The Mindtools L&D Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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 a...

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 multicultur...

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: ·        th...

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...

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...

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 th...

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 co...

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 P...

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 lik...

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: ·     ...

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 employee...

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 Entertai...

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...

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:   Techniq...