In this podcast, you'll learn: what learning outcomes are how to write learning outcomes and why presenting outcomes as a bulleted list is boring at best, and ineffective at worst. But seriously, this week join Ross D, Ross G, Tracey and Sean as they explore the characteristics of good learning outcomes and their connection to business objectives. For more on this topic, see Dr Will Thalheimer's blog 'Rethinking Instructional Objectives': worklearning.com/2013/05/13/rethinking-instructional-obje...
Apr 05, 2022•34 min•Ep. 288
What are L&D practitioners excited about in 2022? Will we be drawn to bright, shiny objects like skills-based talent management? Or will we continue to focus on the lasting impact of Covid-19? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross D and Owen are joined by Donald Taylor to discuss the results of this year's Global Sentiment Survey. We cover: the headline takeaways from the report regional differences in the data the long shadow of the pandemic predictions for the future To find o...
Mar 29, 2022•35 min•Ep. 287
Is curiosity a trait that we have, or a muscle we can build? To find out, Owen and Ross G are joined this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast by Stefaan van Hooydonk of the Global Curiosity Institute. We discuss: What curiosity is What stops us being curious at work How we can develop our curiosity. For more from Stefaan, including access to his free diagnostic, visit: globalcuriosityinstitute.com In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross shared fun Mad Hatter facts from the 'Killer Fashion' episod...
Mar 22, 2022•35 min•Ep. 286
Why do learning professionals tell stories? How do we tell them to greatest effect? And where can we find them? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Ross D find answers to these questions with the help of instructional designer, learning strategist and author Hadiya Nurridin. We discuss: Where stories are more effective than 'telling it straight' How to identify the stories that you can share How to help others find and craft their stories. For more from Hadiya, visit: duetsl...
Mar 15, 2022•44 min•Ep. 285
Today is International Women's Day and we're celebrating it in partnership with Working Chance, a UK-based charity set up to help women with criminal convictions to find jobs. Today on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Nahdia talk to Helen Sweet, Head of Employability at Working Chance. We discuss: Employability barriers facing women with convictions What the Employability Programme comprises How you can support Working Chance To go directly to Working Chance's BIG GIVE campaign for Inte...
Mar 08, 2022•31 min•Ep. 284
In 2008, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein published Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness . Since then, nudges have been applied to public policy, healthcare, business and tech. Today on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Gemma, Ross G, Ross D and Sean look at how nudge theory can be applied to workplace learning. We discuss: What nudge theory is How understanding learner context helps us identify nudges Criticisms of nudge theory. The book we based most of this discussion ...
Mar 01, 2022•39 min•Ep. 283
Is 'education' a liberating force that prepares children for a rapidly changing world? Or a system of control that kills their enthusiasm for learning. On this week's Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Ross D are joined by Patrick Cootes, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Mindstone, to debate. We discuss: Traditional perspectives on education The purpose of education How systems reinforce one another. During the discussion, Ross D mentioned a podcast segment about students who wonder...
Feb 22, 2022•43 min•Ep. 282
What is a 'brand'? Why is it important? And how can your team 'build their brand'? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Nahdia are joined by branding expert Professor Doctor Jonathan Wilson to explore these questions. We discuss: personal branding the benefits of building a brand the effort required to connect with your audience. For more from Jonathan, see: drjonwilson.com Jonathan offers a course on personal branding at: futurelearn.com/experttracks/developing-your-personal...
Feb 15, 2022•40 min•Ep. 281
Emerging tech will shape the future of how we work. It's just a question of when! This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ger Driesen joins Ross G and Owen to explore what's possible. We discuss: what the metaverse(s) is(are) how blockchain and NFTs can shape the metaverse economy whether your digital avatar needs to look like your physical body. See Facebook's announcement about their rebrand as 'Meta' at: about.fb.com/news/2021/10/facebook-company-is-now-meta/ Owen referenced Moxie Marli...
Feb 08, 2022•40 min•Ep. 280
In The Business of Race , authors Gina Greenlee and Margaret Greenberg argue that the workplace is the ideal place to talk about race, racism, and anti-racism. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , they join Ross G and Nahdia to explain why. We discuss: opportunities for teachable moments the moral case vs business case for racial equity the reasons to separate conversations about racial diversity from other diversity initiatives. Show notes Find out more about The Business of Race , inc...
Feb 01, 2022•41 min•Ep. 279
What is it about writing that fires up our souls? And, for those who hate it, is there any hope? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Ross D and Gemma are joined by friend-of-the-show Julie Drybrough to answer these questions. We discuss: writing for work, fun and reflection techniques to spark creativity how writing in groups can give you more freedom. Show notes Details of Julie's 'Write Nights' series can be found on her blog at: fuchsiablueblog.wordpress.com/write-nights-at-f...
Jan 25, 2022•37 min•Ep. 278
By some measures, the last two years have seen a surge in demand for consumer learning platforms like Masterclass, CreativeLive and Skillshare. Often, these platforms position themselves as an alternative to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Is this part of a broader trend towards learning as entertainment? If so, what does that mean for learning in the workplace? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D, Owen, Nahdia and Ross G discuss: whether there trul...
Jan 18, 2022•37 min•Ep. 277
Owen was miserable, to begin with. There is no doubt about that. Oh! But he was a long-suffering, data driven, learning-style hating, old L&D practitioner. Five years of this podcast, listening to his co-hosts ramble enthusiastically about the same tired old topics, had left him jaded and disillusioned with the industry he once loved. And so I say again, that Owen was miserable to begin with. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate....
Dec 21, 2021•30 min•Ep. 276
Recent announcements from Facebook and Microsoft have brought the 'metaverse' into the mainstream. But what actually is the metaverse, and what are its implications for the way we live, work, and learn? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D, Owen and Ross G discuss: what 'metaverse' means, and how it's different from VR or AR how it might change the world of work, both positively and negatively how it might be applied to digital learning Show notes The song Ross D ment...
Dec 14, 2021•35 min•Ep. 275
To solve a complex problem, should we ask a single genius or tap into our networks? It's a question that's answered by Matthew Syed in his book Rebel Ideas: The power of diverse thinking. In this episode, Nahdia, Owen, Ross G and Gemma gather to contemplate the book. We discuss: what rebel ideas are diversity and its benefits (and what we lose when we don't have it) practical ways to harness collective intelligence. Show notes In WILTW, Owen shared his finding of an animated introduction to mach...
Dec 07, 2021•39 min•Ep. 274
What are the challenges of managing a team who are sometimes present and sometimes not? How do we make sure hybrid working is inclusive? Is a hybrid meeting - that's effective for everyone - actually possible? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , speaker and writer Gary Cookson joins Ross G and Owen to share insights from his research. We discuss: what hybrid working is the hybrid working challenges faced by employees, managers and organisations strategies for developing ne...
Nov 30, 2021•40 min•Ep. 273
We're used to dilemmas: Do I take path A or path B? But in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , we rally against binary thinking with the 'tetralemma'. This 3,000-year-old model for decision making has real-world applications today, and author, coach and TEDx speaker Lior Locher joins us to explain why. Lior, Ross G and Owen discuss: the difference between binary and non-binary thinking examples of non-binary thinking in practice applications of the tetralemma at work. Show notes For...
Nov 23, 2021•38 min•Ep. 272
How can we make our jobs 1% - or even 2% - better? According to Rob Baker, the answer is 'job crafting'. Stemming from his work in positive psychology, Rob suggests individuals and teams improve their working lives by taking ownership of their roles and making small changes that have an impact. He joins Ross G and Owen to discuss: the emerging field of positive psychology what job crafting looks like in practice how L&D and HR teams can promote job crafting. Show notes Rob talked about job c...
Nov 16, 2021•44 min•Ep. 271
In this episode, we're delving into research focused on emotional wellbeing at work. Conducted by the Emotion at Work team, we discuss the findings and what they mean for how we can support and boost our mental health. Gemma T and Nahdia are joined by Phil Wilcox of Emotion at Work to discuss: the research aims and methodology the results and insights what we can do to support our own and others' wellbeing Show notes The research report is due to be published at the end of November. It'll be ava...
Nov 08, 2021•44 min•Ep. 270
Back in Episode 244, Ross G, Owen, Carrie and Gent discussed the value of benchmarking, as we prepared to launch the Learning Performance Benchmark. A few months on, we thought it would be worth hearing what benchmarking looks like in practice. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gent are joined by James Hampton from Seasalt Cornwall to discuss: the insights Seasalt Cornwall have unlocked through the benchmarking process the action they have taken in response to ...
Nov 02, 2021•32 min•Ep. 269
In some ways, sales enablement has the ultimate success metric - increased sales! So why is sales training so often a 'hard sell' for L&D? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Anderson Hirst, Consulting Director at Kojo Academy, to discuss: the difference between sales training and sales enablement why sales training is so often seen as distinct from other training efforts how to measure the impact of sales training what good sales training ...
Oct 26, 2021•38 min•Ep. 268
As a concept, spaced repetition has been around for decades. Yet in many organisations, learning is seen in terms of one-off interventions, delivered through a classroom or an LMS. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gemma are joined by Sarah Mercier, CEO of Learning Ninjas, to discuss: what spaced learning is, and how to design for it what good spaced practice looks like the technological boundaries to implementing spaced learning Show notes When speaking about ...
Oct 18, 2021•37 min•Ep. 267
New business models, an increasingly hybrid workforce and the need for constant adaptability are changing what it means to be a learning professional. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G meets the eLearning Network's Joan Keevil and Dr Hannah Gore to explore their research into the skills we need to professionalise. We discuss: how the world of work is changing personal and professional impact evidence-based practice. Show notes To find out more about the research Jo...
Oct 12, 2021•40 min•Ep. 266
Why are boundaries important? How do you set them? And what impact does hybird working have on how we interact with one another? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G meets Executive Coach Emma Langton to discuss: what 'boundaries' are how to set boundaries at work why the pandemic has made boundaries more important than ever. Show notes Ross referenced Erving Goffman's theory of the performed self. There's an excellent animated introduction to this concept, narrated by Stephen Fry...
Oct 05, 2021•36 min•Ep. 265
This week on the podcast, Ross D, Owen and Ross G are taking another rummage through their L&D book bag. They discuss: Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan Think Again by Adam Grant The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 13 Minutes to the Moon, a podcast presented by Kevin Fong How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy These books are available from all good booksellers, and 13 Minutes to the Moon can be found wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes ...
Sep 28, 2021•49 min•Ep. 264
Published in 2003, Michael Lewis' Moneyball charts efforts by the Oakland Athletics baseball team to use analytics and statistical methods to assemble a competitive team on a comparatively small budget. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Owen, Ross D and Nahdia share their thoughts on the book and it's relevance to L&D and HR professionals. We discuss: how General Manager Billy Beane transformed his team's approach to scouting talent the impact of statistics and subjective ...
Sep 20, 2021•39 min•Ep. 263
Creativity in online learning, agile learning frameworks, the role of HR, and business ethics are just some of the topics we tackle on this week's show as we answer questions from the audience. Mark Baker asked: Do you think as face-to-face trainers move into more virtual learning, is there a risk that they lose creativity in their learning experiences? Shilpa Nimbalkar asked: How can L&D experts build an Agile Learning framework that supports business requirements (at scale and speed) and e...
Sep 14, 2021•42 min•Ep. 262
Creating videos for training purposes is easy; launch a smartphone camera app and hit record. Creating effective pieces of drama that allow viewers to make their own meaning through compelling storylines and characters is not so easy. However, it is a skill that learning designers can study and put into practice. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma T and Ross G are joined by Tom Hickmore, to discuss: why drama is an effective learning delivery mechanism when to use drama scripting...
Sep 06, 2021•40 min•Ep. 261
The pandemic has been both a trigger and an opportunity for reflection and ultimately, change. We've had to forget, or "unlearn" our old ways. This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma T and Ross D are joined by Mark Gilroy to discuss: what 'unlearning' is the link between unlearning and curiosity how we can help each other to "unlearn" effectively. Show notes Mark recommended the following resources: "How organisations Learn and Unlearn (Hedberg, 1981)" http://johnljerz.com/superdu...
Aug 30, 2021•37 min•Ep. 260
What is organisational learning? Is it the same thing as people in organisations learning? And how does it overlap with learning culture? This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Nahdia are joined by Nigel Paine to discuss: what 'organisational learning' actually means the difference between organisations that learn and individuals that learn the role L&D can play in supporting organisational learning the distinction between 'learning cultures' and 'cultures of learning'. ...
Aug 24, 2021•37 min•Ep. 259
