Bridging the Gap Between Strategy and Execution with Podcasts

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When Penske Logistics set out to build a training curriculum for operations managers, they decided to go beyond eLearning and job aids—they added a powerful new tool: internal podcasts. Pat Schneider, Senior L&D Consultant at Penske Logistics shares how his team uses podcasts to bring authentic leadership voices to the forefront of learning.

 

Show Notes: Penske Logistics is using storytelling to connect daily tasks with strategic goals. Pat Schneider shares how podcasting is reshaping learning at his company and how others can use this tool to educate learners.

• Podcasts Fill the Strategy-Tactic Gap: Podcasts offered Penske Logistics a way to connect high-level strategic themes to day-to-day operational tactics—complementing eLearning and job aids.
• Authenticity Drives Engagement: Informal, conversation-style podcasts made leadership insights more relatable and encouraged repeat listening from learners.
• Pre-Interviews Build Rapport and Quality: Conducting pre-recording interviews helped guests feel at ease, ensured technical readiness, and fostered authentic discussion.
• Metrics and Feedback Matter: The Penske Logistics team uses listener analytics and learner feedback to refine their content, improve engagement, and track success.
• Put Learners First: From topic selection to guest preparation, every decision is grounded in learner needs—ensuring relevance and impact.

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Transcript:

Susan Cort: [00:00:00] When designing a curriculum for operations managers, the Penske Logistics team knew they needed a way to connect big picture strategy with day-to-day execution.

Pat Schneider: We knew for the tactics we could create e-learnings, job aids, build things within their workflows that they could reference. But we really wanted something that we could do that could bridge that gap between strategy and tactics.

And podcasts fit that perfectly.

Susan Cort: That's Pat Schneider, Senior Learning and Development Consultant with Penske Logistics. Pat joins d’Vinci's Beth Buchanan and me to share how his team used podcasts to create a training tool that's both accessible and engaging. Next on Powered by Learning.

Announcer: Powered by Learning is brought to you by d’Vinci Interactive. d’Vinci's approach to learning is grounded in 30 years of innovation and expertise. We use proven strategies and leading technology to develop solutions that empower learners to [00:01:00] improve quality and boost performance. Learn more at dvinci.com.

Susan Cort: Joining me now is Beth Buchanan, senior Instructional Designer/Project Manager at d’Vinci and our guest, Pat Schneider, Senior Learning and Development consultant at Penske Logistics. Welcome, Pat.

Beth Buchanan: Great to see you, pat.

Pat Schneider: Great to see you too. I'm a fan of the podcast, so it's cool to be here.

Susan Cort: Oh, thank you. We're glad you're a guest on our podcast today. Pat, start out by telling us a little bit about Penske Logistics, what you do and what you do specifically in your role at the company.

Pat Schneider: When people think of Penske, they picture the yellow trucks, and that's a huge part of our business is the truck leasing and rental side. Um, but that's only one part of our business. The other part of our business is logistics. We do things like warehouse operations. From a trucking perspective, you might see a truck going down the road that's branded with a company.

The driver has a polo shirt to that company logo on it. Um, but it's actually a Penske truck and it's a Penske [00:02:00] driver where we'll take on managing, uh, that trucking operation for a company. Um, so between that dedicated contract carriage or DCM business and warehousing, uh, we really provide a full suite of logistics operations for customers on top of the truck leasing and the rental side of our business.

And we have about 20,000 individuals in the logistics side of our business. Our team, we focus on functional training, so we have a group that does leadership development. We have a group that does professional development training. Our functional training is really about providing support to our associates on their day-to-day responsibilities.

So we provide learning support on how to use systems or processes really there to provide that day-to-day support to help them do their jobs better.

Susan Cort: That's so interesting. I know the d’Vinci team certainly enjoys working with you and others at Penske on a number of projects, including custom eLearning and of course your new training, podcast, logistics, learning and development.

And we thought it would be a great [00:03:00] idea to have you on as a guest on our podcast. To talk about how you're using podcasting to train your team.

Beth Buchanan: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, pat and I have worked together for the last three years on a number of projects, but one of the ones that's really excited me is this recent one where we got to create podcasts together.

And I'd love to hear you tell us, pat, you know, what motivated you to explore podcasts as a training method?

Pat Schneider: This was a program for operations managers. We're building a curriculum for them. During the discovery process, we heard a lot about tactics and strategies. Tactics being, how do I pull a report and read it?

How do I navigate certain systems? And there was also a, a thread of strategy through each of those tactics. And that's what the managers kept telling us. We knew for the tactics we could create e-learnings, job aids build things within their workflows that they could reference. But we really wanted something that we could do that could bridge that gap between strategy and tactics.[00:04:00]

Podcasts fit that perfectly. We were able to hit those reoccurring themes to develop certain podcast topics. For example, we kept hearing during discovery about data integrity that ha, that was really important when using and navigating various systems. So we brought in our VP of Strategy to talk about data integrity, the value to our organization and its future and best practices.

And so my advice would be if you're choosing topics and guests to be very intentional about the insights that you gain in the discovery phase, um, as well as any informal information you have within the organization.

Beth Buchanan: That's a great insight. I was just about to ask you about topics and guests, so we're definitely aligned on that one.

You know, podcasts have really become just a, another tool in everybody's, um, learning kit, right? So. What do you think some of those benefits are? Right? We know with e-learning some of the benefits, we know with, you know, live training, we know with [00:05:00] video. What do you think podcasts offer to the, to the learner?

Pat Schneider: There's a couple benefits. One, there's so much buzz about AI and technology, but podcasts offer really authentic human connection. It's engaging to be able to listen to a conversation. And for our operations managers, we are able to pull in senior leaders within Penske Logistics to talk about various topics.

And it wasn't as polished or formal. They were able to listen to what felt like a conversation that you might be overhearing. Um, so I think that's one benefit. Another is. People are familiar with the medium. Nobody goes home and clicks e-learnings for fun. But a lot of us have our favorite podcast that we listen to or we enjoy.

Um, so it's something that people are familiar with and I think a third benefit is that you're able to highlight certain individuals in the organization. For us, we were able to interview senior leaders and get their perspectives. Um, but you know, as a tool, you could use [00:06:00] it. If it's change management, maybe you bring on an influencer in your organization and they could really be a star for you.

Susan Cort: It sounds like you're also using it to reinforce learning that you're delivering in other ways. The topics in the podcast are probably not the only place that your learners are hearing about these things, right?

Pat Schneider: That is a great point. Yes. So it all threads into the other content that we created for the curriculum.

It's giving them a different perspective of it. Um, so they might be getting an e-learning on a topic and then they listen to the podcast and they're able to make those connections.

Beth Buchanan: Can you tell us a few more of the topics and guests that you had on, on your recent project? I'd be curious to hear. Some of the other topics you, as you mentioned at the top of the podcast, Penske is a large company and you cover a lot of ground, so I was curious to hear what those topics were and how you decided on them.

Pat Schneider: Great question. Again, the topics came from our needs analysis process. So as we were meeting with managers, we were really listening to what they were saying to uncover what we [00:07:00] thought would make a good podcast along with what the needs were. Some of the topics include having a safety mindset. We did one on fleet management because the fleets are such a huge part of our business, and keeping the trucks running is vital to our success.

Uh, my favorite podcast that we did involved the relationships between two teams. I. There are two teams that are really important to our success Within logistics, we brought on the senior leaders from each of those teams to gain an understanding of how they work together, why it's so important for logistics and some best practices for them to work together.

And we have an e-learning that accompanies that, uh, podcast we did with those leaders.

Beth Buchanan: And I can imagine that's very engaging to kind of listen in on a conversation between, you know, leadership and really get a new perspective on something that you might handle, you know, boots on the ground, but you're hearing a new perspective from, from your leaders there.

Pat Schneider: Yeah, and one thing we did with that podcast was I [00:08:00] reached out to some managers informally and let them know that we are doing that podcast episode and was able to get questions from them to get their perspective of what they would wanna know or what are questions you would want me to ask these leaders?

Beth Buchanan: That's a great point. I think for our listeners, that's a really key insight. Doing that legwork ahead of time, right? And keeping your audience in mind, your target audience for when you're crafting a podcast just like you are. You know, any kind of e-learning or learning experience.

Pat Schneider: Yes. Yeah. I found the steps very similar to creating any type of learning content and hmm, for us it was really important to be learner focused and focus on what do the learners wanna get out of it and being intentional of that outcome.

Um, and that really led us to being intentional then about the questions and the guests that we were bringing on.

Beth Buchanan: Absolutely. Um, how did you keep the content, sort of once you got the guests and the topic and you're now in the moment you're recording the podcast? How do you keep it engaging and how do you [00:09:00] keep it relevant for the learners?

Do you have any tips there to keep it engaging?

Pat Schneider: You wanna keep it authentic

Beth Buchanan: Mm-hmm.

Pat Schneider: And part of that starts before you even hit the record button. We did pre-interviews before we actually recorded the podcast, and that helped to build a rapport because I didn't know everyone that we were doing the podcast with.

So it was a way to build a relationship. And by the time we hopped on the podcast, we knew each other a little bit. We had that rapport going. And put them at ease to let them know, Hey, if you misspeak, it's okay. We can hit pause, we can re-record it to make them feel more comfortable because we wanted the conversations to feel authentic and feel natural.

Beth Buchanan: Yeah, I mean that's the difference between, you know, a good podcast and, and one that you know is maybe not gonna keep your attention right, is, is feeling like you're listening to a real person with a real story, you know, no matter what the content is. So I think that's a really, that's a really good tip for our listeners.

Okay. We always ask about challenges. So did you [00:10:00] have any challenges in, in, you know, diving into this world of podcasting and how did you, how did you deal with them and overcome them?

Pat Schneider: There are two challenges I would say. One is a technical challenge to make sure that everyone has the equipment that they need.

And, and a little caveat is that we are virtual. Uh, so we didn't record any of these podcasts in the same room with individuals. We were all meeting in a virtual room. So being as proactive as we could by letting them know the tech requirements, um, encouraging them to go to a quiet space when recording and giving as many tips as we could in advance.

And that was also an advantage of doing those pre-meetings and pre-production interviews, was that we were able to test the tech requirements and make sure everything was working okay. And the second is keeping it authentic. Um, so we like to give the questions in advance but let them know the order might change or they might sound a little different, come with bullet points.

Um, but we didn't want 'em to come with a fully scripted answer. So it did have that natural cadence and conversation flow.

Beth Buchanan: Yeah, and it can be [00:11:00] tempting, right? As a guest to, to write it all out. I know I've been guilty of not, maybe not on this podcast, but in the past, you know, wanting to script just to make sure I cover everything or make sure.

I, you know, come off the right way. But, but that authenticity is, is everything for a podcast. Did you have any trouble getting guests to, to speak? You might, you know, sometimes you worry that someone might be a little shy on a podcast. Did you have any challenges there? Did you have. An okay time there.

Pat Schneider: I would say sometimes we had the opposite problem and we had to edit it back and cut back a little bit.

We did the, the podcast I mentioned where we had the two senior leaders on, um, it was such good dialogue and they were going back and forth. Um, so there were some challenges in keeping us focused and making sure the podcast was achieving the intended direction without it being long-winded or going down a different path.

But our guests were really good and I, and I think that goes to creating good questions as well, having open-ended questions. And if you [00:12:00] can have questions that are meeting the needs of your learners and are. As provocative as you can have on a podcast where it's helpful information and not quick sentences or asking follow-up questions.

Um, it keeps the flow going.

Susan Cort: I think part of it too comes back to what you were both saying about the pre-interview. I mean, we do that on Powered by Learning, just like we got together with you Pat in advance, and talked about the questions and kind of mapped it out just so that. There are some guardrails in place so we know, okay, this should take about 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and then you don't get surprised with an hour long episode all of a sudden.

But, but also to be, I think, agile enough. So if the conversation. Is really good that you think, okay, this is a two part podcast now. Or you know, because you may unearth some great content with your guests and it doesn't maybe fit in the format of your 20 or 30 minutes, but it's worth sharing with your learners for sure.

Pat Schneider: I love that you said that. And yet that podcast, when we ended it, uh, they were so excited. They're like, why don't we doing part two? We just have so much [00:13:00] that we need to discuss. You said that was part two, right?

Beth Buchanan: Well, I think we, we sort of touched on it, but how do you measure how effective, uh, you know, a training podcast is?

What, what do you do to, to find out that information informally?

Pat Schneider: You know, I've had some people reach out and share their thoughts on the podcast and that they liked it and it was different for them because they weren't used to getting it. Hearing from the, the guest on the podcast that it's always a good sign when you're done recording and they're like, let's keep going.

And we're so excited to do this again. I think that lets you know the conversation was, um, positive and engaging. Uh, we also do level one surveys, so we get feedback from our learners to get a sense of what they liked, if there's anything they changed. Um, and we have a really cool platforming software we use.

I know there's a lot out there. We use Podbean and that gives us a lot of really good and interesting data and analytics. We can see where people are dropping off of the podcast. So if we have a 20-minute podcast and people stop listening, after 10 minutes, we [00:14:00] can see that. We can see where people are re-listening.

Um, so that gives us a sense too, do we have the length right? Is that something we should be looking at? Um, did something happen that made it a little less engaging at a certain moment? So using both qualitative and quantitative data, we're able to see where the podcasts are working and where we can make improvements.

Susan Cort: Anecdotally, have you heard from listeners that they're benefiting from it and have any of them maybe given ideas for future topics?

Pat Schneider: Yes and yes. I think people were really excited because for our curriculum it was a direct branch from senior leaders to managers and you don't always get that type of direct communication where it felt like the senior leaders were able to talk directly to our managers.

Um, and I've gotten some feedback on various topics that people would like to see, um, and areas we could go in the future, um, which is exciting. And so it's, people like the podcast enough to share opinions of different guests they'd like to have on and topics.

Beth Buchanan: Oh yeah. That's excellent. What advice would you give someone who [00:15:00] wanted to try the same and do a learning podcast?

Pat Schneider: You mentioned, Beth, that it's a tool and I think treating it like anything else in your tool belt, you have e-learnings and job aids and virtual instructor led trainings. So not to do a podcast, just to do it, but do it where it makes sense and where you could bring it outta your tool belt and use it and be intentional.

Be thoughtful of the outcome you want to achieve, um, which will lead you to thinking of who are the guests who makes sense to bring on. What are the topics we should cover? What are the questions we should ask? Um, and second, I would say put your learners first and focus on your learners. If you think about what they would wanna hear in a podcast and what would benefit them, uh, your learning podcast will be successful.

Susan Cort: So what are some of the next steps? Do you have plans for future episodes?

Pat Schneider: Right now we do not, but as we're re-looking at the curriculum, we certainly would love to start adding some and use it in other projects.

Susan Cort: Well, thank you so much Pat, for sharing your experiences. And Beth, I know you've worked on, on some of these episodes with Pat.

It's, uh, it's always great when we [00:16:00] see a podcast being used to help, uh, train people. And we know this is another tool in your tool belt to, to really elevate the learning you're doing at Penske Logistics.

Beth Buchanan: Thank you, Pat.

Pat Schneider: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Susan Cort: Thanks to Pat Schneider, Senior Learning and Development consultant with Penske Logistics for joining Beth and me today.

If you have a question about this topic or would like to suggest an idea for a future episode, please drop us a note at info at PoweredbyLearning@dvinci.com. And don't forget that you can subscribe to Powered by Learning wherever you get your podcasts.