The Mindtools L&D Podcast

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

The podcast explores the benefits of storytelling in learning, examples of effective storytelling at work, and opportunities with new technologies. They also discuss repairing electronics, the history of measuring ship speed in knots, and recommend a book for designing better multiple-choice questions.

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 

Discussion on problems with one-off learning events and techniques to ensure greater impact. Exploration of embedding learning in workplaces and fostering effective learning environments. Insights on leadership involvement in promoting continuous learning and personalized approaches. Fun facts about Lego, tires, and a polygon with 65,537 sides. Practical applications of mathematical concepts in medical interventions and interactive problem-solving workshops at a conference.

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. 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

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