The Mindtools L&D Podcast

Does your HR team add value to your organisation? Has HR spend spiralled out of control? Does HR's willingness to become the mouthpiece of bad news let leaders off the hook? In this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast, Laurie Ruettimann - host of the Punk Rock HR podcast - joins Ross G and Owen to discuss. Show notes We're trying something new! Join us on Clubhouse this Thursday, February 11, at 3pm, if you want to share your thoughts on this topic: joinclubhouse.com/event/P96q3g2e 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 out more about Laurie, her podcast and her book, at: laurieruettimann.com. She also discusses defunding HR on YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=c43dvTLYbYo) and how this idea relates to 'defund the police' in episode 121 of her podcast (laurieruettimann.com/punkrockhr-121/). In What I Learned This Week, Owen spoke about employee engagement. The CIPD's report 'Employee Engagement: Definitions, measures and outcomes' is available at: cipd.co.uk/Images/employee-engagement-discussion-report_tcm18-89598.pdf. And the article from Forbes was 'In Defense of Unmotivated Workers', online at: forbes.com/sites/tomaspremuzic/2021/01/19/in-defense-of-unmotivated-workers/?sh=7436e0ea21a3. Ross discussed a worrying trend in reviews of scented candles: washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/01/covid-scented-candle-reviews/ 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 Laurie Reuttimann @lruettimann

What L&D trends, tropes and clichés would you put into Room 101? Back in 2019, we cast the misappropriation of 'agile', learning styles, and cheesy stock imagery into oblivion. Nearly two years on, we've decided it's high time for another clear-out! This week on the Good Practice Podcast, Ross D is joined by Owen, Gemma and Ross G to make the case that existential crises, gratuitous fun and retrofitted 'evidence' all belong in Room 101. 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 app Owen mentioned is Hush - Noiseless Browsing: https://oblador.github.io/hush/ The book Gemma received for her birthday was Word Perfect by Susie Dent, available from all good booksellers. Ross G referenced the calorie-burning prowess of chess grandmasters: https://www.espn.co.uk/espn/story/_/id/27593253/why-grandmasters-magnus-carlsen-fabiano-caruana-lose-weight-playing-chess ... he also talked about Cloudflare's novel approach to data encryption: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/encryption-lava-lamps ... and made up some stuff about Rasputin, which is corrected here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin Ross D made some less dubious Rasputin-related claims about the origins of 'this is a work of fiction' movie disclaimers: https://slate.com/culture/2016/08/the-bizarre-true-story-behind-the-this-is-a-work-of-fiction-disclaimer.html Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson

If you're looking to change up your approach to learning and development, or just seeking quick tips to focus on performance, this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast is for you. Author Michelle Parry-Slater joins Ross G and Owen to share insights from The Learning and Development Handbook, her new book out this February. We discuss: problems with treating face-to-face training as the 'default' advice for being a 'critical friend' to your organisation string theory (as a metaphor for considering organisational relationships). 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. Michelle's book is available from Kogan Page at: koganpage.com/product/the-learning-and-development-handbook-9781789663327 In What I Learned This Week, Ross G spoke about an ongoing eLN study to shape the future of L&D. If you'd like to take part, you can do so here: elearningnetwork.org/shaping-the-future-of-ld-the-eln-launches-exploratory-research-study And, from our listeners, Jo Cook recommended this article on how trade shaped the modern human: fee.org/articles/trade-is-what-makes-us-human/ 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 Michelle Parry-Slater @MiPS1608

Are you an L&D specialist running a small business? Or are you thinking of becoming one? On this week's episode of The Good Practice Podcast, Lightbulb Moment's Jo Cook and Syncskills' Gaëlle Delmas-Watson join Ross G to share their experiences and advice. We discuss: the advantages and disadvantages of running a small business the importance of values tips and advice for people who are thinking of setting up their own L&D business. 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 out more about Lightbulb Moment at: lightbulbmoment.online. You can find out more about SyncSkills at: syncskills.net/About. In What I Learned This Week, Ross G shared the story of Helen Viola Jackson, the last remaining US Civil War widow. Find out more at: theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/08/last-civil-war-widow-dies-helen-viola-jackson Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW Jo Cook @LightbulbJo Gaëlle Delmas-Watson @GaelleDWatson

We're back! In this first podcast of 2021, Ross G and Owen speak to digital learning consultant Myles Runham. We discuss: the success most organisations experienced when moving rapidly to distributed working in 2020 the much needed shift from synchronous to asynchronous working and learning the role of learning and development in 2021. 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 out more about Myles at mylesrunham.com. The collaborative tools we referenced were Skype, Teams and Slack (communication), SharePoint (file sharing), Miro (shared whiteboards) and Jira (ticketing system). In What I Learned This Week, Owen referenced an article from UX Tools: uxtools.co/survey-2020 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 Myles Runhan @MylesRun

It's customary at this festive time of year for well-meaning podcasts hosts to call upon their friends to participate in the annual Good Practice Podcast! And this year, we're playing 'Blankety Blank'! Phil Willcox sits in as host, with contestants Jo Cook and Julie Drybourgh in competition for the prize. And our panel are: Ross G, Owen, Sukh Pabial and Jo Wainwright. Listen now for fun and frolics - and perhaps a surprise visit from George Bailey! 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, off-the-shelf e-learning, and custom work. The Learner Intelligence Report, referenced in the show, is available online at: emeraldworks.com/resources/research-and-reports/behavioral-research/learner-intelligence-report Thanks to our friends at zapsplat.com for the sleigh bells sound effect. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Phil Willcox @PhilWillcox Jo Cook @LightbulbJo Julie Drybrough @fuchsia_blue Jo Wainwright @Jo_Coaches Sukh Pabial @SukhPabial Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW

Data and analytics have long been hot topics in L&D, frequently finding themselves the subjects of conference keynotes, fierce Twitter debates and enlightening podcasts... So why aren't we implementing them more successfully? This week on the show, Looop's David James and Mike Collins join Ross D to discuss their whitepaper, 'Achieving More with Data & Analytics in L&D'. We cover: the lessons L&D can learn from the world of marketing the challenges associated with data and analytics some of the keys to effective data analysis 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. To learn more about Looop, or to download a copy of their new whitepaper, head to: https://www.looop.co/ebooks-whitepapers/ If you'd like to hear 'Jesus Refulsit Omnium' for yourself, you can listen to a recording of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMJnlPHqch0 Barack Obama's memoir, A Promised Land, is available in all good bookshops. You can also find the audiobook at: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/A-Promised-Land-Audiobook/0241991420 Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW David James @DavidInLearning Mike Collins @Community_Mike

When it comes to gender parity, we've made progress but have some way to go. Our guests on today's show believe it's not just up to women to make it happen: men need to get involved. This week on the show, authors of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace, Brad W. Johnson and David Smith, join Gemma and Ross G to talk about practical ways men can hurry along gender equality by becoming allies for women. We discuss: what it means to be a male ally challenges in being a male ally what effect male allies might have. 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 Learning Health Check is open until the end of December. This free tool will help you benchmark your organization against others. Try it now! emeraldworks.com/research/learning-health-check Find out more about Brad and David's research by visiting their website: https://www.workplaceallies.com/ You can buy the book Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace from any bookstore. In our What I Learnt This Week feature, David spoke about his niece's allergy to exercise. You can read about this condition in this "Allergic to exercise?" article from NBC News: nbcnews.com/healthmain/allergic-exercise-1C9926288 Brad gave us an example of a man being an ally to a woman in Doug Emhoff. This BBC article tells Doug's story, "Doug Emhoff: The first 'second dude' in the White House". Access it here: bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54899230 Ross gave a shout out to The Crown: a series about the British Royal family on Netflix. You can find the episodes here: netflix.com/gb/title/80025678 Gemma talked about some of the unique features of Stonehenge. Her information came from the BBC Podcast "You're Dead to Me - Stonehenge". You can listen to it here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08zqq6y Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter / LinkedIn: Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey David Smith @Davidgsmithphd Brad W Johnson - LinkedIn

Author, speaker and presenter Kevin M. Yates last joined The Good Practice Podcast back in episode 117 to share his insights into whether we can measure the impact of training. This week, he's back with a new e-book to help you do just that. This week on the show, Kevin joins Ross G and Owen to unpack his L&D Detective Kit for Solving Impact Mysteries. We discuss: the secrets behind why impact often isn't measured how impact measurement starts with planning upfront the basics of good survey 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. Our Learning Health Check is open until the end of December. This free tool will help you benchmark your organisation against others. Try it now! emeraldworks.com/research/learning-health-check You can download The L&D Detective Kit, for free, from Kevin's website at: kevinmyates.com/l%26d-detective-kit You can find more from Kevin at his website (kevinmyates.com) or on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/today/author/kevinmyates). The paper that Owen recommended was: Denrell, J., & Kovács, B. (2020). The Ecology of Management Concepts. Strategy Science. Available online at: researchgate.net/publication/344519162_The_Ecology_of_Management_Concepts 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 Kevin M. Yates @KevinMYates

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