The Mindtools L&D Podcast

We're all familiar with terms like 'return on investment', but do we really understand what they mean? Or are we the 'nerd in the schoolyard', pretending to know what the cool kids are talking about so they won't steal our lunch money? This week on the podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by guest Ajay Pangarkar to discuss the business impact of L&D. If you want to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us at @ross__dickie, @owenferguson and @bizlearningdude. You can also tweet @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. The free version of the VSCO app can be downloaded for IOS or Android here. The book Ajay mentions is The Fifth Discipline by Peter M Senge. Finally, for tickets to our upcoming live show, visit goodpractice.com.

What lessons can L&D practitioners learn from the world of marketing? What are the specific challenges of marketing in a learning context? This week on the podcast, Ross D and Stef are joined by Yvonne Chen, VP of Marketing at Udemy for Business, to discuss tactics for engaging and inspiring learners. If you want to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us at @ross__dickie, @Stefania_Scott and @ChenEnnovy. You can also tweet @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. You can take the 'Great British Creativity Test' here. The book Yvonne mentioned is 'The 100-Year Life' by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. Finally, for tickets to our upcoming live show, visit goodpractice.com.

For nearly two years, we've been discussing work, performance and learning on this podcast. But we've never yet tackled 'learning design'. This week on the GoodPractice Podcast, Ross G and James are joined by ELTjam's Nick Robinson to do just that. We explore the controversial idea that you can't design 'learning', compare approaches, and ask whether compliance training can be 'delightful'. If you want to share your own thoughts or ask questions about learning design, you can tweet us at @RossGarnerGP, @JamesMcLuckie and @ELTjam. You can also tweet @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. For more from ELTjam, visit eltjam.com or check out their Barcelona conference at ielt18.innovateevents.com. Vygotsky's 'zone of proximal development' is explained well on Wikipedia. The podcasts Ross recommended were: Song by Song and Houston, We Have a Podcast. Both are available on iTunes. Finally, for tickets to our upcoming live show, visit goodpractice.com.

Machine learning is something you probably hear a lot about these days. But what is it? And more to the point, what can it do, and what questions should L&D be asking suppliers? GoodPractice Technical Director Jonny Anderson joins Justin and Owen on this week's show to demystify machine learning and talk through its great potential. If you want to share your own thoughts or ask questions about machine learning, you can tweet us at @WriterJustin, @owenferguson, and @biofractal. You can also tweet @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com.

What is a learning culture? Why should we want one? And most importantly, how do we build one? Michelle Ockers joins Justin and Owen this week to lay out a roadmap for creating a learning culture in any organisation. If you want to share your own thoughts and experiences with learning cultures, you can tweet us at @WriterJustin, @owenferguson, and @MichelleOckers. You can also tweet @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. The papers about 'growth mindset' that Owen talked about are here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617739704?journalCode=pssa and here: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/03/growth-mindset-replicates.html

Learning technologies are a familiar part of modern life. But how effectively are these technologies actually being used to support learning in organisations? In this week's episode, Ross G and Owen are joined by Donald Taylor to discuss all things learning tech. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson, and @DonaldHTaylor You can also find us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. The Fosway Group research Don references can be found on their website. You can learn more about Ben Goldacre's work with the Evidence-Based Medicine DataLab here. The two books Don mentioned were So You're Going to Wear the Kilt! and Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams Want to know more about the complexity of book production? A beautiful part of this was captured in the paper I, Pencil.

This week's podcast covers the thorny topic of microlearning. We struggle to even define microlearning, so does the term have any real value? Is it 'chunking'? 'Performance support'? Can we agree on a definition that makes it useful? If so, what is it, and how can we help clients understand it? Ross G and Owen thrash out the answers with microlearning aficionado Shannon Tipton. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us @rossgarnerGP, @owenferguson, and @stipton. You can also find us @GoodPractice or @GoodpracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. The EHRC article Owen mentions is here: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/employers-dark-ages-over-recruitment-pregnant-women-and-new-mothers And the crosstabs that break down the data are here: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/aik7dvvqb0/YG-Archive-041217-Equality%20and%20Human%20Rights%20Commission.pdf You can listen to the Freakonomics podcast on the Uber gender pay gap report here: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-can-uber-teach-us-about-the-gender-pay-gap/ Shannon's article about the gender pay gap in restaurants is here: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/line-cook-nycs-fanciest-restaurants/amp And the article regarding competency and leadership models is here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2013/03/28/the-most-common-leadership-model-and-why-its-broken/#23e8a94f51d6

This week on the GoodPractice Podcast, we're continuing our discussion around 'design thinking' with a focus on complexity. How can we make the complicated simple? Should this always be our objective? And can we prepare people for chaos? Learning design guru Julie Dirksen returns to the podcast to share her experiences with Ross G and Owen. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson, and @UsableLearning. You can also find us @GoodPractice or @GoodpracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. Julie's book, Design for How People Learn, is a must-read for anyone working in our field. It's available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-People-Learn-Voices-Matter/dp/0134211286 More from Julie can be found at her website: designbetterlearning.com Much of this discussion was based on the Cynefin Framework. Wikipedia provides a good overview here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework The Apgar Score for checking the health of newborn babies is also explained on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apgar_score If you were interested in Owen's example of a simple, life-saving algorithm developed at a hospital in Cook County, the full paper reference is: Reilly BM, Evans AT, Schaider JJ, Das K, Calvin JE, Moran LA, Roberts RR, Martinez E. Impact of a Clinical Decision Rule on Hospital Triage of Patients With Suspected Acute Cardiac Ischemia in the Emergency Department. JAMA. Available at: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195118 CB Insights research into earnings calls is at: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/artificial-intelligence-earnings-calls/ Clark Quinn's book, Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions, is available from ATD: https://www.td.org/books/millennials-goldfish-other-training-misconceptions And, for something completely different, Romesh Ranganathan's interview with Doc Brown is available from the Hip Hop Saved My Life podcast at: https://www.mixcloud.com/hiphopsavedmylife/episode-46-doc-brown/

Machine learning means that computers can teach themselves without the help of a human programmer, offering tremendous opportunities for justice, medicine and - more everyday - Netflix recommendations. In Learning and Development, it's often cited as the hot new tech. But is our industry ready to embrace such technology? Do we need it? And are we truly making the most of the existing technology we already have? Appitierre co-founder Wes Atkinson returns to discuss with Justin and Owen. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us @WriterJustin, @OwenFerguson, and @WesAtkinsonUK. You can also find us @GoodPractice or @GoodpracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. For more from Wes and Appitierre, see appitierre.com. Google's difficulty with image-recognition was recently revisited by Wired at: https://www.wired.com/story/when-it-comes-to-gorillas-google-photos-remains-blind/ Owen's book recommendation was Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. The augmented writing app that Owen mentioned, used to create better job descriptions, was Textio. It's available at: https://textio.com

Last week on the podcast we gave our thoughts on the Learning Technologies conference. Today, we ask whether we should resist the urge to jump on the latest tech and focus on learners instead. Author and consultant Patti Shank joins Ross G and Owen to discuss. If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can tweet us @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson, and @PattiShank. You can also find us @GoodPractice or @GoodpracticeAus. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com. For more from Patti, see pattishank.com. The chess paper that Ross described was: Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive psychology, 4(1), 55-81, available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010028573900042 Learn Better, by Ulrich Boser, is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Better-Mastering-Business-Anything/dp/1623365260 Tim Harford's guide to statistics in a misleading age is online at: https://www.ft.com/content/ba4c734a-0b96-11e8-839d-41ca06376bf2 The Freakonomics podcast on Harold Pollack's financial advice is here: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/everything-always-wanted-know-money-afraid-ask/ Footage of the two Space X booster rockets landing in unison can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42969020 Scott Kelly's biography, Endurance, is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endurance-Year-Space-Lifetime-Discovery/dp/1524731595 The Apollo 11 transcript is available at: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11transcript_tec.html And Public Service Broadcasting's album, The Race for Space, can be heard on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/65KwtzkJXw7oT819NFWmEP