The Mindtools L&D Podcast

Discussions on the effectiveness of learner surveys, tips on creating actionable survey questions, and why learner surveys can be 'pure sex'. Plus, recommendations on a book and insights on the logistics of 1st and 2nd class stamps by the Post Office.

Can we improve our workplace performance through learning outside of work? Are there benefits to this? How might we go about it?   This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Ross Garner are joined by David Hayden and Steve George, authors of 'Adjacent Learning' to discuss the possibilities and practicalities of learning elsewhere. We cover:   what adjacent learning is   how we can learn purposefully from other places  how can we reflect on what we know and do outside of work that will help inside work?   You can buy the book here:  https://www.koganpage.com/product/adjacent-learning-9781398608238  In WILTW, Ross summarized the findings of a UK-based trial of a four-day working week. You can read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/feb/21/four-day-week-uk-trial-success-pattern  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our Off-the-shelf elearning, and our Custom work.  Connect with our speakers     If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:  Gemma Towersey - @gemmatowersey  Ross Garner - @rossgarnerMT  David Hayden - @HaydenDavidhrd  Steve George can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-george-frsa-assoc-cipd-gmbpss-1a80931b/ 

What do business leaders think about L&D? What do they expect? What’s the reality for L&D? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Nahdia and Anna to discuss our latest Leadership report – Turning pressures into opportunities. We cover: ·       what questions we asked ·       the headline takeaways from this year’s report ·       the practical implications. To read the report in full, download it from our Research reports site: mindtoolsbusiness.com/research-and-reports/turning-pressures-into-opportunities In WILTW, Gemma talked about the three definitions of twilight. You can read more about this on the Royal Museums Greenwich website: rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-dawn-dusk-twilight  Nahdia mentioned a book she’s reading called The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom: amazon.co.uk/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/ For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.   Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: ·       Nadhia Khan - @NahdiaKhan ·       Gemma Towersey - @gemmatowersey ·       Anna Barnett - @drannabarnett

What are L&D practitioners excited about in 2023? Is it the rise of artificial intelligence? Or is it the Metaverse? What about skills-based talent management? Or learning analytics? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D is joined by Donald Taylor to discuss the results of the Global Sentiment Survey 2023. We cover: ·       what the GSS is (and what it isn’t) ·       the headline takeaways from this year’s survey ·       regional differences in the data If you’re interested in reviewing the results of the Global Sentiment Survey, Don shared a breakdown, along with some initial reflections, on his website. donaldhtaylor.co.uk/insight/gss2023-results/ Ross D also shared some of his own reflections on this year’s results in the latest edition of The L&D Dispatch: lddispatch.com/p/local-sentiment-survey In WILTW, Ross D discussed his success propagating a Monstera plant, by following the steps in this article: pottedpixie.com/how-to-propagate-a-monstera-in-water/ For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.   Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: ·       Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT ·       Donald Taylor - @DonaldHTaylor

Explore key questions in choosing a learning platform, spotting 'red flags', and the influence of AI. Learn about ethical concerns in edtech and AI content generation. Discover how OpenAI tackles bias. Get insights on the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.

What do employees and managers care about in 2023? How do we keep them feeling happy, interested and safe? A new report from Reward Gateway offers six human-centred strategies to build strong, resilient teams. So, this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by Chief People Officer Nebel Crowhurst to discuss their findings. We explore: ·       - whether it’s important that your manager ‘cares’ about you ·      -  the role of mental, physical and wellbeing support in engaging employees ·      -  if it’s OK just to turn up and do your job. You can find the full report online at: https://www.rewardgateway.com/hubfs/Resources-eBooks/uk-2023-employee-engagement-trends-report.pdf In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen discussed Mastodon and Mark Gilroy’s YouTube tech reviews: https://www.youtube.com/@ThatMarkGilroy Nebel discussed Australia’s new approach to domestic violence leave: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/family-and-domestic-violence-leave Ross discussed Glasgow City Council’s plans to build a ‘feminist’ city: https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/glasgow-becomes-uks-first-feminist-city-as-town-planning-motion-from-councillor-holly-bruce-passes-3896633 For more from Nebel and Reward Gateway, visit: https://www.rewardgateway.com/uk For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.  And, this week, we’re giving a special shout out to our Learning Performance Benchmark. Not sure how your L&D function is performing? Find out now, for free: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: ·       Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT ·       Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson (or https://mastodon.scot/@owenferguson) ·       Nebel Crowhurst - @HR_Nebel

Ten years ago, Henry Stewart wrote The Happy Manifesto, outlining 10 principles for happier workplaces. Among them: Make your people feel good; Be open and transparent; Celebrate mistakes.  This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Henry joins Gemma and Ross G the relevance of these principles in 2023. Spoiler: They’re even more important.  We discuss:  how the workplace has evolved  the emergence of ‘self-managing organisations’  the factors that stop leaders creating a happy workplace.    During the discussion, Henry recommended the following books:  Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet  Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux  Maverick by Ricardo Semler  No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer    He also mentioned the paper: Edmans, A. (2011). Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial economics, 101(3), 621-640.  actions you can take when budgets are tight  how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today.  In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross discussed the use of cannabis to unlock creativity at work (or not, as it turned out): economist.com/business/2023/01/12/how-to-unlock-creativity-in-the-workplace  The original paper is at: Heng, Y. T., Barnes, C. M., & Yam, K. C. (2022). Cannabis use does not increase actual creativity but biases evaluations of creativity. Journal of Applied Psychology.  Henry discussed neurodiversity, sparking Ross to recommend this Learning Guild article from Judy Katz: learningguild.com/articles/designing-for-autism-adhd-and-more-representing-neurodivergence/?rd=1  For more from Henry, see https://www.happy.co.uk. Or you can contact him at: henry@happy.co.uk  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.    Connect with our speakers     If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:  Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey  Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT  Henry Stewart - @HappyHenry 

With inflation high, and high profile redundancies hitting the headlines, L&D is once again under pressure to demonstrate the value it offers and to have an impact in our organisations. So what can you do if your budget is slashed? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, David James shares his experiences of managing the L&D team at The Walt Disney Company during the 2008 financial crisis.  David is the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning and host of The Learning & Development Podcast, and joins Ross G and Owen to discuss: the impact that recessions and cost savings typically have on L&D actions you can take when budgets are tight how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today. David has also written about this topic for Forbes, which you can read at: forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2023/01/04/heres-how-ld-can-achieve-more-with-less/ During the discussion, David referenced a LinkedIn post from Ross Stevenson, which you can see here: linkedin.com/posts/rstevensonuk_learninganddevelopment-education-humanresources-activity-7019651016069410816-tAGI?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross mentioned a LinkedIn post from Dr Philippa Hardman on ChatGPT for educators. See: linkedin.com/posts/dr-philippa-hardman-057851120_chatgpt-for-educators-a-practical-guide-activity-7020331313136074752-xxik For more from David, see 360learning.com/ or subscribe to his podcast: looop.co/podcast For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.   You can find out more about The Mind Tools Expert Voices Podcast, including where to subscribe, at: https://www.mindtools.com/podcast/ Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson David James - @DavidInLearning

Last week on the show we had James McLuckie join us to share his advice for winning an award, and this week - as we're approaching Oscars season - we thought we'd host our own award show: where the nominees haven't entered, the winners don't get anything, and the only criteria is what we think was interesting or cool in 2022. So, in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Gemma, Nahdia and Owen are going to reveal their winners from the following shortlists: Book of the Year The Business of Race, by Gina Greenlee and Margaret Greenberg Smart Growth, by Whitney Johnson The Digital Mindset, by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley HR for Hybrid Working, by Gary Cookson How to Work Remotely, by Gemma Dale Learning at Speed, by Nelson Sivalingam Decisions Over Decimals, by Paul Magnone, Oded Netzer, Christopher J. Frank The Expectation Effect, by David Robson   Guest of the Year Margaret Greenberg and Gina Greenlee Nathalie Nahai Professor Doctor Jonathan Wilson Oded Netzer Bedford Falls’ own George Bailey   Episode of the Year Christmas Special: Home Alone Halloween Special: Edgar Allan Poe and ‘unity of effect’ in learning design 300 — Celebrating live from London! Live from the Metaverse: VR for learning What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2022?   Technology of the Year ChatGPT The Metaverse Miro Dall-e 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion   Tweet of the Year Elon Musk - Let that sink in Sam Altman - Today we launched Chat GPT Rob Briner - 18 things I think I got wrong in trying to promote evidence based practice Rob Lennon — Everyone's stuck in beginner mode with ChatGPT   L&D Pro of the Year Nelson Sivalingam Ross Dickie Michelle Ockers Donald Clark   During the discussion, Gemma referenced the book Statistics without Tears, from Penguin: penguin.co.uk/books/13568/statistics-without-tears-by-derek-rowntree/9780141987491 In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Gemma recommended the book Cairngorm John, by John Allen: sandstonepress.com/books/cairngorm-john-pb-1 Ross recommended the film Cliffhanger. At Mind Tools, we're continuing to offer 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023. This offer only applies to new custom learning customers and work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply. Contact Ross and Gemma from our Custom team for details: custom@mindtools.com For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf elearning, and our custom work.   Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT     Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan

Industry awards offer a chance to reflect on your work, raise your profile and win some prestige, but they also take a lot of work. So if you’re going to enter, you want to maximise the chances of winning. In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, former co-host James McLuckie of MAPAL joins Ross G and Ross D to share his insights and entrant and judge. We discuss: how the process works advice for structuring your submission how to deliver a persuasive presentation. If you’re interested in entering an award, check out the Learning Technologies Awards (learningtechnologies.co.uk/learning-tech-awards) and the Learning Awards (thelearningawards.com/) For details of Ross D’s recent win, see: mindtoolsbusiness.com/resources/blog/ross-dickie-wins-bronze-learning-technologies-awards-2022 At the top of the show, Ross G referenced the Learning Performance Benchmark, a free tool that can help you take a data-based approach to evaluating your team’s L&D performance. To find out more, visit: mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Ross D recommended Deep Work by Cal Newport: amazon.co.uk/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/0349411905 James discussed #SpedUpSounds and an article from The Guardian: theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/10/sped-up-songs-spotify-youtube-tiktok Ross G recommended Stephen L Chew and William J Cerbin’s article on the need for a theory of how people learn, published by Inside Higher Ed: insidehighered.com/views/2017/12/05/need-theory-learning-opinion Thanks @NeilMosley5 on Twitter for that one. For more from MAPAL, see: mapal-os.com/en/ 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 if you’re looking for help designing digital learning experiences in 2023, why not contact our Custom team at custom@mindtools.com We're offering 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023. This offer only applies to new custom learning customers and work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply.  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 James McLuckie - @JamesMcLuckie