The Mind Tools L&D Podcast is a must-listen for anyone involved in Learning and Development or Human Resources. The weekly show features regular appearances from the Mind Tools team plus special guests to get right to the heart of issues affecting the L&D and HR communities. From learning needs analysis and evidence-based practice through to the impact of technology on work and hot topics at industry conferences, you'll get critical insights into the world of work, performance and learning.
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Technical professionals have a high level of expertise, but translating that expertise for non-technical colleagues isn’t always straightforward. Whether you’re an engineer, a researcher, or even an L&D professional, how can you communicate in a way that resonates with your audience? This week on the Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are join…
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408 — Early careers: What if we teach them and they leave?
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This week we’re revisiting an old adage: The employer who says, ‘What if we train our people and they leave?’ And the trainer who says, ‘What if we don't and they stay?’ As Talent Development Manager for Kew Green Hotels, Clare Sheppard knows all about this. She’s responsible for helping those who want to stay progress in their careers, while givin…
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407 — Revisiting 70:20:10: From learning to performance
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Last week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen explored how the 70:20:10 model is being applied by three L&D Practitioners: Ceri Sharples, Cath Addis, and Carl Akintola-Davis. Today, we wanted to follow up on some of the challenges posed during that discussion with The 70:20:10 Institute’s Charles Jennings. What does it really mean to 'in…
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406 — Revisiting 70:20:10: Theory into practice
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Depending how you count it, 70:20:10 is almost 40 years old. The model provides a high-level outline of how we learn at work: 10% through formal learning, 20% through working with others, 70% through doing the work. The numbers get criticised, but this insight is widely accepted: Most of what we learn does not come from formal training. But how the…
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405 — What’s in your book bag this summer?
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A summer holiday holds the potential for distraction-free reading. With that in mind, in this week’s episode our podcast team suggest books that hold lessons for L&D practitioners. Which might you take on holiday this summer? Book list Right Kind of Wrong. Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive (2023) by Amy Edmondson www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Ki…
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According to a recent study from Ipsos, and commissioned by Amazon, 86% of respondents said that career development is essential, very or fairly important to them. But, in our experience, it tends to become a lot less important when the day-to-day demands of work crop up. So, in this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, return guest Neil J…
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403 — How do we support more experienced managers?
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In part three of our #BuildingBetterManagers series, Ross Garner and Nahdia Khan are joined for one last time by Dr Anna Barnett from the Mind Tools Insights team. If you’ve been listening along recently, we’ve already covered the capabilities that make a ‘good’ manager, and how we can develop them. In this week’s episode, we’re looking at how we s…
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Last week, we kicked off our three-part #BuildingBetterManagers series with an overview of the 12 capabilities that we know make a difference to performance. Now we’re asking: How do we help managers build those capabilities? To answer this question, Ross G and Ross D are joined once again by Dr Anna Barnett, from the Mind Tools Insights team, to d…
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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 …
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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 Peo…
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399 — How to build engagement with your content libraries
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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 Pod…
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398 — Star Trek Special: The future of AI
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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 fo…
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397 — Do organizational learning communities ever work?
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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 …
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396 — Applying the COM-B model for behavior change
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In learning and development, we typically want people to do something that they are currently not doing, or to stop doing something that they shouldn't be. One obvious approach is training, but there are in fact a broad spectrum of interventions that we can deploy. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Owen are joined by Wi…
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395 — Once upon a time: Data-based storytelling in L&D
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As professionals, we want to know if our work has had the impact we originally intended and to tell others about it. This means getting comfortable with data and crafting compelling data stories. On this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G is joined by Neil Cunningham, founder of Align | Learn | Do and author of Narratives and Numbers, to…
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394 — Burn your bullsh*t in a bonfire moment
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You’ve got a brilliant idea for the next big thing in tech and have gathered the smartest engineers and designers to build it (plus the cash to pay them). Will it end up being a success? You’ve got the best team to deliver it, so why wouldn’t it be? Well… Gemma, Ross and Martin Gonzalez, Google’s Effective Founders Project founder and author, discu…
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If you’re thinking, isn’t positive psychology a bit ‘woo woo’, and a bit like forcing yourself to take a sunny outlook, then this episode is for you. As an approach to a happier, more balanced inner and outer life, positive psychology is not woo – it has a solid scientific foundation with practical methodologies. Gemma, Ross Garner and their guest,…
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392 — Adaptive vs linear courses: Which performs better?
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Adaptive courses come in many forms, but generally respond to the learner’s existing knowledge and skills: thereby optimizing the time to completion. But do they improve learning outcomes? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by Roy de Vries, Learning Innovator at aNewSpring, to explore the results of an …
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391 — Knock out your tasks with timeboxing
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Timeboxing means dividing your day into 15-60 minute slots, based on your priorities, and then sticking to those slots as you dive into the business of work. If that sounds great, it is. If it sounds easy, it isn’t. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, author Marc Zao-Sanders joins Ross G to give him advice on timeboxing his life. …
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As learning designers, we’re ultimately in the business of trying to help people build new connections in their brains. To do this effectively, we need to have a fundamental understanding of how the brain works. But how far down the neuroscience rabbit hole do we need to go? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Dickie and Ross…
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As a conversation approach and development tool, coaching is a highly effective option for everyone – not just the executive suite. Professional coaches are expensive, so how can large organisations give all of their employees the chance to be coached and for coaching conversations to be the norm? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemm…
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Whether you’re delivering workshops, speaking at conferences, presenting to senior leaders, or even hosting L&D’s favorite podcast, public speaking is a critical skill for learning professionals. So how do you develop this skill, and how do you manage your nerves when speaking publicly? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D a…
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387 — Bringing spaced practice into workplace learning
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One-off learning interventions are frequently the ‘go to’ solution for workplace learning teams, but we know that spaced repetition and retrieval practice are more effective. How do we get past organizational constraints that make this difficult? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Tony Manwani from People Unboxed joins Ross Dicki…
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386 — How do we leverage AI for education?
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Throughout the first few months of this year, we’ve been exploring artificial intelligence for L&D. In episode 377, Donald Taylor gave us the context on the extent to which L&D pros are using AI In episode 379, Ross Steven offered advice for getting started. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Owen were joined by Kacper Lodzikowski, V…
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385 — Building a modern learning ecosystem
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Today’s workplace is one where change is the norm. Learning is critical in this environment, but supporting learning isn’t just about creating content. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, JD Dillon joins Ross Dickie and Ross Garner to discuss his book, The Modern Learning Ecosystem. We cover: Why JD’s book includes ‘learning’ in i…
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384 — What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2024?
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Donald Taylor describes this year’s Global Sentiment Survey as the ‘unsurprising survey’. Predictably, artificial intelligence topped the table by some margin. But the results of this year’s survey still tell us a lot about how L&D perceives itself and the challenges we face as a profession. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Don…
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383 — Designing learning for the charity sector
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While there are often constraints in charity’s learning budgets, it’s actually this limitation that can point the way to more efficient and effective learning design and development. There’s much that the corporate learning world can learn from this. In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Gill Chester, Director of Little …
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382 — You don’t have to talk to add value
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As experts, managers or leaders, we often seek to help others by talking, talking, talking. But what if we didn’t talk and just listened? This week in The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Gemma are joined by Georgie Rudd, an executive coach, to discuss the trials and delights of listening. We explore: · reasons that we don’t listen well · the conse…
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381 — Are you a trusted learning advisor?
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We often hear that learning and development needs a ‘seat at the table’. But how do we get there? How do we build credibility, tackle real issues, and demonstrate value? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast Ross and Owen are joined by author, academic and L&D pro Dr Keith Keating to discuss: Whether L&D are changemakers or order tak…
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380 — A holistic approach to workplace wellbeing
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What does an effective workplace wellbeing strategy look like? For some organizations, it’s fruit boxes and staff discounts. For consultant and author Liggy Webb, it’s a holistic approach that factors in the physical, social, mental, financial, digital, environmental and spiritual health of colleagues. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D P…
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379 — How many Rosses does it take to adopt AI?
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) generally and Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically have been all the rage over the past 12 months. Should you care? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Rosses Garner and Dickie are joined by learning strategist Ross Stevenson to discuss: The current state of AI The extent to which L&D pros should …
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378 — Management development: Doing more with less
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Jackie Kennedy is Learning and Development Lead at London Borough of Camden, where work contexts range from libraries and schools to waste management and social care. How do you develop managers in these diverse contexts, with a public sector budget? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Jackie joins Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson to…
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Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI has seldom been out of the news. Such is the pace of change, it can feel difficult to keep up. But how is L&D actually using this technology? What do learning professionals perceive as the benefits of AI, and what are the barriers to implementation? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, R…
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How much thought does your organization give to the Employee Experience? And what tools can you use to enhance it? In this year’s first episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson are joined by Danny Seals to discuss his new book The Insightful Innovator: How to level up your Employee Experience. We discuss: · The advantage…
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It’s a wrap! In what is traditionally our ‘least listened to’ and ‘most unhinged’ episode of the year, we’re celebrating the festive season with some reflections on the biggest talking point in L&D: the emergence of generative AI. And we’re joined by special guests, ChatGPT (our first AI guest!) and Bedford Falls’ own George Bailey (making his annu…
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BONUS — From the desk of 'The L&D Dispatch' newsletter
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Hey listeners! Here's a fun stocking filler for you: Throughout this year, Rosses D and G have been writing The L&D Dispatch, a weekly newsletter from the Mind Tools Custom team. In this bonus episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we reflect on the effort involved to write a newsletter, the personal benefits we've experienced from doing so, and ho…
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In the past, we’ve always talked about Virtual Reality training in the context of skills that are expensive to learn or dangerous to practice. But Lucie Coudret and the team at Cappfinity are using VR for coaching and leadership development. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson speak with Lucie Coudret…
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373 — What if L&D had a marketing strategy?
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Ever launch a workshop that no one attended or an e-learning module that nobody accessed? It’s surprisingly common: and one reason is that we’re not always great at marketing our L&D initiatives. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Dick and Owen Ferguson seek to reverse this outcome with the help of Ashley Sinclair from MAAS …
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372 — AI Conversations is changing how we practice power skills
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Historically, if you wanted to get better at having difficulty conversations, you had to take part in embarrassing roleplays or actual high-stakes conversations. Now, thanks to generative AI tools like ChatGPT, we can practice in a safe environment with realistic responses and in-the-moment feedback. That’s the premise for ‘AI Conversations’, a new…
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371 — Talk to the Elephant (cause the rider ain’t listening)
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Instructional designer and author Julie Dirksen’s first book, Design for How People Learn, is a core text here at Mind Tools Towers. So we couldn’t wait to speak to her about her follow-up: Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Julie joins Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson to discuss: What J…
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The menopause, a natural transition that women experience, is finally becoming an open discussion topic in more communities. Does this mean that women have the understanding and support they need to thrive during this time of their lives? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by coach Jayne Saul-Paterson, and Nahdia Khan to…
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Healthcare is a difficult environment to work in, where decisions literally mean life or death. Combine that pressure with diverse roles, shift-based workers and difficulty getting time away from the frontline - and you have less-than-ideal conditions to promote learning and career development. So how do you support colleagues if you have an L&D ro…
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In small organisations where everyone knows each other, it’s possible to spot what individuals need and offer tailored health and wellbeing support. But what about organisations with thousands of employees? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Sanaa Khan from Lloyd’s bank and Owen to find out how larger organisations ca…
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367 — Mastering multicultural facilitation
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In our globalised world, we work and learn with people from diverse cultures. How can we facilitate multicultural training, for instance, so that the sessions are not only inclusive, but get the best from everyone. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Gaëlle Watson, director of SyncSkills and our very own Nahdia Khan. We expl…
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In organizations, learning-oriented ‘online communities’ often bring to mind empty forums and unused Yammer groups. But what does a vibrant community of practice look like? And how do you go about building one online? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Ross G are joined by Anamaria Dorgo, founder of L&D Shakers and Hea…
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365 — L&D lessons from customer education
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The Mind Tools L&D Podcast usually focuses on how L&D can help colleagues develop in their careers – but we’re not the only industry with an interest in education. Some of the world’s most exciting tech companies, including Google, Meta and Amazon, use education as a tool to help their customers develop new skills and encourage longer term adoption…
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364 — You have to work with IT. Can we make it easier?
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Have you ever found a learning technology that you were convinced was going to transform your organization, only to have your IT team act as a blocker? Maybe they were being difficult, but maybe you just hadn't involved them early enough? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Jon Baxter, founder of Baxter Thompson Associates, joins Ross Ga…
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This year, at the ATD Conference in San Diego, friend-of-the-show Will Thalheimer asked Ross G what he was working on. Ross replied: ‘Well, how much do you know about Mind Tools?’ To whit Will said: ‘I hardly know anything.’ This astounded Ross. Will has been on our show multiple times, and Ross feels like he talks endlessly about Mind Tools and wh…
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Coaching usually takes a standard format: a series of conversations in which the coachee considers their goals, reflect on how they think and behave, and sets down their intentions. What if the coachee didn’t just talk, but instead used a variety of other medium to express and develop themselves? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast…
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Productivity is traditionally calculated with a simple division: total output / total input. Great for measuring widget production, not so much for gauging how productive a knowledge worker has been. So how do we measure productivity when there isn’t a widget in sight? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Ross Garner are …
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