The Mindtools L&D Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

The World Economic Forum’s recent ‘Future of Jobs’ report positioned ‘AI and big data’ and ‘technological literacy’ as skills that will become increasingly important over the next five years. But what do these skills look like in practice? What do we mean when we talk about ‘AI literacy’? 

In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Anna are joined by Erica Werneman Root, legal consultant and co-founder of Knowledge Bridge, to discuss: 

• what ‘AI literacy’ means in different contexts; 

• the compliance implications of building AI literacy in organizations; 

• how L&D can help employees develop AI skills. 

To find out more about AI literacy, check out Erica’s recent articles for IAPP. 

For examples of how organizations are building AI literacy programmes, explore the AI Office’s ‘Living Repository of AI Literacy Practices’. 

The blog Anna mentioned was ‘From Centaurs To Cyborgs: Our evolving relationship with generative AI’  

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Anna referenced research from Harvard, exploring the effects of AI on knowledge work. 

Ross D mentioned OpenAI’s new ‘Deep Research’ tool. More trivially, he also shared Pierre Franey’s five-star recipe for turkey chilli. 

For more from us, visit mindtools.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 us on LinkedIn: 

• Ross Dickie 

• Anna Barnett 

• Erica Werneman Root 

In last week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, we explored sales enablement from the perspective of sales and marketing teams. But where do product teams fit in? Beyond building products, what role do these teams play in generating revenue? 

For the second instalment in our two-part series on sales enablement, Ross D and Lara are once again joined by Darren Bezani, Chief Salecologist at Salecology, to discuss: 

• why it’s important to involve product teams in sales enablement; 

• the behaviors we want product teams to demonstrate; 

• how L&D can support this, beyond simply providing training. 

To learn more about Darren’s work, head to salecology.com. 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Lara mentioned A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass. 

Ross D recommended Warren Zanes’ book Deliver Me from Nowhere, exploring the making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. 

For more from us, visit mindtools.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 us on LinkedIn: 

• Ross Dickie 

• Lara Kidd 

• Darren Bezani 

Hello listeners! No new episode this week, but we wanted to revisit this 2018 classic with Dom Price, from Atlassian.

It'll help you think about whether the habits and behaviors that have helped you navigate the world to this point, are still useful today.

Regular show notes below.

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In the early stages of our careers we learn how to do our jobs, manage office politics and earn promotion. But those habits and behaviours that initially help us advance can become a burden. We end up in meetings because it used to be important to show face, and not because they're an effective use of our time.

In this week's GoodPractice Podcast, Ross G and Owen speak to Dom Price, Futurist at software developer Atlassian, about his approach to 'unlearning' habits and behaviours.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us all on LinkedIn.

The Atlassian Team Playbook is available at: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook

For a fun insight into how Atlassian team members speak to one another, see: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/teamwork-data-visualization

Owen's 'What I Unlearned This Week' covered Johann Hari's Guardian piece on depression. The original article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections 

And, for balance, the counter argument is here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/08/is-everything-johann-hari-knows-about-depression-wrong-lost-connections  

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

What do business leaders think about L&D? What do they expect? What’s the reality for L&D?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Nahdia and Anna to discuss our latest Leadership report – Turning pressures into opportunities. We cover:

·       what questions we asked

·       the headline takeaways from this year’s report

·       the practical implications.

To read the report in full, download it from our Research reports site: mindtoolsbusiness.com/research-and-reports/turning-pressures-into-opportunities

In WILTW, Gemma talked about the three definitions of twilight. You can read more about this on the Royal Museums Greenwich website: rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-dawn-dusk-twilight 

Nahdia mentioned a book she’s reading called The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom: amazon.co.uk/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/

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 on Twitter:

·       Nadhia Khan - @NahdiaKhan

·       Gemma Towersey - @gemmatowersey

·       Anna Barnett - @drannabarnett

What are L&D practitioners excited about in 2023? Is it the rise of artificial intelligence? Or is it the Metaverse? What about skills-based talent management? Or learning analytics?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D is joined by Donald Taylor to discuss the results of the Global Sentiment Survey 2023. We cover:

·       what the GSS is (and what it isn’t)

·       the headline takeaways from this year’s survey

·       regional differences in the data

If you’re interested in reviewing the results of the Global Sentiment Survey, Don shared a breakdown, along with some initial reflections, on his website. donaldhtaylor.co.uk/insight/gss2023-results/

Ross D also shared some of his own reflections on this year’s results in the latest edition of The L&D Dispatch: lddispatch.com/p/local-sentiment-survey

In WILTW, Ross D discussed his success propagating a Monstera plant, by following the steps in this article: pottedpixie.com/how-to-propagate-a-monstera-in-water/

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 on Twitter:

·       Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT

·       Donald Taylor - @DonaldHTaylor

How do you pick from the hundreds of platforms out there? What questions might you ask to refine your options?

If you’re looking for a learning platform, then you’ve got quite the decision to make! Not only is the market huge and complicated, but it can also be an expensive purchase. Help is at hand this week in The Mind Tools L&D Podcast. Ross G and Gemma are joined by EdTech Consultant Stella Lee, an expert in navigating the decision process.

We explore:

·       key questions to answer before you go shopping

·       “red flags” to look out for

·       the role of AI in learning platforms.

Stella’s LMS selection toolkit is free for anyone to download here: https://paradoxlearning.com/resources/

She’s also shared two of her articles “How to future proof your edtech investment” https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/winter-2023/how-to-future-proof-your-edtech-investment/

“The role of ethics in edtech” https://www.easygenerator.com/en/blog/podcast/stella-lee-edtech-ethics-podcast/

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross spoke about how OpenAI made ChatGPT less sexist, racist and violent than it would be otherwise. You can read about it in this Time article: https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/

Gemma talked about the Cairngorms National Park. Facts and figures (and some beautiful photography) can be discovered here: https://cairngorms.co.uk/discover-explore/facts-figures/

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. 

And, this week, we’re giving a special shout out to our Learning Performance Benchmark. Not sure how your L&D function is performing? Find out now, for free: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

·       Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson (or https://mastodon.scot/@owenferguson)

·       Stella Lee - @stellal

Stella can also be found through other channels via her website: https://paradoxlearning.com/

What do employees and managers care about in 2023? How do we keep them feeling happy, interested and safe?

A new report from Reward Gateway offers six human-centred strategies to build strong, resilient teams. So, this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by Chief People Officer Nebel Crowhurst to discuss their findings.

We explore:

·       - whether it’s important that your manager ‘cares’ about you

·      -  the role of mental, physical and wellbeing support in engaging employees

·      -  if it’s OK just to turn up and do your job.

You can find the full report online at: https://www.rewardgateway.com/hubfs/Resources-eBooks/uk-2023-employee-engagement-trends-report.pdf

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen discussed Mastodon and Mark Gilroy’s YouTube tech reviews: https://www.youtube.com/@ThatMarkGilroy

Nebel discussed Australia’s new approach to domestic violence leave: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/family-and-domestic-violence-leave

Ross discussed Glasgow City Council’s plans to build a ‘feminist’ city: https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/glasgow-becomes-uks-first-feminist-city-as-town-planning-motion-from-councillor-holly-bruce-passes-3896633

For more from Nebel and Reward Gateway, visit: https://www.rewardgateway.com/uk

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. 

And, this week, we’re giving a special shout out to our Learning Performance Benchmark. Not sure how your L&D function is performing? Find out now, for free: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

·       Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson (or https://mastodon.scot/@owenferguson)

·       Nebel Crowhurst - @HR_Nebel

Ten years ago, Henry Stewart wrote The Happy Manifesto, outlining 10 principles for happier workplaces. Among them: Make your people feel good; Be open and transparent; Celebrate mistakes. 

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Henry joins Gemma and Ross G the relevance of these principles in 2023. Spoiler: They’re even more important. 

We discuss: 

• how the workplace has evolved 
• the emergence of ‘self-managing organisations’ 
• the factors that stop leaders creating a happy workplace. 

During the discussion, Henry recommended the following books: 

• Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet 
• Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux 
• Maverick by Ricardo Semler 
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer 

He also mentioned the paper: Edmans, A. (2011). Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial economics, 101(3), 621-640. 

• actions you can take when budgets are tight 
• how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today. 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross discussed the use of cannabis to unlock creativity at work (or not, as it turned out): economist.com/business/2023/01/12/how-to-unlock-creativity-in-the-workplace 

The original paper is at: Heng, Y. T., Barnes, C. M., & Yam, K. C. (2022). Cannabis use does not increase actual creativity but biases evaluations of creativity. Journal of Applied Psychology. 

Henry discussed neurodiversity, sparking Ross to recommend this Learning Guild article from Judy Katz: learningguild.com/articles/designing-for-autism-adhd-and-more-representing-neurodivergence/?rd=1 

For more from Henry, see https://www.happy.co.uk. Or you can contact him at: henry@happy.co.uk 

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 on Twitter: 

• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey 
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT 
• Henry Stewart - @HappyHenry 

With inflation high, and high profile redundancies hitting the headlines, L&D is once again under pressure to demonstrate the value it offers and to have an impact in our organisations. So what can you do if your budget is slashed?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, David James shares his experiences of managing the L&D team at The Walt Disney Company during the 2008 financial crisis.  David is the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning and host of The Learning & Development Podcast, and joins Ross G and Owen to discuss:

• the impact that recessions and cost savings typically have on L&D
• actions you can take when budgets are tight
• how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today.

David has also written about this topic for Forbes, which you can read at: forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2023/01/04/heres-how-ld-can-achieve-more-with-less/

During the discussion, David referenced a LinkedIn post from Ross Stevenson, which you can see here: linkedin.com/posts/rstevensonuk_learninganddevelopment-education-humanresources-activity-7019651016069410816-tAGI?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross mentioned a LinkedIn post from Dr Philippa Hardman on ChatGPT for educators. See: linkedin.com/posts/dr-philippa-hardman-057851120_chatgpt-for-educators-a-practical-guide-activity-7020331313136074752-xxik

For more from David, see 360learning.com/ or subscribe to his podcast: looop.co/podcast

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.  

You can find out more about The Mind Tools Expert Voices Podcast, including where to subscribe, at: https://www.mindtools.com/podcast/

Connect with our speakers   

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

• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• David James - @DavidInLearning

Last week on the show we had James McLuckie join us to share his advice for winning an award, and this week - as we're approaching Oscars season - we thought we'd host our own award show: where the nominees haven't entered, the winners don't get anything, and the only criteria is what we think was interesting or cool in 2022.

So, in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Gemma, Nahdia and Owen are going to reveal their winners from the following shortlists:

Book of the Year

• The Business of Race, by Gina Greenlee and Margaret Greenberg
• Smart Growth, by Whitney Johnson
• The Digital Mindset, by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley
• HR for Hybrid Working, by Gary Cookson
• How to Work Remotely, by Gemma Dale
• Learning at Speed, by Nelson Sivalingam
• Decisions Over Decimals, by Paul Magnone, Oded Netzer, Christopher J. Frank
• The Expectation Effect, by David Robson

Guest of the Year

• Margaret Greenberg and Gina Greenlee
• Nathalie Nahai
• Professor Doctor Jonathan Wilson
• Oded Netzer
• Bedford Falls’ own George Bailey

Episode of the Year

• Christmas Special: Home Alone
• Halloween Special: Edgar Allan Poe and ‘unity of effect’ in learning design
• 300 — Celebrating live from London!
• Live from the Metaverse: VR for learning
• What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2022?

Technology of the Year

• ChatGPT
• The Metaverse
• Miro
• Dall-e 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion

Tweet of the Year

• Elon Musk - Let that sink in
• Sam Altman - Today we launched Chat GPT
• Rob Briner - 18 things I think I got wrong in trying to promote evidence based practice
• Rob Lennon — Everyone's stuck in beginner mode with ChatGPT

L&D Pro of the Year

• Nelson Sivalingam
• Ross Dickie
• Michelle Ockers
• Donald Clark

During the discussion, Gemma referenced the book Statistics without Tears, from Penguin: penguin.co.uk/books/13568/statistics-without-tears-by-derek-rowntree/9780141987491

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Gemma recommended the book Cairngorm John, by John Allen: sandstonepress.com/books/cairngorm-john-pb-1

Ross recommended the film Cliffhanger.

At Mind Tools, we're continuing to offer 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023. This offer only applies to new custom learning customers and work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply. Contact Ross and Gemma from our Custom team for details: custom@mindtools.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 elearning, and our custom work.  

Connect with our speakers   

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

• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT    
• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan