On 10 June 2018 the first episode of Learning Uncut podcast was published.
I had been feeling pulled to the idea of starting a podcast for some time when I sat next to Karen Moloney at an industry awards ceremony in late 2017. While I loved the idea of interviewing people for each episode, I was concerned about the amount of work involved, particularly on the editing and production side. I was also unsure about the technology side of setting up the podcast and having it published. It turned out that Karen had also been thinking about starting a podcast, was tech-savvy enough to tackle the set up – and had found someone who wanted to do the editing, Amanda Ashby. Together the three of us created the podcast and produced the first 42 episodes together, before they moved on from the project. The featured photo in this post is the three of us at the end of 2018, around six months after we started the publication – back at the industry awards dinner.
I continued with the format we had created – speaking with Learning and Development professionals about their work. Each episode is a story about a real project, solution of approach that they’ve taken in their work. Mostly my guests are people working inside an organisation. Sometimes they are joined by an external partner.
Initially our guests were only from Australia and New Zealand. We wanted to highlight the good work being done in our region, an area whose voice was often not included due to time zone differences compared with more heavily populated regions in other parts of the world. The podcast still features guests mostly from this region as this is where I live and where my network is strongest. However, I’m open to stories from anywhere in the world – and have managed to include one from Africa and Antarctica. There are so many other continents and countries still not represented in the podcast library.
It’s become an amazing resource that I draw upon constantly for examples and ideas to share with others in my work. I feel like there is a lot more I could be doing with the episodes … when I find some capacity.
For now I shall keep going tracking down and sharing interesting stories of good work being done in the field or organisational learning. It’s an absolute joy to create each episode, and is a key way that I stay abreast of what is happening in the profession.
I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has supported the podcast – in particular the guests who are so willing to share their work. Through sharing our stories we all get better. I’ve named several people who’ve been strong contributors and supporters in my LinkedIn post to mark the milestone. While I’ve sustained the momentum it has taken a community to make it happen.
