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Lisa Bell

Lisa M. Ong on Fostering Belonging for AAPI Employees

Lisa Ann Edwards is an award-winning leadership coach and the founder and CEO of MyExcelia. As a former head of talent management for a Bill Gates-owned global media company, Edwards learned the importance of effective development programs when executives cut programs because they can’t see bottom-line results. She brought budgets back to the organization after showing the return on investment of coaching.

Lisa Ann Edwards

Lisa Spinelli is a dynamic leadership and career development coach, trainer, and workshop facilitator with a passion for helping individuals navigate career transitions and leadership growth. As the founder of Blue Pinecone Consulting, Lisa specializes in coaching and training rising leaders and empowering them to embrace authenticity, adapt to change, and excel in their professional journeys.

Lisa is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and has delivered one-on-one leadership and career transition coaching to leaders in public service, employees at Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofit employees. Her extensive experience includes developing and facilitating workshops for organizations such as the USDA, Library of Congress, U.S. Air Force, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, from small groups of 10 to larger groups of more than 150.

Before founding her consulting firm, Lisa served as a director at an e-learning platform and has also worked at ATD as a senior content manager, where she created and managed workshops like ATD’s Troops to Trainers at Ft. Belvoir. She also created and hosted the popular The Accidental Trainer podcast and authored multiple career development resources, including the book Teachers to Trainers and the workbook Take Charge of Your Career.

Lisa’s unique perspective is shaped by her family’s strong ties to public service, with her father serving in the NYPD, U.S. Army, and CIA, and her husband being a disabled USAF veteran as well as having grown up in Rome, Italy. Her connection to the greater good and more well-being lifestyle fuels her passion for coaching and helping others. 

Lisa holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia.

Lisa Spinelli

Best Leadership Books

Are leaders on the same page as their employees? Some recent findings suggest otherwise. A 2024 workplace survey by Arbinger (go.arbinger.com/trends-report-2024) highlights this gap between leader and employee perceptions of workplace challenges. The data reveals that while executives may feel confident in their efforts, employees often feel undervalued, overlooked, and disconnected. If left unaddressed, this disconnect can harm organizational culture, productivity, and success. In this blog post, we’ll look at how to bridge this gap by fostering trust and engagement. Executive-Employee Disconnect: Key FindingsThe survey underscores the divide between executive and employee perspectives:Executives are 2.5 times more likely to believe their organizations provide ample opportunities for growth and skill development.They are nearly 3 times more satisfied with efforts addressing employee well-being.They are more than 3 times more satisfied with company communication and collaboration.Despite these positive executive views, only 22 percent of employees reported high job satisfaction. This stark contrast highlights the need for talent development professionals to bridge the gap between leadership and employees.Causes of the DisconnectOne significant reason for this disconnect is the lack of regular communication between leaders and employees. Research shows that fewer than half (43 percent) of organizations regularly facilitate these critical conversations. Without ongoing dialogue, executives remain out of touch with employee needs, leading to lower engagement, diminished growth, and a weakened organizational culture.When employees feel unseen or unheard, they often disengage, resulting in reduced productivity and stifled innovation. Fostering open communication and understanding should be a top priority for leaders to build stronger relationships and improve workplace dynamics.Bringing Humanity to the Workplace: A Path to ReconnectionA key way to bridge this gap is by bringing humanity to the workplace. When employees feel valued as individuals rather than just workers, trust and engagement increase. Consider these simple yet effective practices to empower leaders to shift their mindset:Know employees beyond their roles: Engage in personal conversations to understand their aspirations and challenges.Reflect on your impact: Regularly assess how your actions affect others and make necessary adjustments.Avoid assumptions: Miscommunication often stems from assumptions. Leaders should focus on clarifying facts and fostering open dialogue.The Leadership Qualities Employees ValueArbinger’s survey findings revealed that employees desire certain characteristics in their leaders, the top answers being:TrustworthinessAccountabilityActive listeningRecognition of contributionsAdaptability and passionBy embracing these traits, leaders can build trust and bridge the disconnect, boosting employee engagement and satisfaction.The survey also revealed the importance of psychological safety, with 41 percent of employees fearing negative consequences for speaking up. This fear stifles creativity and collaboration. Leaders who prioritize creating a safe environment for open communication enable their teams to voice ideas and concerns, driving innovation and improving performance.Empathy-Driven LeadershipEmpathetic leadership is crucial to reducing workplace disconnect. By adopting a more human-centered approach, leaders can create environments where employees feel heard and valued. Practical steps include:Show appreciation: Regularly recognize employee contributions.Take responsibility: Admit mistakes and model accountability.Be a good listener: Listen to employee concerns and feedback without judgment.Balance workloads: Monitor employee stress levels and provide support as needed.Foster psychological safety: Ensure employees feel safe speaking up without fear of retaliation.Moving Forward: Bridging the GapClosing the gap between leadership and employees requires time and effort. However, by prioritizing communication, empathy, and trust, organizations can transform their culture. Talent development professionals play a vital role in guiding this process and supporting leaders as they work toward building more inclusive, connected, and productive teams.

Bridging the Leadership Disconnect: Fostering Trust and Engagement

Believe it or not, you have a personal brand. Use this checklist to get started.

Personal Branding Checklist

During its 2016 International Conference & Exposition held in Denver, CO, the Association for Talent Development (ATD), formerly ASTD, recognized organizations and individuals for their excellence and contributions across the talent development field. The event was held at the Denver Performing Arts Complex on May 23.“The ATD Awards Ceremony is an event dedicated to recognizing excellence,” said Tony Bingham, ATD President and CEO. “Individuals are recognized for their dedication to and passion for developing talent. Winning organizations demonstrate how learning can increase the performance and success of organizations worldwide.”Individual honorees included:Liz Wiseman – Champion of Talent Development AwardRuth Colvin Clark – Distinguished Contribution AwardJames Vesper – ATD Dissertation Award.On the organization side, ATD recognized Tencent Holdings Limited with the association’s Innovation in Talent Development Award. Rotary International received the CPLP Employer award.ATD also honored the 2015 Excellence in Practice Award winners, recognized for results achieved through the use of practices and solutions from the entire scope of workplace learning and talent development.Thirty-one awards and 32 citations were presented in 10 categories: career development, coaching and mentoring, diversity and inclusion, facilitating organizational change, integrated talent management, learning technologies, managing the learning function, organizational learning and development, performance improvement, and sales enablement. Awards are presented to organizations with proven practices that have delivered measurable and sustained results. Citations are awarded for those practices that show significant promise.The organizations selected to receive Excellence in Practice Awards are:Belle Worldwide Limited (a member of Belle International), Shenzhen, ChinaCardinal Health, Dublin, OhioChailease Finance Co., Ltd., Taipei, TaiwanDubai Police Department, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesEczacıbaşı Holding, Istanbul, TurkeyEmirates NBD, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesENN Group, Langfang City, ChinaHewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CaliforniaIBM, Armonk, New YorkITU AbsorbTech, New Berlin, WisconsinJohnsonville Sausage, LLC, Sheboygan Falls, WisconsinMinor Food Group PLC, Bangkok, ThailandMTR Corporation Limited, Hong KongSAP SE, Walldorf, GermanyState Grid Corporation of China, Beijing, ChinaTanfeeth, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTata Consultancy Services, Mumbai, IndiaTeknosa İç ve Dış Ticaret A.Ş., Istanbul, TurkeyTencent Holdings Limited, Shenzhen, ChinaTurk Ekonomi Bankasi (TEB), Istanbul, TurkeyTürk Telekom, Altındağ, TurkeyVestel Ticaret A.Ş. Müşteri Hizmetleri, Yunusemre, TurkeyWestern Union, Englewood, ColoradoZurich Insurance Company Ltd., Zurich, SwitzerlandA complete list of Excellence in Practice award and citation winners can be found on the ATD website.About ATDThe Association for Talent Development (ATD), formerly ASTD, is the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. These professionals help others achieve their full potential by improving their knowledge, skills, and abilities.ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports the work of professionals locally in more than 125 chapters, international strategic partners, and global member networks.

ATD Recognizes Excellence in Talent Development (May 2016)

If you are looking to create e-learning content for the first time, you’ll need to determine which e-learning authoring tool to use. Organizations that already have a working way to create engaging content may be tempted to view e-learning projects through the tools, products, and methods they are familiar with. For example, if all you have is Microsoft Word, then e-learning content will end up looking like a Microsoft Word document, which is not the most efficient tool for developing online training content or learning courses. When it comes to creating effective training content, you want to be able to spark learner engagement through different elements, such as interactive content. That’s why using the right e-learning authoring software is pivotal during the production stage.Professionals focused on learning and development (L&D) and technical documentation have many software options for getting the job done. As e-learning industry trends emerge or new authoring tools come into the market, it makes sense to evaluate them periodically for optimizing your L&D program.Types of E-Learning Authoring ToolsThe best type of e-learning authoring tool really depends on your project needs as well as your team’s capabilities, schedule, and budget. Consider how you want to author content within your organization and what you want learners to experience when they take the course. The list below is of possible tradeoffs when drilling down into the right tools for you.Level of functionality. High-quality e-learning authoring tools offer capabilities beyond just quickly creating a learning course. They may provide built-in templates and getting-started tutorials, but they also allow for customizing e-learning features and multiple interaction types. Some offer responsive output for different user devices, various formats, and multichannel publishing. In contrast, tools that only have prebuilt course templates and a certain number of features can be restricting for e-learning professionals who need to customize and scale content.Level of effort. Some e-learning authoring tools are built for speed. Out-of-box, minimal effort is required because they may offer a dashboard with drag-and-drop objects and a path for a person with little experience to produce a course in a pinch. Over time, courses are likely to take on the same look and feel. Features and branding in these tools can be harder to manipulate. Adding more functionality to this type of tool might invite additional costs. Tool efficiency is another aspect to consider if you seek team collaboration, source control features, and productive workflows. Tools that provide effortless ways for multiple people to share content, review and provide feedback for files, and work on the same project at once are ideal for streamlining and optimizing processes.Level of scalability. It may be of importance to change the size or scale of a project. First, if you expect your L&D program to expand, you may consider choosing a tool that can grow along with your company. As you gain experience with digital learning content, it could be advantageous to innovate course designs, customize content, and develop online learning centers. In addition, it is possible you might have to scale up production. Some e-learning features that can assist in scaling content are reusing content within one project or multiple projects and editing that content easily, topic-based authoring, accessibility, producing multiple outputs, importing or exporting features and files, and translation options.A “Tough as Nails” E-Learning Authoring ToolMadCap Flare is a flexible stand-alone software application for creating digital assets with advanced content authoring capabilities. It offers rapid e-learning authoring tool efficiencies and features for organizing “chunks of training,” creating questions and answers, interactive content, plus a whole lot more. It lets you build exactly what you want with features that allow for content reuse, custom-made interactions, and multichannel publishing. Flare is geared toward the nonspecialist who might need to seamlessly scale content and projects. Its purpose is to create simple interactions and tests.Flare can be regarded as the robust multifunctional tool in the toolbox because it blends technical authoring and L&D programs, fulfilling e-learning authoring tool demands. Flare leverages content across an organization and maximizes its reuse through sharing files. Teams tend to unite and collaborate with the common goal of helping people learn about something—by producing e-learning courses and offering online help, knowledge bases, or learning centers. Trainers, writers, or instructional designers can use Flare to develop, manage, and publish content as well as produce innovative quizzes and knowledge checks as part of any project. Learners can access relevant courses when they want to from the LMS and consume them in a way that meets their learning style. So, as you begin searching for the right e-learning authoring tool, take into consideration functionality, level of effort, and scalability.

Finding the Right E-Learning Authoring Tool for Efficient Content Development

Several recent trends affecting business have led many organizations to restructure the training and development function or department. Some have also re-organized the roles and responsibilities of staff involved in training-related initiatives.Examples of “new branding” include:Training Project Management OfficeProject Management OfficeProject OfficeLearning and DevelopmentLearning and Performance ImprovementTraining and DevelopmentTalent DevelopmentPerformance Consulting.Has your organization restructured its training department recently—say, in the last 5 years? Share your story, and the top winning submissions will each receive a free copy of my new book Templates for Managing Training Projects. We have two questions we would like to ask.Did you restructure the training function to take on projects outside of “traditional training programs? For example, did the training department take on such initiatives as change management, process improvement, or talent development? If yes (you did take on different training-related initiatives), can you briefly describe them?Are there any job titles used by your training department not included in the list below? What are the roles and responsibilities? AnimatorCareer CoachChief Learning OfficerCourse DeveloperCurriculum DeveloperEducation CoordinatorE-learning DeveloperEvent and Meeting PlannerFacilitatorGraphic ArtistHR Business PartnerInstructional DesignerLearning CoachLearning Management System AdministratorLearning StrategistOrganizational DevelopmentOrganizational EffectivenessPerformance ConsultantPresentation SpecialistSuccession PlannerTalent Development SpecialistTechnical WriterTrainerTraining Administrator—Data EntryTraining AnalystTraining ConsultantTraining CoordinatorTraining DirectorTraining Event CoordinatorTraining ManagerTraining OfficerTraining SpecialistVideo ProducerVoice Talent—Narrator.Please submit your responses to me at [willishthomas@gmail.com](mailto:willishthomas@gmail.com?subject=What's With the New Name) by May 17. I will announce the winner of Templates for Managing Training Projects with an update to this blog. Also, please join me at ATD 2015 International Conference & Expo May 17-20 in Orlando, Florida. I will facilitating the session “W118 - The Training Project Management Office,” which will focus on how to align the learning and development department of a training organization to support projects more effectively and efficiently.

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