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 

Owen was miserable, to begin with. There is no doubt about that. Oh! But he was a long-suffering, data driven, learning-style hating, old L&D practitioner. 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'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/  In WILTW, Phil recommended Elizabeth River's PhD thesis entitled, "Navigating emotionally demanding work: a narrative study of HR practitioners' experiences". You can download a PDF of the full thesis here: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/navigating-emotionally-demanding-work-a-narrative-study-of-hr-pra 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 

Back in Episode 244, Ross G, Owen, Carrie and Gent discussed the value of benchmarking, as we prepared to launch the Learning Performance Benchmark. A few months on, we thought it would be worth hearing what benchmarking looks like in practice. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gent are joined by James Hampton from Seasalt Cornwall to discuss: the insights Seasalt Cornwall have unlocked through the benchmarking process the action they have taken in response to those insights the value of the Learning Performance Benchmark as a recurring, long-term process advice for learning professionals who are considering benchmarking for the first time Show notes You can find out more about the Learning Performance Benchmark at: mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark  In WILTW, Gent mentioned the book Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. You can find a copy through all good booksellers. James' article is called In Pursuit of a Learning Organisation. You can find it here: linkedin.com/pulse/pursuit-learning-organisation-james-hampton-flpi-1f/ 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 Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj James Hampton @ActiveODcoach