The Mindtools L&D Podcast

You've got a brilliant idea for the next big thing in tech and have gathered the smartest engineers and designers to build it (plus the cash to pay them). Will it end up being a success? You've got the best team to deliver it, so why wouldn't it be? Well… Gemma, Ross and Martin Gonzalez, Google's Effective Founders Project founder and author, discuss this situation on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast. W...

If you're thinking, isn't positive psychology a bit 'woo woo', and a bit like forcing yourself to take a sunny outlook, then this episode is for you. As an approach to a happier, more balanced inner and outer life, positive psychology is not woo – it has a solid scientific foundation with practical methodologies. Gemma, Ross Garner and their guest, Leadership coach Sandra Berko, discuss these very...

Adaptive courses come in many forms, but generally respond to the learner's existing knowledge and skills: thereby optimizing the time to completion. But do they improve learning outcomes?   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Owen are joined by Roy de Vries, Learning Innovator at aNewSpring , to explore the results of an experiment they ran to compare adaptive vs lin...

Timeboxing means dividing your day into 15-60 minute slots, based on your priorities, and then sticking to those slots as you dive into the business of work. If that sounds great, it is. If it sounds easy, it isn't. In this week's episode o f The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , author Marc Zao-Sanders joins Ross G to give him advice on timeboxing his life. We discuss: ·        The benefits of timeboxing;...

As learning designers, we're ultimately in the business of trying to help people build new connections in their brains. To do this effectively, we need to have a fundamental understanding of how the brain works. But how far down the neuroscience rabbit hole do we need to go?   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross Dickie and Ross Garner are joined by Lauren Waldman, learning...

As a conversation approach and development tool, coaching is a highly effective option for everyone – not just the executive suite. Professional coaches are expensive, so how can large organisations give all of their employees the chance to be coached and for coaching conversations to be the norm? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Gemma and Claire are joined by Mina Papakonstantinou,...

Whether you're delivering workshops, speaking at conferences, presenting to senior leaders, or even hosting L&D's favorite podcast, public speaking is a critical skill for learning professionals. So how do you develop this skill, and how do you manage your nerves when speaking publicly?   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross D and Lara are joined by Samantha Tulloch, public...

One-off learning interventions are frequently the 'go to' solution for workplace learning teams, but we know that spaced repetition and retrieval practice are more effective. How do we get past organizational constraints that make this difficult? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Tony Manwani from People Unboxed joins Ross Dickie and Ross Garner to discuss: ·        The proble...

Throughout the first few months of this year, we've been exploring artificial intelligence for L&D. In episode 377, Donald Taylor gave us the context on the extent to which L&D pros are using AI In episode 379, Ross Steven offered advice for getting started. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , Ross and Owen were joined by Kacper Lodzikowski, Vice President of AI Capabilities at Pearson, to d...

Today's workplace is one where change is the norm. Learning is critical in this environment, but supporting learning isn't just about creating content .   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast , JD Dillon joins Ross Dickie a nd Ross Garner to discuss his book, The Modern Learning Ecosystem . We cover:   Why JD's book includes 'learning' in its title, even though it's not really abou...

Donald Taylor describes this year's Global Sentiment Survey as the 'unsurprising survey'. Predictably, artificial intelligence topped the table by some margin. But the results of this year's survey still tell us a lot about how L&D perceives itself and the challenges we face as a profession. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Donald joins Ross and Owen to parse the results of th...

While there are often constraints in charity's learning budgets, it's actually this limitation that can point the way to more efficient and effective learning design and development. There's much that the corporate learning world can learn from this.  In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Gill Chester, Director of Little Man Project and Ross Dickie to discuss creating l...

As experts, managers or leaders, we often seek to help others by talking, talking, talking. But what if we didn't talk and just listened? This week in The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Gemma are joined by Georgie Rudd, an executive coach, to discuss the trials and delights of listening. We explore: ·        reasons that we don't listen well ·        the consequences of not listening (and of lis...

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...

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 di...

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   Ti...

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...

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...

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...

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 Fer...

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 ha...

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 c...

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...

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 L...

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' Th...