This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are diving into their L&D mailbag to answer your questions.

We discuss:

·       Will there be more or less opportunity to make a meaningful living in L&D over the next five years? (via JD Dillon)

·       If we think of L&D as a product, what would you sunset and what would the top three candidates look like for development? (via Sean Brown)

·       What's more important to a Learning strategy and approach... Speed or Efficacy? (via Marc Steven Ramos)

·       What's your best ROI story? (via Marc Zao-Sanders)

During the discussion, Ross referenced Benedict Evans article ‘The AI Summer’.

Ross also referenced an example of work our behavioral scientists completed for an ESG project.

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

·       Owen Ferguson

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we're putting the ‘people’ back into People Development and the ‘human’ back into ‘Human Resources, as we explore Natal Dank's book Agile L&D.  

Natal is the co-owner and director of PXO Culture, a consultancy firm on a mission to make HR, culture and change about humans. 

And her book, Agile L&D, is a follow-up to Agile HR.  

We discuss: 

• Problems with a ‘traditional’ approach to L&D 

• Tools and methods for prioritizing and organizing workloads 

• Whether ‘agile’ has just become another corporate buzzword 

To find out more about Natal, and the book, visit pxoculture.com 

During the discussion, Natal referenced the books The Build Trap by Melissa Perri and Embracing Uncertainty by Margaret Heffernan. 

For more on Taylorism, see ‘scientific management’. 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross Garner discussed Yuval Noah Harari’s bleak take on the future of AI and government. 

Nahdia discussed digital twins. 

Natal discussed Meditations for Mortals. 

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 

• Nahdia Khan 

• Natal Dank 

What does good management look like? What skills and capabilities does a manager need? Are you a good manager?

In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson are joined by Dr Anna Barnett, from our own in-house Insights team, to discuss the findings of our latest report: ‘Building Better Managers’.

In the first of three episodes exploring how we can improve management capability for our people and organizations, we discuss:

·       How we define a ‘good’ manager

·       The capabilities all managers need to perform, no matter their industry

·       How to measure manager capability.

We’ve used the results of Anna’s research to develop our own manager skills assessment. It can help your managers identify skill gaps, while also giving L&D leaders an insight into critical development areas that exist across their organisations.

To speak to us about running our management skills assessment with your people, get in touch! Email custom@mindtools.com or visit mindtools.com/business/poducts/mind-tools-insights to book a meeting.

During the discussion, Anna referenced the following papers:

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42(2), 241-251.

Carmeli, A., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Ziv, E. (2010). Inclusive leadership and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: The mediating role of psychological safety. Creativity Research Journal, 22(3), 250-260.

Our report, ‘Building Better Managers’, will be released on July 9.

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen shared how disagreement is often mistaken for bad listening.

Ross discussed the app Finch, for motivating behavior change.

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

·       Owen Ferguson

·       Dr Anna Barnett

Our brain is a ‘prediction machine’ that responds to and interprets reality based on what we expect. This is the claim of science writer David Robson and, this week on The Mind Tools Podcast, Ross G, Owen and Nahdia plan to exceed your expectations by discussing it in our book club. 

We discuss: 

• examples of the ‘expectation effect’ in action 
• the strengths and weaknesses of Robson’s argument
• how we can experiment, personally, with managing our expectations. 

During the discussion, Ross referenced the Freakonomics episode ‘I Don’t Know What You’ve Done With My Husband But He’s a Changed Man’: freakonomics.com/podcast/i-dont-know-what-youve-done-with-my-husband-but-hes-a-changed-man/ 

See also our podcast on Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset: podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/grit-and-mindset-emotion-at-work-crossover-special/id1114862726?i=1000470741181 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen recommended Bob Sutton (@work_matters) on Twitter, and specifically his Tweet about the ‘feedback sandwich’: twitter.com/work_matters/status/1565064130574241793?s=46&t=z7JQmmhA9bhpOPtQuc1RLQ 

And Ross discussed the shortest day for 40 years, June 29: theguardian.com/science/2022/aug/01/midnight-sooner-earth-spins-faster-shortest-day 

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.   

To take advantage of our special offer on a Mind Tools Membership, visit: mindtools.com/september-subscription-sale  

Connect with our speakers   

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

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

This week The Mind Tools Podcast team are travelling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop: Extended Reality.

In this episode, Ross G and Nahdia speak to technologist, TEDx speaker, author and designer Myra Roldan about how new technologies are shaping the way we interact with the world, and with each other. We discuss:

• VR, AR, XR and mixed realities
• Applications of XR for learning
• The impact of XR on empathy.

During the discussion, we discussed several VR experiences:

• Five Nights at Freddy’s: oculus.com/experiences/quest/3162101440489458
• Vader Immortal: oculus.com/vader-immortal/?locale=en_GB
• Richie’s Plank: oculus.com/experiences/quest/1642239225880682/

For more on how The Mandalorian was shot, see: youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk

For Myra’s TEDx talk on VR, see: ted.com/talks/myra_roldan_vr_changing_world_views

You can find Myra on LinkedIn at: linkedin.com/in/myraroldan

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Nahdia discussed the recent flooding in Pakistan, the impact of glaciers, and the effects of climate change: bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62758811

Myra discussed her TikTok channel, learnwithmyra: tiktok.com/@learnwithmyra

And for something completely different, Ross G shared old Hollywood bloopers: twitter.com/NonsenseIsland/status/1550562796458352641

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan
• Myra Roldan - @MyraMade

What’s the evidence telling us about effective questions for learning? How can we apply it? 

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by fellow Custom team members Ross Garner, Sam and Alison to discuss key takeaways from Patti Shanks’ book, Write better multiple-choice questions to assess learning.  

We discussed:  

• The role of questions in learning  
• What makes an effective question 
• How to overcome challenges in writing them. 

We talked about how we used open questions as part of a project with Scottish Enterprise. Find out more about the project here: Award-winning blended learning for Scottish Enterprise case study. 

In WILTW, Ross excitedly told us about the five attempts (and injuries!) that Bond’s stuntman took to nail the crocodile shot in Live and Let Die. You can watch them on Twitter: twitter.com/michaelwarbur17  

Gemma’s discovery about the Summer Time Act came from an episode of the BBC’s podcast You’re Dead to Me called ‘The History of Timekeeping’. 

Further details came from the BBC article, “The Builder who changed how the world keeps time”. 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT  
• Sam Brown - @SbrownMT  
• Alison Perrott - @allyperrott 
• Gemma Towersey – @gemmatowersey 

Will avatar-based training replace virtual classrooms? Would it make any difference if L&D didn’t even exist?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D, Owen and Nahdia tackle these questions from listeners Ian Younger (@ian5611) and Craig Taylor (@CraigTaylor74).

In WILTW, Owen mentioned the article ‘Good’ posture doesn’t prevent back pain, and ‘bad’ posture doesn’t cause it by Peter O’Sullivan, Leon Straker and Nic Saraceni.

The episode of the Ezra Klein Show which featured a discussion of ‘Larping your job’ was The Office is Dying. It’s Time to Rethink How We Work.

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
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Nahdia Khan -@NahdiaKhan

Here at Mind Tools Towers, we’ve been supporting L&D teams for years – and that’s given us plenty of time to reflect on things we could have done better!

So this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Owen, Sean and Ross D are sharing the advice that they wish they’d had when they started out in their careers. We discuss:

• The importance of gathering diverse work experiences
• How to define a problem
• How to speak to others about what you do for a living.

Additionally, we share insights from our Twitter audience. Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas. You can find these responses on Twitter at: twitter.com/SeanBrownHRTech/status/1559833708441620482

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen recommended an article from Ben Thompson: stratechery.com/2022/instagram-tiktok-and-the-three-trends/

Sean discussed the world's first animated feature film, El Apóstol: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ap%C3%B3stol

Ross D discussed a lost trove of Civil War gold: theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/pennsylvania-civil-war-treasure-gold-hunt-fbi/638445/

And Ross G recommended the '(Not Boring) Habits' app: apps.apple.com/us/app/not-boring-habits/id1593891243

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Sean Brown - @Seanbrownhrtech
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT

Many organizations responded to the global pandemic by adopting digital technologies that enabled different ways of working. This sudden, unanticipated change has created opportunities for L&D, but it's also posed challenges. 

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D is joined by Owen and Anna to dive into this year's L&D Benchmark Report: 'Is your learning culture keeping pace with rapid digitalization?' They discuss:

• the history of the Annual L&D Benchmark Report, and its relationship to our Learning Performance Benchmark
• the emergence of culture and digitalization as the key themes of this year's report, and what this tells us about the state of L&D
• the characteristics of top-performing organizations, and what we can learn from them
• practical advice for applying the report's findings.

To explore the Annual L&D Benchmark Report for yourself, head to our website: mindtoolsbusiness.com/research-and-reports/keeping-pace-with-digitalization

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen recommended the Abba Voyage concert experience. Full details can be found at: abbavoyage.com

Ross D referenced the FiveThirtyEight article 'Why the Same Temperature Can Feel Different Somewhere Else' by Maggie Koerth: fivethirtyeight.com/features/heat-index-temperature

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
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Anna Barnett @DrAnnaBarnett

Have learners engaged? Learnt what we set out for them to learn? More importantly, have they bought that learning into how they perform? Is this having the wider impact we wanted?

All the questions. So, how do we, as learning professionals, measure the impact our learning experiences have?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma discusses with teammates Claire, Sean and Tracey, about measuring impact.

We discuss:

• what measuring impact means
• tools and methods we use
• some of the challenges involved.

During our chat, Sean mentioned that more than 95% of CLOs know it’s important to measure impact, but less than 5% know how. The statistic came from this blog netcomlearning.com/blogs/55/10-ways-to-measure-the-impact-of-learning-for-the-ultimate-roi.html

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Gemma spoke about the first woman who summited Mont Blanc, Marie Paradis. You can find out more about her here chamonixallyear.com/lady-legends-women-in-mountaineering

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
• Claire Gibson - @Claireisdigital
• Sean Brown - @Seanbrownhrtech
• Tracey McDonald – @Traceymcdonald

Rather than defaulting to pre-pandemic habits, or continuing with pandemic arrangements, we now have an ideal opportunity to rethink how and where we work.

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Nahdia and Gemma talk to Gem Dale, author of How to work remotely, about working well, in and out of the office.

We discuss:

• why we need to be strategic and purposeful in how and where we work
• challenges for organisations and managers in balancing organisational and individual needs
• skills for effective remote working.

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Nahdia told us why some houses in Amsterdam are so narrow amsterdamhangout.com/why-do-houses-in-amsterdam-are-so-narrow/

Gemma mentioned an episode from the language learning podcast series Coffee Break German coffeebreaklanguages.com/2022/07/cbg-mag-2-06-labskaus

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. 

To find out more about Gem, see hrgemblog.com/ and her book koganpage.com/product/how-to-work-remotely-9781398606111

Connect with our speakers 

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

• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan
• Gem Dale – @HR_Gem

People are more satisfied by explanations that contain neuroscientific jargon and images. Why? Because dopamine fires up the hippocampus, and that’s a fact! (Warning: It’s not.) 

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Owen and Ross G are separating fact from fiction as we discuss neuroscience with Amy Brann, author of Make Your Brain Work. 

We discuss: 

• The meaning of neuroscience (as a discipline vs in popular media) 

• The relevance of neuroscience for HR and L&D 
• Practical insights from neuroscience. 

During the discussion, Owen referenced two papers: 

Weisberg, D. S., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., & Gray, J. R. (2008). The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477. Online at: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2778755/ 

Farah, M. J., & Hook, C. J. (2013). The seductive allure of “seductive allure”. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(1), 88-90. Online at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26172255/  

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen discussed Wordle (nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html), Heardle (.spotify.com/heardle/) and Framed (framed.wtf/)  

Ross discussed the Freakonomics series ‘What Can Blockchain Do for You?’: freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/what-can-blockchain-do-for-you/  

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.  

To find out more about Amy, see amybrann.com/ and synapticpotential.com/  

Connect with our speakers  

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

• Ross G - @RossGarnerMT  
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson 
• Amy Brann – @Amy_Brann  

Who knows why anyone does anything? Well… people who craft psychometrics claim that they can answer this question. And this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Owen and Ross G are going to find out how!

We’re joined by Lucie Ilbury, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Head of Client Enablement at Sova Assessment.

We discuss:

• What psychometric assessments are for
• The characteristics of an effective assessment
• How psychometric assessments can be linked to an organization’s competency framework.

In ‘What I Learnt This Week’, Owen shared that decisive people are no more accurate than doubters: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/01/its-decided-decisive-people-no-more-accurate-than-self-doubters

Then he cast some doubt of his own on that headline, with the actual paper: Zajkowski, W., Bielecki, M., & Marszał-Wiśniewska, M. (2022). Are you confident enough to act? Individual differences in action control are associated with post-decisional metacognitive bias. PLoS one, 17(6), e0268501. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268501

Lucie recommended the The Psychology Podcast, featuring Whitney Goodman on ‘toxic positivity’: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/podcast/whitney-goodman-toxic-positivity/

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. 

To find out more about Sova and gain access to thought leadership, complementary training courses and a network of experts in assessment, join the community here: https://community.sovaassessment.com/

For Sova e-books, see: https://sovaassessment.com/reports-guides/assessment-fundamentals-ebook

Connect with our speakers 

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

• Ross G - @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Lucie Ilbury – LinkedIn

For eight years, the team here on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast (formerly The GoodPractice Podcast) have been chatting work, performance and learning with some of the brightest minds in learning and development.

This week, to celebrate the release of our 400th episode, our friends Phil Willcox from Emotion at Work and Ady Howes from Digital Skills People have pulled together a tribute episode for us.

We discuss:

·       the Mind Tools team’s favourite episodes

·       what we learned from 400 episodes of podcasting

·       what others think of the podcast.

During the discussion, Ross Garner referenced his favourite episode: 279 — Why work is the ideal place to talk about race.

Margaret Greenberg and Gina Greenlee’s book is The Business of Race: How to Create and Sustain an Antiracist Workplace and Why It's Actually Good for Business (published by McGraw-Hill). The coauthors work with organizations to embed racial equity into their business strategy. For more information go to their website BusinessofRace.com and click on the Work with Us tab.

Ross D’s favourite episode was Don Taylor’s regular Global Sentiment Survey appearances.

Nahdia picked: 382 — You don’t have to talk to add value, with Georgie Rudd.

Owen picked: 323 — Making decisions with data and intuition, with Oded Netzer.

Gemma picked: 300 — Celebrating live from London!, with Phil Willcox and Julie Dirksen.

Thanks to David Hayden, Sukh Pabial, Michelle Parry-Slater, Dan Wiseman and ChatGPT for their contributions.

Ross G’s novel, Centauri’s Shadow, is available now from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

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:

·       Phil Willcox

·       Ady Howes

·       Ross Garner

·       Ross Dickie

·       Nahdia Khan

·       Gemma Towersey

·       Owen Ferguson

Since the dawn of history, people have been telling stories. Obviously, because the recorded history we have is in the format of a story. Now Ross Garner, Ross Dickie and David from the Mind Tools L&D Podcast crew are applying that technique to learning. 

We discuss: 

• The benefits of storytelling for learning 
• Examples of effective storytelling at work
• How new technologies give us exciting opportunities to craft new tales!

During the discussion, Ross Garner discussed an article from The Guardian. You can read it here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/15/story-lines-facts 

In ‘What I Learnt This Week’, Ross Dickie discussed why it’s so hard to fix electronics: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Dmp79iTEVqizinjOmjGpP?si=TeXVHG_CTKuE4ZGlXlBWiA  

David shared something he had ‘knot’ previously known: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nautical-mile-knot.html 

And Ross Garner recommended Patti Shanks’ book Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions to Assess Learning. 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT  
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT 
• David Sharkey on LinkedIn 

Our mental wellbeing can depend in part, on our role at work. How do stress levels of colleagues, managers and directors compare, for instance? What is it about those roles that influences stress levels?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Emotion at Work’s Phil Willcox shares the findings of his latest research report “Managers feel the pinch”.

We discuss:

• The research findings on roles and stress
• What “levers” influence poor mental wellbeing
• What we can do to stay healthy

You can find out more about Emotion at Work at emotionatwork.co.uk

To check out Phil's report, see: emotionatwork.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=09d92d7e2e59615c9c15131b0&id=11b6f33586 

For more on our competition, where you could win a six month Mind Tools for Business subscription, see: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/competition

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross’ nugget about declining eye health in children came from The Economist’s ‘Short-sightedness has become an epidemic’: economist.com/leaders/2022/06/09/short-sightedness-has-become-an-epidemic

Phil backed up his research with findings from a paper titled, ‘We have emotions but can’t show them!: Authoritarian Leadership, Emotional Suppression Climate, and Team Performance’:  eprints.lse.ac.uk/104058/1/We_have_emotions_but_can_t_show_them.pdf

Owen’s learning came from the UK Government’s research and analysis into online choice architecture called, ‘Evidence review of Online Choice Architecture and consumer and competition harm.’ : gov.uk/government/publications/online-choice-architecture-how-digital-design-can-harm-competition-and-consumers/evidence-review-of-online-choice-architecture-and-consumer-and-competition-harm

You can find Ross' blog on choice architecture at: mindtoolsbusiness.com/resources/blog/tips-and-expertise/how-nudge-theory-can-lead-to-better-workplace-learning 

Gemma’s magpie facts were from the RSPB’s ‘Magpie life cycle’ webpage: rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/magpie/life-cycle/ 

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 G - @RossGarnerMT
• Gemma T - @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Phil Willcox - @PhilWillcox

In our 300th episode of The Mind Tools L&D podcast, we are LIVE from London!  

Owen, Nahdia and Gemma were joined by two special guests, Julie Dirksen and Phil Willcox, and a live studio audience buzzing after Day 1 of the Learning Technologies 2022 conference and exhibition. 

There was something for everyone! We spoke about: 

• Perspectives on the LT conference and exhibition 
• Designing learning for complex skills 
• The mental health challenges that managers face 

We also heard what our audience had learnt this week. 

To check out Phil's report, see: emotionatwork.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=09d92d7e2e59615c9c15131b0&id=11b6f33586 

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.  

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

• Nahdia Khan - @nahdiakahn 

• Gemma T - @gemmatowersey  
• Owen Ferguson - @owenferguson 
• Phil Willcox - @PhilWillcox 
• Julie Dirksen - @usablelearning 

We’re all familiar with one-off learning events like e-learning modules, workshops and virtual classrooms. They’re common because they’re logistically easier for everyone, but how we can adapt these to embed learning after the event?

To discuss, Ross G and Owen are joined by Paul 'Westy' Westlake, Digital Director at PeopleUnboxed, and host of the PeopleUnplugged Podcast.

We discuss:

• Problems with one-off events
• Techniques to ensure they have greater impact
• What it looks like to embed learning more systemically within a workplace.

Show notes

During the discussion, Ross referenced the work of Immersive Interactive: https://immersive.co.uk/

We also referenced the Mind Tools report ‘Google it: The secret online lives of UK managers’: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/research-and-reports/google-it-the-secret-online-lives-of-uk-managers

You can find out more about People Unboxed at: https://peopleunboxed.co.uk/

The People Unplugged podcast is online at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1718614

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed the ‘(Not Boring) Habits’ app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/not-boring-habits/id1593891243

For the blog he recommended, see: https://www.andy.works/words/the-most-satisfying-checkbox

Ross mentioned the video game Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, and Paul shared that the world’s largest tyre manufacturer is in fact Lego: https://www.coruba.co.uk/blog/lego-the-worlds-largest-tyre-manufacturer/

Ross learned about the 65537-gon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/65537-gon

And Owen spoke briefly about knot theory and proteins: Adams, C., Devadoss, J., Elhamdadi, M., & Mashaghi, A. (2020). Knot theory for proteins: Gauss codes, quandles and bondles. Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, 58(8), 1711-1736. Online at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.09353

A wide-ranging discussion this week!

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.

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferugson - @OwenFerguson
• Paul Westlake - @PaulWestlake

Back in episode 279 of this podcast (February 1, 2022: ‘Why work is the ideal place to talk about race’), we spoke with authors Margaret Greenberg and Gina Greenlee about their book The Business of Race. But while we talked extensively about personal experiences and inner work, we didn’t have a chance to dig into what L&D can do to promote an anti-racist workplace.

So this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Margaret and Gina are back with Ross G and Nahdia to discuss:

• The pre-work required for organizational change
• The extent to which diversity training is effective
• Tools that can help L&D promote an anti-racist workplace.

Show notes

Find out more about The Business of Race, including links to order a copy, at: businessofrace.com 

The LinkedIn page is: linkedin.com/company/the-business-of-race 

The Facebook page is: facebook.com/businessofrace 

The tools that Margaret discussed were:

• Deborah Plummer's Antiracist Style Indicator (ASI) - https://asi.dlplummer.com
• Annie E. Casey Foundation's Organizational Self-Assessment (OSA) - https://www.aecf.org/resources/race-matters-organizational-self-assessment

In 'What I Learned This Week', Nahdia recommended the Adam Curtis document The Century of Self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEsPOt8MG7E

Gina recommended The 1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

Margaret recommended Obasan by Joy Kagawa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obasan

Ross referenced No-No Boy by John Okada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-No_Boy

And Ross shared that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced Paddington Bear, prior to his current role: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ukrainian-president-zelenskyukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelensky-voiced-paddington-bear-1235191660/

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.

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan
• Gina Greenlee - @TheGinaGreenlee / LinkedIn
• Margaret Greenberg - LinkedIn

Gamification promises fun activities, increased user engagement and – ultimately – better workplace learning. But do points and badges really make a difference?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Sean, Tracey and podcasting n00b Sam Brown tackle this issue.

We discuss:

• The difference between ‘gamification’ and ‘game-based learning’
• Good and bad examples of gamification
• Common gamification mistakes.

Find out more about Twitter Data Dash at: https://twitterdatadash.com/

For more on gamification, including examples, see:

• com, ‘What is gamification’?, at: https://www.gamify.com/what-is-gamification
• Growth Engineering, ‘The ultimate definition of gamification (with 6 real world examples)’, at: https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/definition-of-gamification/
• Training Industry, ‘Game-Based Learning vs Gamification: Do You Know the Difference?’, at: https://trainingindustry.com/articles/learning-technologies/game-based-learning-vs-gamification-do-you-know-the-difference

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Sean shared the origins of the croissant: https://lesaffre.uk/2020/07/27/what-are-the-origins-of-the-croissant

Tracey discussed the origins of Neptune balls: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/15/seagrass-neptune-balls-sieve-millions-of-plastic-particles-from-water-study-finds

And Ross discussed the meaning of sailor tattoos: https://mymodernmet.com/traditional-sailor-tattoos-decoded/

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 Garner @RossGarnerMT
• Tracey McDonald @TraceyMcDonald
• Sean Brown @SeanBrownHRTech
• Sam Brown @SBrownMT

There are more and more people working in a hybrid way. What does this mean for how we meet, develop relationships and support learning?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma T and Owen explore these questions with HR for Hybrid Working author and Director of Epic HR, Gary Cookson.

We discuss:

• What makes for an effective hybrid meeting
• Experiences that tend to be better 100% remote / 100% in-person
• The skills we might need to develop as HR and L&D professionals.

You can find out about Gary at: epichr.co.uk/ 

Gary's book is now available to buy: koganpage.com/product/hr-for-hybrid-working

In WILTW, Owen talked about research findings on the efficacy of “expert” advice. Here’s the research paper “Tips from the Top: Do the best performers really give the best advice?”

Gary learnt that the word “viking” was once used as a verb: What does the word Viking mean?

Gemma’s bluetooth titbit came from Twitter: Susie Dent: King Harald Bluetooth

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. 

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• Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Gary Cookson @Gary_Cookson

Why is chronic stress, or burnout, on the rise? Who suffers the most? Is it an individual or an organisational problem?   

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, author Jennifer Moss speaks to Gemma and Ross about the problem of burnout. 

• What burnout is
• What causes such chronic stress
• What does and doesn't help ease the problem?

You can find out more about Jennifer's work, and her book The Burnout Epidemic, at jennifer-moss.com  

In ‘What I Learnt This Week’, Ross told us about Shakespeare's missing skull https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-shakespeare-idUSKCN0WQ192 

Gemma talked about Dan Gilbert's End of History illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-history_illusion 

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. 

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Gemma - @gemmatowersey
• Jennifer Moss - @jenleighmoss

What is a digital mindset? Why is it important? And can non-technical people really contribute in digital roles?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Ross G explore these questions with researcher, consultant and author of Digital Mindset, Dr Paul Leonardi.

We discuss:

• How anyone can adopt a digital mindset
• The importance of collaboration, computation and change
• How much you need to know to ‘sniff test’ statistical claims.

The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI, by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley, is available now.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D shared a tweet from Adam Grant: twitter.com/AdamMGrant/status/1523656067838021632

Ross G shared the paper: Brucks, M. S., & Levav, J. (2022). Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation. Nature, 1-5. Available online at: nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04643-y

Paul discussed the paper: Shih, K. (2017). Do international students crowd-out or cross-subsidize Americans in higher education?. Journal of Public Economics, 156, 170-184. Available online at: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272717301676 

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 Paul at: tmp.ucsb.edu/people/paul-leonardi

Find out more about Tsedal Neeley at: tsedal.com

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

• Ross G - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross D - @RossDickieMT
• Paul Leonardi - @PLeonardi1

Why is it so difficult to start something new and stick with it? How do we gain and maintain momentum? And why do we tire of what we're doing? 

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Ross G explore these questions with Smart Growth author and disruption theorist Whitney Johnson.

We discuss:

• what we mean by 'smart growth'
• the 'S Curve of Learning' model
• what L&D teams can do to create an ecosystem where smart growth is possible.

Find out more about Whitney at: whitneyjohnson.com 

The Disrupt Yourself wth Whitney Johnson podcast is on Spotify at: open.spotify.com/show/7cn2cgc34znzwPkkwH58sQ 

The Grieg piece that Ross G mentioned was 'Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op 16': youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yoyz6_Los 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G discussed 'What Can TV Teach L&D? - Star Wars', by friend-of-the-show Tom Hickmore: youtube.com/watch?v=42aDTxlmklY 

Whitney discussed Emma Seppälä's insight that happiness impacts three degrees of separation away from the happy person. You can see her TEDx talk at: youtube.com/watch?v=WZvUppaDfNs 

And Ross D asked 'are gimmicky airline safety videos putting passengers in danger?': wired.co.uk/article/korean-air-k-pop-safety-video-superm 

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.

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• Ross G - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross D - @RossDickieMT
• Whitney Johnson - @JohnsonWhitney

Digital learning content offers a scalable, always-on option to help your people build their skills and overcome workplace challenges. But often these libraries get dusty, bogged down by out-of-date content with little relevance, or hidden away in a dark corner of the intranet where no one can find them. 

So in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Virgin Money’s Martin Ritchie, Digital Learning Manager, joins Ross Garner and Lara to share:

• How Virgin Money raise awareness of their Mind Tools content library 

• Techniques for promoting a proactive learning mindset 

• ‘Push’ vs ‘pull’ learning. 

During the discussion, Ross referenced a recent academic paper: Albarracín, D., Fayaz-Farkhad, B., & Granados Samayoa, J. A. (2024). Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1-16. 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross discussed ‘pebbling’, as covered by The Guardian. 

For more on how Mind Tools work with Virgin Money, see our case study. 

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. 

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

• Ross Garner 

• Lara Kidd 

• Martin Ritchie 

Interactive checklists, immersive VR games, bitesized elearning and so many possibilities in between. Learning designers are spoilt for choice when it comes to interventions. How to choose the "right" one? 

Gemma, along with Tracey, Sean and David  from the Mind Tools Custom team discuss:

• what we mean by interventions 
• who and what to take into account when making a decision
• examples of interventions and the decisions that led to them.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Sean referenced the tinniest mammal, the bumblebee bat. You can read more about it here: guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/70467-smallest-mammal

David's nifty keyboard shortcuts: renaming a file = select file > F2; deleting a file = select file > shift DEL.

Tracey talked about her visit to Loch Garten. You can find out more about the flora and fauna at this magical place here, rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/loch-garten/

Gemma mentioned Yester Castle and the army of goblins that built and now haunt it. Wikipedia expands on the myth here wikipedia.org/wiki/Yester_Castle 

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.

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• Tracey McDonald - @TraceyMcDonald
• Sean Brown - @SeanBrownHRTech
• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey

You'll find David on LinkedIn - David Sharkey 

• the importance of values for retaining talent and attracting customers
• how an organisation's values are shaped
• whether 'values training' has any benefits.

For tickets to our live show in London, on the evening of May 4, see: eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-show-mind-tools-300th-podcast-episode-tickets-315236830847 

For more on the 'Theory of Basic Human Values', see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Basic_Human_Values

For more on the 'Great Resignation', see: theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/04/great-resignation-quitting-us-unemployment-economy 

If you were curious about HP's values and mission, see: hp.com/uk-en/hp-information.html 

For more from Nathalie, see: nathalienahai.com

Identify, develop and communicate your organisation's with 'The Values Map': thevaluesmap.com

Find out more about Nathalie's book, Business Unusual, at: businessunusualthebook.com

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross referenced episode 268: open.spotify.com/episode/5wSAM8zTPvKlAIkkSoKB8Z, where he discussed Ezra Klein's podcast episode 'A Crypto Optimist Meets a Crypto Skeptic': nytimes.com/2021/10/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-katie-haun.html

He's now followed that up with another Ezra Klein episode, 'A Viral Case Against Crypto, Explored': nytimes.com/2022/04/05/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-dan-olson.html

For Dan Olson's YouTube video 'Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs', see: youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g

Larry David's FTX commercial, 'Don't Miss Out on Crypto' is here: youtube.com/watch?v=BH5-rSxilxo

The struggle to sell an NFT of Jack Dorsey's first ever tweet is online at: bbc.co.uk/news/business-61102759

Find Neil deGrasse Tyson on Instagram at: instagram.com/neildegrassetyson

The book Ross recommended was Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, by Jonathan White: amazon.co.uk/Tides-Science-Spirit-Jonathan-White/dp/1595348050

For some insight into the effect that oysters have on sex, see: smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/are-oysters-aphrodisiac-180962148/ 

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.

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Nathalie Nahai - @NathalieNahai

These are the kind of questions we're exploring on this weeks episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, as we dig into this year's 'Learner Intelligence' report.

Ross G, Owen and our own Dr Anna Barnett discuss:

• how work across industries has changed since the start of the pandemic
• how learner challenges vary from in-person to remote
• positive shifts in workplace learning during the pandemic.

The 'Learner Intelligence' report will be available from mindtoolsbusiness.com next week.

For tickets to our live show in London, on the evening of May 4, see: eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-show-mind-tools-300th-podcast-episode-tickets-315236830847 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed DALL·E 2, an AI system that creates images from natural language: openai.com/dall-e-2

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.

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Dr Anna Barnett - @DrAnnaBarnett
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson

In a first for The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we are coming to you this week LIVE FROM THE METAVERSE. Gemma, Mike, Jonathan and Claire met in Horizon Workrooms to discuss:

• what it feels like to meet in VR
• applications of VR that go beyond health and safety training
• which VR experiences are meaningful, and which are still 'fluff'.

The VR experiences discussed were:

• Richie's Plank (oculus.com/experiences/quest/1642239225880682/)
• Bodyswaps (bodyswaps.co)
• Training for nuclear plant employees (ans.org/news/article-3164/virtual-reality-in-the-nuclear-community)
• The National Autistic Society's Too Much Information experience (autism.org.uk/shop/products/merchandise/too-much-information-virtual-reality-headset)
• VirtualSpeech (virtualspeech.com)

In 'What I Learned This Week', Jonathan discussed the 'Mandela Effect'. Are you living in an alternate reality? telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/20/are-you-living-in-an-alternate-reality-welcome-to-the-wacky-worl

And Gemma discussed ptarmigans: wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/grouse-partridges-pheasant-and-quail/ptarmigan 

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.

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• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Mike Shaw - @MikeShawLD
• Claire Gibson - @ClaireIsDigital
• Jonathan Hancock - @J_B_Hancock

In this podcast, you'll learn:

• what learning outcomes are
• how to write learning outcomes
• and why presenting outcomes as a bulleted list is boring at best, and ineffective at worst.

But seriously, this week join Ross D, Ross G, Tracey and Sean as they explore the characteristics of good learning outcomes and their connection to business objectives.

For more on this topic, see Dr Will Thalheimer's blog 'Rethinking Instructional Objectives': worklearning.com/2013/05/13/rethinking-instructional-objectives/

For more on 'advance organizers', see: Gurlitt, J. (2012). Advance organizer. Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning, 148-151. Online at: link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_157

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G discussed the Peter Principle, and why there are so many bad bosses. Check out Freakonomics for details: freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-there-so-many-bad-bosses/ 

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.

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

• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Tracey McDonald - @TraceyMcDonald
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Sean Brown - @SeanBrownHRTech

What are L&D practitioners excited about in 2022? Will we be drawn to bright, shiny objects like skills-based talent management? Or will we continue to focus on the lasting impact of Covid-19?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Donald Taylor to discuss the results of this year's Global Sentiment Survey. We cover:

• the headline takeaways from the report
• regional differences in the data
• the long shadow of the pandemic
• predictions for the future

To find out more about the Global Sentiment Survey, head to Don's website: https://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/research_base/global-sentiment-survey-2022/

In WILTW, Owen mentioned the rise of the email newsletter platform Substack: https://substack.com/

Ross D talked about 'steam bending', a woodworking technique his friend Alice Dudgeon uses to create artwork: https://www.alicedudgeon.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.

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

• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Donald Taylor @DonaldHTaylor

We discuss:

• What curiosity is
• What stops us being curious at work
• How we can develop our curiosity.

For more from Stefaan, including access to his free diagnostic, visit: globalcuriosityinstitute.com 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross shared fun Mad Hatter facts from the 'Killer Fashion' episode of podcast The Rest is History: play.acast.com/s/the-rest-is-history-podcast/158-lethal-fashion 

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 here's a thing! The free Learning Performance Benchmark is now open for another season. If you're curious to benchmark your learning function against other organisations, check it out now: 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 Ferugson - @OwenFerguson
• Stefaan van Hooydonk - @StefaanVanHooyd

Why do learning professionals tell stories? How do we tell them to greatest effect? And where can we find them?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Ross D find answers to these questions with the help of instructional designer, learning strategist and author Hadiya Nurridin.

We discuss:

• Where stories are more effective than 'telling it straight'
• How to identify the stories that you can share
• How to help others find and craft their stories.

For more from Hadiya, visit: duetslearning.com 

Or check out her book, StoryTraining: Selecting and Shaping Stories That Connect.

For more on the #KyivNotKiev campaign, see: wikipedia.org/wiki/KyivNotKiev

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.

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• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Hadiya Nuriddin - @HadiyaNuriddin

Today is International Women's Day and we're celebrating it in partnership with Working Chance, a UK-based charity set up to help women with criminal convictions to find jobs. Today on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Nahdia talk to Helen Sweet, Head of Employability at Working Chance. We discuss:

• Employability barriers facing women with convictions
• What the Employability Programme comprises
• How you can support Working Chance

To go directly to Working Chance's BIG GIVE campaign for International Women’s Day, please visit workingchance.org/IWD You can also find out more about Working Chance via its social media channels: instagram.com/working_chance

twitter.com/WorkingChance

facebook.com/workingchance

Nahdia's discovery about our changing sleep patterns came from "The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'" article from the BBC. You can read it by following this link bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep

Gemma's bog factoid came from the Scottish Wildlife Trust's 50 for the Future publication. The 'Peatland blanket bogs' article is online at scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/2015/10/50-for-the-future-peatland-blanket-bogs/

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.

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

• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan

Today on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma, Ross G, Ross D and Sean look at how nudge theory can be applied to workplace learning. We discuss:

• What nudge theory is
• How understanding learner context helps us identify nudges
• Criticisms of nudge theory.

The book we based most of this discussion on has just been revised. Check out the latest version of Nudge here: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300262285/nudge 

We also referenced Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman: wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow 

We mentioned Dan Pink's Drive: danpink.com/books/drive 

And Deci and Ryan on 'Self Determination Theory': wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory 

If you want to hand over cash to help you make commitments, then stickK offers this service: stickk.com (We've never tried it, so this isn't an endorsement).

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G discussed The Book of Boba Fett, now streaming on Disney+. For more on spinning space stations, you nerds, check out: wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_wheel_space_station 

And Gemma discussed her experience of Julie Drybrugh's Write Nights: fuchsiablueblog.wordpress.com/write-nights-at-fuchsia-blue/ 

Julie joined us to discuss writing back in episode 278. You'll find that episode in this podcast feed.

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
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Sean Brown - @SeanBrownHRTech

In ‘Measure of a Man', episode nine of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Enterprise crew debate whether their robot companion, Data, is truly alive. More interesting for us, though, is the way they interact with artificial intelligence (AI) in general. Not just for what it tells us about how AI tools might evolve, but also for how we humans work with them.

So in this special episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Ganer, Claire, Ross Dick and Nahdia discuss:

·       How closely the Enterprise computer reflects current tools like ChatGPT,

·       Whether we want robots to work alongside us,

·       Whether the Turing Test still has relevance.

During the discussion, Ross Garner talked about how Moderna is using ChatGPT, how ELIZA passed the Turing Test, and the ongoing discussion around whether ChatGPT’s new voice is too similar to Scarlett Johansson’s.

Ross D discussed Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, Brian Christian’s book The Alignment Problem, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s views on neural networks.

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Nahdia recommended the movie Atlas, available on Netflix.

Ross Garner recommended following visual effects artist Todd Vaziri.

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

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner

·       Nahdia Khan

·       Ross Dickie

·       Claire Gibson

Is 'education' a liberating force that prepares children for a rapidly changing world? Or a system of control that kills their enthusiasm for learning.

On this week's Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Ross D are joined by Patrick Cootes, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Mindstone, to debate. We discuss:

• Traditional perspectives on education
• The purpose of education
• How systems reinforce one another.

During the discussion, Ross D mentioned a podcast segment about students who wondered what it would be like to live on the moon. This was a reference to The Ezra Klein Show: nytimes.com/2022/02/11/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-johann-hari.html 

Ross G referenced the Freakonomics episode 'Freakonomoics goes to college: Part 1': freakonomics.com/podcast/freakonomics-goes-to-college-part-1 

And research from Pew: pewresearch.org/social-trends/2011/05/15/chapter-5-the-monetary-value-of-a-college-education 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D shared the story of Lena Forsen, covered by Wired: wired.com/story/finding-lena-the-patron-saint-of-jpegs

And the story of Shirley Page, covered by 99% Invisible: 99percentinvisible.org/episode/shirley-cards 

Ross G shared trivia from the Martin Scorsese film Casino: imdb.com/title/tt0112641/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

For more from Patrick, see: mindstone.com

Patrick has also written about education at: medium.com/@patrick_85173/the-future-of-learning-3196b05452a3 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Patrick Cootes - @MindstoneHQ | LinkedIn

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Nahdia are joined by branding expert Professor Doctor Jonathan Wilson to explore these questions. We discuss:

• personal branding
• the benefits of building a brand
• the effort required to connect with your audience.

For more from Jonathan, see: drjonwilson.com

Jonathan offers a course on personal branding at: futurelearn.com/experttracks/developing-your-personal-brand

The book Ross mentioned, by Dorie Clark, was Stand Out: dorieclark.com/books

In 'What I Learned This Week', Nahdia discussed research from McKinsey into 'The rise of the inclusive consumer': mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-rise-of-the-inclusive-consumer

Jonathan shared Jason Bell and Osi Umenyiora of The NFL Show discussing racism in hiring practices: linkedin.com/posts/drjonwilson_black-coaches-have-to-be-great-and-it-is-activity-6896410129554554880-fuyX

See more at: linkedin.com/posts/drjonwilson_flores-sues-nfl-teams-in-racism-claim-activity-6894754539036061696-khgA 

Jon also discussed the ongoing Joe Rogan backlash. See: linkedin.com/posts/drjonwilson_what-the-joe-rogan-backlash-reveals-about-activity-6894645124333133824-LtY7

And: edition.cnn.com/2022/02/05/media/joe-rogan-racial-slur-apology-india-arie/index.html

Ross discussed Allison Robicelli's night at Chicago O'Hare airport: washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/01/11/ohare-airport-things-to-do

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan
• Jonathan Wilson - @DrJonWilson | LinkedIn

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ger Driesen joins Ross G and Owen to explore what's possible. We discuss:

• what the metaverse(s) is(are)
• how blockchain and NFTs can shape the metaverse economy
• whether your digital avatar needs to look like your physical body.

See Facebook's announcement about their rebrand as 'Meta' at: about.fb.com/news/2021/10/facebook-company-is-now-meta/

Owen referenced Moxie Marlinspike's blog post on web3: moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html

The 'let the tiger eat me' anecdote was taken from: futurism.com/neoscope/vr-injuries

For a longer discussion on blockchain, with Ger, see our earlier episode 'Blockchain for L&D (Yes, really!)': podcast.goodpractice.com/96-blockchain-for-ld-yes-really 

For 'How to Troll an NFT Owner', see: slate.com/technology/2021/11/nft-image-ownership-right-clicking-saving-copying-trolling.html

Mike Howard, of Oculus, has described the difficulty of creating a digital avatar at: tech.fb.com/avatars-the-art-and-science-of-social-presence/ 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed criticism of Johann Hari's latest book. See: twitter.com/StuartJRitchie/status/1480219761824915461 

You can find out more about Hari at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari

Ger shared his thoughts on 'labyrinthitis'.

And Ross discussed survey results on what a 'dream job' looks like: rajaworkplace.co.uk/dream-job 

You can find more from Ger on LinkedIn and at: anewspring.com/author/ger 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Ger Driesen - @GerDriesen

In The Business of Race, authors Gina Greenlee and Margaret Greenberg argue that the workplace is the ideal place to talk about race, racism, and anti-racism. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, they join Ross G and Nahdia to explain why. We discuss:

• opportunities for teachable moments
• the moral case vs business case for racial equity
• the reasons to separate conversations about racial diversity from other diversity initiatives.

Show notes

Find out more about The Business of Race, including links to order a copy, at: businessofrace.com 

The LinkedIn page is: linkedin.com/company/the-business-of-race 

The Facebook page is: facebook.com/businessofrace 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Nahdia discussed the Edelman Trust Barometer 2022, online at: edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2022-01/2022%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report_Final.pdf 

Gina shared Akala's Oxford Union address, available online at: youtube.com/watch?v=WUtAxUQjwB4 

Akala's website is: akalamusic.com 

Margaret recommended The Winternight Trilogy, from Katherine Arden: katherinearden.com 

And Ross discussed 'The accessibility stalemate', by Christian Heilmann: christianheilmann.com/2021/07/20/the-accessibility-stalemate 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan
• Gina Greenlee - @TheGinaGreenlee / LinkedIn
• Margaret Greenberg - LinkedIn

What is it about writing that fires up our souls? And, for those who hate it, is there any hope?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Ross D and Gemma are joined by friend-of-the-show Julie Drybrough to answer these questions.

We discuss:

• writing for work, fun and reflection
• techniques to spark creativity
• how writing in groups can give you more freedom.

Show notes

Details of Julie's 'Write Nights' series can be found on her blog at: fuchsiablueblog.wordpress.com/write-nights-at-fuchsia-blue 

Details of Dr James Pennebaker's 'writing to heal' are online at: emotionalaffair.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Writing-to-Heal.pdf 

See also: Pennebaker, J. W. (1999). Health effects of expressing emotions through writing.

And, from Positive Psychology: positivepsychology.com/learned-optimism 

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D shared that he'd started taking notes with Evernote: evernote.com 

Gemma discussed the VR app 'Notes on Blindness', based on the film of the same name: notesonblindness.co.uk/vr 

And Ross discussed The Paper Sky, by Eleanor Mansell: canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781848257672/the-paper-sky 

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Julie Drybrough - @Fuchsia_Blue

By some measures, the last two years have seen a surge in demand for consumer learning platforms like Masterclass, CreativeLive and Skillshare. Often, these platforms position themselves as an alternative to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Is this part of a broader trend towards learning as entertainment? If so, what does that mean for learning in the workplace? 

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

• whether there truly is increased demand for 'edutainment'
• the difference between entertainment and 'fun'
• the role of entertainment in the design of workplace learning

Show notes

At the start of this week's show, Ross G challenged the premise of Ross D's opening question by citing data from the ONS. You can find these data here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/satelliteaccounts/bulletins/coronavirusandhowpeoplespenttheirtimeunderrestrictions/28marchto26april2020

In WILTW, Ross D recommended Stuart Russell's Reith Lectures on artificial intelligence: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001216k/episodes/player

The Netflix series Nahdia mentioned was School of Chocolate: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81207686

Ross G discussed the history of the burpee, created by Royal Huddleston Burpee Sr. You can find out more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise)

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
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Nahdia Khan - @_nahdia_khan 

Five years of this podcast, listening to his co-hosts ramble enthusiastically about the same tired old topics, had left him jaded and disillusioned with the industry he once loved.

And so I say again, that Owen was miserable to begin with. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate...

Starring:

• Ross Garner as Charles Dickens (@RossGarnerMT)
•   Owen Ferguson in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (@OwenFerguson)
•   Peter Casebow as the Ghost of Christmas Past (@PeterCasebow)
• Gemma Towersey as the Ghost of Christmas Present (@GemmaTowersey)
• Ross Dickie as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (@RossDickieMT)
• And Hollywood’s Jimmy Stewart as Bob Cratchit

Show notes

In 'What I Learned This Christmas', Peter shared details of a trip he went on with photographer Andy Howard: andyhoward.co.uk 

Gemma shared an episode of Matthew Syed's podcast Sideways on 'Oostvaardersplassen: A Wild Idea': bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012fp4 

Ross D shared how 'video on-demand' changed the way we think, from the book 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think: amazon.co.uk/1001-Ideas-that-Changed-Think/dp/1844037509 

And Ross G shared the article 'No chips, no problem: Why old video games are better than news one', from Justin Heckert in The Economist's 1843 Magazine: economist.com/1843/2021/11/24/no-chips-no-problem-why-old-video-games-are-better-than-new-ones 

We'll be back on January 11. Until then, you can find our back catalogue of podcasts at 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.

From everyone at Mind Tools, we'd like to thank you for listening to us for a whole other year! And if you'd like to thank us, please do leave us a review. Preferably five stars.

Merry Christmas!

Recent announcements from Facebook and Microsoft have brought the 'metaverse' into the mainstream. But what actually is the metaverse, and what are its implications for the way we live, work, and learn?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D, Owen and Ross G discuss:

• what 'metaverse' means, and how it's different from VR or AR
• how it might change the world of work, both positively and negatively
• how it might be applied to digital learning

Show notes

The song Ross D mentioned was Total Entertainment Forever by Father John Misty.

In WILTW, Ross G referenced a recent conversation on the Slate Political Gabfest podcast, focusing on predictions made in a 1997 article from Wired magazine. You can find out more at: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wired-1997-predictions/

The podcast Ross D recommended was 'The Exponent', including a recent episode titled 'Forecasting the Metaverse'.

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
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

To solve a complex problem, should we ask a single genius or tap into our networks? It's a question that's answered by Matthew Syed in his book Rebel Ideas: The power of diverse thinking. 

In this episode, Nahdia, Owen, Ross G and Gemma gather to contemplate the book.

We discuss:

• what rebel ideas are
• diversity and its benefits (and what we lose when we don't have it)
• practical ways to harness collective intelligence.

Show notes

In WILTW, Owen shared his finding of an animated introduction to machine learning. You can experience this visual explanation here: http://www.r2d3.us/visual-intro-to-machine-learning-part-1/

Ross mentioned watching the documentary The Beatles: Get back. You can stream this on Disney+.

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. 

Finally, you have until the end of the year to complete the Learning Performance Benchmark. Get started now at: 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
• Nahdia Khan @NahdiaKhan
• Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey

What are the challenges of managing a team who are sometimes present and sometimes not? How do we make sure hybrid working is inclusive? Is a hybrid meeting - that's effective for everyone - actually possible?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, speaker and writer Gary Cookson joins Ross G and Owen to share insights from his research.

We discuss:

• what hybrid working is
• the hybrid working challenges faced by employees, managers and organisations
• strategies for developing networks within organisations

Show notes

For background, see 'Most people in the UK did not work from home in 2020, says ONS' at:  theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/home-working-doubled-during-uk-covid-pandemic-last-year-mostly-in-london 

And, from the ONS: 'Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights: Work 19 November 2021' at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/work#homeworking 

Gary's book will be published by Kogan Page in June 2022. You can find him at: epichr.co.uk/ 

In WILTW, Owen discussed how Google has made us feel overconfident: Ward, A. F. (2021). People mistake the internet’s knowledge for their own. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(43). Available online at: pnas.org/content/118/43/e2105061118 

This paper is discussed at: phys.org/news/2021-10-online-overconfident.html 

Ross shared insights into the Sheldon Spectrum, covered by Wired at: wired.co.uk/article/ocean-creature-size 

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 Garner @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Gary Cookson @Gary_Cookson

We humans are social creatures. We form organic communities wherever we go, based on shared interests, passions and needs.

But when we try to impose top-down learning communities on an employee population, things get more difficult. Is it possible for L&D to create a flourishing community?

In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Nahdia Khan are joined by Andy Lancaster, author of Organizational Learning Communities, who offers a framework that can help.

We discuss:

·       Types of workplace learning community

·       The key characteristics of successful communities

·       A framework that you can use to establish an effective community

Andy’s book is available now from Kogan Page.

During the discussion, Ross mentioned our podcast with JD Dillon and his book The Modern Learning Ecosystem.

Ross also referenced our podcast on Working Out Loud Circles, from way back in 2017.

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Nahdia recommended the ‘Women in Learning’ community.

Ross discussed the weird way language affects our sense of space and time.

For more from Andy, visit reminaginepeopledevelopment.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. 

Or become a member to support our show! Visit mindtools.com

Finally, it wouldn’t be appropriate to plug Ross G’s critically acclaimed debut novel Centauri’s Shadow on a regular basis but, since Andy brought it up, it’s available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. It has 4.8 stars out of 5, by the way.

Connect with our speakers   

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

·       Ross Garner

·       Nahdia Khan

·       Andy Lancaster

We're used to dilemmas: Do I take path A or path B? But in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we rally against binary thinking with the 'tetralemma'.

This 3,000-year-old model for decision making has real-world applications today, and author, coach and TEDx speaker Lior Locher joins us to explain why.

Lior, Ross G and Owen discuss:

• the difference between binary and non-binary thinking
• examples of non-binary thinking in practice
• applications of the tetralemma at work.

Show notes

For more on the tetralemma, see Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetralemma

Andreas Schoetz also has a fascinating blog on the topic: linkedin.com/pulse/tetralemma-3000-year-old-method-21st-century-andreas-schoetz/ 

And Lior has written about non-binary thinking at: liorlocher.me/2019/12/08/how-to-unblock-either-or-thinking/ 

In WILTW, Owen discussed the metaverse: stratechery.com/2021/microsoft-and-the-metaverse/

And he shared details from NVIDIA's keynote: blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/11/09/nvidia-ceo-accelerated-computing-ai-omniverse-avatars-robots-gtc/

Ross discussed an episode of The Exponent podcast, where the hosts discussed the metaverse: exponent.fm/episode-196-forecasting-the-metaverse/ 

Lior discussed Peter Davidson's book: The Idea of North: reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781861892300 

For more from Lior, see: liorlocher.me

Lior's books The DIY Phoenix (amazon.co.uk/dp/B094YPXRDN) and Values-based (amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RNGQQNH) are both available now.

Lior's TEDx talk is online at: ted.com/talks/lior_locher_what_we_lose_through_binary_thinking_and_what_to_do_instead 

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 Garner @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Lior Locher @ChristineLocher

How can we make our jobs 1% - or even 2% - better? According to Rob Baker, the answer is 'job crafting'.

Stemming from his work in positive psychology, Rob suggests individuals and teams improve their working lives by taking ownership of their roles and making small changes that have an impact.

He joins Ross G and Owen to discuss:

• the emerging field of positive psychology
• what job crafting looks like in practice
• how L&D and HR teams can promote job crafting.

Show notes

Rob talked about job crafting in his TEDx talk here: youtube.com/watch?v=hz71mDMaVJc 

His website is: tailoredthinking.co.uk 

In WILTW, Owen discussed the paper: Yang, L., Holtz, D., Jaffe, S., Suri, S., Sinha, S., Weston, J., ... & Teevan, J. (2021). The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers. Nature human behaviour, 1-12. Available online at: nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4 

Ross discussed the website lolmythesis.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 on Twitter: 

• Ross Garner @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Rob Baker @BakerRJM

In this episode, we're delving into research focused on emotional wellbeing at work. Conducted by the Emotion at Work team, we discuss the findings and what they mean for how we can support and boost our mental health.

Gemma T and Nahdia are joined by Phil Wilcox of Emotion at Work to discuss:

• the research aims and methodology 
• the results and insights
• what we can do to support our own and others' wellbeing

Show notes

The research report is due to be published at the end of November. It'll be available via the Emotion at Work Community, which you can sign up to here: https://community.emotionatwork.co.uk/signup  

You can find out more about Emotion at Work by visiting the website: https://emotionatwork.co.uk/ 

Nahdia referenced McKinsey article "'Great Attrition' or 'Great Attraction'? The choice is yours." You can find it here: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours 

Gemma mentioned the book Ten Types of Human by Dexter Dias. You can find a copy through all good booksellers.

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
• Nahdia Khan @nahdiakhan 
• Phil Wilcox @emotionat_work