The Mindtools L&D Podcast

How do you accurately measure the effectiveness of your learning and development function? Can you provide clear evidence that your team are delivering value for your organisation? And how do you compare to other L&D teams? If your answer to any of these questions is: 'I have no idea', then benchmarking might be a good place to start. This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Owen and Ross G are joined by Carrie Horvath and Gent Ahmetaj - the team behind the Learning Performance Benchmark - to explore benchmarking and how it can help you develop your strategy. We discuss: what benchmarking is the benefits of benchmarking the value of collaboration and competition in a community. Show notes You can find details of Emerald Work's Learning Health Check at: emeraldworks.com/research/learning-health-check  Get started now for free! As a small production note, we were trying a new recording method this week and the sound quality suffered at times. We're always learning! Which brings us to... ...'What I Learned This Week', where Owen talked about Boris Becker's revealing habit. You can watch the video of Andre Agassi discussing this story at: twitter.com/tennistv/status/1387758939534675972?s=21  Ross spoke again about rapid, low-quality Covid testing (previously discussed in episode 208). These are now available for free to anyone living in the UK: nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-if-you-do-not-have-symptoms/ 

If you work in L&D or HR and are looking to procure any kind of service, how do you know who to trust? If you work for a vendor or supplier, what approach do you take? On this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast, Ross G is joined by L&D buyer Gemma Paterson and L&D seller Danny Seals to explore vendor relationships. We discuss: the characteristics of great supplier relationships making the most of conference exhibitions the importance of recommendations. Show notes Some of the stats Danny referenced were taken from this infographic by Invesp: invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/  The importance of customer reviews is further covered by Econsultancy at: econsultancy.com/ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/  The difficulties created by the 'Spotify Model' are discussed here: agility11.com/blog/2020/6/22/spotify-doesnt-use-the-spotify-model  In 'What I Learned This Week', Gemma spoke about Hans Rosling's book Factfulness: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness:_Ten_Reasons_We%27re_Wrong_About_the_World_%E2%80%93_and_Why_Things_Are_Better_Than_You_Think Rosling's TED talk is online at: ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen  The podcast that Ross recommended was 'Great Minds on Learning: The Cognitivists with Donald Clark', available online at: johnhelmerconsulting.com/great-minds-on-learning-the-cognitivists-with-donald-clark/  You can find more about Danny's recommendation service, Venndorly, at: venndorly.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 our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW Gemma Paterson - @GemStGem Danny Seals - @TheDannySeals

On The Good Practice podcast this week, we're speaking about how to get ahead at work. Gemma and Ross G are joined by Gorick Ng, author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right. We discuss: The "rules"  (Giving the impression of) competence, commitment and compatibility The implications of the rules on others Show notes To learn more about Gorick Ng and to order his book, visit http://gorick.com/ Or, you can buy a copy of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right via these links: US: https://amzn.to/3hYb6Sa UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unspoken-Rules-Secrets-Starting-Career/dp/1647820448 Non-US/US: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Unspoken-Rules-Gorick-Ng/9781647820442  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. Ross spoke about the strange, but extraordinary, tardigrade. You can read more about them here: theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/20/tardigrades-natures-great-survivors He also mentioned this video by John Amaechi OBE on 'The Report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities': twitter.com/johnamaechi/status/1377545222163472384?s=21 Gemma spoke about research into mental health and creativity referred to Freakonomics episode "How to be creative ep. 354". You can listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: freakonomics.com/podcast/creativity-1/https://freakonomics.com/podcast/creativity-1/ 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 Gorick Ng - @GorickNg

Frequently criticised as box-ticking or virtue signalling by big business, diversity training has become a major talking point once again. Not least because of the resurgence of black lives matter last year, and the UK Government's recent - much criticised - report on race. So does diveristy training make a difference? And what do organisations need to do to drive change? On this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by D&I specialist Dana James-Edwards. We discuss: effective approaches to diversity training what organisations need to do to support diversity training the role of safe spaces and social media in discussions on diversity training. Show notes You can find out more about Dana at diversitydana.com. The YouTube playlist she mentioned, 'The Someone Else's Shoes Series', is online at: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwE1U7v2mSBHgGI2cLdeBBFm11Rae3VZe  For more from Emerald Works, 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 'What I Learned This Week', Owen mentioned the app Fitbod: fitbod.me. It doesn't come across well in an audio format, but Mr F is looking great - and more of the hosting team should have noticed. Dana shared that last week was the beginning of the Sikh New Year. Friend-of-the-show Sukh Pabial has blogged about it here: pabial.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/vaisakhi-how-sikhs-became-the-khalsa/. He also produced a publish: threegood.podbean.com/e/special-episode-the-story-of-vaisakhi/  Ross recommended the book No-No Boy by John Okada, which he listened to on Audible: audible.co.uk/pd/No-No-Boy-Audiobook/B07D4LKQQL  Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson Dana James-Edwards - @DiversityDana

This week on The Good Practice Podcast, we're removing power dynamics and stripping away management layers with the return of our book club. Emerald Works CEO John Yates and Emerald Publishing CEO Vicky Williams join Ross G and Owen to discuss Humanocracy, by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini. We discuss: the challenge the book presents to bureaucracy a human-centred approach to organisation design the difficulty of putting humanocracy into practice. Show notes Humanocracy is available now from all good bookshops. 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. Vicky referenced the book How to Lead a Quest, by Jason Fox. Ross referenced episode 231 — Should we defund HR? You can find it online (emeraldworks.com/resources/podcast/231-should-we-defund-hr) or in your podcast feed. For more on the emergence of hierarchies at Wikipedia, see: Lerner, J., & Lomi, A. (2017). The third man: Hierarchy formation in Wikipedia. Applied network science, 2(1), 1-30. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson Vicky Williams - @Emerald_VW John Yates - @JYLearn

The quality of compliance training is, let's face it, variable. So how do you get across the dos and don'ts so that they transfer into safe and effective practices? This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Gemma is joined by compliance crazy, Tameka J. Harris, and co-host Ross G, to discuss: ways to think about compliance training  useful design tips and techniques 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. Gemma talked about bats roosts and you can find out more about them at: https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/where-do-bats-live/bat-roosts/what-is-a-roost Ross' learning came from a Very Short Introduction to Chaos. All titles can be found here: https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-introductions-vsi/?lang=en&cc=us Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossAGarner Tameka J. Harris - @HelloTameka Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey

If your organisation had a pot of money that could either be used to fund apprenticeships or paid to the tax man, how would you choose to spend it? This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Ross D is joined by two colleagues from Emerald Group, Mike Shaw and Fiona Allison, to discuss the Apprenticeship Levy. We cover: what the Levy is and how it works the extent to which L&D has failed to take advantage of the Levy to fund apprenticeships what it's like to be an apprentice, balancing work and study 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. If you'd like to learn more about the Apprenticeship Levy, this articles answers some frequently asked questions: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/key-facts-you-should-know-about-the-apprenticeship-levy The CIPD's recent assessment of the Levy's success as a policy can be found at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/010321apprenticeship-levy-reform-budget#gref The VR tool Mike mentioned in 'What I Learned This Week' was Spatial: https://spatial.io/ You can learn more about Greenland sharks at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie - @RossDickieEW Mike Shaw - @MikeShawLD Fiona Allison - @EmeraldHRM

This week on The Good Practice Podcast, we're following up on our recent virtual classroom facilitation episode with an in-depth look at design. Jennifer Lindsay-Finan and Karen Vieth, both of InSync Training, share their experience and advice. We discuss: when virtual classrooms are most appropriate the team's process for planning virtual classrooms the biggest mistakes people make in virtual classroom design. 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. For more from InSync Training, visit insynctraining.com. We didn't have time to discuss it on the show, but InSync is WBENC and WEConnect certified as a women-owned business. If you'd like to find out more about what this means, visit wbenc.org and weconnectinternational.org.  And don't forget! If you'd like to join the conversation, the team behind The Good Practice Podcast will be on Clubhouse on Thursday, March 25th, at 3pm (UK-time). Search for 'The Mind Tools Club' if you'd like to join. Finally, in 'What I Learned This Week', Ross shared that he's been playing 4-player chess on chess.com. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW Karen Vieth - karen@insynctraining.com  Jennifer - jfinan@insynctraining.com or @TheLearningBird

A year into lockdown, more and more people have started new roles without ever having met a colleague face-to-face. In this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast, we find out what that's like for people professionals. To discuss, Ross G is joined by Emerald Works CEO John Yates, Frontline Pedagogy Lead Laura Watkin, and Study Group HRD Ed Griffin. Our guests all have different roles in different organisations, but one thing in common: they're working with strangers. We discuss: their experiences of joining an organisation during lockdown the challenges of these experiences the surprising benefits of of not meeting anyone face-to-face. 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. And don't forget! We'll be chatting about this topic further, on Thursday, March 18th, at 3pm, on Clubhouse. In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross shared that American hitman Charles Harrelson was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. See Wikipedia for details: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson  Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW John Yates - @JYlearner Laura Watkin - @TalentEdMagpie Ed Griffin - @EdJGriffin

Few businesses have felt the impact of Covid-19 more keenly than those in the hospitality industry. Bars, restaurants and cafés have been forced to alter their working practices to keep staff and customers safe. So, how has L&D responded to the challenge? This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Ross D is joined by James McLuckie from Flow and Thomas Stroppel from Dishoom to discuss: what James has been up to since he left Emerald Works the challenges facing L&D and HR in the hospitality industry how L&D has adapted in the wake of the pandemic 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 book James mentioned in 'What I Learned This Week' was All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks, which is available through all good booksellers.   The book Thomas is reading is Salmon by Mark Kurlansky. You can find it at all good booksellers.   If you'd like to give Ross D a one more follower on Instagram, you can find his photography at @ross.dickie. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie - @RossDickieEW James McLuckie - @JamesMcLuckie Being a good Wyoming boy, Thomas stays well clear of Twitter, but you can connect with him on LinkedIn.