"People can always do more, learn more, and perform better." Why Josh Bersin believes the unquenchable human spirit to learn can save your business.

In Leaders in Learning, we sit down with influential guests and dive deep into the world of learning to discover the qualities that define exceptional leaders. Through these collective stories, we’ll piece together the bigger picture of what it means to be a leader in learning.

In our first-ever episode, we talk with long-time industry analyst, published author, and Founder & CEO of the world’s largest global study of HR, Talent and workplace trends, Josh Bersin . We can't think of a better way to start this series than with the industry's leading analyst and thought leader.

When it comes to corporate HR, training, talent management, recruiting, leadership, and workplace technology, Josh Bersin is THE go-to. He’s become so synonymous with the industry, it’s hard to imagine a time when he wasn’t analyzing it.

Josh began his career on the business side with a variety of sales, product management, and marketing roles, including time at IBM and Sybase. From there, he helped co-found and build an e-learning LMS software company. (It was still early days for the LMS back then.) He shares, “When I got into L&D and training in the late 1990s, I thought it was pretty simple,” and how, all these years later, “I realize it's massively complicated.”

It’s this combination—both as a practitioner in the industry and an analyst of it—that makes him such an authority. In this episode, Josh reflects on his decades of experience, how things have changed in that time, why internal development of people is a C-level issue, introduces us to what he calls “the unquenchable power of the human spirit,” and gives us his predictions for the future of the learning industry.

That just scratches the surface of what we explored. If you don’t have time to watch the full episode , we've got you covered with a highlight reel (above) and the following key takeaways:

Training is a strategic part of business

Josh kicks things off with a bit of a history lesson. He explains how, in the Industrial Age, where the focus was largely on the production of physical things (like cars) people were a cog in the wheel; part of what made the industrial machine work.?

Fast forward 100 years to the Post-Industrial Age and, in most companies, people are the product. Employees’ skills, their engagement with the company, their understanding of the business—all of these things are essential to a company’s growth. So training becomes a very strategic part of business and needs to be viewed as an investment instead of an expense. According to Josh, “What you’re really doing is investing in people as an appreciating asset as opposed to a machine which is a depreciating asset… In this day and age, I think if you don't believe that as an executive, your company’s not going to be around forever.”?

This shift, coupled with accelerating skills gaps and shortages (which, as we all know, you can’t hire your way out of) makes the internal development of people a C-level issue.

"The unquenchable power of the human spirit"

During our conversation, Josh introduces us to what he calls “the unquenchable power of the human spirit.” The idea that everybody can learn more—especially when we remove the fear factor. He goes on to explain how a critical part of any L&D team’s job is to create the conditions and culture where people can be vulnerable by exposing their insecurities so they can learn.

It comes back to investing in people—not just in the training and programs that help them grow, but also in technology and tools that help L&D teams create an environment of continuous learning.

When you do, according to Josh, people can “do more, learn more and perform at a higher level.”

BONUS! Predictions

Ok, so this wasn’t covered in the highlight reel, but it’s too good not to mention. At the end of our discussion, we asked Josh for his top three predictions for the industry. Here’s what he had to say:

1. AI is going to absolutely revolutionize L&D: There's no question in his mind that AI is going to have the biggest impact on learning of any technology we've seen in a long time.
2. Human-centered skills will take center stage: L&D professionals are going to get more focused on human performance (e.g. soft skills or power skills, the things that aren't inferred by AI).
3. Businesses will invest more in learning: The way Josh sees it, learning is critical to any business’s bottom line. So executives will need to invest more in learning and development.

We couldn't possibly include all the insights, pearls of wisdom, and fascinating anecdotes covered in the discussion. Hear everything Josh had to say in the full-length interview .

If you’ve got any thoughts on what you read or watched, we want to hear them! Did anything resonate with you or surprise you? What do you think of Josh’s predictions? Let us know in the comments.

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