Covid-19 has profoundly altered our lives. Some changes have given us the space and time to build more positive habits; others have been purely restrictive. Our Head of Research has been monitoring the effect of Covid on learning and L&OD teams across the globe. In this podcast, Gent joins Gemma and Owen to discuss his findings - the good and the somewhat troublesome.  Show notes 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. The research we discussed in this podcast will be published in a series of infographics. Look out for the first one on our website and through our social media channels towards the end of this month. In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared his surprise and delight in the series Ted Lasso, available on Apple TV+. You can find it online at: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/ted-lasso/umc.cmc.vtoh0mn0xn7t3c643xqonfzy Gent's movie recommendation was Alpha Go, available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y&ab_channel=DeepMind Gemma's mycelium fact came from Fantastic Fungi, a film available on Amazon Prime Video: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantastic-Fungi-Brie-Larson/dp/B08DK1Q9TJhttps://fantasticfungi.com/ Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson

Sorry everyone, there's no podcast today! Instead, Ross G is here with a brief reminder to complete your Learning Health Check.   Show notes 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. You can find a link to the Emerald Works Learning Health Check by following this link: How does your L&D strategy compare with your peers? Connect with us If you'd like to share your thoughts, connect with us on Twitter: Emerald Works @Emerald_Works

Do you find learning science dry, academic and inaccessible? Then fear not: Learning Science Weekly is an email newsletter that provides short and practical advice... every seven days. This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Learning Science Weekly author Dr. Julia Huprich (Vice President of Learning Science at Intellum) joins Gemma and Owen to share her insights into the role of science in learning. We discuss: the importance of research in learning design common approaches to learning design that are not supported by research the role of practitioners in shaping our evidence base. Show notes 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. You can sign up for Learning Science Weekly at: learningscienceweekly.com  Learning Science Weekly is on Twitter at @LearnSciWeekly. The books that Julia recommended were: e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, by Ruth Clarke and Richard Mayer, available from Amazon at: amazon.co.uk/Learning-Science-Instruction-Guidelines-Multimedia-dp-1119158664/dp/1119158664  Evidence-Informed Learning Design: Creating Training to Improve Performance by Mirjam Neelen and Paul A Kirschner, available at: amazon.co.uk/Evidence-Informed-Learning-Design-Creating-Performance/dp/1789661439  Mirjam also spoke to Ross G and Owen about her book in episode 177: podcast.goodpractice.com/177-evidence-informed-learning-design  Owen's evidence-informed 'people to follow' were friends-of-the-show Dr Will Thalheimer (@WillWorkLearn) and Clark Quinn (@Quinnovator). He also recommended Bad Science by Ben Goldacre: amazon.co.uk/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X  If you're interested in the calculation for 'blue Monday', see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Monday_(date)#Calculation Note that there are two different formulas, so you can pick one or suffer both. In What I Learned This Week, Owen recommended 'Your job application was rejected by a human, not a computer', by Christine Assaf of HR Tact: hrtact.com/2020/10/05/your-job-application-was-rejected-by-a-human-not-a-computer/  Gemma's 'word of the week' was 'empleomania': a mania for holding public office. 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 Dr. Julia Huprich @juliahuprich

Back in 2013, Basecamp's Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson published Remote (Office Not Required), a beautifully concise insight into how remote working had shaped their business. Seven years and one global pandemic later, remote working has become a lot more common. But are we making the most of the opportunities that remote working presents? In this edition of The GP Book Club, Ross G is joined by Gemma and Owen to share their thoughts. We discuss: a brief overview of the book's main points the advantages of remote work for businesses and employees how the way organisations communicate during the pandemic is shaping reactions to remote working. Show notes 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. Remote: Office Not Required, is available on Amazon: amazon.co.uk/Remote-Required-David-Heinemeier-Hansson/dp/0091954673  In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared FiveThirtyEight's 2020 US presidential election poll tracker. You can find it online at: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/  Gemma recommended the book The Making of the English Landscape, by WG Hoskins. It's available from Amazon at: amazon.co.uk/Making-English-Landscape-Classics-Library/dp/1908213108  Ross shared his observations on the romantic sounding 'winter halo', described on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo  Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson

Where do learners and managers experience 'pain points' at work, and how can organisations take steps to remove these? This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Emerald Works Senior Research Analyst Gent Ahmetaj joins Ross D and Owen to share practical insights from our 2020 Learner Insights research. We discuss: what managers can do to address pain points what organisations can do to address pain points the characteristics of 'inspiring' learning content. Show notes 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. Our 2020 Learner Insights report will be available soon. Gent referred to a paper from the UK Behavioural Insights Team describing learning content: Team, B. I. (2014). EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Behavioural Insight Team, London. Online at: https://www.bi.team/publications/east-four-simple-ways-to-apply-behavioural-insights/  In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared some insight into LinkedIn's new (for them) 'story' feature: https://medium.com/@efeng/why-media-formats-like-snapchat-stories-and-tiktok-music-videos-become-hits-c6d2b9c79371  Ross shared the story of the QWERTY keyboard, based on 99% Invisible's podcast episode 'The Next Billion Users', online at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-next-billion-users/  In reference to the above, Gent discussed the 'Library of Babel' project: https://futurism.com/meet-the-digital-library-of-babel-a-complete-combination-of-every-possible-combination-of-letters-ever  You can find the Library of Babel online at: https://libraryofbabel.info/   If you really want to do a deep dive, then Owen also discussed the 'infinite monkey theorem': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj

Being able to empathise helps us to better connect, communicate and respond to each other. It's a skill that can be developed through practice. This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Gemma and Ross G speak to Mark Davies from See Learning about using video to build empathy. We discuss: the benefits of building empathy at work why video is an effective tool for building empathy how to encourage people to share their stories on video filming on a smartphone. Show notes 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. In his first answer, Ross referred to Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone, which is summarised on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone In What I Learned This Week, Ross continued his sporadic series on space-based toilet anecdotes with the news that NASA has invented a device that supports 'dual ops': https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/space-toilet-nasa-women/616686/ He previously discussed NASA's list of US material on the Moon: https://history.nasa.gov/FINAL%20Catalogue%20of%20Manmade%20Material%20on%20the%20Moon.pdf (in Episode 133) And, more recently, how astronaut pee can be used as a construction material: https://www.wired.com/story/on-the-moon-astronaut-pee-will-be-a-hot-commodity/ (in Episode 199) Gemma mentioned the podcast "Something rhymes with purple". You can find it on most podcast streaming services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and acast. Mark spoke about his video series "You are Pure Story". You can access it here: https://www.lifebooth.co.uk/free 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 @RossGarnerEW Mark Davies is contactable via email: mark@seelearning.co.uk

Love your Mac? Find your vacuum cleaner cumbersome? Despair at the booking system of your local leisure center? User experience design (or lack of) plays a significant part in whether you love or loathe the products and services you interact with.    This week on the Good Practice podcast, Gemma and Ross D talk to Rhys Pendred, Emerald Work's Lead UX designer. We focussed on the what, why and how of user experience, discussing:  What UX is  UX fundamental principles  How we might think about and improve the UX of our products / learning.    Show notes  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.  Rhys mentioned Jacob Neilson's "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design". This article can be found online at https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/  If you'd like to find out more about UX in learning design, we would recommend listening to our previous podcast "Design thinking for instructional design" with Connie Malamed. You can find it here https://podcast.goodpractice.com/78-design-thinking-for-ld  Rhys talked about Eddie Van Halen's quirky, brown M&Ms stipulation. This is mentioned in The Independent's Eddie Van Halen obituary. You can read the obituary at https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/obituary-eddie-van-halen-39608991.html  Gemma referred to a piece of research on muscle loading. It was mentioned in Tom Goom's video "What muscles should runners strengthen". The video is found online at https://www.running-physio.com/muscles/     Connect with our speakers  If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter / LinkedIn:  Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey  Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW  Rhys Pendred linkedin.com/in/rhys-pendred 

Earlier in the year, a report by academics at Cardiff and Southampton Universities found that a majority of people would like to continue working from home in some capacity, even after social distancing is no longer a requirement. But what would a permanent shift to distributed work look like? And what would it mean for organisational performance?  This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Dr Kerstin Sailer, Reader in Social and Spatial Networks at University College London, to discuss: the relationship between workplace design and communication the implications of a more permanent move away from the physical office considerations when adapting existing spaces to allow for social distancing Show notes  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. The report referenced above can be found at: https://wiserd.ac.uk/publications/homeworking-uk-and-during-2020-lockdown To learn more about Kerstin's work, head to: https://brainybirdz.net/ The Nature article Owen referenced can be found at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02558-0 Kerstin is currently reading The Lonely Century by Noreena Hertz. For an overview of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's research into dogs' ability to detect Covid-19, head to: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/using-dogs-to-detect-covid-19 Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW Owen Ferguson @owenferguson Kerstin Sailer @kerstinsailer

A lot of ink has been spilt over the issue of workplace learning: what it is, when and why it happens, and the impact it has on organizations. But what does it mean to learners themselves? This week on the Good Practice Podcast,  Ross D is joined by Owen and Emerald Works CEO John Yates to discuss our forthcoming 'Learner Intelligence Report'. We cover: what/who motivates learners to seek out development opportunities the role L&D can play in facilitating self-directed learning how Covid-19 has amplified or reversed the trends of the past few years Show notes  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. It's also the best place to keep up with news on the Learner Intelligence Report. The book John mentioned was The Overstory by Richard Powers.  If, like Ross D, you enjoy spending time alone in the wilderness, you should definitely download the What Three Words app: https://what3words.com/ Ross D also mentioned Driving Performance Through Learning by Andy Lancaster, which the Custom Learning team at Emerald Works are studying in their book club.  If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW Owen Ferguson @owenferguson John Yates @JYlearn 

As the saying goes, "a problem shared is a problem halved". To create a safe space for L&D professionals to talk about their challenges and find solutions, Emerald Works runs a regular Learning Innovation Group (LIG).   This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Gemma asks LIG curator and facilitator, Nahdia Khan and LIG participant, Victoria Winter, Learning Strategist from Cerner, about the value of the LIG.  We discussed:   What the LIG involves  The value of a community of practice   The professional, personal and organisational benefits of attending the LIG.  Show notes 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 Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey Nahdia Khan @NahdiaKhan Victoria Winter @_VictoriaWinter