The best L&D resources of January 2023

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January was and then it wasn't. That's the general feeling.

2023 didn't start very well. Layoffs and budget cuts are the usual headlines, stealing the spotlight from everything else that's happening. Well, ALMOST everything else. ChatGPT brought the conversation about AI closer to us than ever before. While some are in denial, others are just trying to figure out the impact of AI in their own fields - and we're there, with everyone else.

I do feel, that like everything else, there's a lot of pressure to adopt, adopt, adopt, or otherwise become obsolete. While I do think that might be the case long-term, screaming at people that they will lose their jobs if they don't adopt AI overnight, doesn't help, in my opinion, either. I think the best thing we can do is try and understand, and make sense of things, slowly, but surely, before this really becomes the thing, the replacement, the undeniable better option. If there's something that you can take away from this newsletter, this should be it.

Now let's move on.

There are so many things happening at Offbeat that's hard even for me to keep up, and I'm supposed to be in the middle of the action. But I'll try a summary:

• We've launched a platform and it's free! It's supposed to gather the best L&D resources on the internet and give you back some time from the dozens of hours you might spend walking through Google (no offense, Google, but you've gathered lots of crap ??). You can start by exploring the top L&D resources of 2022 to see what the platform can do for you;
• Sejaal, Chris, and myself have crowdsourced a list of L&D books. They are recommended by others like you and categorized on 3 levels, so you can more easily choose the next one you'll read based on your current experience. Thanks to all those that supported us with recommendations!
• Behind the scenes, in the Offbeat Fellowship, we've already kicked off our monthly sessions, a facilitated peer learning group, and we're slowly but surely getting closer to launching our mentoring program for our fellows;
• We've had some awesome sponsors this month, some of them new, others already tenured. We have to thank them all for supporting us once again: HowNow , You Can Now , Coachello , Candor , and Wynter ??

But enough about us. We'll let you dig into the best resources of January 2023.

HR’s new operating model by Sandra Durth ,? Neel Gandhi ,? Asmus Komm , and Florian Pollner

Interviews with more than 100 chief human resources officers and people leaders reveal how the HR operating model is changing to drive value in a volatile business environment: (1) Adopt agile principles, (2) Excel along the employee experience (EX) journey, (3) Re-empower frontline leaders in the business, (4) Offer individualized HR services, (5) ‘Productize’ HR services, (6) Integrate design and delivery with end-to-end accountability, (7) Move from process excellence to data excellence, and (8) Automate HR solutions.

2023 Global Human Capital Trends by 德勤

Really interesting to review this new report from Deloitte. I took some time to look over the previous edition to check what stayed and what changed. Some of the things I’ve noticed: (1) more exploration of the end of jobs and the focus on skills as a focal point for matching individuals with work, (2) there’s considerably less focus on mental health & well-being, whereas there are new points about DEI&B and sustainability, and (3) in 2021 there was a whole chapter dedicated to teams, whereas in the new edition, they are barely mentioned.

Building Habits Strategies To Try (After Failing To Build Habits In The Past)

I was drawn to this article because the title acknowledges the complex work of building habits and also the failure most of us have faced in doing so. But moreover, it’s very, very comprehensive, while also explaining things in a language that you can understand. My favorite chapter is “deciding what type of person you want to be.”

The Surprising Thing That Smart People Get Backwards About Trust by Shane Snow

We talk a lot about psychological safety and its importance for team development & performance. One of the pillars of psychological safety turns out to be trust. This article covers extensive research around trust and translates it into ways we can understand and maybe adopt it in our practices. Loved it!

Agile Coaching (AC) at Spotify: Shining a Light on the AC Career Framework from Fiona Siseman , Alia Rose Connor , and Cara Lemon

An interesting use case about how Spotify designed the Agile Coaching Career Framework. They talk about how they organized the agile coaching framework, the agile coaching pillars (behavior, craft, and impact), and framework adoption. Great article for engineering teams!

Finding Ground, Managing Fear

We have all experienced challenges and upheaval, sometimes many times over, throughout our personal and professional lives. These times of uncertainty may be sparked by what’s around us, or they may spring up from what’s inside of us. In this 30-day course, you can explore what it means to find your ground and manage fears when faced with struggles or feeling overwhelmed.

37 Lessons?For A Winning L&D Strategy from HowNow

How Now ended the year in style, launching a summary of some of their best guests’ thoughts and lessons learned. It has 10 parts, 37 lessons from some really cool people. My favorite parts are the ones about how we can get better at spotting and solving problems, become proactive and building future skills, and how to make friends and influence performance.

The 8 components of a learning culture by Andrew Barry

I’ve been hearing lots of people who’ve been assigned with creating a learning culture. As time went by I realized two things: that’s extremely abstract and there’s no way you can do that properly with a one-and-done initiative. So I found this post from Andrew Barry helpful in understanding what lies behind a learning culture. Let me finish with this. Getting there it’s hard. Really hard. You might need to change how you operate. But it’s also an extremely exciting opportunity that could expand the way you view L&D, and the impact you have.

Learn skill-based L&D in 1 day from edyoucated

Related to one of the trends mentioned in Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Reports: moving from jobs to skills, Edyoucated launched a self-paced course where they explain how they see the transition. They cover how to get started with skill-based L&D and how you can drive skill-based workforce development in your organization.

The New Model of Live, Cohort-Based Leadership Development by Josh Bersin

If you haven’t heard of cohort-based programs in the past, no worries. They’ve been around for a while, but they are capturing more and more attention now that they actually have a name. I’m not saying they are the future of learning or not, although they do seem an interesting practice, but no matter my opinions, I think it’s good to shed light on them.

5 Learning & Development Predictions for 2023 by Laura Hilgers

There have been lots of predictions at this beginning of the year for what 2023 holds in store for L&D. Although I feel there’s always a pinch of overoptimism in them, it doesn’t mean we should ignore them. Before nudging you to explore thoughts about leadership development, social learning, technology, and microlearning, I want to encourage you to never forget to first look inward, at your organizations. That’s where you’ll find the insights that should drive your focus and strategy. Now, handing it over to LinkedIn and their thoughts about 2023 and L&D.

How to Create a Better Workplace in 2023 from IDEO U

How might we make our workplaces more creative, inspiring, and human-centered? As the future of work continues to evolve, we need to explore new ideas and methods to make organizations more engaging and resilient. From establishing creative work rituals to bringing emotion to work in a productive way, here are 10 lessons from leaders in the IDEO U community on creating a better workplace.

A Six-Step Guide to Building a Company Culture that Evolves by Mertcan UZUN

Lovely resource from Mertcan, who’s focusing on People, Culture, and Community on Blinkist. He highlights six actions he identified that foster a healthy company culture and an adaptable team and the article comes with an awesome Miro board: (1) Set up a clear vision & purpose, (2) Find your inspiring yet realistic company values, (3) Agree on ways of working, (4) Organize informative rituals, (5) Define your employee experience and processes, and (6) Commit to Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging.

The Manager's Handbook by Alex MacCaw

One of our fellows, Phillipe, shared this resource with the community, and I loved it! It’s such a nice resource to share with new and tenured managers, and most of it needs little to no personalization for your organization. Why reinvent the wheel when others have done such a tremendous job in creating this complex handbook? Love it!

The Great Managers Playbook from LifeLabs Learning

Part two of The Great Managers Playbook from LifeLabs Learning is out. It covers onboarding and beyond-boarding best practices, fostering deliberate development, and approaches to Manager Assessment. If you missed the first part, they also approach defining what a great manager is (and isn’t), converting broad accountabilities into measurable behaviors, and crafting a high-quality manager selection process.

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