Farhan Quasem worked full-time jobs for most of his career until a reduction in force about three years ago pushed him to try something on his own. He found he had a knack for connecting with people and understanding their problems, and he turned that into a Boston workforce development consultancy. He named it by mashing together the start of community and the end of academy, because building communities of learning is what he's all about.
In this episode of The PR Bunker Podcast, Farhan explains why most companies get training backwards, how his engagements work, and what he'd do differently if he started over.
A few takeaways from the conversation:
For a lot of employees, learning only happens when they're new, when they've made a mistake or when they're forced into it. Farhan wants clients to build a learning culture instead. He starts by finding the numbers that matter, whether that's turnover, retention or unhappy customers, and pairs them with surveys of employees and clients. He says good communities need a shared language, leaders who model the behavior and meaningful work. If you just need people to execute like bots, he says, AI can do a lot of that now, so if you're hiring humans, invest in them.
Farhan's engagements start with a 90-day strategy session that ends with a blueprint for fixing a company's training. Almost every client has moved on to phase two, a four to six month build that ends in a pilot, and then a longer managed service that scales the work to other teams and even customers. His proudest moment so far was a multimodal, scenario-based training prototype he built with AI tools that pulled in the client's own knowledge base.
Farhan says the two things he'd do differently are joining a chamber of commerce sooner and getting clear on his messaging. He's a proud member of the Charles River Regional Chamber and admits it's a little funny that he tried to go solo when community is in his company's name. As for messaging, he learned that if you appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody.
Farhan wants to take his work into new markets and languages, including places in the developing world that need these tools. You can find him on LinkedIn, where he does almost all of his outreach, and through his company website, where he also hosts his own podcast.
Listen to the full episode above.
Reading is the hello. SBGA is where we get to yes.
What does a workforce development consultant do?
Farhan Quasem helps companies design training and learning systems that fit their people, products and processes, starting with data on problems like turnover and onboarding and building toward a lasting learning culture.
What is the difference between a training program and a learning culture?
A training program often happens only at onboarding or after a mistake. A learning culture makes learning part of the job from day one, backed by shared language, leaders who model it and meaningful work.
How long does a workforce development engagement with Farhan Quasem take?
It starts with a 90-day strategy and blueprint phase, moves to a four to six month build and pilot, and can continue as an ongoing managed service.
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