Learning for Good | L&D Solutions and Leadership Development for Nonprofits

Jaksot

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  3 Small Shifts that Increase Your Credibility as a Learning Designer 14.09.2026 13min

  In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down three practical shifts nonprofit learning designers can make to build credibility and grow their influence. Many competent learning and development professionals feel like their recommendations don't carry weight. It's frustrating to know you understand a problem and can offer a better solution, only to have that expertise go unheard. That gap usually has less to do with skill and more to do with how much evidence you've given people that you...
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  How Nonprofit Leaders Can Lead Under Pressure with Jay Abbasi 07.09.2026 34min

  What do you do when the pressure at work never seems to let up? In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with peak performance coach Jay Abbasi to talk about what it takes to lead under pressure and how nonprofit L&D leaders can build resilience into how they lead themselves and others. Nonprofit leaders carry a heavy load, with tight resources, shifting priorities, and a mission that never feels like it can wait. That pressure builds and shapes how people think, communicate, and ...
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  The Biggest Mistakes We Make When Measuring Learning 31.08.2026 19min

  Do you actually know if your training worked, or are you just hoping it did? In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down the five biggest mistakes nonprofit learning and development professionals make when measuring training impact. Most of us know we should be measuring our training, and we want to measure it, but somewhere between good intentions and actual practice, we get stuck. We settle for data that is easy to collect instead of data that tells us the truth. Good measurement isn...
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  200 Lessons from 200 Episodes. Just Kidding. Here are the Top 5 Ideas that Changed My Career in Learning and Development. 24.08.2026 13min

  In this episode of Learning for Good, I celebrate 200 episodes and share the five biggest lessons that have shaped my approach to nonprofit learning and development and nonprofit leadership development. Two hundred episodes in, I have interviewed nearly a hundred guests, built a summit, and grown a community, and along the way, my thinking about staff training and development has shifted in ways I did not expect. This episode is a chance to pause and look back at what has actually changed my ...
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  Should You Retire Your Training? 17.08.2026 10min

  How do you decide which trainings in your library still deserve a spot, and which ones are just taking up space? In this episode of Learning for Good, I walk through five strategic questions nonprofit leaders can use to decide when to retire a training program. Many nonprofits build a training toolbox one request at a time, until the toolbox is packed with tools nobody stops to evaluate. That toolbox turns into an endless menu instead of a strategy, and it gets harder to tell which trai...
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  The Hidden Cost of Reactive Learning in Nonprofits 10.08.2026 33min

  Does your learning and development team spend more time responding to requests than shaping where your organization is headed? In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with L&D leaders Kamaria Scott, Rachel Platt, and  Yogi Mueller for a conversation on why nonprofit learning and development teams stay reactive and what it takes to build stronger learning and development strategies. Too many L&D functions have been reduced to a training factory instead of shaping where the org...
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  When to Choose Coaching as Your Leadership Development Solution with Melody Lam 03.08.2026 29min

  In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with nonprofit leader Melody Lam to explore how she built a coaching culture by training first-time managers to coach. Coaching sounds like the obvious solution when new managers struggle to have hard conversations with their teams, but it often gets treated as a perk reserved for executives, and the cost of outside coaches can make the whole idea feel out of reach. Melody's experience shows that coaching does not have to start big or exp...
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  How to Make Learning Last: Designing for Workplace Behavior Change 27.07.2026 14min

  Why does your team go right back to their old habits the week after training ends? In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down how nonprofit leaders can design training that leads to lasting workplace behavior change instead of a short-lived bump in knowledge. Most training ends the same way. People show up, they learn something new, and within a few weeks it is like the training never happened. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone, and it is not because your training was bad.&nb...
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  Learning IS Strategy but Some Learning Teams Stay Stuck in Reactive Mode. Here's Why. 20.07.2026 33min

  Does your L&D team spend most of its time responding to urgent training requests instead of shaping strategy? In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with Mark Nilles and Scot Vessell, two experienced learning and development leaders, to discuss what it actually takes for nonprofit L&D to operate as a strategic lever. We argue that becoming a strategic partner starts with an internal shift, from seeing yourself as a learning designer who produces training to seeing yourself a...
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  How to Align Learning with Data with Nonprofit HR Leader Wilson Kirkpatrick 13.07.2026 22min

  Do you have employee engagement data sitting in a survey report with no plan for turning it into action? In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with Wilson Kirkpatrick, Director of People Operations at Waterford.org, to talk about how they used employee engagement data to design a coaching program that strengthened leadership trust and psychological safety. Many nonprofit leaders collect engagement survey data every year, but once the report comes back, it often sits untouched. That...
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  Trying to Change Behavior? One Missing Element from Your Training 06.07.2026 13min

  Your staff already know what to do and how to do it. So why are they still not doing it? In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down why explaining the why is one of the simplest and most overlooked workplace behavior change strategies nonprofit leaders have available. Nonprofit leaders pour energy into teaching their teams what to do and how to do it, then feel baffled when the new behavior never sticks. It is easy to assume the problem is the training itself, when the real gap might ...
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  10 Questions Every Strategic Learning Leader Should Be Asking 29.06.2026 14min

  In this episode of Learning for Good, I share 10 questions strategic learning leaders can ask to move beyond content creation and into real organizational impact, using learning and development strategies rooted in behavior change and performance. Most nonprofit L&D professionals know that training alone does not create change. But without the right questions, it is easy to build solutions that miss the mark, overlook the real barriers, or fail to connect to organizational strategy. The g...
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  What Strategic Partnerships Look Like in Learning & Development with Mark Nilles 22.06.2026 41min

  Many nonprofit learning and development professionals know their work matters, but still find themselves executing requests rather than shaping solutions. In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with global learning and development leader Mark Nilles to explore what it really means to shift from order taker to strategic partner, and how nonprofit L&D professionals can build the capability, opportunity, and motivation to lead with influence. Strategic partnership is not a personal...
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  Why Your Nonprofit Training Isn't Working: 5 Factors Preventing Workplace Behavior Change 15.06.2026 15min

  You invested time and resources into staff training and development, but your team still isn't applying what they learned. Why? Many nonprofit leaders focus heavily on what employees need to learn and how they should learn it. While those elements are essential, they're only part of the equation. In this episode of Learning for Good, I’m exploring why even well-designed training programs often fail to create lasting behavior change. True success happens when training translates into consisten...
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  Learning and Growth for Learning Leaders with Dr. Luke Hobson 08.06.2026 43min

  What does it really take to grow as a learning leader? In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with instructional design expert Dr. Luke Hobson to explore how learning professionals can build confidence, strengthen influence, and develop a clear leadership voice. We reflect on our own career journeys into learning and development and discuss how intentional growth, networking, and relationship-building shape effective leaders. From instructional design for nonprofits to relatio...
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  What Proof of Impact Really Looks Like in Training 01.06.2026 15min

  What does proof of impact really look like in nonprofit learning and development? In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down how nonprofit leaders can measure staff training and development in a way that actually connects learning to organizational performance and mission impact. Many nonprofit organizations focus only on participation numbers or satisfaction surveys when evaluating training. Others jump straight to behavior change and impact without worrying about knowledge tra...
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  A Look at Career Mapping: Who, What, When, and How with Nonprofit Leader Melanie Gonzalez 25.05.2026 32min

  What does it take to build high-performing nonprofit teams that stay engaged, grow their skills, and strengthen organizational impact? In this episode, I sit down with Melanie Gonzalez, Chief People Officer at the Behavioral Science Research Institute (BSRI), to explore how intentional career pathing supports nonprofit leadership development, staff training and development, and employee retention. From aligning compensation philosophy with career progression to building customized learn...
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  The Mindset that Separates Strategic L&D Leaders from Order Takers 18.05.2026 12min

  If you want to elevate your learning and development role from an order taker to a strategic partner, it starts with something many leaders overlook: mindset. In this episode, I explore how the way you think about your role in learning and development directly impacts your influence, credibility, and results inside your organization. Too often, nonprofit learning professionals feel stuck reacting to requests instead of shaping strategy. But shifting from an order taker to a strategic pa...
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  Mentorship Programs for Nonprofits: How to Develop the Next Generation of Leaders with Larcy Douglas 11.05.2026 35min

  Mentorship is a powerful yet underutilized tool in nonprofits, and in this episode, we’re diving into how to operationalize it for real organizational impact. I sit down with Larcy Douglas, director at Common Power, to explore how mentorship can transform both individuals and organizations. From designing collaborative mentor-mentee relationships to embedding mentorship into broader learning and development strategies, Larcy shares how her team built a program that not only develops lea...
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  Why Good Training Takes Time 04.05.2026 10min

  Good training takes time, and in a world where AI can generate content in seconds, that truth is more important than ever. In this episode, we unpack why effective learning and development strategies in nonprofits can’t be rushed, even when tools promise speed and efficiency. Because training isn’t just about content creation. It’s about behavior change and performance improvement. We break down where your time actually goes, from building trust with stakeholders to understanding your a...