The Mindtools L&D Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In many organizations, not least within L&D, urgent and important short-term challenges often crowd out the bigger picture. So, how do we step back and take the long view?

In this week's episode, Ross D and Claire are joined by Nina Bressler, founder of Reimagined Value, to discuss:

• Nina's background and what she means by the term 'societal learning'
• How to work with business stakeholders to help them decide what to focus on
• How to measure the impact of long-term initiatives.

To find out more about Nina's work, check out Reimagined Value.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D mentioned the article 'Hollywood's Music Biopic Boom: Quantifying the Rise of a Soulless Genre' from the Stat Significant newsletter.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

Like the show? You'll LOVE our newsletter! Subscribe to The L&D Dispatch at lddispatch.com

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Dickie
• Claire Gibson
• Nina Bressler

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Donald Taylor and Eglė Vinauskaitė have released four reports exploring L&D's use of AI.

In this week's episode, Don joins Ross D to discuss the latest report — AI in L&D: The Race for Impact. We cover:

• What's changed over the last three years, and why we're at an inflection point
• How L&D's use of AI has slowly matured over time, evolving into more sophisticated use cases
• A vision for the future of L&D, beyond content-creation.

You can download a copy of the full report here.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Don recommended the book Amorous or Loving?: The Highly Peculiar Tale of English and the English.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

Like the show? You'll LOVE our newsletter! Subscribe to The L&D Dispatch at lddispatch.com

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Dickie 

• Donald Taylor 

Is it up to the humble L&D pro to change people's behavior at work? Or is it up to everyone?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, return guest Kevin M. Yates (aka The L&D Detective) speaks to Anna and Ross D about:

• How to isolate the impact of training at work
• What other factors influence performance
• How L&D pros can demonstrate the value of their roles.

You can find out more about Kevin's work at kevinmyates.com

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work. 

Like the show? You'll LOVE our newsletter! Subscribe to The L&D Dispatch at lddispatch.com

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Dickie
• Dr Anna Barnett
• Kevin M Yates

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 joined by Learning Pool's Lindsey Coode to discuss:

·       How AI Conversations works

·       The role and importance of feedback in developing skills

·       The measurable impact on user capability after just one practice session.

During the discussion, Ross referenced the following paper:

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251-19257.

Nahdia referenced the World Economic Forum's report 'Jobs of Tomorrow'.

In 'What I Learned this Week', Nahdia discussed HuddleCraft.

Ross discussed 'The False Binary in Higher Ed' from Ben Wildavsky.

To find out more about AI Conversations, visit:

·       Mind Tools

·       Learning Pool

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:

·       Ross Garner

·       Nahdia Khan

·       Lindsey Coode

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 workplace learning that leads to behavior change.

During the discussion, Ross referenced an article on willpower from the American Psychological Association. A word of caution, this is from 2012.

Owen referenced Ferinand F Fournies' book Coaching for improved work performance.

In 'What I Learned this Week', Owen discussed the CMI's report 'Taking responsibility – Why UK PLC needs better managers'.

Ross discussed the collective names for animals, from X user @CulturalTutor.

Owen also promoted Ross' newsletter, The L&D Dispatch, and we mentioned a recent post on how to reduce the cost of compliance training.

For more from Julie, visit her website usablelearning.com

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:

• Ross Garner
•   Owen Ferguson
• Julie Dirksen

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 menopause transition

·       How women can seek help during this time

·       How organisations can better support women.

Jayne referenced several resources during the episode. 

The BSI Group's 'Understanding menopause and menstrual health – Guide'

NICE Guidance Menopause: diagnosis and management

Fawcett Society report Menopause and the Workplace

balance's Menopause homepage and Menopause at Work survey results

In What I Learnt this Week, Nahdia noted important points from the Better Management Report: 'Taking Responsibility – why UK plc needs better managers'

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:

• Gemma Towersey
• Nahdia Khan 
• Jayne Saul-Paterson RCDP  www.gspcoaching.com Instagram @coachjsp

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 Avery and Matt Pfleger to discuss:

•  the role of digital in engaging non-desk-based workers
• how to create space for people in stressful jobs to learn and develop
• whether working in an evidence-based environment leads to more evidence-based learning design.

During the discussion, Matt referenced a project that the team worked on with Ross. You can see an overview of that project on YouTube and in our case study.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Matt referenced a Family Guy clip, which is available online.

Liz discussed how you can remove a background from a video in After Effects, even when you didn't use a green screen.

Diana referenced UMass Memorial Health's mindfulness programs.

And Ross discussed President Joe Biden's Executive Order on AI, as well as Nicholas Thompson's concerns that it would stifle competition.

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on LinkedIn:

• Ross Garner
• Liz Ferro
• Diana Avery
• Matt Pfleger

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
• Wellbeing goals and creating a wellbeing culture
• How to support the health and wellbeing of high numbers of employees.

In What I Learnt this Week, Owen talked about the cost of Copilot. Here are articles from both sides of the argument:

•  Microsoft is losing money on Copilot

The Register's article 'Microsoft reportedly runs GitHub's AI Copilot at a loss'

•  Microsoft is not losing money on Copilot

ARK Invest's newsletter '#388: Is Microsoft Really Losing Money On GitHub Copilot?, & More'

• The rapidly decreasing costs of AI

The Unsupervised Learning Substack article 'Why Databricks Bought Mosaic and The Rapidly Decreasing Costs of AI'

Sanaa summarised research from an article in the Children, Youth and Environments journal

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business/. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on LinkedIn:

•  Gemma Towersey
• Owen Ferguson
• Sanaa Khan

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 facilitator
• How to avoid pitfalls such as stereotyping.

Gaëlle refers to a number of resources that are well worth exploring.

Geert Hofstede's book Cultures and organisations: Software of the mind.

This 'Country Comparison Tool' from The Cultural Factor Group is based on Professor Geerte Hofstede's research: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison-tool?countries=france%2Cpakistan%2Csouth+africa%2Cunited+kingdom

Mind Tools explores the characteristics of countries exhibiting each dimension and what these mean for how you can most effectively work together in the article "Hoftstede's Cultural Dimensions": https://www.mindtools.com/a1ecvyx/hofstedes-cultural-dimensions

Gaëlle contributed to CIPD's 2021 "Effective virtual classrooms: An evidence review": https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/evidence-reviews/effective-virtual-classrooms-practice-summary_tcm18-102661.pdf 

In What I Learned This Week, Nahdia recommended a series of videos from the School of Systems Change. Here's a link to the first video "What are systems and what is systems change?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_02X3O2kIUU&t=5s

Gemma encouraged budding language learners to check out Radio Lingua's 'Coffee break' podcast series: https://coffeebreaklanguages.com/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers.

•  Nahdia Khan
• Gemma Towersey
• Gaëlle Watson - @gaelledwatson 

You can find out more about SyncSkills here: https://syncskills.net/working-with-us/virtual-training-production/

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 measure the impact of online communities

·       what all of this looks like in an organizational context  

You can find out more about L&D Shakers here.

During the show, Anamaria referenced Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner's work on communities of practice.

In his trademark style, Ross G equated online communities to pornography, recalling Justice Potter Stewart's famous line - 'I know it when I see it.'

He also mentioned the 'Success Case Method', which we discussed in a previous episode.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G recommended Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull.

Anamaria encouraged listeners to check out Katherine Zhou's ethical design toolkit.

And Ross D talked about pushing some eggs through a sieve after watching an episode of The Bear.

For more from Mind Tools, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work. 

Connect with our speakers 

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:

·       Ross Dickie

·       Ross Garner

·       Anamaria Dorgo