The Mindtools L&D Podcast

This week on The GoodPractice Podcast, we're talking fundamentals: how do people learn? Nick Shackleton-Jones joins Ross G and Owen to discuss his new book, How People Learn, in which he argues that people don't learn anything if they don't care. Or, to put it in Nick's term, if they don't have an 'affective response'. What does this mean and how should Nick's insights change our approach to designing courses, resources and experiences? Also: we argue about e-learning for ten minutes. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson and @ShackletonJones. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. Nick's book, How People Learn, is available from Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-People-Learn-Designing-Performance/dp/0749484705 Or from the Kogan Page website: https://www.koganpage.com/product/how-people-learn-9780749484705 This episode was reference-heavy, but in most part the references can be found in Nick's book. The TED Radio Hour episode Ross recommended was 'Jumpstarting Creativity', online at: https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/719553183/jumpstarting-creativity The source for the London tube study was: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp455.pdf  The product Owen discussed was GitPrime: https://www.gitprime.com/   

According to research published this year, women fill 2/3s of all roles in learning and development - but only 1/3 of senior positions. Why is this? And what can we do to encourage and promote women in learning? This week, Ross G and podcast regular Gemma Towersey are joined by Sharon Claffey Kaliouby, Barbara Thompson and Kate Graham to discuss. If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @GemmaTowersey, @Sharon_Kaliouby, @CaribThompson and @KateGraham23. Barbara blogs at: https://medium.com/@ba_thompson To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. Don Taylor's research on women in L&D is online at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/women-ld-still-top-donald-h-taylor/ If, like Ross, you don't know who Elliott Masie is: where have you been? There's a bio on his website:  https://masie.com/information/who-is-elliott-masie The film that Sharon referenced was Battle of the Sexes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4622512/ The podcast Gemma recommended was Radio 4's Planet Puffin: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07881qf  Carol Dweck's book Mindset is on Amazon at:   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil-Potential/dp/147213995X You can join the #WomeninLearning LinkedIn Group at: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12210548/ 

There's a lot of buzz around technologies like AI, bots, virtual reality and voice recognition. But which of these has the most potential for learning and development? This week on the podcast, Ross D and Peter are joined by writer and consultant John Helmer to discuss everything from chatbots to the 'digital sensorium'.  If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @petercasebow and @johnhelmer. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. The article Peter mentions, Tech's raid on the banks, can be found in The Economist. To find out more about John's work, visit his website: johnhelmerconsulting.com 

When we talk about uncertainty in the workplace, we often frame it in terms of the associated risks and threats. But are we looking at it the wrong way? This week on the podcast, Ross D and James are joined by artist and consultant Doug Shaw to discuss the role uncertainty can play in learning and development.   If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @JamesMcLuckie and @dougshaw1.  To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus For more on Doug's work, his articles 'Overcoming the Fear of Creativity' and 'When Creative Thinking Meets Creative Practice' are a good place to start. You can watch Emilia Clarke's stock-photo parody on YouTube. 

Recruitment, talent development, employee engagement and performance management are just a few of the areas where L&D and HR overlap. But are the functions in competition with one another? This week on the podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Steve Browne to talk about how L&D and HR can work together more effectively.  If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @owenferguson, and @sbrownehr.  To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus For more from Steve on all things HR, check out his website: sbrownehr.com

Structured courses are great for learning new skills, but they also tend to be expensive, time-consuming and focused on teaching content that most workers don't need. So why are they our 'go-to' solution for every L&D challenge? This week on The GoodPractice Podcast, Ross G and Owen discuss alternatives to 'the course' with Qunnivation's Clark Quinn. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson and @Quinnovator.  To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. You can read more from Clark at quinnovation.com or learnlets.com. His book, Revolutionize Learning and Development, can be found at revolutionizelnd.com. This week, Owen recommended The Economist piece 'Mistakes: We've drawn a few', online at: https://medium.economist.com/mistakes-weve-drawn-a-few-8cdd8a42d368  And Ross recommended Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, a science fiction short story collection about troubleshooting that's more fun than it sounds. Available from Amazon and other book shops: https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Robot-Isaac-Asimov/dp/000753227X 

A couple of years ago, James, Owen and Ross G consigned order-taking, visionary thought leaders and other sins of our profession to L&D's Room 101. This week on the podcast, we add a few more items to the list.  If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @RossGarnerGP and @OwenFerguson.  To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. If you want to follow in Ross G's footsteps and join Zak George's Dog Training Revolution, you can do so here. To delve down the rabbit hole of lorem-ipsum generators, head over to loremipsum.io 

Is your learning and development department transactional, taking orders and ensuring compliance? Or does it focus on building capability with targeted initiatives that have support from the senior team? In this week's GoodPractice Podcast, GP Strategies' Barbara Thompson (formerly of BP and PA Consulting) joins Ross G and Owen to share her insights working both internally and externally. We discuss the challenges to transforming learning functions, the role of technology and how coaching techniques can help gain the support of senior colleagues. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson and @BarbaraThompson. This week we had production support from our own @Ross__Dickie. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. Barbara was too modest to plug anything, but blogs at: https://medium.com/@ba_thompson Barbara recently shared her advice as a female leader in the business world at: https://www.stratxcorporate.com/industry-insights/how-to-rise-the-ranks-advice-from-a-female-leader-on-making-it-to-the-top?hs_amp=true  Deloitte's 2014 summary on learning transformation is online at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/HumanCapital/gx-cons-hc-learning-transformation-placemat.pdf  The Towards Maturity 2019 benchmark is a great place to get started if you're interested in this topic, with guidance on what top performing L&D teams are doing differently. Their latest benchmark, The Transformation Journey, came out in February and is available online at: https://towardsmaturity.org/2019/02/14/the-transformation-journey-2019-annual-research-report/  And for something completely frivolous, you can find out the actors who have made the most money at the US box office at: https://www.businessinsider.com/actors-with-highest-box-office-2016-9?r=US&IR=T This list is heavily skewed by how many films the actors have been in, and how many of those films were produced by Marvel. Owen wanted to point out that this list is not adjusted for inflation.

What is innovation? Can anyone be creative? On this week's GoodPractice Podcast, full-time doodler Simon Heath joins Ross G and Owen to discuss. We ask why the concept of 'innovation' is so attractive and debate the notion that we should bring our creative pursuits into the workplace. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson and @SimonHeath1. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus The Ken Robinson TED Talk that Simon referenced was: 'Do schools kill creativity?', online at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en Harold Jarche's blog discussing this talk is online at: https://jarche.com/2019/02/education-does-not-destroy-creativity/  The subreddit that Owen recommend was r/fantasy, at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/  He recommends the Apollo App for using Reddit: https://apolloapp.io/  The paper Ross recommended was: Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. science, 185(4157), 1124-1131. It's incredibly readable, and available online at: http://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teaching/Tversky_Kahneman_1974.pdf 

What will be hot in workplace L&D in the year ahead?. Will it be Artificial Intelligence? Or maybe performance support? What about learning analytics?  This week on the podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Donald Taylor to discuss the results of the 2019 Global Sentiment Survey.  If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @owenferguson and @DonaldHTaylor. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus To download a copy of the report, head to www.donaldhtaylor.co.uk/report19 The book Don mentions is The Spy and The Traitor by Ben MacIntyre.