Ever wondered where do all the common best practices seen today in corporate learning come from? You can certainly do the research on this but I have better news. My new podcast project dubbed StyleLearn Origins does just that. For example; most historical references to modern Learning and Development (L&D) always point to military training during World War II, but that leads us to believe there was nothing before that time. This is why this podcast exists and it can help the established learning professional as well as those new in the industry to appreciate the true value of past training lessons for today’s practice.
First Episode
The podcast started with the examination of the book The Instructor, The Man, and The Job and the legacy of C.R. Allen. Mr. Allen was a prominent vocational educator at the turn of the twentieth century and was involved in the World War I efforts between 1914 and 1918 with the Emergency Fleet Corporation. At the time, the United States was not involved in the war at first, but then on April 4th, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked congress to declare war on Germany. This in turn resulted in a major need for ship building not only to transport troops but establish strong shipping lanes despite the threat of German submarine attacks. This was a international effort requiring the training of uneducated personnel and the training efforts reduced ship building from 18 months to 90 days. That’s an amazing feat. How did they do it? Listen to the episode here.
Second Episode
Many corporate learning professionals still struggle with conducting a training needs analysis. The second episode explores job breakdown lists which were used in World War II as part of the second emergency Government program dealing with the war support effort known as Training Within Industry. This was a very interesting and highly successful program which was recognized as a pivotal shift in the war. The practices established by TWI led to the foundations of the Lean movement, the Human Resources field and the founding of the Association of Training Directors in 1945 known today as the Association for Talent Development. Aside from the job breakdown lists, there’s an exploration of the similarities between them and the progress made by Robert Gagne, Thomas Gilbert and Robert Mager among others.
Podcast Availability
As of today, you can subscribe to StyleLearn Origins on most major platforms including Spotify, iHeart Radio and several others. On Spotify, you can interact by answering polls about the next episode topic or giving feedback QnA style. Also, by going to the website you can leave a voice message and request a topic to be covered.
