Culture is a verb, not a noun: a sit down with L&D influencer Melissa Daimler

Published: Oct. 14, 2020, 7 a.m.

b'Founder & Principal of boutique HR consulting firm Daimler Partners, Melissa Daimler has always said that if you do it right, work is the best learning lab you could possibly want. She\\u2019s certainly done her best to make that maxim work for her: we\\u2019re talking about a career that started with Psychology at college to setting up Adobe\\u2019s entire L&D practice to experiencing Twitter grow from 400 to 4000 staff in her four years there. With WeWork also on her curriculum vitae, you know you\\u2019re dealing with a major player\\u2014so how refreshing to find out in person Melissa is down to Earth, great fun, whip-smart but still very much looking to keep learning. She is a perfect interview for this next episode in our on-going COVID-19 mini-Season \\u2018From What-If To What Now?\\u2019 where we\\u2019re exploring what the massive change rippling through the worlds of Work and Learning looks like at ground level. Oh, and last but absolutely not least: our episode is sponsored by by the great guys over at genuinely innovative SMS-based learning innovators Arist (www.arist.co), who\\u2019re working 24x7 helping brands and non-profits alike create and launch amazing text message courses in minutes, not days. So sit back or get the New Balance on with us for an hour as we review her singular professional journey, talk about how COVID may or may not be permanently changing the work culture of her adopted home, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, see what systems thinking can offer the L&D practitioner, as well as: why a certain dot com bubble helped her choose her forever home\\u2026 which she still loves despite having to keep checking the air quality index; what it\\u2019s like to work at a place that got a tad too excited about a big market cap; what she thinks \\u2018culture\\u2019 really is; how are all good L&D practitioners know everything\\u2019s interconnected already; how the Pandemic is showing the best leaders asking such good questions of themselves, their execs but most importantly, their teams; why we must work out a way to get back the office experience (and that isn\\u2019t just the amazing donuts at Twitter); where her personal sense of purpose and inspiration comes from; and much more.'