Workplace Stories by RedThread Research
At RedThread, we love data—but we know stories are what stick. That’s why we bring together thinkers, writers, leaders, and practitioners to share real-world insights about what works in the workplace, what they’ve learned, and where the future of work is headed. We keep it insightful, thought-provoking, and maybe even a little irreverent. But we don’t stop at conversations. Our research, events, and community turn insights into action, helping organizations and individuals navigate the changing world of work. Want to be part of the conversation? Join our community for free and connect with others shaping the future of work. Learn more about RedThread Research here: https://redthreadresearch.com/home
Episodes
January 21, 2026 • 58 mins
Manuel Smukalla, Global Talent Impact, Skills Intelligence, and Systems Lead at Bayer, joins Workplace Stories to unpack one of the most ambitious organizational transformations underway today. As Bayer confronts significant market, legal, and profitability pressures, the company has taken a radically different approach to how work, leadership, and talent are structured, rethinking everything from management layers to career progre...
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December 17, 2025 • 52 mins
Christine Crouch, Senior Director of Learning at General Mills, joins Workplace Stories to discuss a massive shift in how one of the world's legacy food companies approaches talent development. General Mills has recently transitioned to a centralized and integrated learning model.
In this episode, Christine lays out one of the clearest cases for centralization we have heard. While efficiency is a benefit, she argues that the true dr...
In this episode, Christine lays out one of the clearest cases for centralization we have heard. While efficiency is a benefit, she argues that the true dr...
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December 3, 2025 • 56 mins
On the latest episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Koreen Pagano, author of "Building a Skills-Based Organization," to talk about one of the hottest and most complex topics in the world of work: how organizations can become truly skills-based, and what that really means in today’s rapidly changing, AI-driven landscape. The conversation was loaded with practical insights, candid stories, and wisdom from the front lines of ...
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November 19, 2025 • 60 mins
In this episode, Stacia and Dani sit down once again with Cole Napper, author of “People Analytics: Using Data-Driven HR and Gen AI as a Business Asset.” A year after his first appearance, Cole returns with bold insights about the seismic changes facing HR and people analytics, and why now is the time to rethink how we define value in the workplace.
Cole argues that the future of HR depends on shedding its transactional skin and emb...
Cole argues that the future of HR depends on shedding its transactional skin and emb...
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November 5, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Lori Niles-Hoffman, global learning strategist, EdTech advisor, and author of The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation. With over 25 years of experience implementing large-scale learning systems, Lori brings a no-nonsense, deeply human perspective to how organizations can thrive at the intersection of technology, data, and talent.
Lori reveals why EdTech success isn’t about shi...
Lori reveals why EdTech success isn’t about shi...
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October 22, 2025 • 66 mins
Just two years ago, AI was a shiny new object in L&D, with most professionals dabbling in small pilots and content creation experiments. The latest findings reveal an inflection point: the majority of L&D teams are now actively using AI, not merely testing it.
This week, on the podcast are Donald H. Taylor and Eglė Vinauskaitė, the minds behind a groundbreaking new report, "AI & Learning 2025: Race for Impact." We’re exp...
This week, on the podcast are Donald H. Taylor and Eglė Vinauskaitė, the minds behind a groundbreaking new report, "AI & Learning 2025: Race for Impact." We’re exp...
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October 15, 2025 • 43 mins
Artificial Intelligence is transforming corporate learning, but not every organization is doing it in ways that employees actually trust. In this episode of Workplace Stories, we talk with Peter Manniche Riber, Digital Learning & AI Leader, about how his team built AI-powered learning tools that employees truly believe in.
From creating the “Dilemma Coach” and “IDP Coach” to redefining personalization and data privacy, Peter dem...
From creating the “Dilemma Coach” and “IDP Coach” to redefining personalization and data privacy, Peter dem...
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September 24, 2025 • 50 mins
On the show this week, Nadia Uberoi, Head of People at Garner Health, joins us to explore how HR can move beyond compliance to become a solution-centric and outcome-driven function, aligning closely with the business’s mission and deliverables.
Nadia shares practical details on how Garner Health has developed agile people systems and cultivated a high-candor culture rooted in real-time feedback and organizational transparency. We di...
Nadia shares practical details on how Garner Health has developed agile people systems and cultivated a high-candor culture rooted in real-time feedback and organizational transparency. We di...
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August 27, 2025 • 47 mins
Haley Glover, Senior Director of UpSkill America at the Aspen Institute, is on a mission to build a world where skills—not degrees or pedigrees—are the primary currency of career opportunity.
In this expansive conversation, she challenges organizations to think bigger, arguing that investing in frontline workers isn't just a corporate responsibility but a societal imperative that strengthens communities and economies alike.
Glover sh...
In this expansive conversation, she challenges organizations to think bigger, arguing that investing in frontline workers isn't just a corporate responsibility but a societal imperative that strengthens communities and economies alike.
Glover sh...
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August 13, 2025 • 49 mins
Dr. Serena Gonsalves-Fersch, Global Head of Talent and Academy, shares her refreshingly candid perspective on the evolving role of Learning and Development (L&D) in today’s organizations.
You’ll hear her challenge traditional approaches to employee learning, advocate for seamless integration between learning, talent, DEIB, and performance, and call out industry complacency.
Serena also shares how her small but mighty team serves ...
You’ll hear her challenge traditional approaches to employee learning, advocate for seamless integration between learning, talent, DEIB, and performance, and call out industry complacency.
Serena also shares how her small but mighty team serves ...
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July 23, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of Workplace Stories, we sit down with Zane Zumbahlen, Chief People Officer at Wedgwood Veterinary Pharmacy, to explore how vulnerability in leadership can catalyze organizational change.
With a 30-year career spanning IBM, CTCA, and global roles in Sweden and Japan, Zane shares candid stories that reveal the power of low-ego, high-confidence leadership. From active listening sessions that rebuilt trust among skeptic...
With a 30-year career spanning IBM, CTCA, and global roles in Sweden and Japan, Zane shares candid stories that reveal the power of low-ego, high-confidence leadership. From active listening sessions that rebuilt trust among skeptic...
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July 2, 2025 • 53 mins
Many organizations see learning and development (L&D) as a cost center rather than a strategic driver of value, but what if that mindset is costing them far more than they realize?
In this episode, Dr. Keith Keating explains why we’re moving from a “knowledge economy” to a “value economy,” where it’s not what we know but what we do with it that matters.
He shares practical ways for L&D teams to make their impact visible, brid...
In this episode, Dr. Keith Keating explains why we’re moving from a “knowledge economy” to a “value economy,” where it’s not what we know but what we do with it that matters.
He shares practical ways for L&D teams to make their impact visible, brid...
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June 11, 2025 • 36 mins
Most organizations claim to care about employee development, but upon closer examination, their approach to skills is often vague, subjective, or downright confusing. They might assume people will simply "figure it out" on the job or resort to one-size-fits-all training. If you've ever wondered why your learning investments don’t seem to translate into impact, it might be because you’re still guessing when it comes to skills.
Today,...
Today,...
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June 4, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode of Workplace Stories, Dani Johnson talks with Cher Murphy, Partner, Head of People+Talent Practice at ON Partner, founder of The Murphy Advisory, and faculty member at Pepperdine and the University of Michigan. Drawing from her deep experience in executive coaching and leadership development, Cher shares how leadership is evolving in response to rapid technological, political, and organizational change. She emphasiz...
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May 20, 2025 • 48 mins
Most leadership development still clings to certainty, quarterly goals, strategic plans, official futures etched in stone. But what if that mindset isn’t just outdated, it’s dangerous? In this episode, Dani Johnson and Stacia Garr sit down with futurists and experience designers Lisa Kay Solomon and Jeff Rogers, two minds helping rewire how leaders think about the future, not as a distant unknown, but as a daily design challenge. W...
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May 14, 2025 • 52 mins
Many teams don’t realize how much time their people are losing to repetitive tasks and clunky systems. From filling out HR forms to bouncing between platforms, what’s called “employee experience” often adds up to unnecessary friction. The real problem? No one’s questioning whether those steps need to exist at all. There’s an unspoken assumption that better design means more interface, more features, more engagement. But what if the...
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April 30, 2025 • 50 mins
Most conversations about AI in the workplace get stuck on the surface - job loss fears, tech hype, and hand-wringing about what’s next. But in this episode, we flip the script. What if AI itself isn’t the problem? What if the real story is how organizations introduce, structure, and integrate it into the human fabric of work?
Jeremy Broome, Global Head of Talent at Visa, shares how his team navigates AI with a surprisingly optimisti...
Jeremy Broome, Global Head of Talent at Visa, shares how his team navigates AI with a surprisingly optimisti...
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April 17, 2025 • 42 mins
HR teams have more data than ever, but many still rely on guesswork when it comes to people decisions. In this episode, we unpack the rapid growth of the people analytics tech market, which ballooned from $1.7B in 2019 to $8.1B by last summer.
Hosts Dani Johnson, Stacia Garr, and Priyanka Mehrotra walk through how this market has evolved, what’s driving investment, and why the demand for better-connected, more useful insights keeps ...
Hosts Dani Johnson, Stacia Garr, and Priyanka Mehrotra walk through how this market has evolved, what’s driving investment, and why the demand for better-connected, more useful insights keeps ...
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April 2, 2025 • 44 mins
Many L&D teams still see themselves as a support function—creating learning programs, responding to training requests, and advocating for development. But in a rapidly changing business landscape, is that enough?
In this episode, Al Dea, founder of Edge of Work, challenges the traditional identity of L&D and makes the case for a more strategic role—one that positions learning as a core driver of business transformation, not...
In this episode, Al Dea, founder of Edge of Work, challenges the traditional identity of L&D and makes the case for a more strategic role—one that positions learning as a core driver of business transformation, not...
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March 19, 2025 • 44 mins
AI is transforming work at an unprecedented pace, but many organizations still struggle to move beyond experimentation and into real implementation. In this episode, we sit down with Steven Moran, Chief Learning Officer and Chief Partnerships Officer at Bertelsmann, to explore how one of the world’s largest media, education, and services companies is tackling this challenge head-on.
With 400 businesses and 80,000 employees worldwid...
With 400 businesses and 80,000 employees worldwid...
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