In this episode of the Global Skills Podcast, I sit down with Lori Niles-Hofmann, Co-Founder of 8Levers and Senior EdTech and AI Strategist, and ask whether companies should build their own skills intelligence infrastructure. Lori advises CLOs, vendors and investors after 25 years in learning and skills transformation, and her answer is a firm “don’t do it.”

Exploring skills infrastructure? See how SIIO™ connects your skills data → https://www.abodoo.com/

Timestamps

• 04:30 – The role of L&D as work changes, and the shift to “buy, build, borrow or bot”
• 06:56 – Adjacent skills, internal talent and why demonstrated skills beat a CV
• 14:52 – Why you shouldn’t build your own skills intelligence infrastructure
• 19:26 – Unleash Paris takeaways: work intelligence vs workforce intelligence

Connect with Lori Niles-Hofmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorinileshofmann/ 8Levers: https://www.8levers.com/ Connect with host Vanessa Wainwright: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vwainwright/ Global Skills Podcast: https://www.globalskillspodcast.com Abodoo: https://www.abodoo.com/

#SkillsInfrastructure #SkillsIntelligence #WorkIntelligence #LearningAndDevelopment #EdTech

A few years ago I predicted that a Chief Skills Officer would appear in the C-suite. In this episode I’m joined by someone who became one and has taken it further: Celine Floyd, chartered occupational psychologist and Chief Leadership and Skills Officer at Cappfinity. After 20 years studying what makes people thrive at work, Celine has just launched Cappfinity’s Leadership Contribution Platform, built on one bold idea: leadership is defined by contribution, not hierarchy.

We cover why a solid skills architecture matters before you invest in any platform, and why that framework should never be set in stone. We get into #talentmobility and the real reasons managers hold on to their best people, the research showing we are poor judges of our own skills, and how personality and strengths tools give people the language to represent themselves. We also look at what is keeping leaders up at night, and why Celine believes this is a hard but potentially brilliant time to lead.. If you’re a leader, a talent or learning professional, or someone figuring out your next move, this one is for you. #humanskills #futureofwork

Links

Celine Floyd at Cappfinity: https://www.learnevents.com/celine-floyd-stephanie-hopper/ (speaker bio; she is presenting at World of Learning, October 2026) Cappfinity: https://www.cappfinity.com Cappfinity Leadership Contribution Platform launch announcement: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cappfinity-announces-launch-of-new-leadership-contribution-platform-302824204.html Global Skills Podcast: https://globalskillspodcast.podbean.com/

Key Timestamps

02:17 Is the Chief Skills Officer role becoming mainstream?

04:51 Connecting learning and development to business performance

07:59 Why people only identify about 30% of their own skills

10:51 Why skills architecture and skills frameworks must come before the technology

13:57 Reskill, redeploy or redundancy: the talent mobility decision

17:40 Why internal mobility stalls and the enterprise talent mindset

18:38 The law graduate story: losing hidden skills inside your organisation

19:58 Is the real role the Chief Human Officer?

Why do capable people still fall back on old habits when it matters most? That question is what drew me to Matt Webb, and in this episode we dig into his answer. Matt has spent three decades in sales, from twelve years leading teams at Vodafone to nearly twenty at Mentor Group, where he's now CEO. He calls the problem the execution gap, and his XQ concept reframes capability as the ability to act when it counts, even as AI changes what selling looks like.

We cover a lot of ground: whether AI avatars threaten the human salesperson, why senior leaders often get the least coaching on their own impact, and Matt's sports analogy about how little time salespeople spend training compared to athletes. We also talk about role-playing tough conversations with AI before you have them with a real customer, and how to support early-career hires who don't yet have the experience to judge AI output critically.

#salesenablement #executiongap #XQ #AIinsales #salestraining #emotionalintelligence #salesleadership #humanskills

Connect with Matt Webb LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matt-webb-3b34ab9 Mentor Group: mentorgroup.com

Connect with Vanessa Wainwright and the Global Skills Podcast Vanessa on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vwainwright Global Skills Podcast: globalskillspodcast.com Abodoo: abodoo.com