Small Talk Window

Risk Mitigation in Hiring Isn't Just for Pre-Hire Anymore, with Ben Mones, Founder and CEO of Fama

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Ben Mones [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-mones-45740a2a/], founder and CEO of Fama [https://fama.io/]. After he and I got past discussing what we feed our young children for breakfast, we left the virtual greenroom and started recording in earnest. Bad actors can do bad things while working at your company. That’s why hiring can’t just be about hiring people who can do the job. We need to hire people who will get the work done in a way that doesn’t negatively impact the organization once they join or even after they leave. Online screening can reveal deep behavioral intelligence about candidates like their Big 5 Traits without candidates having to do anything other than consent. And, it can also identify signs of misconduct in their online content, helping protect against things like violence, intolerance, and fraud -- much later, well past the time of hire. I really enjoyed this conversation with Ben, and so will you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Embracing Uncertainty in the Growth Mindset to Improve Business Outcomes with Nikhil Arora, CEO of Epignosis

Epignosis [https://www.epignosishq.com/] CEO Nikhil Arora [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhil-arora17/] has been a guest on the podcast previously. In that episode [https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/small-talk-window/episode/why-unlearning-is-important-in-career-development-with-nikhil-arora-ceo-of-epignosis], we discussed the curious and undeniable benefits of unlearning when it comes to fostering an organization's learning culture. As for this episode, it's interesting. Having a growth mindset is important to a business and to individual contributors in the workforce. The most visceral objectives for each differ, of course. An employer needs to focus on business outcomes: increasing profits, improving EBITDA, ensuring its own perpetuity very much as a “going concern,” in the parlance of accounting. Meanwhile, employees need to invest in their professional development to maximize their value to the organization. The great thing about all this is that the latter’s improvement fuels the former’s success. What’s more, high-performing employees instinctually understand this individual imperative and the benefit it brings to the whole. Nikhil and I delve into how uncertainty in the growth mindset leads to better business outcomes, and faster. It's about creating a safe place for failure, one of life's greatest teachers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Harnessing Community-Powered Hiring, with Summer Delaney, CEO and Founder of CollabWORK

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Summer Delaney [https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerdelaney/], who got her start in her career working for the iconic Katie Couric. Later, Summer founded CollabWORK [https://www.collabwork.com/], where she is CEO. Summer saw where recruiting had been for years and, with CollabWORK, disrupted things a bit. In many respects, recruiting today is still where it's been for a long time: with some evolution along the way, yes, a nevertheless elaborate system designed to approach finding talent with the conveniences of the online environment. In other words, it's been essentially just as recruiters approached it in the paleolithic era -- just kidding, the era predating the Internet. CollabWORK will integrate with an applicant tracking system. It plugs easily into the existing reality of recruiting today. At the same time, through community-powered hiring, CollabWORK reaches top talent in a way that other solutions won't. Through community-powered hiring, a hiring organization using CollabWORK can go to that coveted passive talent where they already spend their days -- behind the walled gardens of specialized online professional communities such as Slack and others. For more context, and to understand the ethos behind community-powered hiring, listen to my conversation with Summer. And, be sure to read this Open View Report [https://www.collabwork.com/post/collabwork-launches-first-ever-white-paper-community-powered-hiring-redefines-talent-acquisition] on the topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

A Swan Song to Transform Compliance Training, with John Hansen, CEO and Chairman of Atana

For this episode of "Small Talk Window," my guest is John Hansen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjhansen/], CEO and chairman of Atana [https://www.atana.com/]. We talked about Atana's jam: transforming workplace learning into a tool for cultural and business impact. A long-time entrepreneur with an uber-interesting career in leading companies and other organizations in high technology and abutting areas, John tells me Atana is his "swan song," a notable final accomplishment ahead of retirement. Committed to creating workplaces where employees feel respected, engaged, and safe, he really wants to leave an impact on learning in the world of work. And I cannot help but believe that he will. Atana’s approach reimagines learning and development (L&D) as a strategic asset—delivering engaging, impactful content while uncovering employee insights to inform leadership decisions. John explains it much better than I do. Listen to this episode and find out for yourself. To say John's enthusiasm for learning is infectious is a wild understatement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Why Unlearning Is Important in Career Development with Nikhil Arora, CEO of Epignosis

My guest for this episode of "Small Talk Window" is Nikhil Arora [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhil-arora17/], CEO of Epignosis [https://www.epignosishq.com/]. A learning technology company, Epignosis is known best for TalentLMS. [https://www.talentlms.com/] So, logically, Nikhil and I decided to talk about unlearning, instead.... Wait. It makes sense. Really, it does. You'd think that unlearning would be the opposite of learning. And, by definition, it is. But unlearning is, in fact, a part of learning — boom, there's that logic.... In the world of work, we must get good at unlearning as we embark upon upskilling and reskilling ourselves. When we unlearn, we dispense with adhering to ways we’ve always done things. In this way, unlearning enables us to get better at doing these same things in better ways. Unlearning also means to let go of the things we’ve learned and become very good at, but that may no longer be needed — something we all need to do as artificial intelligence continues to enter the workplace. Nikhil shares many insights related to all this during the 12 minutes we captured. By unlearning, we clear the mental white space to learn entirely new things to create future value, thus future-proofing our own livelihood as we enrich the lifeblood of organizational competitiveness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]