The Mindtools L&D Podcast

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. 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 Whitney Johnson - @JohnsonWhitney

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. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Tracey McDonald - @TraceyMcDonald Sean Brown - @SeanBrownHRTech Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey You'll find David on LinkedIn - David Sharkey     

What are your organisation's values? How were they shaped? And what impact do they have on your future? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Ross D discuss these issues with speaker, consultant and author Nathalie Nahai. We discuss: 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. 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 Nathalie Nahai - @NathalieNahai

How and where have people been working over the past 12 months? What barriers to learning have they faced? And how have perceptions of workplace learning shifted? 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. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: 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. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: 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. Connect with our speakers 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. 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 Donald Taylor @DonaldHTaylor

Is curiosity a trait that we have, or a muscle we can build? To find out, Owen and Ross G are joined this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast by Stefaan van Hooydonk of the Global Curiosity Institute. 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. 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 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. 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