Learning Uncut

The choices we make in education today shape the workforce thirty years from now. In this episode Michelle Parry-Slater speaks with Jeff Davis, Executive Head at Hillcrest Christian College on the Gold Coast and author of Leading the Learning Revolution, about what happens when a school decides to turn education on its head. From teaching curriculum on Coolangatta Beach to a framework of six secret skills that prepare students for a world of AI and rapid change, Jeff argues that character, service and emotional intelligence are not extras. They are the curriculum. This conversation challenges common assumptions about what schooling is for, explores whole person teaching that blends academic knowledge with purpose and resilience, and surfaces practical ideas for L&D and HR professionals wondering why great candidates are so hard to find and what might change if education did.    Transcript and related resources: learninguncut.global/podcast/190 Podcast information and more episodes: learninguncut.global/podcast

What happens after the award, is won? In this episode, Michelle Parry-Slater welcomes back Millie Law, Enterprise Capability Lead at ANZ for an 18-month update on the Better Business Development programme first shared in Episode 161 for reflective practice in action The BD program delivered a 20–25% improvement in a key business metric and a four times return on investment. This revisit episode explores how an award-winning program built on genuine performance consulting, a deep understanding of business language, and deliberate mindset design has continued to live in the business long after the enterprise team stepped back.  Millie also takes us inside the capability community of practice she leads at ANZ, with a virtual, open, monthly drumbeat that keeps a federated learning community connected, curious and growing, and how you know it's working as the numbers don't tell the whole story. Transcript and related resources: learninguncut.global/podcast/189 Podcast information and more episodes: learninguncut.global/podcast

Michelle Parry-Slater is joined by Andrew Lawson (2026 AITD L&D Professional of the Year) and his client Alice Smith, about a deliberately different approach to leadership training.  Instead of two days out of the office, where delegates leave with overwhelmed brains but make little change back at work before the learning gets totally forgotten, Andrew offers a leadership programme deliberately designed to benefit learners. Using spaced learning practice, retrieval practice, and highly engaging short interventions, Andrew shares his TARGER framework, which is a brain-friendly learning design checklist built on neuroscience. Alice shares what it actually felt like from the client side to experience an 8-month programme of 90-minute sessions a month plus a variety of practice activities and coaching. With results that shifted behaviour and real change, together they turned a group of siloed managers into a genuine leadership cohort. This is a masterclass in how to create a much more effective, efficient, engaging and enjoyable leadership programme. Transcript and related resources: learninguncut.global/podcast/188 Podcast information and more episodes: learninguncut.global/podcast

For three years running, AI topped the list of what's hot in L&D. This year it dipped, and Donald H Taylor is taking it off the survey altogether. Don has run the Global Sentiment Survey for over a decade. In this Elevate episode, he joins host Michelle Parry-Slater to go back across five years of data and unpack what it actually tells us about where the profession is heading. They get into the transformation triangle's three destinations for L&D, the two separate futures Don thinks the profession may be splitting into, and why compliance training deserves to be taken seriously as a shop window rather than dismissed as a chore of endurance. And why hope on its own isn't enough. It needs action behind it, and courage for when things get hard. It's a conversation grounded in research, honest about what's difficult right now, full of ideas, and genuinely hopeful about what's next for L&D. Transcript and related resources: learninguncut.global/podcast/elevate-50 Podcast information and more episodes: learninguncut.global/podcast

It will take 118 years, at the current rate of change, before an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person can go to work without hearing a racial slur. This is not history. This is what is happening in Australian workplaces right now. In this Elevate episode, Michelle Parry-Slater speaks with Professor Nareen Young and Josh Gilbert from the Centre for Indigenous People and Work at the University of Technology Sydney, both Aboriginal researchers and practitioners who have spent decades working to shift the Indigenous employment narrative from deficit to truth. Together they share the findings of the 2025 Gari Yala (Speak the Truth) report, Australia's only Indigenous-led national survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment experiences and make a direct, generous and urgent call to L&D professionals to act. Transcript and related resources: learninguncut.global/podcast/elevate-49/ Podcast information and more episodes: learninguncut.global/podcast/