes, they're going to start to fall into roles. Peter: In that first 45 minutes, the roles are constantly negotiated. They're dynamic. So, one student is being the leader, and the others are being the follower. And now, someone else is a leader, the others are following. Now everyone is following. They need some help from some external source. Now everyone is leading. We've got to resolve that. But there is all of this dynamicism and negotiation going on around the roles. But after 45 to 75 minutes, this sort of stabilizes and now you have sort of a leader and followers, and that's when we need to randomize again so that the roles are dynamic and that the students aren't falling into sort of predefined patterns of non-thinking behavior. Mike: I think this is fascinating because we've been doing some work internally at MLC around this idea of status or the way that … the stories that kids tell about one another or the labels that kids carry either from school systems or from the community that they come from, and how those things are subtle. They're unspoken, but they often play a role in classroom dynamics in who gets called on. What value kids place on a peer's idea if it is shared. What you're making me think is there's a direct line between this thing that we've been thinking about and what happens in small groups as well. Peter: Yeah, for sure. So, you mentioned status. I want to add to that identity and self-efficacy and so on and so forth. One of the interesting pieces of data that came out of the research into random groups was, we were interviewing students several weeks into this. And we were asking them questions around this, and the students were saying things like, “Oh, the teacher thinks we're all the same, otherwise they wouldn't do random groups. The teacher thinks we're all capable, otherwise they wouldn't do random groups.” So, what we're actually talking about here is that we're starting—just simply through random groups—to have a positive impact on student self-efficacy. One of the things that came out of this work, that I wrote about in a separate paper, was that we've known for a long time that student self-efficacy has a huge impact on student performance. But how do we increase, how do we improve student self-efficacy? Peter: There are a whole bunch of different ways. The work of Bandura on this is absolutely instrumental. But it comes down to a couple of things. From a classroom teacher perspective, the first thing, in order for a student to start on this journey from low self-efficacy to high self-efficacy, they have to encounter a teacher who believes in them. Except students don't listen to what we say. They listen to what we do. So, simply telling our students that we have confidence in them doesn't actually have much impact. It's how we show them that we have confidence in them. And it turns out that random groups actually have a huge impact on that. By doing the random groups, we're actually showing the kids that we believe in them and then they start to internalize this. So that's one thing. The work of Bandura about how we can start to shift student self-efficacy through mastery experiences, where they start to, for example, be successful at something. And that starts to have an impact that is amplified when students start to be successful in front of others, when they are the ones who are contributing in a small group. And that group is now successful. And that success is linked in some small or great part to your contributions; that self-efficacy is amplified because not only am I being successful, I'm being successful in a safe environment, but in front of others. Peter: Now, self-efficacy contributes to identity, and identity has an interesting relationship with status. And you mentioned status. So, self-efficacy is what I think of myself. Status is what others think of me. I can't control my status. I can't shift my status. Status is something that is bestowed on me by others. And, of course, it's affected by their interactions with me in collaborative spaces. So, how they get to see me operate is going to create a status for me, on me, by others. But the status gets to be really nicely evenly distributed in thinking classrooms when we're doing these random groups because everybody gets to be seen as capable. They all get to be someone who can be mathematical and someone who can contribute mathematically. Mike: I want to shift back for a moment to this idea of visibly random groups. This idea that for kids, they need to believe that it's not just a strategic grouping that I've called random for the sake of the moment. What are some of the ways that you've seen teachers visibly randomize their groups so that kids really could see the proof was right out there in front of them? Peter: So, we first started with just cards. So, we got 27 kids. We're going to use playing cards, we're going to have three aces, three 2S, three 3s, three 4s, and so on. We would just shuffle the deck, and the kids would come and take a card. And if you're a 4, you would go to the board that has a 4 on it. Or maybe that fourth 4 is there, so to speak. We learned a whole bunch of things. It has to be visible. And however way we do it, the randomization doesn't just tell them what group they're in, it tells them where to go. That's an efficiency thing. You don't want kids walking around the classroom looking for their partners and then spending 5 minutes deciding where they want to work. Take a card, you got a 7, you go to the 7 board. You got an ace, you go to the ace board. Peter: And that worked incredibly well. Some teachers already had Popsicle sticks in their classroom, so they started using those: Popsicle sticks with students' names. So, they would pull three Popsicle sticks and they would say, “OK, these students are together. These students are together.” At first, we didn't see any problems with that. That seemed to be pretty isomorphic … to using a playing card. Some teachers got frustrated with the cards because with a card, sometimes what happens is that they get ripped or torn or they don't come back. Or they come back, and they're sweaty or they're hot. And it's like, “OK, where were you keeping this card? I don't want to know. It's hot, it's dirty.” They got ink on it. The cards don't come back. The kids are swapping cards. And teachers were frustrated by this. So, they started using digital randomizers, things like Flippity and ClassDojo and Picker Wheel and Team Shake and Team Maker. Peter: There were tons of these digital randomizers, and they all work pretty much the same. But there was a bit of a concern that the students may not perceive the randomness as much in these methods. And you can amplify that by, for example, bringing in a fuzzy [die], a big one, and somebody gets to roll it. And if a 5 comes up, they get to come up and hit the randomized button five times. And now there's a greater perception of randomness that's happening. With Flippity, that turns out actually it'd be true. Turns out that the first randomization is not purely random, and the kids spot that pattern. And we thought, “OK, perfect. That's fine. As long as the students perceive it's random, that it is truly random, that the teacher isn't somehow hacking this so that they are able to impose their own bias into this space.” So, it's seemingly random, but not purely random. And everything was running fine until about six to eight months ago. I was spending a lot of time in classrooms. I think in the last 14 months I've been in 144 different classrooms, co-teaching or teaching. So, I was spending a lot of time in classrooms, and for efficiency's sake, a lot of these teachers were using digital randomizers. And then I noticed something. It had always been there, but I hadn't noticed it. This is the nature of research. It's also the nature of just being a fly on the wall, or someone who's observing a classroom or a teacher. There's so much to notice we can't notice it all. So, we notice the things that are obvious. The more time we spend in spaces, the more nuanced things we're able to notice. And about six to eight months ago, I noticed something that, like I said, has always been there, but I had never really noticed it. Peter: Teacher hits a randomized button, and all the students are standing there watching, waiting for the randomized groups to appear on the screen. And then somebody goes, “Ugh.” It's so small. Or somebody laughs. Or somebody's like, “Nooo.” And it's gone. It's in a moment, it's gone. Sometimes others snicker about it, but it's gone. It's a flash. And it's always been there, and you think it's not a big deal. Turns out it's a huge deal because this is a form of micro-bullying. This is what I call it, “micro-bullying.” Because when somebody goes, “Ugh,” everybody in the room knows who said it. And looking at the screen, they know who they said it about. And this student, themself, knows who said it, and they know that they're saying it about them. And what makes this so much worse than other overt forms of bullying is that they also are keenly aware that everybody in the room just witnessed and saw this happen, including the teacher. Peter: And it cuts deeply. And the only thing that makes bullying worse is when bullying happens in front of someone who's supposed to protect you, and they don't; not because we're evil, but because it's so short, it's so small, it's over in a flash. We don't really see the magnitude of this. But this has deep psychological effects and emotional effects on these students. Not just that they know that this person doesn't like them. But they know that everybody knows that they don't like them. And then what happens on the second day? The second day, whoever's got that student, that victimized student in their group, when the randomization happens, they also go, “Ugh,” because this has become acceptable now. This is normative. Within a week, this student might be completely ostracized. And it's just absolutely normal to sort of hate on this one student. Peter: It's just not worth it. It cuts too deeply. Now you can try to stop it. You can try to control it, but good luck, right? I've seen teachers try to say, “OK, that's it. You're not allowed to say anything when the randomization happens. You're not allowed to cheer, you're not allowed to grunt, you're not allowed to groan, you're not allowed to laugh. All you can do is go to your boards.” Then they hit the random, and immediately you hear someone go, “Ugh.” And they'll look at them, and the student will go, “What? That's how I breathe.” Or “I stubbed my toe where I thought of something funny.” It's virtually impossible to shut it down because it's such a minor thing. But seemingly minor. In about 50 percent of elementary classrooms that I'm in, where a teacher uses that digital randomizer, you don't hear it. But 50 percent you do. Almost 100 percent of high school classrooms I'm in you hear some sort of grunt or groan or complaint. Peter: It's not worth it. Just buy more cards. Go to the casino, get free cards. Go to the dollar store, get them cheap. It's just not worth it. Now, let's get back to the Popsicle stick one. It actually has the same effect. “I'm going to pull three names. I'm going to read out which three names there are, and I'm going to drop them there.” And somebody goes, “Ugh.” But why does this not happen with cards? It doesn't happen with cards because when you take that card, you don't know what group you're in. You don't know who else is in your group. All you know is where to go. You take that card, you don't know who else is in your group. There's no grunting, groaning, laughing, snickering. And then when you do get to the group, there might be someone there that you don't like working with. So, the student might go, “Ugh.” But now there's no audience to amplify this effect. And because there's no audience, more often than not, they don't bother going, “Ugh.” Go back to the cards, people. The digital randomizers are fast and efficient, but they're emotionally really traumatizing. Mike: I think that's a really subtle but important piece for people who are thinking about doing this for the first time. And I appreciate the way that you described the psychological impact on students and the way that using the cards engineers less of the audience than the randomizer [do]. Peter: Yeah, for sure. Mike: Well, let's shift a little bit and just talk about your recommendations for group size, particularly students in kindergarten through second grade as opposed to students in third grade through fifth grade. Can you talk about your recommendations and what are the things that led you to them? Peter: First of all, what led to it? It was just so clear, so obvious. The result was that groups of three were optimal. And that turned out to be true every setting, every grade. There are some caveats to that, and I'll talk about that in a minute. But groups of three were obvious. We saw this in the data almost immediately. Every time we had groups of three, we heard three voices. Every time we heard groups of four, we heard three voices. When we had groups of five, we heard two voices on task, two voices off task, and one voice was silent. Groups of three were just that sort of perfect, perfect group size. It took a long time to understand why. And the reason why comes from something called “complexity theory.” Complexity theory tells us that in order for a group to be productive, it has to have a balance between diversity and redundancy. Peter: So, redundancy is the things that are the same. We need redundancy. We need things like common language, common notation, common vocabulary, common knowledge. We need to have things in common in order for the collaboration to even start. But if all we have is redundancy, then the group is no better than the individual. We also have to have diversity. Diversity is what every individual brings to the group that's different. And the thing that happens is, when the group sizes get larger, the diversity goes up, but redundancy goes down. And that's bad. And when the group sizes get smaller, the redundancy goes up, but the diversity goes down. And that's bad. Groups of three seem to have this perfect balance of redundancy and diversity. It was just the perfect group size. And if you reflect on groups that you've done in your settings, whatever that setting was, you'll probably start to recognize that groups of three were always more effective than groups of four. Peter: But we learned some other things. We learned that in K–2, for example, groups of three were still optimal, but we had to start with groups of two. Why? Because very young children don't know how to collaborate yet. They come to school in kindergarten, they're still working in what we call “parallel,” which means that they'll happily stand side by side at a whiteboard with their own marker and work on their own things side by side. They're working in parallel. Eventually, we move them to a state that we call “polite turn-taking.” Polite turn-taking is we can have two students working at a whiteboard sharing one marker, but they're still working independently. So, “It's now your turn and you're working on your thing, and now it's my turn, I'm working on my thing.” Eventually, we get them to a state of collaboration. And collaboration is defined as “when what one student says or does affects what the other student says or does.” Peter: And now we have collaboration happening. Very young kids don't come to school naturally able to collaborate. I've been in kindergarten classrooms in October where half the groups are polite turn-taking, and half the groups are collaborating. It is possible to accelerate them toward that state. But I've also been in grade 2 classrooms in March where the students are still working in parallel or turn-taking. We need to work actively at improving the collaboration that's actually happening. Once collaboration starts to happen in those settings, we nurtured for a while and then we move to groups of three. So, I can have kindergartens by the end of the year working in groups of three, but I can't assume that grade 2s can do it at the beginning of the year. It has a lot to do with the explicit efforts that have been made to foster collaboration in the classroom. And having students sit side by side and pair desks does not foster collaboration. It fosters parallel play. Peter: So, we always say that “K–2, start with groups of two, see where their level of collaboration is, nurture that work on it, move toward groups of three.” The other setting that we had to start in groups of two were alternate ed settings. Not because the kids can't collaborate, but because they don't trust yet. They don't trust in the process in the educational setting. We have to nurture that. Once they start to trust in working in groups of two, we can move to groups of three. But the data was clear on this. So, if you have a classroom, and let's say you're teaching grade 6, and you don't have a perfect multiple of three, what do you do? You make some groups of two. So, rather than groups of four, make some groups of two. Keep those groups of two close to each other so that they may start to collaborate together. Peter: And that was one of the ironies of the research: If I make a group of four, it's a Dumpster fire. If I make two groups of two and put them close to each other, and they start to talk to each other, it works great. You start with groups of two. So, having some extra groups of two is handy if you're teaching in high school or any grade, to be honest. But let's say you have 27 students on your roster, but only 24 are there. There's going to be this temptation to make eight groups of three. Don't do it. Make nine groups, have a couple of groups of two. Because the minute you get up and running, someone's going to walk in late. And then when they walk in late, it's so much easier to plug them into a group of two than to have them waiting for another person to come along so that they can pair them or to make a group of four. Mike: Yeah, that makes sense. Before we close, Peter, I want to talk about two big ideas that I really wish I would've understood more clearly when I was still in the classroom. What I'm thinking about are the notion of crossing social boundaries and then also the concept of knowledge mobility. And I'm wondering if you could talk about each of them in turn and talk about how they relate to one another. Peter: Certainly. So, when we make our groups, when we make groups, groups are very discreet. I think this comes from that sort of strategic grouping, or even self-selected groupings where the groups are really separate from each other. There are very well-defined boundaries around this group, and everything that happens, happens inside that group, and nothing happens between groups. In fact, as teachers, we often encourage that, and we're like, “No, do your own work in your group. Don't be talking to the other groups.” Because the whole purpose of doing strategic groups is to keep certain kids away from each other, and that creates a very non-permeable boundary between the groups. But what if we can make these boundaries more porous, and so that knowledge actually starts to flow between the groups. This is what's called “knowledge mobility,” the idea that we don't actually want the knowledge to be fixed only inside of a group. Peter: The smartest person in the room is the room. We got to get that knowledge moving around the room. It's not groups, it's groups among groups. So, how can we get what one group is achieving and learning to move to another group that's maybe struggling? And this is called “knowledge mobility.” The easiest way to increase this is we have the students working at vertical whiteboards. Working at vertical whiteboards creates a space where passive knowledge mobility is really easy to do. It's really easy to look over your shoulder and see what another group is doing and go, “Oh, let's try that. They made a table of values. Let's make a table of values. Or they've done a graph, or they drew a picture” or whatever. “We'll steal an idea.” And that idea helps us move forward. And that passive can also lead to more active, where it's like, “I wonder what they're doing over there?” Peter: And then you go and talk to them, and the teacher can encourage this. And both of these things really help with mobilizing knowledge, and that's what we want. We don't want the only source of knowledge to be the teacher. Knowledge is everywhere. Let's get that moving around the room within groups, between groups, between students. And that's not to say that the students are copying. We're not encouraging copying. And if you set the environment up right, they don't copy. They're not going to copy. They'll steal an idea, “Oh, let's organize our stuff into a table of values,” and then it's back to their own board and working on that. And the other way that we help make these boundaries more porous is by breaking down the social barriers that exist within a classroom. All classrooms have social barriers. They could be gender, race. They could be status-based. Peter: There are so many things that make up the boundaries that exist within classrooms. There are these social structures that exist in schools. And one of the things that random groups does is it breaks down these social barriers because we're putting students together that wouldn't normally be together. And our data really reveals just how much that happens; that after three weeks, the students are coming in, they're socializing with different students, students that hadn't been part of their social structure before. They're sitting together outside of class. I see this at the university where students are coming in, they almost don't know each other at all. Or they're coming in small groups that are in the same class. They know each other from other courses, and within three, four weeks, I'm walking through the hallways at the university and I'm seeing them sitting together, working together, even having lunch together in structures that didn't exist on day one. There are so many social structures, social barriers in classrooms. And if we can just erode those barriers, those group structures are going to become more and more porous, and we're creating more community, and we're reducing the risk that exists within those classrooms. Mike: I think the other piece that jumps out for me is when I go back to this notion of one random grouping, a random grouping that shifts every 45 to 75 minutes. This idea of breaking those social boundaries—but also, really this idea that knowledge mobility is accelerated jumps out of those two practices. I can really see that in the structure and how that would encourage that kind of change. Peter: Yeah. And it encourages both passively and actively. Passive in the sense that students can look over the shoulder, active that they can talk to another group. But also passively from the teacher perspective, that random groups does a lot of that heavy lifting. But I can also encourage it actively when a group asks a question. Rather than answering their question, looking around the room going, “You should go talk to the sevens over there.” Or “We're done. What do we do next?” “Go talk to the fours. They know what's next.” That, sort of, “I as a teacher can be passive and let the random groups do a lot of the heavy lifting. But I can also be active and push knowledge around the room. By the way, I respond to students' questions.” Mike: Well, and I think what also strikes me is you're really distributing the authority mathematically to the kids as well. Peter: Yeah, so we're displacing status, we're increasing identity. We're doing all sorts of different things that are de-powering the classroom, decentralizing the classroom. Mike: Well, before we go, Peter, I'm wondering if there are any steps that you'd recommend to an educator who's listening. They want to start to dabble, or they want to take up some of the ideas that we've talked about. Where would you invite people to make a start? Peter: So, first of all, one of the things we found in our research was small change is no change. When you make small changes, the classroom as a system will resist that. So, go big. In building thinking classrooms, random groups is not a practice that gets enacted on its own. It's enacted with two other practices: thinking tasks, which is chapter one of my book, random groups, which is chapter two. And then, getting the students working at vertical whiteboards. These are transformational changes to the classroom. What we're doing in doing that is we're changing the environment in which we're asking students to behave differently. Asking students to behave differently in exactly the same environment that they behaved a certain way for five years already is almost impossible to do. If you want them to behave differently, if you want them to start to think, you're going to have to create an environment that is more conducive to thinking. Peter: So, that's part of it. The other thing is, don't do things by half measures. Don't start doing, “Well, we're going to do random groups on Mondays, but we're going to do strategic groups the rest of the days,” or something like this. Because what that communicates to students is that the randomness is something that you don't really value. Go big. We're doing random groups. We're always doing random groups. Have the courage. Yes, there's going to be some combinations that you're going to go, “Uh-oh.” And some of those are going to be really uh-oh combinations. But you're also going to have way more situations where you go and then it turns out to be amazing. So, have that courage. Go with the random groups and do it persistently and consistently. Because there is going to be resistance. The students are going to resist this thing because at least when you're being strategic, you're being thoughtful about it. Peter: But this feels like too much chance. And they start to attribute, they start to map their emotions around being placed in strategic groups, which were often for a month, into this setting. And what we need to do is, we need to show that this is not that by being consistent, doing it randomly, doing it frequently, so they start to realize that this is different. This is not the kind of grouping structures that have happened in the past. And do it. Do it consistently, persistently. Do it for at least 10 days before you start to really see and really reap those benefits. Mike: I think that's a really great place to stop. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, Peter. It really has been a pleasure chatting with you. Peter: Thanks so much. It's been a great conversation. Mike: This podcast is brought to you by The Math Learning Center and the Maier Math Foundation, dedicated to inspiring and enabling all individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability. © 2024 The Math Learning Center | www.mathlearningcenter.org

Welcome to another incredible episode of the Ed Parcaut Podcast!

In this episode, Jeff Compton welcomes Greg Buckley to discuss technicians' role in transportation. Greg shares the importance of licensing for technicians to ensure a clear career path and differentiate skilled professionals from untrained ones. They also delve into the significance of industry events for networking and knowledge exchange, sharing personal experiences that highlight their transformative impact. Lastly, Greg emphasizes unity within the automotive industry, advocating for open communication and collaboration to foster a positive work environment.00:00 Growth from pump jockey to business owner.07:59 Balancing life is crucial to avoiding burnout.11:20 Parents sacrificed, work ethics changed, family dynamics changed.17:04 Industry demands flexibility and impacts work-life balance.25:28 Considering moving to be a pipe fitter.28:28 The Car and fishing industry affects focus and patience.32:58 Value time, collaboration, and business success.39:12 Challenges dealing with shop dynamics and owner.46:30 Emphasis on the importance of brand representation in the community.47:56 Dealership culture change could solve service issues.53:05 Skilled workers remain vital to transportation infrastructure.01:01:39 Sacrifices made for equitable table discussions. Ethical.01:04:42 Industry must prioritize adding security features to technology.01:10:22 Using numbers and personal conversations to evaluate.01:18:10 Starting a business, learning from conferences.01:19:30 Spontaneous trip led to a valuable networking opportunity.Check out Greg's Shop: https://www.buckleysautocare.com/ Thanks to our sponsor Promotive! Find your dream job today: gopromotive.com/jeff 

This podcast was originally a YouTube video, you can watch that video here: https://youtu.be/foci4Gf0LRYRemember, retirement is a new chapter in your life, and it's up to you to write its story. Follow our Medium Blog and schedule a consultation with Charles to tailor a plan that suits your unique financial goals:  https://calendly.com/charlesdzama/dzamatalk-complimentary-15-min-phone-callChapters:0:09 Introduction to FERS Phased Retirement - Overview of what FERS phased retirement is and who it's for.0:28 Who Should Consider Phased Retirement? - Discussing the ideal candidates for phased retirement and why it might be beneficial.0:46 Key Benefits of Phased Retirement - Exploring the dual benefits of continuing to work part-time and receiving partial pension payments.1:10 How Phased Retirement Works - Detailed explanation of the work arrangement, including hours and responsibilities.1:29 Pension Calculation Explained - Breakdown of how pensions are calculated and paid out During the phased retirement period.1:50 Earnings and Contributions During Phased Retirement - Understanding the financial implications, including salary and TSP contributions.2:00 Service Credit Accrual - How full credit for service years is accrued, even when working part-time.2:27 Preparing for Full Retirement - The emotional and mental benefits of transitioning slowly into retirement.2:50 Impact on Team and Succession Planning - The role of mentoring and knowledge transfer in organizational continuity.3:11 Conclusion and encouragement for eligible viewers to consider phased retirement.Connect with CD Financial for More Insights:Twitter: /CDFinancial_LLCInstagram: /CDfinancial.llcFacebook: /CDFinancialLLCLinkedIn: /cd-financial-llcVisit our Website https://cdfinancial.org/Subscribe and Stay Updated:Don't miss out on crucial advice for your financial journey. Subscribe now for weekly insights and strategies to secure your retirement.Get More from CD Financial:Looking for personalized advice? Schedule a consultation with Charles to tailor a plan that suits your unique financial situation. https://calendly.com/charlesdzama/dzamatalk-complimentary-15-min-phone-call#RetirementPlanning #TSP #401K #FinancialAdvice #InvestmentStrategy #FERS #PhasedRetirementSupport the Show.

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Topic Overview: Join Andy Fry and Cat Lam as they delve into the nuances of ERP systems, comparing on-premise and cloud implementations, discussing the transitions, challenges, and best practices from an expert's perspective in the ERP consulting field. Types of Consultants: External Consultants: Provide independent advice based on an external viewpoint. Internal Consultants: Offer specialized advice within an organization, focusing on continuous internal improvements.   Key Points Discussed: 0:06 - Introduction Welcome back to "The Art of Consulting Podcast" with hosts Andy Fry and Cat Lam. Today, we dive into ERP systems, focusing on the transition from on-premise to cloud implementations and the impact on businesses. 0:34 - Guest Introduction Introduction of Andy Fry, a seasoned Oracle ERP consultant, who shares insights from his vast experience. 0:54 - Historical Context Andy starts by discussing the traditional on-premise ERP systems, their setup, and operations within company facilities. 2:04 - Shift to Cloud The conversation shifts to cloud implementations, detailing the migration process and the role of server farms managed by third-party vendors. 3:36 - Differences in Implementations Andy outlines significant differences in implementation strategies between on-premise and cloud systems, emphasizing the need for client involvement in cloud environments. 5:01 - Challenges with Cloud ERP Discussion on how cloud implementations, while beneficial, come with challenges such as reduced customization and the importance of understanding the system's capabilities fully. 7:23 - Project Timelines Comparison Exploring how project timelines differ between on-premise and cloud implementations, noting that cloud projects tend to progress faster but require careful planning to accommodate unique business needs. 8:58 - Client Participation The changing role of client participation in ERP setups, particularly how cloud systems have altered the dynamic of client involvement in the configuration process. 10:01 - Understanding and Communication Andy stresses the importance of clear communication and thorough understanding between consultants and clients to ensure successful implementation and operation. 11:35 - Post-Implementation Support How organizations handle the transition post-implementation, focusing on the support structures needed when the consultant team steps back. 13:18 - Knowledge Transfer Strategies for ensuring clients are well-equipped to manage their ERP systems after consultants leave, emphasizing ongoing education and support. 16:18 - Consultant's Role in Cloud Implementations Andy explains his role in current projects, particularly how he ensures his clients are adequately prepared to use and maintain their new systems. 17:26 - Education and Framework Introduction Andy describes how he introduces clients to the ERP framework, ensuring they understand the system's purpose and functionality from a high-level perspective. 19:53 - Achieving Depth in Consultation The necessity of diving deep into the system's specifics with clients, ensuring they grasp not just the how, but the why behind system configurations. 20:26 - Change Management in Modern ERP Discussion on how change management has evolved with cloud ERP, focusing now more on power users and IT staff rather than end-users alone. 23:54 - Evolution of Documentation Practices How documentation needs and practices have changed with the shift to cloud ERP systems, highlighting what's been retained and what's phased out. 25:31 - Impact of Cloud on Business Processes How cloud ERP systems have transformed traditional business processes, enabling more agile and scalable operations. 27:23 - Client Stories and Examples Andy shares anecdotal evidence and stories from his career, illustrating the challenges and successes of moving clients to cloud ERP systems. 29:15 - Advice for Businesses Considering ERP Practical advice for businesses at different stages of considering or implementing ERP solutions, whether on-premise or cloud. 30:26 - Future of ERP Systems Discussion on the trends and future directions of ERP systems, considering technological advancements and industry demands. 32:57 - Q&A with Listeners The hosts take listener questions, providing expert answers and further insights into ERP systems. 35:28 - Wrap-Up and Key Takeaways Summary of the discussion, highlighting key points and takeaways for the listeners to consider in their ERP journeys. 37:45 - Closing Remarks Andy and Cat thank the listeners for tuning in and tease the next episode's topic, encouraging listeners to subscribe and stay informed.     Episode Highlights: Introduction of Andy Fry: 0:06 Shift to Cloud ERP: 2:04 Challenges with Cloud ERP: 5:01 Client Involvement and Knowledge Transfer: 8:58, 13:18 Change Management in Modern ERP: 20:26 Resources Mentioned: Oracle ERP Systems Server Farm Management Conclusion: The episode concludes with a recap of the importance of understanding both on-premise and cloud ERP implementations, with a push for proactive involvement and continuous learning in ERP transitions. Where to find Our Guests online: Andy Fry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fryandy/ Cat Lam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catlam/

In this podcast episode, Amir Bormand interviews Blake Williams, the Head of Talent at Nuro, a startup focused on enhancing daily life through robotics, notably with their self-driving delivery vehicles. They delve into the challenges and strategies of managing talent transition, particularly in a high-skill environment like Nuro, which specializes in computer vision technologies and robotics. Williams emphasizes the importance of preparing for inevitable departures by ensuring individuals leave as better ambassadors and how Nuro engages in proactive succession planning, involving internships and new graduate programs to maintain a pipeline of talent. Additionally, the conversation touches on Williams' transition from the Marine Corps to the talent acquisition field, reflecting on the valuable, transferable skills veterans bring to the corporate world. The episode concludes with insights into creating a talent-friendly culture and the benefits of intentional hiring and development strategies. Highlights 00:16 The Inevitability of Employee Departures 00:55 Introducing Nuro and Its Mission 01:36 Challenges in Replacing Specialized Talent 02:34 Embracing the Reality of Employee Turnover 04:50 Proactive Succession Planning and Talent Development 06:14 Internships and New Graduates: A Strategy for Talent Acquisition 07:53 Creating Talent Ambassadors for the Future 10:08 The Process of Onboarding and Knowledge Transfer 11:57 Rethinking Replacement and Hiring Strategies 14:05 The Importance of Internships and Cognitive Diversity 18:09 The Role of the Talent Team in Shaping Company Culture 20:15 Transitioning from the Marine Corps to Corporate America Guest: Blake Williams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwillia/ ----- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)  

On this episode of The Main Scoop, hosts Daniel Newman and Greg Lotko are joined by Broadcom's Lauren Valenti, Director, Mainframe Education, Vitality Residency Program, for a conversation on the allure of the mainframe for new technologists and the critical role of workforce resiliency. Are Greg Lotko and Daniel Newman ready to give up their Main Scoop host positions? Well ... maybe not permanently. In this unique episode, Lauren Valenti takes over as host to discuss mainframe workforce development with two up-and-coming mainframers - Adia Sakura-Lemessy and Liam Glynn. Learn about their career goals, advice for other new technologists, their pathway to the mainframe, and more. It was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. Like what you've heard? Check out all our past episodes here, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode of The Main Scoop™ series.

Relationships, Knowledge Transfer, and Growth: Mastering Training, Coaching, and Mentoring Discover the unexpected truth about coaching, mentoring, and training! Uncover the surprising distinctions between these tools and how they can impact your personal and professional growth. Learn the key to building strong mentor-mentee relationships and effective knowledge transfer techniques. Dive into the world of leadership skill development and unlock the secrets to enhancing your leadership abilities. Are you ready to be surprised by the power of these tools? Keep reading to find out more! In this episode, you will be able to: Master the art of effective knowledge transfer and enhance your leadership skills. Build strong and impactful mentor-mentee relationships for personal and professional growth. Learn the differences between training, coaching, and mentoring to become a more versatile leader. Elevate your personal coaching techniques for improved professional development. Uncover powerful strategies for developing and honing your leadership skills. The key moments in this episode are: 00:00:00 - Training vs. Coaching vs. Mentoring 00:04:52 - Importance of Relationship in Mentoring 00:08:39 - Application in Different Areas 00:12:30 - Applying the Tools 00:15:01 - The Role of a Preneur 00:16:11 - The Value of the Phoenix Club 00:16:54 - One-on-One Coaching and Game Plan Cohort 00:17:52 - Paid Programs and Audience Engagement 00:18:40 - The Power of Thinking Differently

Stan Lalor, Director of Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc, explains how his organisation is helping farmers during the fodder crisis.

Greg DeVore discussed the need for a fundamental shift in the approach to training and knowledge transfer, moving away from a one-size-fits-all solution towards a more tailored and efficient approach that aligns with the way people work. He introduced the "Find and Follow Framework", which empowers employees to work independently and handle various situations effectively. Greg also highlighted the Framework's applicability to different businesses, emphasizing its potential to address inconsistencies in customer service and operational procedures.Greg DeVore is the co-founder and CEO of ScreenSteps, a company dedicated to helping organizations transfer knowledge to their employees more efficiently. His career in training began 20 years ago in the film scoring industry, where he taught composers to utilize Apple's Logic platform. This experience paved the way for opportunities to design e-learning solutions for medical devices for prominent companies such as GE, Siemens, and Philips. As the CEO of ScreenSteps, Greg collaborates with organizations of various sizes to replace ineffective training programs with efficient knowledge transfer strategies, enabling them to onboard employees at least 50% faster. Greg holds a degree in Composition and Film Scoring from the Berklee College of Music. He resides in McLean, Virginia, with his wife and four boys, which explains the abundance of broken items in their home.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDesignrr for eBooks, Blogs Create eBooks, Blogs, Lead Magnets and more! Riverside.fm Your Own Virtual Studio Professional Virtual StudioAltogether Domains, Hosting and More Bringing your business online - domain names, web design, branded email, security, hosting and more.Digital Business Cards Let's speed up your follow up. Get a digital business card.Small Business Legal Services Your Small Business Legal Plan can help with any business legal matter.Get Quality Podcast Guests Now Keep your podcast schedule filled with quality guests from PodMatch.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showPlease Rate & ReviewVisit Parent Company Altogether Marketing LLC

Dr. Brad Miller is the Co-Founder and Chief Linguistic Officer of Puzzle Labs, a software platform that uses AI to make knowledge transfer easier.  Previously, he was the Site Director for P&G's Smart Lab in the Research Park, and he's also spent time traveling the world from Ecuador to India studying the impact of languages ADDITIONAL LINKS- Puzzle Labs- https://www.puzzlelabs.ai/ Brad Miller- https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradbmiller/ "Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu"- https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3517/ VISIT http://researchpark.illinois.edu/podcast/ for our entire catalog of episodes.

Greg DeVore is a seasoned expert in the field of knowledge transfer and customer experience. As the co-founder of ScreenSteps, a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way organizations share knowledge, Greg brings a wealth of experience and insights to the table. With a background deeply rooted in understanding the intricacies of contact centers and customer support, Greg has played a pivotal role in developing the "Find and Follow" methodology.  This innovative approach focuses on systematizing processes and leveraging AI to bridge the gap between knowledge acquisition and application, particularly in the onboarding and launch processes. Passionate about the intersection of AI and knowledge management, Greg emphasizes the importance of a single source of truth for AI systems to be effective.  He sheds light on how AI, when supported by a robust knowledge base, can significantly enhance operational efficiency, especially in contact centers. As a thought leader in the industry, Greg DeVore regularly shares his insights on LinkedIn, providing anecdotes, stories, and concepts around the "Find and Follow" framework and the broader landscape of knowledge transfer. Connect with Greg DeVore on LinkedIn to stay updated on his latest thoughts and contributions to the evolving field of knowledge management and customer experience. Key Takeaways 1. Knowledge Transfer Revolution: Greg DeVore discusses the transformative impact of the "Find and Follow" methodology, emphasizing the need to systematize processes and leverage AI in knowledge transfer.   2. AI's Role in Knowledge Management:  Greg highlights the significance of having a single source of truth for AI systems to function effectively. While AI chatbots have the potential to excel, their success is heavily dependent on the quality and clarity of the underlying knowledge. 3. Behavior and Culture in Knowledge Ops:  Greg introduces the Knowledge Ops Maturity Model, encouraging organizations to assess their knowledge transfer efficiency based on behavior and culture rather than just technology.   Timestamps [00:01:39] Steve Pappas officially welcomes Greg DeVore to the show, initiating the conversation about the challenges and solutions in knowledge transfer within organizations. [00:20:07] Greg DeVore discusses the excitement around systematizing processes and the valuable role of AI in translating knowledge dumps into actionable insights during the onboarding and launch processes. [00:23:52] The discussion delves into the role of AI in the contact center, addressing misconceptions and highlighting the importance of a single source of truth for effective AI assistance. [00:28:07] Greg suggests two practical homework assignments: a self-assessment of an organization's use of tribal knowledge and the adoption of the knowledge ops maturity model, and building an onboarding program through "find and follow" workshops. [00:31:13] The podcast concludes with Steve Pappas thanking Greg DeVore for sharing insights on knowledge transfer, and a brief mention of CX Stash, a directory of customer experience-related technology. Quotes 1. "AI is valuable in translating knowledge dumps into actual knowledge, significantly speeding up the onboarding launch process."   2. "Success in a contact center is when the CEO can use the knowledge system, and getting agents to the point where they feel confident handling calls solo is key."   3. "AI works well with a single source of truth, but its effectiveness depends on capturing the actual questions and nuances, feeding only what it's been given."   Connect with Greg LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregdevore  Website - https://www.screensteps.com/  X - https://twitter.com/gdevore?lang=en 

Have you ever pondered the monumental impact that educators and parents have in shaping a student's journey toward self-discovery and adulthood? With Tami Peterson's return to our dialogue, we immerse ourselves in the profound exploration of this transformative phase. Our conversation delves into the essence of education, far surpassing the simple accumulation of knowledge, to embrace a more holistic approach where identity in Christ, purpose, and adeptness in navigating life's intricate tapestry post-graduation are the focal points. Join us as we discuss the art of equipping students with discernment and problem-solving skills that are indispensable for thriving in the adult world.Navigating the path of parenting in the fast-paced world we live in can often seem like a daunting climb up an unrelenting mountain. This episode takes a heartfelt look at the 'deep work' involved in parenting, fostering a connection with our children through the power of inquiry and shared experiences. We reflect on how matching our adult strides to those of our children can create moments of understanding and growth. From discussions on creating spaces for curiosity and critical thinking, to sharing the importance of rest and reflection during this climb, Tami Peterson brings to light the journey that binds us all in the pursuit of a meaningful education.As our conversation draws to a close, we underscore the vital role discernment and wisdom play as our young adults stand at the crossroads of significant life choices. It's about guiding them through moments that shape their future, be it selecting a college major or embarking on a career path. We highlight the ever-evolving responsibility of mentorship and the beauty of parental guidance that doesn't cease with adulthood but continues to offer unwavering support through life's various stages. Tami invites you to lean into this exchange, as we impart a sense of gratitude for the community and encourage a continuation of this essential dialogue.

Listen to the powerhouse team of Brandon Ivey and Christoph Uhlig from Evok Technologies. They live and breathe cloud & security sales. Being uniquely positioned to understand what a customer is going through, they talk modernization, augmenting teams, and the struggles they help customers overcome. Can you believe that we're already at 100 episodes? While we go and ramp up and get ready for season three, we're gonna take you back, listen to some of the great moments in these past episodes. So stay tuned as we take you back to season one and two. – Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm your host, Josh Lupresto and this is the Next Level BizTech Podcast. So today we are actually wrapping up the first series in season two, and we're talking about managed services and how we're solving this tech talent issue that we've got going on with security and the broader technology landscape. So if you tuned in on the first episode, you heard Jason Stein, and he talked about what Telarus is doing overall from the practice and how we go to market and what we're seeing and the trends and things like that. And then we had one of our great suppliers on where Thrive came on and talked about all the things from a technical perspective, their products, where they're fitting, how they go to market with those, differentiators, all that good stuff. But today we get to hear from what I think is really critical. We get to hear from the partner's perspective. So we got some good friends of mine. We've been spending a lot of time together lately. We got Brandon Ivey and Christoph Uhlig from EVOK Technologies. Gents, Brandon, welcome. – Thanks for having us, Josh. It's really great to be here. – All right, so let's kick this off. Brandon, I'm gonna come to you first here. Part of my favorite story is how do you get started? Everybody has a different path. Some people super linear, some people do crazy windy stuff and end up in this world. I'm curious to hear how you guys get started in this. – Absolutely, so it's kind of interesting. I think Christoph and I both have similar backgrounds and kind of went through similar trials and tribulations, if you will, through our career path. We both started out in entry-level sales jobs coming out of college, worked up the corporate ladder, led sales teams, became directors or VPs and led overall go-to-market strategies and new logo acquisition sales. And interesting enough, neither one of us really wanted to be in management roles any longer. And we found ourselves starting at a cloud company on the same day in the same role. And what was interesting enough, at least from my perspective, is that we kind of hit it off from the get-go. I think Christoph may have had a difference of opinion, but he was like, “Hey, I want to be in line with that guy, he seems competitive.” And we fed off of that. And so what we did to begin with was we started interviewing all of the top reps at the organization, trying to figure out what was the secret sauce to be successful, right? In long story short, most of them didn't have a lot of positive feedback. It was, if you got lucky enough to be tagged to that right account that was growing, et cetera, et cetera, then you had some success. So we kind of stumbled and went through some different challenges the first few months at that cloud company. And then we realized we needed a force multiplier. And I had some little exposure to what the channel ecosystem was, more from a competitive standpoint, based on where I was when I was leading a sales team, there was a channel. And so we introduced that, we started working with some regional players, and we started integrating that into our go-to-market strategy. And effectively after six months at the cloud company, we took it to the executive team and the board and said, “Hey, I think this is what we need to do.” We partnered, Kristoff and I effectively partnered. We created our own business model within a business, if you will. And I think that's what's kind of allowed us to have the success that we're having coming up or at least kicking off this new venture two and a half years ago. – Love it. Kristoff, any interesting door-to-door experience? I mean, I'm a vacuum guy. I don't know if you guys have, you know, I always… – I think you know me too. I think we talked earlier and you teed that one right up. But no, like, just like Brandon, I think, you know, we were willing to do what we needed to, to learn the art of hard work and creativity. Yeah, we've both had plenty of door-to-door opportunities. To really grind, we've had some really unique creative opportunities in our career that took some critical thinking. But, you know, all of that led up to the fact that I think sales and just working with people was like really important to us. We wanted to help people solve problems. And, you know, I know we're gonna talk a little bit about our business in a bit, but I think being so integrated into sales gave us a unique perspective to help us be more effective for our customers today from a procurement and buying standpoint. I often say, I think the best defense lawyers once were prosecutors and vice versa, understanding, you know, the intricacies of the other side, you know, really, really well, allows us to, I think, serve our customers a lot more effectively. But yeah, I mean, to Brandon's point, when we got to this cloud provider, us realizing the power of the channel, and really what that force multiplier could do was, you know, a game changer. It was like an aha moment for me, for sure, because I had had zero exposure to the channel. And when we looked and we interviewed these, you know, previous sales reps for best practices and what's replicable and what can we do to be successful here, the reality was they weren't closing new logos. They weren't getting in front of new companies. And, you know, the channel gave Brandon and I that opportunity. – That company is a channel first company now, by the way. So clearly this strategy works. – I may be biased, but I think this is where the industry is going. It is funny though. I mean, it is funny as long as we've been doing this and as long as Telerus has been in existence, it's still fascinating to me how many people are just not familiar with the channel yet. And obviously we're all seeing the convergence of doing away with some of the direct sales and moving more headcount over to channel and supporting channel. But, you know, just when we think it's been in existence for a while, it's still, if you zoom out, it's still so early in some instances. – I think a lot of that's too with the, there's been a lot of focus on specific technologies over time. So just the simple fact that we're discussing, you know, MSP or MSSPs today, you know, that's kind of broadening out that scope, right? So, you know, I think it's only gonna get bigger and bigger like you mentioned. – All right, so we were talking about your business now. Tell everybody, fill us in, you guys have a cool go-to-market model and I love some of the focuses that you have on the technology side, but let everybody know what is Evoke? – Sure, well, first of all, Evoke stands for Enable, Validate, Optimize, Knowledge Transfer. And just like Chris just mentioned, essentially we wanted to take what we thought were how would a customer want to procure things? How would they want to run a process? How would they want to evaluate the market? How would they essentially want to ensure that they have a consistent buying experience that's productive and mitigates bad customer experiences coming out the backend? So we took those kind of four terms, if you will, layered that into what we thought would be the right customer engagement. We kind of trialed that, if you will, with a few anchor tenants, found out it was productive. And then we've replicated that now over the past three years. But, you know, who we are essentially, like Kristoff mentioned, we did a lot of time in sales. And the last thing we want to do is be a sales rep to our individual clients. We have really formed relationships with them now to be an extension of the team, to provide all that intellectual property to them that allows them to realize, oh, hey, there is a better way of doing this. Or potentially they're just getting exposure to a provider that they would have never even looked at because it's not in Gartner, or that doesn't come up on an SEO search, or whatever it might be. And I think that started to change that dynamic of like, oh, this is interesting, or this is advantage, or potentially this is just providing more value than what we were doing or how we were doing it in the past. So yeah, but we founded it three years ago. It's been going strong with groups like Telerus supporting us and enabling us. We've seen a lot of success and our clients have, you know, they're like, when can we be a reference? How can we help scale your business? What does this look like? And that's very rewarding. And it's something that, you know, most salespeople probably don't get to experience in that similar role, right? So yeah, it's been great. – Good point. So let's switch gears here. I wanna talk about, you know, firstChristoph how you learned about this technology, and then really maybe just let's weave that into the first deal. We're gonna get to a more recent deal as we move this on and kind of into the weeds and the intricacies of it. But talk to me about, you know, was it when you're at that cloud company, was it before that? I mean, what's your first exposure to this whole managed services landscape and talking about just that first deal? What was that like? – So I would say, you know, our experience working at hosting gave us immense insight into managed services in general and just understanding the criticality of what that offering ultimately does. You know, both from a provider perspective, but also more importantly from a customer's perspective. But, you know, back in, I don't know, call it 2012, 2011, 2012, you started seeing a massive shift from on-prem to the cloud, right? Like people realizing, hey, AWS is something. Azure is something. Private cloud and getting this out of our facility and into a data center that's redundant and supported. I mean, it's something we need to move towards, but not a lot of people knew how to do it. And, you know, we started meeting with just tons of customers that wanted help with that journey. They wanted ideas, they wanted a roadmap. They wanted to figure out how do we take this on-prem, you know, and move this into the cloud? And how can we, you know, get some of these mundane tasks of call it monitoring and patch management and antivirus and performing backups and the day-to-day care and feeding of the environment? How do we get this off our plate and free us up to focus on the core competencies of our business and, you know, what's really driving our company forward? And then secondly, how do we solve things like database management and database architecture and security services and some of the stuff that, frankly, they couldn't even find people, you know, to fill those roles. And so you have a system administrator that's potentially getting paid 100K a year, patching servers, you know, 75% of his time. And then the other 25% of his time moonlighting as like a security analyst or, you know, a database administrator, it just wasn't scalable. So I think when companies started realizing, hey, we need to get this stuff off-prem and we need to more importantly find a partner to co-manage this so we can create a RACI matrix that's clearly defined, hey, we want to continue to do these things at the application layer, but from the OS down, let's pass this off to a partner that we can depend on that can build a highly redundant, highly manageable, scalable infrastructure. And I think that's really when, you know, we first got exposure and it was just coming by the waves and it hasn't stopped today. By the way, companies are still, you know, we'll get into it, I'm sure a little bit later, but they're still looking for this more than ever. And then when I shift into kind of thinking about, you know, call it first deal, I won't probably get into the first deal, but I'll tell you about a deal that I think is super applicable to this conversation. So we're working, and this is, you know, as Evoke, this was post our days at hosting and we're working with a large university here in Colorado that, you know, unfortunately they were ransomware about four years ago. They ended up paying the ransom, you know, it was a really tough situation for them. And, you know, they looked at the problem and said, gosh, you know, we need to figure out a solution to help us, help make us more secure. And what they did, you know, for better or for worse, they started throwing technology at the problem. You know, they started looking at EDR solutions and ultimately they selected Carbon Black. They looked at, you know, different high profile security partners like Palo Alto, and they put, you know, architected their entire environment for Palo Alto. They incorporated, you know, email filtering. What they didn't really count on was the noise that all of those tools are gonna create. And those tools are great, they're great tools, but you can't solve issues necessarily just with tools. What you need is services, right? They had 2,500 endpoints. They had over 600 lab workstations across the university. They had over 200 VMs within their environment. And like I said, they were just getting noise, but really I think what they figured out after just, you know, years of trying to solve this with, you know, patching tools and technology into the problem, they realized we need a SIM, we need a security operations center that's staffed 24 seven that has multiple shifts. It's constantly looking at our logs, constantly looking at our alerts. And we need, you know, a true MDR solution. We need, and the R of that, you know, managed detection and response being the most critical aspect. We need a partner that can actually react on our behalf, can quarantine the environment, can be an extension of our team. By the way, I didn't mention it, but this university had one security officer. That's it. Yeah, nobody. So he's getting alert overload, alert fatigue. He hadn't looked at the alerts in, you know, over a year, just because it was just piling into his email. So for us to go out and really, you know, find a partner, help run a competitive process that, you know, not only did he get insight into what's available in the market, but, you know, by our process, I think he was able to make the right decision for his organization to really bring in a group that could act as an extension of his team and help deliver, you know, on his behalf. And I'll tell you, the other thing that I want to comment on is, you know, there's providers that exist out in the market today that have great technology. And they may struggle on services. They may be having service-related issues. And that technology is only as good as the services behind it. It doesn't matter if it's the best in the world, upper right corner of magic from a technology standpoint, unless the service and methodology and approach is sound, it really means nothing. – Yeah, you brought up a couple of good points in there. I want to go back to, I'm curious, you know, we always talk about, and I try to determine, are we in the middle of paradigm shifts? Did the paradigm shift already happen, right? In hindsight, we all, you know, we can see a little clearer when some of these things happen, you know, when the bull market started, when the bear market started, all of that. But if you think back to the hosting days and kind of that, let's call it a way, nine, 10, 11 timeframe. So you've got this, you know, AWS launching major product, right? Oh, six, oh, seven, kind of in that era, you've got the economic collapse of when people went, wait a minute, I used to buy all this stuff. I used to CapEx outlay it. Now I'm a little leery on that, you know, and, you know, there's the whole, when AWS comes out, now this is just for dev. It's never going to make it to prod. I mean, this is not the same uptime I can get in a data center. And don't get me wrong, there's places for gear in data center, I'm not disputing that. But I'm just kind of curious, is that, is that about that time where you really felt that wave of when things shifted and people started really taking this seriously and said, yeah, we got to look at this, we got to look at it. And it's just that inevitable wave that hasn't stopped. Did it start around that time as well for you? – I would say so, to a large extent, you know, back in those days, it's kind of like what security is today. People use these blanket terms security. And it's like, well, what does that actually mean? Like, let's unpack that. That's what, there's a ton of ways you can go about, you know, talking around security. And the same thing held true for cloud. I think back then they broadly said cloud. Of course, there's the concept of private cloud. There's on-prem, there's public cloud, meaning multi-tenant within a provider. And then there's true public cloud with the likes of Azure, AWS and Google. But I think a lot of people back then felt this unbelievable pressure to go to the hyperscalers, right? To go look at AWS, to go into Azure, because that was the flashy lights. Those were the things that were in the news. That was what the trades were saying that the next big wave is. And it's not wrong for certain applications. If you're, that's why startups are, were perfect for AWS and Azure and that, because they actually architected their applications in the hyperscaler cloud. And largely to a certain extent for the scalability of those. But, you know, what we saw was a mad rush to AWS and Azure and then a pullback, you know, back into, you know, private cloud and realizing like, look DevOps may not be for everybody. It may, you know, there's applications that are fairly predictable and have static workloads that still need, you know, a certain amount of, you know, managed services and support. But, you know, not everything needs, you know, there's not one size fits all for all of those environments. But I would say, you know, it was about that time, to your point that, you know, we really started having those conversations and seeing that shift. – Yeah. Good point. – I was going to say, yeah. I mean, I think economic pressure always plays a role in a lot of technology transformations across enterprises. I mean, even now we see large enterprises looking to go to more back to the old school approach of bare metal services, right? Like there's a lot of different use cases for that. I mean, I don't know if that'll be widely adopted, but there's supply chain issues and economic pressures. So, you know, those two things are driving a behavior, just like in cybersecurity, we have insurance policies and rates going up. It's driving a behavior. It's having specific impact. Back then it was co-location, half X expenses, transitioning to an OpEx, focusing on EBITDA, you know, all of those different things play into what enterprises make as decisions, right? And so I think as long as we're staying on top of those market trends and understanding what's taking place, not only in the technology spectrum, but holistically, you know, that helps ensure that customers make better decisions. – Yeah. Good point. So I want to talk about relationships. You know, as you look at this, right? All of our partners have started out in different places, in different skill sets, in different technologies. Some started in cloud and then went to network. Some started in network and then went into, you know, all the other things. So I'm always kind of curious. I mean, you guys kind of brought it up a little bit earlier, but maybe,Christoph I'm kind of curious about, you know, when you start having these strategic conversations, when the wall is down, right? When the customer really feels like you're an extension of their team, what does that do for the relationship with the customer when you're covering all these things? – So I think it's critical. And, you know, Brandon and I have been very passionate about this topic for a long time. You know, we truly believe that if you go solve the mission critical objectives for an organization, or you help solve, you know, a bridge towards securing applications, keeping applications available, helping with, you know, the great resignation is a real thing. People are leaving companies. People are having a hard time finding people. People are having a hard time keeping people. You go solve mission critical objectives for organizations, you get everything, right? Like the floodgates open, you gain their trust, you gain almost everything that you could possibly want out of that relationship. So, you know, we typically are passionate about wanting to focus on the cloud and security piece of the business as a primary objective. It's always something that, you know, we get into with customers is tell me about your team, tell me about your skillsets, tell me about, you know, what you guys are trying to accomplish, tell me about the gaps that you may have across your organization. And as we start to understand like, where is there pain coming from? Where are they looking to improve organizationally? And we can start helping to identify areas and unbelievable providers that can come in as an extension. It truly does help secure and build that relationship, but it's not a one deal close type of situation. But the reality for a lot of these companies is, you know, the days of going to like an IBM and expecting to get everything under one roof is dead. Like instead, you know, there's laser focused, really good providers that exist out in the market today that are really good at one or two things. And it's important for Brandon and I to know who those guys are. And being able to partner with a company like Telerus and you know, your great engineering team, it's just been hugely advantageous to us because we can get insight into, okay, what are these other hundred customers across the US experiencing from these providers? Have they been happy ending? Have they been happy stories? Have they been, you know, hey, they said all the right things at the beginning throughout the sales process, but then, you know, it was a disaster. You know, once we got into the door, that's hugely important for Brandon and I to know what we're getting our customers into. It's just like when I go, it's not a perfect analogy, but when I go car shopping, you know, every three, four years, it's unbelievable the technology that has changed, you know, and is available. I don't know. So I have to really just rely on the sales guy who's telling me that, and that's not necessarily fair. So to have a guy that's all they're doing is analyzing the industry and the market and ranking and scoring providers, it's super important for us to give that same insight to a CIO who also doesn't have the time over more than three or four or five years of analyzing. What's new? What's different? What should I be aware of? So yeah, relationships are huge, but most importantly, it's, you know, solving those mission critical issues, I think gains that trust immensely. – Good point. Brandon, I want to come back to you. I want to talk about challenges. You know, I think we're painting a really good picture here of there's a lot of value that we add, right? When we come in, when you guys come in, and you know, you're helping the CIO build something, build something, build something, and then this CIO might bounce and the company loses him, you know, you got great value in that from, you've helped him, you've helped establish yourself at the last company. Now he's leaning on you going, what's the new latest? What's the greatest tech that I should know? So certainly like these things take time to grow and to grow some of these relationships. I'm curious with what you've been through from a challenges perspective, what are the difficult parts of these conversations? – So we've gone through that. I'm sure, you know, most people have where the CIO or the executive IT person leaves, or you just end up having to get, go work with another individual. So potentially put in all that effort. You know, one thing that we've realized is you learn the most about an organization by running a process. And so that's probably the most challenging thing, especially if someone new steps in. So I'll take that as a secondary part of kind of like, what are the challenges that we see, right? So I think the biggest challenge, especially if you're focusing on mission critical workloads or whatever is probably the most pertinent or complex to the business, is actually establishing what do they have in place today? Usually it's a barrage of things over the last decade that maybe somebody's still just paying a bill, et cetera. So you have to establish that baseline, understand the expectations and needs of what's going forward and then being able to provide some thought leadership around all of that. You know, that's a very challenging process, right? And especially depending on if you have a non-technical executive, that can make it more challenging. If you have somebody who inherited just a number of different things, now you're picking through, you know, it's like, you know, you're just having to dive so deep into something that potentially they don't have access to, they don't have information from, and then it leans into the providers, right? So now where we have to take it a step farther and a lot of times those groups don't have, you know, run books set up, they don't have any kind of scripts put into place, they don't have any kind of, you know, diagrams or Visios or architecture references or security references, anything, right? It's just, essentially they were sold a product at some point, it's been potentially implemented, they're paying a bill and now it's, you know, it can be our job to figure out, well, we need to make sure that we check that box because you're either using it, not using it, or how is it applicable to the business, right? And that's where when you start trying to wrap that back into thought leadership and providing, okay, well, we need to go down that path of leaning on the different engineers across Telarus or the providers or whatever it may look like to come up with a holistic solution that actually solves everything that they have if they need it, in addition to what's needed or expected, and then providing like, well, maybe we can consolidate or rebind or evolve all of those things into the next level of, you know, where market trends are going or what's taking place in an overall environment. And that's by far the biggest challenge. And I mean, you know, I think everybody probably experiences that and, you know, that kind of leans back into the relationship piece that we just discussed where if you run that process with someone and you come out the backend where they're like, thank you, then you know you did your job, right? And you're probably gonna get another opportunity. And that's our whole objective is we wanna do our very best because then they're gonna give us that next opportunity. If we do that, we get the next project. We get the next opportunity. If they move to another business, we get a follow them there. And so that's been very rewarding from that perspective. – You know, it's funny. We talked in the beginning about this whole channel thing where we feel like we've been doing it a while, but you know, you bring up a good point that reminds me that I think the last people to really hear about and understand this channel are the customers. Well, they don't care, right? Why would they? But once they understand it, it's, wow, I didn't know this existed and this is amazing. Please help me. So it's been really cool to your point to see a lot of these go from, hey, I don't know who you are. I think I'm pretty cool working some of these, you know, these technologies myself. I don't really understand quite where you can help me. You know, are you a middleman? And when they take that to, you know, to your point, let us run a process. Let us help you with some of these mission critical workloads and applications, thinking through things that they hadn't thought through. There are sometimes those aha moments of you take it from, I didn't need you to, I can't live without you. Please look at this next project that we have coming in six months, 12 months. But, you know, I've seen three, four years out, some of these crazy things and that, that to your point, that's the aha moment. I think when you know that you're looped into that process, that's the click factor, but sometimes it takes time. And, you know, in these enterprise deals too, I think we talked about getting flat footed when some of these CIOs or whatever leave, it just underscores, geez, now I got to know procurement. Now I got to know tech. Now I got to know business leader. You just constantly trying to make sure that you know, all the right people in the account. And out of your point, it just takes time. – You summed up exactly what we just discussed, right? I mean, I think we have a very large client here in Denver. So I think eight or 9,000 employees and it was that exact same process, right? It was, you know, I don't really understand it or what it, you know, what value is this really going to bring in? Essentially, we just let us run our process. And if you see value at the end of it, fantastic. And if you don't, you know, we'll part ways. And- – I love the takeaway approach. That's like, it's one of my favorites. Cause it's just here, here it is. Look, we're so confident that this is going to work. It doesn't all go- – We've had other organizations, they realize how much time, effort, data, things that we bring to the table that they paid us for these engagements, right? So there is real value. There is, you know, a real model here. And I do think that the more that you run strategic processes and not just a, you know, a transactional, likeChristoph said, it's not just, you're not just going and selling something and then moving on to the next new logo, right? We're, we truly are getting entrenched into that organization and becoming an extension of their team. So- – So let's talk, Brandon, let's talk an example here. What I like to get into this part of it really is, let's talk about, you know, what kind of environment you walked into. And what I really liked to hear is, was it really what you were told it would be or what you thought it would be? When you really got into it, what did you find? What was the problem? What was the technology? And then ultimately what was the problem that you solved? How did you do it? What kind of tech did you put in? And you know, what was the outcome of all that? – Sure. Well, we can talk about, let's see, here's a good example. We talk about relationships, things of that nature. I had a really good friend who I went to CrossFit with. You know, he was in IT, never worked with him when he was in IT and I was on the sales side. When he landed as a COO at this new organization, you know, I reached out to him and said, “Hey, this is what I'm doing.” And he kind of had the same of their conversations. He's like, “You know, I've worked with guys like you before. “Or, you know, I've worked with a big bar “or something of that nature.” And I was like, “Let's just run a process. “Let's do some evaluations. “Let's see if it proves out value. “If it doesn't, you know, we'll go from there.” So he made an introduction to the director of IT who's essentially the person that I needed to work with. Once we got into it, he was very apprehensive as well. He was like, “Well, why do we need “to evaluate these things? “I already did this two years ago “and we found all these different problems, right?” And so, like Christoph mentioned earlier, we start at the cloud and cybersecurity. That's kind of where we start. This is where our focus is. First of all, the differentiates us in the market. Second of all, I don't think a lot of people are kind of leading with those conversations. And so he said, “That's fine. “Like, we could go through this exercise.” I mean, I think he thought he already had this buttoned up, right? So they were in Colo. They're a SaaS company. They've had outages. They had security vulnerabilities. They have a small IT team. They essentially have no care and feeding of that environment. Or if they do, they're focusing a big portion of their time during that time on it when they can't focus on growing the SaaS company, right? There's just a plethora of challenges that they were seeing. And then cost was a big factor. And essentially, because he went out to market and he doesn't know what fair market values are and a lot of the times when you get that first quote or depending on what provider you go to or what specifically if you didn't establish that baseline really well, like you can't just go get a snapshot of vCenter and take it out to market. That's not a good process, right? So once we kind of peeled back the onion and we understood all the different dynamics that go into it, you know, he said, “Okay, well, I think you can definitely drive this “to more of a private cloud environment. “They're more cost economic from that perspective “than go into a public cloud. “Plus you need an extension of your team “based on your team size and all these things.” And so we started extrapolating that and figuring out which workloads need to be highly available, have DR associated with them because of different compliance agreements and things that are in place. So they still kept something in Colo, actually. They have one or two racks now from what they currently had, but they moved the other 89 servers into a cloud environment and started leveraging a major service provider that's part of the Telarus ecosystem. They're a phenomenal group. We've had great success with them. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's very transformational from a couple things, at least from an executive perspective. Now they don't have reputation. Some of their clients are very large clients, you know, household names, if you will. So no more outages, right? They're highly available. It's transformed their reputation from that perspective. They've actually layered on that some of their talk tracks about how this technology enables their end clients, right? So they sell a SaaS platform. It's a POS. Their consumers are buying it. This is how you can scale. This is how we can make the overall buying experience for your clients better, right? So, you know, all of these things have truly transitioned their business from IT being a cost center to IT providing value to their overall organization and their inclines, right? So I would say that's where we get excited about transformational. Usually it's not flipping, you know, from one sin to a different sin. That's not usually a transformational change. It's how is it enabling or driving that business forward? And there's a lot of other use cases or applicable things that probably came out of that deal, but I would say that's a good high level.Christoph were you gonna mention something? – No, nothing other than, you know, I think that was a really good example of, you know, a small IT team that needed help, needed direction, needed Brandon's guidance. You know, they hadn't gone out to market and looked at this for years. And so, you know, having Brandon as an extension, I think it was eyeopening around what is evolved in the market, what's available to them. And yeah, it was just a really fun project to see and be a part of. – It is always interesting when you, you know, from an engineering perspective, we always go in and say, what do you need? What do you need it to do? What's the problem that it needs to solve? And then when we ask that question of, okay, but if you could do this, if you could evolve your application, if you could go do this, your competitors are doing this, if you could do something like that or, you know, have a leg up, would that be game changing for you? And I think you get them to think differently because sometimes they just think, I'm just never gonna get to that, or I don't know that it's possible. Or to your point, you know, we looked at it two years ago and it wasn't possible. How much changes in this industry in two years, right? With all of the tech and everything flooding into here. So yeah, I love hearing a good transformational story because yeah, you brought it up and you nailed it where IT's not a cost center, right? IT has the power to change the business and change the company. So awesome story. – Yeah. – All right,Christoph I need you to wrap us up, take us home, man. I want to hear, you know, if I'm a partner that's listening to this and maybe I haven't ventured as deep into cloud or into security, and we talked about kind of where you started, we talked about some of the difficulties that you guys have been through in these conversations, but maybe just talk to me about people that aren't comfortable with this or haven't stepped into it. What's your advice? What are you recommending in that, right? Because not just for now, but as this continues to evolve in the future. – Sure. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think I'd take a step back and come to the realization that this isn't that complicated, right? Like don't get too caught up in the technology. Don't learn about every single EDR solution or every single cloud solution or every single infrastructure solution. Just have conversations with the business team and leaders within an organization. Get to know their team, get to know, I said this earlier, but I mean, I think it's a super important point. Get to know what are the skill sets? How big is the team? You know, where are the gaps that you have, whether it's infrastructure, security, network, you know, database, it doesn't matter. Just get to know like, where are the gaps? I mentioned it earlier, but this idea of the great resignation, this thing is real. Like people are struggling to find people. And do you know where most of these people are? They're at providers and they're at providers because they're super smart. Not that, you know, the people down in the trenches aren't, but they're really good, highly skilled professionals that want to work with hundreds of different customers and have unique challenges every single day to solve. They're not working for one company. And because those guys are typically getting kind of bored. And so get to know the company, get to know their challenges, understand, you know, what are they looking to accomplish? Where are they looking to go? What are their core competencies? And how can you bring solutions and ideas to the table that free them up to focus on those core competencies? You know, that's really it. Talk about the business. Get to know what their ideal outcomes are and generally positive, good opportunities of ways that you can assist, you know, come right out of that. And lastly, I'm preaching to the choir, but lean into Telarus, right? Like get to know the team, get to know the channel managers, get to know the engineering team. You know, we greatly appreciate the support that, you know, you folks have brought to us as an extension of our team. You know, we can't be experts on every single technology. We can't be experts on every single conversation. And just knowing that, you know, we can bounce ideas off you. You don't even have to be on every customer call or any customer calls for that matter. But just being a soundboard to us, as we work through just different, you know, talk tracks internally, you know, we just want to say, we're grateful to, you know, you and your team, Josh, you guys have been great. And yeah, that's my very basic advice for somebody to just dive in. – I love it. You brought up a good point. I was reading a stat last night that makes this a math problem, right? That the title of this podcast is how in the world are we going to ever solve for this whole talent shortage in tech and, you know, starting before the great resignation, now it's just gotten ultimately so much worse. But from a security perspective, right? We talk about the great security certification, the CISSP, of it gives us a great holistic view on how security impacts the business. It's not just technology. It focuses on all these different domains. There are roughly 90 to 100,000 certified CISSPs in the United States. And there are 20 to 30,000 job openings that require a CISSP. Now I'm not a math expert here, but to your point where that talent is, we know where that talent is, and it's at that supplier side. You guys are dead on. I think you guys are out there. You're crushing it, recognizing that this is where the talent is. And you guys have done a phenomenal job of mapping all that and appreciate the kind words. Just appreciate the opportunity to work with you guys. So no, it's been awesome and we're excited to continue with this go. So Christoph I appreciate you bringing us home and thanks so much for coming on today, man. – Josh, thanks for having us. We had a great time and look forward to doing this again in the future. – Brandon, you as well, appreciate you coming on. Thanks. I know you guys got a lot going on. So thanks again for spending time with me, man. – Hey, Josh. – Okay. All right, everybody, that wraps us up. I'm your host, Josh Lupresto, SVP of Sales Engineering at Telarus and this is Next Level BizTech.

Haydn Shaw has researched and helped clients regarding generational differences for over twenty years. He is author Sticking Points: How to Get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart and FranklinCovey's bestselling workshops Leading Across Generations and Working Across Generations. He has spoken to over 100,000 people and worked with more than 1,500 businesses (from Fortune 500 companies to start ups), not-for-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Haydn speaks and consults on generations, leadership, management, trust, productivity and change management. The results from his long term organizational development and change projects have been written up in case studies. Hailed as a “leadership guru” by the Washington Post, Haydn speaks and consults in excess of 160 days each year to clients who consistently invite him back. He has also worked as a senior consultant with FranklinCovey for over twenty one years. He is one of a handful of consultants in FranklinCovey to win the Chairman's Award. Haydn Shaw has delivered hundreds of convention keynotes or small, off-site workshops. Known for taking groups from hilarity to deep reflection, he combines rich content with use-tomorrow tools. His work makes an impact because he does his homework, customizing each speech so that they drive results. Haydn's Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Haydn-Shaw/author/B00ATPW7YS - Website and live online programs: http://ims-online.com Blog: https://blog.ims-online.com/ Podcast: https://ims-online.com/podcasts/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesagood/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesgood99 Chapters: (00:00) Introduction (02:34) Tool: The Five-Step Process to Transcend Generational Sticking Points (03:49) Tool: The Importance of Asking "Why" Instead of "What" (07:23) Tip: Succession Planning and Knowledge Transfer (08:38) Technique: Approaches to Dealing with Generations (12:37) Tool: The Five-Step Process for Leading through Generational Differences (14:55) The differences in generational needs and flexing (15:57) Tip: The importance of connecting with different generations (17:00) Resolving generational sticking points (23:15) The emphasis on fairness in promotions (25:23) Characteristics of Generation X (28:16) The involvement of parents in Millennials' lives (31:43) The entitlement mentality of millennials (33:05) Emerging adulthood as a life stage (36:48) Gen Z's focus on personal identity (39:03) Gen Z's openness about mental and emotional health (40:43) Communication divides between generations (46:05) Technique: Flexing communication preferences to match customer needs (48:00) Technique: Feedback and Generational Differences (52:49) Tip: The Importance of Coaching for Gen Z (53:39) Loyalty and Emerging Adulthood (54:55) Gen Z's Perspective on Job Loyalty (56:47) Key Takeaway (57:39) Conclusion

On this episode of the podcast, I was joined by Ben Locwin, Executive SME at Black Diamond Networks. Ben and I discuss:  Dealing with CDMO's and CXO's Supply Chain and Logistics and Pharma and Medical Devices Reverse Knowledge Transfer Building Trust with CXO's and Leveraging Surveys The future of the CDMO Market Ben Locwin is a Healthcare Executive, MMA fighter, Jiu Jtisu pro and Quality and Regulatory SME working in medical devices, pharma and other regulated industries.

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Mob Mentality Show! Today, we're diving into the fascinating world of MicroObjects with the creator himself, Quinn Gil. Prepare to unravel the intricacies of object-oriented programming practices taken to the next level. In this episode, we embark on an exploratory journey covering a multitude of key aspects: Mastering MicroObjects & OOP: Quinn guides us through the world of MicroObjects and how they dial up traditional object-oriented programming practices. SRP to the Extreme!: Quinn explains how MicroObjects takes the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) to new heights, making emergent design and evolutionary architecture unavoidable. Ruthless Refactoring: Discover the art of ruthless refactoring - a key practice that MicroObjects emphasizes for keeping code highly resistant to code rot. Knowledge Transfer to Code: Learn effective methods for having a representation for every concept exist in the code. MicroObjects Principles Debated: Join us as we discuss many of the key MicroObjects principles including no 'new' inline, no primitives, composition over inheritance, no enums, no constructor logic, wrapping 3rd party code, and preventing yourself from doing bad things.  Persuading Others to Try MicroObjects: Quinn shares insights into effectively persuading your team to try MicroObjects, highlighting its benefits and advantages including stuff getting done faster. Defeating the Sunk Cost Fallacy: Understand to overcome the sunk cost fallacy with code, leading to better decision-making in development. TDD and Design Discovery: Explore the powerful synergy between Test-Driven Development (TDD) and design discovery, and how it can enhance your development process. Join us for an engaging conversation packed with wisdom and expertise, as we unravel the secrets of MicroObjects and its impact on software development. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights into optimizing your coding practices and elevating your projects to the next level. Tune in now to unlock the potential of MicroObjects! Video and show notes: https://youtu.be/W6C1C9i78Ec  

Watch the Build Show Network's Originals page for Build Science 101!Find Steve on the web:Steve's Videos: https://buildshownetwork.com/go/stevebaczekBuild Show Build: Boston: https://buildshownetwork.com/bsn-series/buildshowbuildbostonInstagram: @stevenbaczekarchitectThe UnBuildIt Podcast: https://unbuilditpodcast.com/aboutWebsite: https://stevenbaczekarchitect.com/info/Find Matt on the web:Build Show Videos: https://buildshownetwork.com/go/mattrisingerInstagram: @risingerbuild and @thebuildshowTikTok: @thebuildshowYouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@buildshowWebsite: https://risingerbuild.com/Don't miss a single Build Show video; sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter here.

When you think of change management, do you imagine a process that takes months or years? Think again. Angela Priest is an extraordinarily skilled facilitator whose 3-day workshops produce immediate and lasting impact. You'll be inspired as you hear Angela describe her approach, where she involves the right people and gets buy-in from key influencers. You'll want to take notes to capture all the valuable ideas she shares. Angela is a seasoned executive and operational strategist with a 20-year track record of improving business operations and leading transformative change in technology, SaaS, and digital service industries. As the former head of performance improvement at J.D. Power, she restructured the customer delivery operating model, improving quality, performance, and time-to-value, as part of a strategy that led to a $1.1bn exit.  Angela's experience extends across a company's life cycle, from startup through enterprise. As the Founder of Groyu LLC, she provides advisory services to help businesses navigate the intersection between employee needs and operational performance, guiding organizations to scale their businesses, while bolstering employee engagement, customer retention, and profitability through improved operational design strategies. Her simple, pragmatic approach expedites workflows and reduces costs to establish a firm foundation for sustainable business growth. You'll discover: Experiences Angela had in the corporate world that led her to the work she does today How to blend employee needs with high operational performanceThe 3-day workshop format that Angela uses to achieve rapid transformations with her clientsWhy knowledge transfer often fails to happen effectively…and what to do to fix itThe 3 adult learning principles that apply to knowledge transferCheck out all the episodesLeave a review on Apple PodcastsConnect with Meredith on LinkedInFollow Meredith on TwitterDownload the free ebook Listen Like a Pro

Exciting opportunity for small to medium business owners employing 5-30 team members. Are you ready to learn, grow, and invest in your ongoing development? Don't miss out on our latest podcast featuring a special guest who shares invaluable insights for business success. In this episode, Troy asked Chris Mirabile, the founder of NOVOS based in Melbourne, Australia, the final five questions: What do you think Chris thinks is the most challenging part of growing a small business? According to Chris, the competition in small businesses is the hardest thing to deal with. He therefore places a strong emphasis on the necessity of being quick on your feet, incredibly strategic, and thinking about how you may outpace, outgrow, and finally take first place in the space. Chris' favorite business book is "Blue Ocean Strategy" by Roger Wayne. However, he highlights the significance of discipline, and focusing on the big picture and the nitty gritty, small picture as well, such as being involved in the day-to-day as well. Chris believes that listening to many podcasts that cover a subject or problem you're facing and then seeking highly rated podcasts that have addressed that subject has a significant impact on your professional development. It is frequently good to listen to those and other business owners and learn how they have dealt with problems in order to ignite your creativity for how you will deal with a similar problem. Chris suggests that mastering customer relationship management (CRM) is a useful tool for small business success. Like if you could increase the size of your database of clients and prospects. And after that, you can give those folks extremely useful material, which will help your CRM grow and bring in more money. Finally, if Chris could go back to day one of starting out, he would advise himself to just take it a day at a time, the best way to actually succeed is to not think ahead of all of the challenges and the stressors that might come to you. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights!  Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.

Join my AWAKENED WARRIORS community Video Courses, Group Calls, & Knowledge Transfer

Join my AWAKENED WARRIORS community Video Courses, Group Calls, & Knowledge Transfer

In this episode, we explore the importance of knowledge transfer in driving innovation and economic growth from academia to industry and businesses. We investigate the challenges and barriers that research institutions, universities, and industries face in successfully transferring knowledge. The main points of discussion for creating a conducive environment for effective knowledge transfer include Barriers to Successful Knowledge Transfer Reevaluating Knowledge Transfer in Academia Addressing the Lack of Data The Problem with Incentives Learning from Successful Examples --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/panagiota-pimenidou/message

Join my AWAKENED WARRIORS community Video Courses, Group Calls, & Knowledge Transfer

Agile Means NO Documentation... - Not Again?!?! Here are some reasons why agile needs documentation: Knowledge Sharing: Documentation helps transfer knowledge and ensure that important information is accessible to the team members and stakeholders. It captures decisions, requirements, and design choices, enabling team members to understand the system's functionality and architecture. It allows new team members to quickly get up to speed and promotes collaboration and continuity in development. Requirements Clarity: Agile projects benefit from clear and well-defined requirements. Documentation, such as user stories, acceptance criteria, and specifications, helps capture and communicate the intended functionality. It provides a shared understanding between the development team, product owners, and stakeholders, reducing misunderstandings and potential rework. Traceability and Compliance: Documentation supports traceability by providing a historical record of decisions, changes, and user feedback. This helps maintain compliance with industry regulations, standards, or contractual obligations. Documentation can serve as evidence for audits, security assessments, and regulatory compliance. Communication and Alignment: Agile teams work collaboratively and value effective communication. Documentation serves as a reference point for discussions and clarifications. It enables team members and stakeholders to align their understanding, resolve conflicts, and make informed decisions. Documentation can also facilitate communication with external parties, such as clients, vendors, or other teams. Maintenance and Support: Even in an agile environment, software requires maintenance and ongoing support. Documentation, such as system architecture diagrams, code comments, or user manuals, assists in maintaining and troubleshooting the software. It helps future developers understand the system's components and functionality, making it easier to identify and fix issues. Knowledge Transfer and Onboarding: Documentation plays a crucial role in knowledge transfer and onboarding new team members. It provides a reference for understanding the system's design, components, and business context. Documented guidelines, coding conventions, and best practices contribute to consistent and maintainable code across the team. Regulatory and Legal Requirements: Certain industries or projects may have specific regulatory or legal documentation requirements. Documentation becomes necessary to demonstrate compliance, ensure data privacy, or provide evidence of adherence to industry standards. It's important to note that agile documentation should be lightweight, iterative, and focused on delivering value. The emphasis is on creating just enough documentation to support effective development and collaboration, rather than producing excessive or unnecessary documentation. Agile teams should continuously assess the value and relevance of documentation, adapting their approach based on the project's needs and the team's evolving understanding of the system. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ - [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/⁠

This is the 4th in a 5-part series with Coffee Educator, Simon Gautherin. In this series, Simon and Lee will explore the theme "Acquiring Coffee Knowledge".In this episode of the podcast series, Simon discusses coffee trends and trends in coffee knowledge transfer within the coffee industry.Simon's recent article on water chemistry: https://www.zestcoffee.com.au/2023/05/19/the-impact-of-ions-on-coffee-flavours/ Connect with SimonLinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-gautherin-68802126/ Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/simon_gautherin/ https://www.mapitforward.coffee ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

This is the 4th in a 5-part series with Coffee Educator, Simon Gautherin. In this series, Simon and Lee will explore the theme "Acquiring Coffee Knowledge".In this episode of the podcast series, Simon discusses coffee trends and trends in coffee knowledge transfer within the coffee industry.Simon's recent article on water chemistry: https://www.zestcoffee.com.au/2023/05/19/the-impact-of-ions-on-coffee-flavours/ Connect with SimonLinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-gautherin-68802126/ Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/simon_gautherin/ https://www.mapitforward.coffee ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

What can I do? The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing.All of which is why we keep coming back to it, and why I'm so excited about the fantastic new book, The Climate Action Handbook by Dr. Heidi Roop. Dr. Roop is the Director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership and an assistant professor of climate science and extension specialist at the University of Minnesota. She also serves as the Director of Knowledge Transfer for the NSF-funded COLDEX Science and Technology Center.Dr. Roop's research and extension programs have taken her from Antarctica to Minnesota, and they combine cutting-edge climate science and effective science communication to increase the use and integration of climate change information in decision-making at a whole range of scales, from city and state to national and international levels.Safe to say, I'm very into that and you're going to love her. If you've struggled to find a way to get involved in the climate fight, this book and this conversation are for you. -----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:The Climate Action Handbook by Heidi RoopKeep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Connie & Peter RoopA Brief History of Life on Earth by Clemence DupontFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Follow Heidi on TwitterKeep up with Heidi's workFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane:

VA HOME LOAN Knowledge Transfer Podcast with the owners of Mortgage Nerds.  We all sat down and talked about why the VA HOME LOAN is the best benefit for Veterans and should not be disregarded. We talked about the current market and the federal interest rate hikes. The various types of Refinancing Home Equity Line Of Credit etc. We really dove deep on this. Do not let realtors tell you the VA Home Loan isn't good, that's BS. No down payment or PMI? Saving thousands of dollars. Contact mortgage nerds if you have any questions.  

Today my conversation is with Dr. Josh Packard, Executive Director of the Springtide Research Institute. Through their extensive research (perhaps the largest data set on the planet) on the spiritual lives of young folks, Springtide and Dr. Packard discovered some mind-blowing things. You might think you know about the spirituality of the next generation (13-25 year olds), but you're probably wrong. The "decline narrative" is way too simplistic. Yes, you might see less young people attending church...but that doesn't mean they're out on Jesus. And it doesn't mean they're going to come to us for help. Since the next generation is less likely to seek out traditional church attendance (they don't trust institutions or institutional leaders), it's important we go to them. Let's look beyond the assumptions and meet them where they are. But they don't need more Fun Uncles...Reddit is better for that. It means shifting our models from Knowledge Transfer to Relational Authority. From the Sage on the Stage to the Question Consultant. Subscribe: https://anchor.fm/betterontheinside --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thechurchdigital/message