We often hear that learning and development needs a ‘seat at the table’. But how do we get there? How do we build credibility, tackle real issues, and demonstrate value? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast Ross and Owen are joined by author, academic and L&D pro Dr Keith Keating to discuss: Whether L&D are changemakers or order takers How we change the perception of L&D The extent to which L&D pros must sell themselves, their ideas and their profession. During the discussion, Ro...
Feb 13, 2024•45 min•Ep. 381
What does an effective workplace wellbeing strategy look like? For some organizations, it’s fruit boxes and staff discounts. For consultant and author Liggy Webb, it’s a holistic approach that factors in the physical, social, mental, financial, digital, environmental and spiritual health of colleagues. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross and Nahdia are joined by Liggy to discuss: The benefits of a more structured approach to wellbeing How to approach each of the ‘7 Wisdom...
Feb 06, 2024•43 min•Ep. 380
Artificial Intelligence (AI) generally and Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically have been all the rage over the past 12 months. Should you care? In this we ek’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Rosses Garner and Dickie are joined by learning strategist Ross Stevenson to discuss: The current state of AI The extent to which L&D pros should pay attention to ongoing developments Tips for making the most of AI tools, especially ChatGPT. During the discussion, Stevenson referenced ‘custom ...
Jan 30, 2024•41 min•Ep. 379
Jackie Kennedy is Learning and Development Lead at London Borough of Camden, where work contexts range from libraries and schools to waste management and social care. How do you develop managers in these diverse contexts, with a public sector budget? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Jackie joins Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson to discuss: The unique challenges faced by local government How to develop a management development programme without providing any ‘teaching’ The role...
Jan 23, 2024•39 min•Ep. 378
Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI has seldom been out of the news. Such is the pace of change, it can feel difficult to keep up. But how is L&D actually using this technology? What do learning professionals perceive as the benefits of AI, and what are the barriers to implementation? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Dickie and Owen Ferguson are joined by Donald Taylor to discuss a report he co-authored with Egle Vinauskaite, which seeks to answer some of these...
Jan 16, 2024•34 min•Ep. 377
How much thought does your organization give to the Employee Experience? And what tools can you use to enhance it? In this year’s first episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson are joined by Danny Seals to discuss his new book The Insightful Innovator: How to level up your Employee Experience . We discuss: · The advantages of strengthening the Employee Experience · How ‘designing a relationship’ can set your projects up for success · Tools and techniques to enhance th...
Jan 09, 2024•45 min•Ep. 376
It’s a wrap! In what is traditionally our ‘least listened to’ and ‘most unhinged’ episode of the year, we’re celebrating the festive season with some reflections on the bigges t talking point in L&D: the emergence of generative AI. And we’re joined by special guests, ChatGPT (our first AI guest!) and Bedford Falls’ own George Bailey (making his annual appearance). Ross Garner is joined by Owen Ferguson and Ross Dick to discuss: · How have tools like ChatGPT and Bard evolved over the year? · How ...
Dec 19, 2023•30 min•Ep. 375
Hey listeners! Here's a fun stocking filler for you: Throughout this year, Rosses D and G have been writing The L&D Dispatch , a weekly newsletter from the Mind Tools Custom team. In this bonus episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , we reflect on the effort involved to write a newsletter, the personal benefits we've experienced from doing so, and how our use of AI tools for content production has evolved over the last 12 months. Never heard of it? Subscribe now at lddispatch.com...
Dec 14, 2023•24 min
In the past, we’ve always talked about Virtual Reality training in the context of skills that are expensive to learn or dangerous to practice. But Lucie Coudret and the team at Cappfinity are using VR for coaching and leadership development. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson speak with Lucie Coudret, to discuss: · The advantages of VR for coaching and soft skill development · How to overcome the cost and technical hurdles of providing VR learnin...
Dec 12, 2023•47 min•Ep. 374
Ever launch a workshop that no one attended or an e-learning module that nobody accessed? It’s surprisingly common: and one reason is that we’re not always great at marketing our L&D initiatives. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross Dick and Owen Ferguson seek to reverse this outcome with the help of Ashley Sinclair from MAAS Marketing – the world’s only (we think) marketing agency focusing specifically on L&D. We discuss: · Why L&D teams need a marketing strategy · What a...
Dec 05, 2023•40 min•Ep. 373
Historically, if you wanted to get better at having difficulty conversations, you had to take part in embarrassing roleplays or actual high-stakes conversations. Now, thanks to generative AI tools like ChatGPT, we can practice in a safe environment with realistic responses and in-the-moment feedback. That’s the premise for ‘AI Conversations’, a new digital learning offering from Mind Tools and Learning Pool. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross Garner and Nahdia Khan are j...
Nov 28, 2023•37 min•Ep. 372
Instructional designer and author Julie Dirksen’s first book, Design for How People Learn , is a core text here at Mind Tools Towers. So we couldn’t wait to speak to her about her follow-up: Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change . This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Julie joins Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson to discuss: What Julie means by the ‘rider’ and the ‘elephant’ The many (often good) reasons that people don’t do what they are told Approaches for designing workpla...
Nov 21, 2023•52 min•Ep. 371
The menopause, a natural transition that women experience, is finally becoming an open discussion topic in more communities. Does this mean that women have the understanding and support they need to thrive during this time of their lives? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by coach Jayne Saul-Paterson, and Nahdia Khan to discuss women’s experiences and how they can be improved. We talked about: · The workplace difficulties experienced by some women during their menopa...
Nov 14, 2023•37 min•Ep. 370
Healthcare is a difficult environment to work in, where decisions literally mean life or death. Combine that pressure with diverse roles, shift-based workers and difficulty getting time away from the frontline - and you have less-than-ideal conditions to promote learning and career development. So how do you support colleagues if you have an L&D role in such an organisation? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross Garner is joined by UMass Memorial Health’s Liz Ferro, Diana A...
Nov 07, 2023•36 min•Ep. 369
In small organisations where everyone knows each other, it’s possible to spot what individuals need and offer tailored health and wellbeing support. But what about organisations with thousands of employees? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Sanaa Khan from Lloyd’s bank and Owen to find out how larger organisations can nurture and protect their employees’ health and wellbeing. We discussed: The benefits of large organisations supporting workforce wellbeing Wellbein...
Oct 31, 2023•29 min•Ep. 368
In our globalised world, we work and learn with people from diverse cultures. How can we facilitate multicultural training, for instance, so that the sessions are not only inclusive, but get the best from everyone. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Gemma is joined by Gaëlle Watson, director of SyncSkills and our very own Nahdia Khan. We explored: The benefits and challenges of multicultural representation in facilitated sessions How to best adapt your design and delivery approaches as a ...
Oct 24, 2023•35 min•Ep. 367
In organizations, learning-oriented ‘online communities’ often bring to mind empty forums and unused Yammer groups. But what does a vibrant community of practice look like? And how do you go about building one online? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross D and Ross G are joined by Anamaria Dorgo, founder of L&D Shakers and Head of Community at Butter, to discuss: · the benefits of online communities of practice · how to build and maintain online communities · how to measur...
Oct 17, 2023•44 min•Ep. 366
The Mind Tools L&D Podcast usually focuses on how L&D can help colleagues develop in their careers – but we’re not the only industry with an interest in education. Some of the world’s most exciting tech companies, including Google, Meta and Amazon, use education as a tool to help their customers develop new skills and encourage longer term adoption. In this week’s show, Ross G and Nahdia speak to Intellum’s Lizzi Shaw and Gusto’s Jaclyn Anku to discover: why marketing teams invest in customer ed...
Oct 10, 2023•42 min•Ep. 365
Have you ever found a learning technology that you were convinced was going to transform your organization, only to have your IT team act as a blocker? Maybe they were being difficult, but maybe you just hadn't involved them early enough? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Jon Baxter, founder of Baxter Thompson Associates, joins Ross Garner and Owen to share the benefits of strategic partnering. We discuss: The concerns that IT colleagues have when asked to implement a new technolog...
Oct 02, 2023•43 min•Ep. 364
This year, at the ATD Conference in San Diego, friend-of-the-show Will Thalheimer asked Ross G what he was working on. Ross replied: ‘Well, how much do you know about Mind Tools?’ To whit Will said: ‘I hardly know anything.’ This astounded Ross. Will has been on our show multiple times, and Ross feels like he talks endlessly about Mind Tools and what Mind Tools does. And so Will offered to host this one-off deep dive into who we are, and what we do. We hope you enjoy it! We explore: what the cor...
Sep 26, 2023•40 min•Ep. 363
Coaching usually takes a standard format: a series of conversations in which the coachee considers their goals, reflect on how they think and behave, and sets down their intentions. What if the coachee didn’t just talk, but instead used a variety of other medium to express and develop themselves? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Gemma explores this concept with experienced coaches Andréa Watts from UnglueYou and Marie Loney from Glow Consultancy. We discuss: · what “creativ...
Sep 19, 2023•40 min•Ep. 362
Productivity is traditionally calculated with a simple division: total output / total input. Great for measuring widget production, not so much for gauging how productive a knowledge worker has been. So how do we measure productivity when there isn’t a widget in sight? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Gemma and Ross Garner are joined by Chelsea Pyrzenski , Global Chief People Officer at WalkMe , to discuss: What we mean by productivity How we measure productivity in differe...
Sep 12, 2023•27 min•Ep. 361
What do we mean by ‘evidence-based leadership development’? Development of evidence-based leaders? Or an evidence-based approach to leadership development? Well, both. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Nahdia are joined by Helen Bailey, Head of Learning and Development at Strategi Solutions, to discuss: · what ‘evidence-based’ leadership development looks like · what we mean by ‘evidence’ · how to measure leadership. During the discussion, Helen referenced the Cen...
Sep 05, 2023•41 min•Ep. 360
Many organisations are accused of not doing enough to support marginalised groups. But even those who do try to make a difference often end up accused of hypocrisy. Is it safer to stay quiet than to talk about equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) at work? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Nahdia are joined by Heeral Gudka, founder of Convergent, to discuss: · the evolution of ED&I · the risks both of speaking up and staying quiet · the need for alignment between...
Aug 29, 2023•50 min•Ep. 359
Earlier this year, the Mind Tools and Emotion at Work teams ran a fringe event at the CIPD Festival of Work. At the event, we asked participants for their ‘Hot Takes’: something that's a little bit provocative - but might actually be true. This week, in a special crossover episode, The Mind Tools L&D Podcast team are joined by Phil and Lizzi from Emotion at Work to reveal the winner: Most employees aren't actually that interested in L&D. We discuss: the extent to which we think this ‘Hot Take’ i...
Aug 22, 2023•36 min•Ep. 358
How do L&D leaders decide where to spend their time? Who gets access to their budget? How do we deal with those colleagues where we have to say: 'No, that's not a priority'. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G is chatting L&D governance with a panel of L&D pros: From Phoenix Group, Carl Akintola-Davies; from Mitie, Dolly Ogundimu and Marc Harvey; and, from Merlin Entertainments, James Clemence. We discuss: How to prioritize inbound requests and seek out opportunities Ho...
Aug 15, 2023•53 min•Ep. 357
Scenario-based learning takes learners beyond a short-term memory check, instead challenging them to respond to real-life situations. But how do we make sure they’re effective? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Gemma are joined by instructional design superstar Christy Tucker to discuss: · Why scenario-based learning is effective · The characteristics of a great scenario · How to write scenarios that are realistic and challenging During the discussion, Ross refere...
Aug 08, 2023•41 min•Ep. 356
In the past, if you had difficulty thriving in a traditional school, your parents travelled a lot, or you were a child actor, you had the option to study online. Post-Covid, that approach is growing in popularity. On this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross and Nahdia are joined by Cambridge Assessment’s Matt James to hear his insights into online education. We discuss: Techniques for engaging children in online learning Building social connection and managing wellbeing online Ho...
Aug 01, 2023•40 min•Ep. 355
What makes a good presentation? When should and shouldn’t you use a presentation to communicate your ideas? Why do most presentations suck? On this week’s episode of the Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross D and Owen are joined by Andrea Pacini, Head of Ideas on Stage and author of Confident Presenter , to discuss: · why so many of us feel nervous about presenting · the importance of tailoring presentations to the action you want your audience to take · how to use the pSCORE method to deliver better p...
Jul 25, 2023•33 min•Ep. 354
It’s been 20 years since the launch of the Learning Performance Benchmark: the industry-leading tool for measuring the health of the L&D profession. And, to celebrate, Ross G is joined on this week’s Mind Tools L&D Podcast by some of the key players in that story. Laura Overton, Founder of Learning Changemakers and Co-Creator of Emerging Stronger, set up the Benchmark in the first place. Nahdia Khan, Chief Impact Officer of Mind Tools, is responsible for the Benchmark today. Dr Anna Barnett, Sen...
Jul 18, 2023•51 min•Ep. 353
