Jesus Jaime (JJ) Lara, MA-ODL

L&D investments are under more scrutiny than ever. Budgets are tighter. Expectations are higher. And “good training” is no longer enough. Large U.S. enterprises are already changing how they invest in L&D—by tightly aligning learning decisions with business priorities, performance metrics, and future workforce needs. This eBook—𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟&𝗗 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸?—is a practical guide for making smarter, outcome-led L&D investment decisions. 👉 Download your FREE copy here: https://lnkd.in/gtmSnMXQ #LearningAndDevelopment #FutureOfWork #TrainingExcellence #WorkforceDevelopment

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📖 L&D pros: Want AI to actually make sense for your teams? These three Briefly summaries turn top books on AI, communication, and human potential into fast, actionable learning. Your people can listen or read. Each summary comes with a Facilitator’s Guide to help spark meaningful conversations and drive real change. Explore the summaries: https://hubs.la/Q03JcVq00 #OpenSesame #AI #LearningAndDevelopment

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At the California Community College Futures summit last week, I had the opportunity to highlight how IBM SkillsBuild is changing the AI education narrative with differentiated learning experiences. My conversations with faculty and administrators reinforced the following takeaways from a video where Vinod Khosla shares career advice that is equally relevant for #university #students and #professionals. 📌 Learn the ability to learn so that you can move around rapidly as the landscape evolves. Be a generalist, not a specialist. 📌 Sharpen your ability to jump into any new area. Keep upgrading your skillset as technology evolves. 📌 Optimize your career for flexibility not a single profession. Keep your lens zoomed out. 📌 When choosing a job or career, take one that enables ⚡exponential compounding of your capability⚡. Ask whether the job significantly expands your knowledge and expertise. (link to Vinod Khosla's video - https://lnkd.in/gjwDT9Xb) #IBMSkillsBuild #Skills #Developers #University #Students #AI #GenerativeAI #FuturesSummit2025

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40% faster time-to-value. A 24-month AI roadmap, execution ready. That’s what it took for a global advisory firm to move from AI ambition to enterprise-wide execution. TalentBridge helped stand up a multi-shore AI Center of Excellence, aligning governance, architecture, and delivery across regions, without slowing teams down. No buzzwords. Just structure, clarity, and momentum at scale. Read the case study here - https://lnkd.in/gJ-q4PDM

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The future of work isn’t about humans or AI; it’s about humans and AI. Chief People and AI Enablement Officer Jacqui Canney shares a three-point plan based on our learnings at ServiceNow to help HR leaders evolve how their function operates, equip employees with the skills to thrive, and help transform the workforce for the future. Get the playbook here: http://spr.ly/6046fmhdr

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The latest iteration of “if you have a brain, you have bias®” Why Boards need to lead using Incisive Leadership 🌟 Inspired. Energized. Grateful. A protocol for human connection. The Inclusive Governance Summit at Santa Clara University brought together leaders and changemakers to explore how governance can operate with integrity, courage, and build from intersectional and intergenerational frameworks. A special thank you to the Black Corporate Board Readiness (BCBR) program for championing this vital work and preparing board-ready leaders whose perspectives will strengthen organizations everywhere. One theme that echoed throughout the summit: incisive is the new inclusion. It’s not enough to talk about diversity—we must step back from the constant deluge of gaslighting “news,” pause to see beyond the noise, and ask sharper questions. Only then can boards cut through bias and make decisions that increase trust and accountability. This challenge is even more urgent in an American landscape where 30 of 50 states passed DEI-related legislation by the end of 2024. Boards cannot afford to rely on generic approaches. They need nuanced tactical steps that embrace change while staying true to their company values. That means balancing compliance with courage, translating commitments into action, and ensuring the company values are not just aspirational, but operational. And in today’s landscape, that includes technology. Boards of every size must identify, define, and deploy an AI governance strategy. Without it, we risk embedding bias into our systems and falling short of the very inclusion we seek to advance. Especially critical is the work of addressing algorithmic bias, biased data sets, and the limitations of LLMs, alongside existing institutional biases. These three areas share the same word—bias—but the differences between them are profound. Recognizing those distinctions, and planning strategically for each, is what separates boards that are reactive from those that are proactive. At Percipio Company, we believe that if you have a brain, you have bias®. With awareness and action, leaders can move from bias to belonging®, ensuring governance isn’t just representative, but also incisive, responsible, and future-ready. ✨ Deep gratitude to the organizers, the BCBR program, and all who are advancing this dialogue. The ripple effects extend far beyond the summit.

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Big moves in the world of workforce management. Workday is transforming VNDLY from a traditional vendor management system into an AI-driven control plane that connects full-time employees, contractors, and even digital labor all in one platform. Dylan Teggart breaks down what this shift means for the future of total workforce management, highlighting the opportunities, challenges, and why this matters for organizations looking to unify HR, procurement, and finance in smarter ways. If you’re curious about where workforce orchestration is headed, this is a must-read: https://lnkd.in/eVmg2a9y #3SixtyInsights #Workday Workday VNDLY. HireScore #FutureOfWork #TotalWorkforceManagement #AI #HRTech #DylanTeggart

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Just published: "Modernizing Onboarding at Accenture with Immersive Learning" in MIS Quarterly Executive: https://lnkd.in/gGWYmwkj If your company is still onboarding employees with asynchronous training modules, you'll want to read this article. Jeff Mullins and I share how Accenture delivered a globally consistent onboarding program, the New Joiner Experience (NJX), featuring extended reality (XR). Launched in 2021, NJX centers around One Accenture Park, a virtual campus where new employees collaborate, explore company innovations and career paths, and build their Technology Quotient. This immersive onboarding experience has been very successful, with over 400,000 employees participating as of December 2024. Employees consistently rate it over 4.6/5, and Accenture has achieved a positive return on investment, initially driven by reduced travel costs. Beyond financial benefits, XR-based learning has improved knowledge retention and strengthened employee engagement. Accenture’s journey offers five key lessons: 1.      ��Scale Will Not Happen Without Senior Management Support 2.       Make XR a Part of a Larger Immersive Learning Experience 3.       Web-Based Access Is Effective, for Now 4.       Unsolicited Social Media Posts Provide Insight into Employee Sentiment 5.       Deliver an Immersive Learning Product, Not a Project Thank you to all the Accenture leaders for sharing your journey and lessons with us: Aaron Saint, Jason Warnke, Katy Geraghty, and Olly Jeffers. Shout out to to Yorke Rhodes III of Microsoft for being a fellow XR traveler in and outside of the classroom. Thank you also to the MISQE team: Iris Junglas, David Kimble, and Joaquin Rodriguez. Brian Fugate--this collaboration happened because of you! Thank you for serving as our Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research at the University of Arkansas ­- Sam M. Walton College of Business! Feeling grateful.

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We had the privilege of hosting Quentin Clark — our board member and Managing Director at General Catalyst — during our recent leadership offsite at Eightfold’s headquarters in Santa Clara. Every moment of this session was filled with profound insights — the kind that make you pause and rethink assumptions. I tried to capture a few, though I’ll admit that taking notes while being genuinely awestruck is not easy! What are the three ills to ward off as companies grow: 1. Companies can get complacent. Current success can hinder future success. A very counterintuitive point: If you exceed the expectation and beat the plan, still be curious. “It still betrays!”.  2. Lowering the hiring bar. B-players hire C-players.  3. Not protecting the brand. What makes Eightfold such a hot prospect?  1. Eightfold was the first one to figure out how to apply ML for solving enterprise business problems - 9 years ago. A huge head start and a moat.  2. Eightfold is building a System of Agents in a world still stuck with Systems of Record. Traditional enterprise software makes you work — you have to pedal. Agentic AI flips that model: the system works for you. It’s a driverless engine, like Waymo.  3. AI used to be an unproven tech a few yrs ago, almost like selling snake oil. Today the AI tailwind is very real and Eightfold is in a position to build on the success rapidly. With so much money invested in AI, will there be a good ROI?  AI is bigger than the Mobile revolution, the Internet, and even the Mainframe era. It surpasses Integrated Circuits in its reach. Think about it — everyone today carries at least five IC-powered devices: a smartphone, a smartwatch, a health ring, earbuds, and often a laptop or tablet. AI will be an even more integral part of our personal and work lives. It took databases seven years to achieve a 10X leap in performance. Large Language Models did it in just three quarters. The acceleration curve of AI isn’t evolutionary — it’s exponential.   What about humans in an Agentic-AI world? Far from diminishing the value of people, Agentic AI raises it. As agents take on the repetitive, administrative, and mechanical tasks, humans are freed to focus on what only they can do — creating, problem-solving, and innovating. In this world, the regard for talent actually increases, because the leverage of each person is amplified. 

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The future of work isn’t about humans or AI; it’s about humans and AI. Chief People and AI Enablement Officer Jacqui Canney shares a three-point plan based on our learnings at ServiceNow to help HR leaders evolve how their function operates, equip employees with the skills to thrive, and help transform the workforce for the future. Get the playbook here: http://spr.ly/6042fl0Kw

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🚀🎙️ AI & Skills: Reshaping Work. New Podcast with Workday's CLO! Wondering how AI can empower your workforce? I recently sat down with Workday's Chief Learning Officer, Chris Ernst, Ph.D., on the Future of Work podcast, and we explored just that! Here's a glimpse of what we covered: 🤖 AI as an Enabler: Discover how AI isn't replacing human potential, but amplifying it, helping employees excel. 🌱 Skills at the Core: Why a strong skills foundation is essential to fully leverage AI's capabilities and drive innovation. ⚡️ Agility & Growth: How Workday's AI-first, skills-based approach is creating a more adaptable, continuously learning, and growth-oriented culture. Access the Full Conversation! ▶️ Watch: https://lnkd.in/e5r42b7B 🎧 Listen: 🍏 https://lnkd.in/eQBDDYEE 🟢 https://lnkd.in/eC68t-vQ 📄 Read: https://lnkd.in/e38HUaAF ❓ What are your thoughts on the intersection of AI and skills in the workplace? Share your perspective in the comments! #AI #SkillsTransformation #ReshapingWork #Workday #LearningAndDevelopment #TalentManagement #Innovation #AIinHR

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What separates HCM transformations that succeed - from those that stall? Here’s what I learned and shared in a recent Dayforce webinar with Stuart Tabuteau from CHT Care Homes, as well as Dayforce partner, Pinpoint. ✅ Identify challenges that the C-suite faces. ✅ The importance of storytelling in creating the business case. ✅ How to drive adoption across the workforce. ✅ Make the change experience people-first. It was terrific to lend experiences in this space, as well as listening to Stuart Tabuteau from CHT for practical lessons and ways to accelerate results -🔗 https://lnkd.in/gVBEgfPX #Dayforce #HR #HRTech #HCM #Payroll #APJ #BusinessCase #Value

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