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

As Ben Betts wrote in a recent blog post, 'the LMS is the first point of entry to learning; the front-of-house of our industry.' While that front-of-house may look a little different now than it did twenty years ago, and despite the oft-repeated claim that the LMS is dying, it remains the default gateway to digital learning in organizations. But are things about to change?

To answer that question and others, Ben joins Ross D and Owen on this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast to discuss:

·       the many eras of the LMS, and how we got to where we are now;

·       the forces that have shaped e-learning interfaces over time;

·       how AI and other changes in the tech landscape might usher in a new era.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen recommended the podcast Acquired, and Ben mentioned the website 'There's an AI for That'.

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 us on LinkedIn:

·       Ross Dickie

·       Owen Ferguson

·       Ben Betts

How can we help managers demonstrate care for their teams, while maintaining high standards of accountability and performance?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Dr Anna Barnett are joined by Joris Merks-Benjaminsen, Managing Without Power, to discuss:

• why nice managers can still provide mediocre management
• how managers can balance care for their teams with high levels of performance
• and how to build better managers.

For more from Joris, visit managingwithoutpower.com

The paper Anna discussed, on 'nondecision-making', was: Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. S. (1963). Decisions and nondecisions: An analytical framework. American political science review, 57(3), 632-642.

Google's research into great managers (Project Oxygen) and effective teams (Project Aristotle) is available online.

During the discussion, Joris referenced the prisoner's dilemma.

We also discussed findings from our report, 'Building Better Managers'.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Anna recommended Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah.

Joris discussed Sinterklaas.

Ross G discussed 'sovereign AI'.

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. And our new Manager Skills Assessment.

You can also email custom@mindtools.com and Ross G will get back to you.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Garner
• Dr Anna Barnett
• Joris Merks-Benjaminsen

Are you an over-committing over-achiever? In Toxic Productivity, author Israa Nasir argues that you can only maintain that approach to productivity for so long. 

Eventually you'll burn out, exhausted by all those 'time management hacks' that organizations (like Mind Tools!) keep suggesting.  

So this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Israa joins Ross Dickie and Ross Garner to offer an alternative approach. We discuss: 

• how toxic productivity manifests in our lives 

• how getting rewarded for our productivity tricks us into trying to achieve more 

• how the signals that managers send sets expectations for their teams. 

The book, by Israa Nasir, is Toxic Productivity. 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D recommended checking out the NotebookLM AI-podcast version of our newsletter. 

Israa recommended the 'Under the K' venue in New York. 

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 us on LinkedIn: 

• Ross Dickie 

• Ross Garner 

• Israa Nasir 

Learning measurement is difficult, complex, and expensive. Or is it? 

In Measurement and Evaluation on a Shoestring, Dr Alaina Szlachta applies a Build-Borrow-Buy approach to learning measurement, and joins The Mind Tools L&D Podcast this week to share her insights with Ross Dickie and Owen. 

We discuss: 

• the importance of asking the right questions 

• how to bake measurement into your programs 

• what 'Build', 'Borrow' and 'Buy' look like in practice. 

Find out more about Measurement and Evaluation on a Shoestring. 

You can also sign up for the book launch party, or sign up for Alaina's newsletter.  

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 us on LinkedIn: 

• Ross Dickie 

• Owen Ferguson 

• Dr Alaina Szlachta 

Measuring management capability is intrinsically complex. Unlike sales training, where you have sales, or customer-service training, where you have CSAT scores, management doesn't have a built-in metric we can use to quantify learning impact. So, what's the solution? 

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Dickie is joined by Owen and Anna to discuss our new 'Manager Skills Assessment' — a scientific diagnostic that managers and their organizations can use to evaluate their capability. We discuss: 

• what the Manager Skills Assessment (MSA) is, and how it works; 

• how we designed the MSA based on scientific research; 

• what managers and L&D teams can expect to get out of the MSA. 

To learn more about the Manager Skills Assessment, visit our website. 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen mentioned SpaceX's 'Mechazilla'. 

Ross D also referenced Donald Taylor and Egle Vinauskaite's latest report, AI in L&D: Intention and Reality. 

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 us on LinkedIn: 

• Ross Dickie 

• Owen Ferguson 

• Anna Barnett 

If you work in learning and development, you probably get some direction from your senior leadership team about what to focus on and how much to spend. But, once you get into the details, you have lots of room to play.

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Chief Learning Officer Marc Steven Ramos joins Ross Garner and Ross Dickie to discuss:

·       the strengths and weaknesses of different genAI tools

·       whether tools like ChatGPT are living up to the hype

·       how L&D can start experimenting, and why it's the ideal team to do so!

Marc discussed these ideas in more detail on his Substack and in his article for Harvard Business Review (with Marc Zao-Sanders).

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G recommended a warning on 'pokies' from The Guardian.

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.  

Or become a member to support our show! Visit mindtools.com and use the offer code PODCAST15 for 15% off an individual subscription. This offer is for new subscribers only and can't be used with any other offer. 

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner

·       Ross Dickie

·       Marc Steven Ramos

In Power to the Middle, McKinsey consultants Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field argue that the 'middle manager' is key to organizational success. Long maligned (often by McKinsey), the manager is in fact responsible for delivering objectives, addressing underperformance, building trusting relationships, and resolving team conflicts.

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner, Ross Dick and Nahdia Khan discuss:

·       why managers are so important

·       the role of 'manager' vs 'individual contributor'

·       how to develop better managers

The book, Power to the Middle, is available now.

Our report, 'Building Better Managers', is also available now.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D recommended the podcast series Slow Burn.

Nahdia discussed cloud seeding.

Ross Garner discussed the paintings of John Atkinson Grimshaw, via @CulturalTutor.

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.  

Or become a member to support our show! Visit mindtools.com and use the offer code PODCAST15 for 15% off an individual subscription. This offer is for new subscribers only and can't be used with any other offer. 

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner

·       Ross Dickie

·       Nahdia Khan