The Mindtools L&D Podcast

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

In some ways, sales enablement has the ultimate success metric - increased sales! So why is sales training so often a 'hard sell' for L&D? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Anderson Hirst, Consulting Director at Kojo Academy, to discuss: the difference between sales training and sales enablement why sales training is so often seen as distinct from other training efforts how to measure the impact of sales training what good sales training looks like advice for small and medium-sized businesses looking to develop their sales teams Show notes In WILTW, Owen mentioned the New Yorker article, 'It's Time to Stop Talking About "Generations"': https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/its-time-to-stop-talking-about-generations Ross D recommended the 'A Crypto Optimist Meets a Crypto Skeptic' episode of the Ezra Klein Show. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about Anderson's work by visiting https://kojoacademy.com/ For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 Ross D and Owen on Twitter: Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson Or you can contact Anderson by searching 'Anderson Hirst' on LinkedIn.  

As a concept, spaced repetition has been around for decades. Yet in many organisations, learning is seen in terms of one-off interventions, delivered through a classroom or an LMS. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gemma are joined by Sarah Mercier, CEO of Learning Ninjas, to discuss: what spaced learning is, and how to design for it what good spaced practice looks like the technological boundaries to implementing spaced learning Show notes When speaking about her project with the US military, Sarah mentioned xAPI. If you're interested in learning more about xAPI, we covered it in episodes 102 and 113. If you're attending DevLearn and thinking of attending Sarah's session, you can find the full details here: https://devlearn.com/session/spaced-learning-a-design-and-technology-primer/ To learn more about Learning Ninjas, head to https://learningninjas.com/ In WILTW, Ross provided a rundown of the five most populous cities in the world, based on figures from https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities. For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 Gemma Towersey - @gemmatowersey Sarah Mercier - @sarahmerci

New business models, an increasingly hybrid workforce and the need for constant adaptability are changing what it means to be a learning professional. In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G meets the eLearning Network's Joan Keevil and Dr Hannah Gore to explore their research into the skills we need to professionalise. We discuss: how the world of work is changing personal and professional impact evidence-based practice. Show notes To find out more about the research Joan and Hannah conducted, in collaboration with Peoplestar's Jane Daly, visit: elearningnetwork.org/the-supercharged-learning-professional-turning-disruption-into-advantage-2/  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 the eLearning Network, visit: elearningnetwork.org/  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 Hannah Gore @HRGore Joan Keevil @Designs_JoanK

Why are boundaries important? How do you set them? And what impact does hybird working have on how we interact with one another? This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G meets Executive Coach Emma Langton to discuss: what 'boundaries' are how to set boundaries at work why the pandemic has made boundaries more important than ever. Show notes Ross referenced Erving Goffman's theory of the performed self. There's an excellent animated introduction to this concept, narrated by Stephen Fry, at: open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/concepts/erving-goffman-and-the-performed-self  In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross recommended a Twitter thread on life as a lorry driver, from @TheLorryist: twitter.com/thelorryist/status/1439361631872602112?s=21  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work. For more from Emma, visit emmalangton.com  Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner @RossGarnerMT Emma Langton @EmmaLangtonCoach

This week on the podcast, Ross D, Owen and Ross G are taking another rummage through their L&D book bag. They discuss: Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan Think Again by Adam Grant The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 13 Minutes to the Moon, a podcast presented by Kevin Fong  How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy These books are available from all good booksellers, and 13 Minutes to the Moon can be found wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes Ross G mentioned FiveThirtyEight's p-hacking project, which you can find out more about at: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/p-hacking/ In What I Learned This Week, Ross G also discussed what would happen if someone died on Mars: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-happens-if-someone-dies-on-mars For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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