Learning for Good | L&D Solutions and Leadership Development for Nonprofit Organizations
As nonprofit learning and development leaders, we want a seat at the table. We want to be viewed as true business partners who can help solve problems. We want to create meaningful learning solutions that fit in the flow of work and yield real results for the organization and for the staff.
That's why in this podcast, we will not only explore instructional design and leadership development best practices, but we will also explore change management, belonging, and influence - helping you build the case for the solutions your organization needs so you can show up confidently in conversations with other senior leaders, subject matter experts, staff, and partners.
If we haven't met yet, I'm Heather, and I’ve been in your shoes. I'm a learning and development consultant and the founder and principal consultant at Skill Masters Market. Before starting Skill Masters Market, I worked for a large national nonprofit where I led learning and development leadership initiatives.
I know what it’s like to need to develop your staff quickly and effectively, and to build the relationships and cut through the organizational layers to be successful. With an eye for the larger strategy and the creative design process, I've created hundreds of learning experiences - in-person, self-paced, and virtual classroom - and have worked with dozens of leaders and their staff to help them achieve their organization’s professional development goals.
So if you're ready to bust through the barriers and start creating behavior change in your nonprofit, this podcast is for you. Let's dive in. It's Learning for Good.
Nonprofit Management | Leadership Training | Leadership Development | Staff Management | Change Management | Instructional Design | Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Learn more: www.skillmastersmarket.com
Connect with me: www.linkedin.com/in/heather-burright
Schedule a call: https://bit.ly/3GQT6Yg
Episodes
127 episodes
Fixed vs. Growth Mindset: The Key to Stronger Nonprofit Leadership with Kim Andrews
The fear of failure impacts our learners’ ability to learn, so we need to help them move to a growth mindset. A growth mindset is a place where it's okay to try new things, fail, and continue to show up and be persistent even in the face of fai...
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Episode 127
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29:42
How to Conduct a Training Project Debrief
Do you take the time to intentionally reflect after a training project ends? Reflection is powerful and it's something we often do, but it's not something we often do with intentionality. That’s why on this episode of Learning for ...
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Episode 126
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11:30
Small L&D Team? How One Nonprofit University Uses Volunteers to Increase their Capacity with Ashley Dugger
If you are looking to transition to L&D, your experience matters! Volunteering can help you fill in the gaps. This is exactly what Dr. Ashley Dugger is here to talk about.Ashley engages volunteers in her organization to help increase...
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Episode 125
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32:09
My 4-Step Process to Write Better Learning Objectives
In this episode, I want to share my 4-step process to write better learning objectives. What do I mean by better? This is not a lesson on making them SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timely) though that...
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Episode 124
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8:21
Are Your Learners Bored? How Building a Learner Persona Can Help.
Are your learners bored? So often our training audience attends training that isn't relevant or engaging, contains so much extra information they feel lost, or the included scenarios make no sense for them and their role.Con...
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Episode 123
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10:13
How Building Your Personal Board of Directors Will Enhance Your Career with Jarrett Ransom
What’s the value of an outside perspective? An outside perspective will help you be more consistent, improve your awareness and confidence, and accelerate your career because they can see the things you can't. This is true in all ar...
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Episode 122
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26:51
3 Components of Leadership Development | What Nonprofits Can Learn from the Aviation Industry with Craig Coyle
A lot of what we do in Learning and Development is not life and death. We often have the freedom to experiment with new ideas in our nonprofit training and while we want the best possible outcome, we can feel safe to fail.This is not the...
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Episode 121
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23:55
Improving the Health of Your Nonprofit through People Manager Development and Enablement with Kamaria Scott
People managers have a hard job. They have to set goals, manage resources, support real humans who are not always easy to support, and keep everything moving on time and within budget so the organization can meet its goals.That’s why I’...
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Episode 120
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32:52
The Business Case for Mentoring - What's the Value? with Neil Cunningham
We know the impact a good mentor can have. Yet, according to a Forbes article, only 37% of professionals have a mentor. This means there are still many people out there who aren't benefiting from this type of relationship. How do w...
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Episode 119
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20:14
The Belonging Blueprint: How to Create Connection among Your Teams with Abigail Finck
While work may never be the top place you feel belonging, it can be a place where you can be yourself, where you can feel safe, and where you can feel connected to your work and team. However, this doesn’t happen organically, we have to wor...
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Episode 118
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35:06
How to Measure Behavior Change and Impact in a Federated Nonprofit or Membership Association
Measuring behavior change and impact is hard in most organizations, but add the complexities of federated nonprofit organizations or membership associations, and it suddenly feels impossible.In this episode, I’m exploring why measuring...
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Episode 117
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11:13
Using a Blended, Cohort Training Model to Create Behavior Change with Nonprofit Leader Rebecca Kelley
Creating behavior change is no easy task. So when Rebecca Kelley of Waterford.org approached me about a change she wanted to facilitate in one of her teams, I knew we had a lot of work to do. Today’s...
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Episode 116
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23:52
I'm 20 Years into My Career. If You're New to L&D, Listen to This.
I feel strongly that you don't need a formal education in adult learning to be a good instructional designer. But I do think instructional designers have to be open to learning new things.I’ve learned a lot over my 20 year career in Learnin...
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Episode 115
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13:37
How One Nonprofit Improves Emotional Intelligence through Training with Erin Harris
Boundaries, coping skills, conflict resolution, empathy, mental health, and self-care are skills we all need in life, and the nonprofit Un/Do Mindset is on a mission to make sure everyone has them. They're working to build a more resi...
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Episode 114
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29:18
Setting Values-Based Goals for 2025
People with goals are 10 times more likely to succeed. That’s the kind of momentum I want as I head into 2025.I've worked with others to set goals for years. I've coached people through career transitions. And I've led project teams with a ...
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Episode 113
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11:51
Two Skills Your People Managers Need But Probably Don't Have with Eric Girard
The number one priority for HR leaders in 2025 is leader and manager development and yet, only 36% of organizations with leadership development programs think they work. Organizations are spending money and prioritizing leadership development b...
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Episode 112
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20:02
Using AI to Create Persuasive, Visual Stories for Your Training with Nicholas Leonard
Stories help us learn and engage us on an emotional level. But one of the more challenging parts of using stories is finding the right visuals to go with them. That’s where AI comes in. I personally have not used AI to create visual stories...
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Episode 111
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33:37
5 Ways to Incorporate Peer Learning into Your Nonprofit's Learning Strategy
Peer learning is a great technique to use in your training programs because it encourages active participation and networking, ensures diverse perspectives are shared and considered, encourages social and collaborative skills, and so much more....
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Episode 110
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11:18
Developing Your People Managers with Off-the-Shelf Courses + Customized Conversations. An Inside Look at One Nonprofit's Approach with Alberto Garcia
Providing off-the-shelf courses is a common approach to training and development. But one of the limitations is the lack of context which is often needed to make the training relevant and meaningful. When I heard about Interfaith Ministries...
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Episode 109
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23:30
Turn Your Subject Matter Expert into Your Biggest Asset with This Approach
Working with subject matter experts can be a great experience, but it can also be challenging. They don't always understand Learning and Development, they may have competing priorities that take them away from your project, and sometimes they t...
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Episode 108
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9:49
How to Use Change Management Principles to Improve Training Project Success
Is training a change project? My vote is almost always YES. Training is often either being used to drive a change or it's being offered as the result of a change.Why does that matter? 70% of organizational changes fail and L...
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Episode 107
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8:38
Three Practical Tips to Improve Your Nonprofit's Onboarding Process
Most people form a first impression in just a tenth of a second, and there’s no second chances. So, what is your nonprofit's first impression? When you hire a new staff person, what do they think or feel? It's worth asking the question, and it'...
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Episode 106
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8:57
Want Better Leaders? Five Ways to Get Them.
50% of leaders will fail. Even those who were once successful often eventually fail. Leadership failure comes with significant cost. You have to recruit, hire, and onboard a new leader and employees may have left or stopped performing under the...
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Episode 105
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11:00
You Need Social Influence to Achieve Behavior Change. Here's How to Create It.
70% of organizational changes fail. I feel strongly that almost every training project is a change project. So, how do we successfully facilitate change? One essential element is social influence. We have to create the ...
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Episode 104
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10:42
5 Low Cost Leadership Development Activities for Organizations with Tight Budgets
I often hear from nonprofit L&D leaders about the challenges they face with constrained budgets. And I feel their pain. I know so many of you are working with small teams and few resources. But leadership development activities don’t have t...
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Episode 103
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11:12