The Mindtools L&D Podcast

We often hear that learning and development needs a ‘seat at the table’. But how do we get there? How do we build credibility, tackle real issues, and demonstrate value? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast Ross and Owen are joined by author, academic and L&D pro Dr Keith Keating to discuss: Whether L&D are changemakers or order takers How we change the perception of L&D The extent to which L&D pros must sell themselves, their ideas and their profession. During the discussion, Ross G referenced To Sell is Human by Dan Pink. Keith’s book is The Trusted Learning Advisor, available now from Amazon (US / UK). In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen gave a glittering endorsement of a sensational new science fiction writer (Ross G). Subscribe for updates. Ross recommended alternative movie posters, collected in a thread from All The Right Movies. For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work. Or you can email rgarner@mindtools.com Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: ·       Ross Garner ·       Owen Ferguson ·       Dr Keith Keating

Exploring a holistic approach to workplace well-being, focusing on physical, social, mental, financial, digital, environmental, and spiritual health. Benefits of structured well-being, the '7 Wisdoms of Wellbeing,' and personal responsibility discussed. Recommendations include 'The impact of bad news' and Lauren Bacall's autobiography. Emphasizing the integration of well-being initiatives into business strategy, personal purpose and values in the workplace, complexities of digital well-being, dynamics of social well-being, and managing media exposure for overall well-being.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) generally and Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically have been all the rage over the past 12 months. Should you care?  In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Rosses Garner and Dickie are joined by learning strategist Ross Stevenson to discuss:  The current state of AI  The extent to which L&D pros should pay attention to ongoing developments  Tips for making the most of AI tools, especially ChatGPT.  During the discussion, Stevenson referenced ‘custom instructions’ for ChatGPT. These help tailor ChatGPT’s responses to your prompts, and mean you don’t need to add background information to every prompt. See his video on the topic for guidance.  He also recommend Perplexity AI. See: perplexity.ai  In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Dickie recommended the Fit Bod app.  Garner discussed the rise (and subsequent fall) of Quora.  For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work. Or you can email rgarner@mindtools.com   For more from Stevenson, see Steal These Thoughts.  Connect with our speakers     If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:  Ross Garner  Ross Dickie  Ross Stevenson 

Exploring challenges of management development in a local government like London Borough of Camden, without traditional teaching. Discussion on unique obstacles, role of digital tools, and diverse manager cohorts for effective learning. Insights on content creation with chatbots and task reframing impact on behavior, topped with gratitude towards guests.

The podcast discusses the use of AI in L&D, including benefits and barriers to implementation. They also talk about setting yearly themes instead of resolutions, and share recommendations for personal goals and reflections. Additionally, they mention a documentary about a mountaineer's incredible achievements.

How much thought does your organization give to the Employee Experience? And what tools can you use to enhance it? In this year’s first episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson are joined by Danny Seals to discuss his new book The Insightful Innovator: How to level up your Employee Experience. We discuss: ·       The advantages of strengthening the Employee Experience ·       How ‘designing a relationship’ can set your projects up for success ·       Tools and techniques to enhance the Employee Experience.   During the conversation, Danny referred to Employee SPIES (Services, Products, Interactions, and Experiences, while applying a Subscription model to work). He also refers to EVP (Employee Value Proposition). And he discussed The Ladder of Abstraction as a tool for connecting with stakeholder groups. All are discussed in more detail in his book. In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Owen recommended the research paper: Cook, A., Thompson, M., & Ross, P. (2023). Virtual First Impressions: Zoom Backgrounds Affect Judgements of Trust and Competence Ross recommended The Economist’s workplace podcast Boss Class. For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. 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 also email rgarner@mindtools.com Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: ·       Ross Garner ·       Owen Ferguson ·       Danny Seals

It’s a wrap! In what is traditionally our ‘least listened to’ and ‘most unhinged’ episode of the year, we’re celebrating the festive season with some reflections on the biggest talking point in L&D: the emergence of generative AI. And we’re joined by special guests, ChatGPT (our first AI guest!) and Bedford Falls’ own George Bailey (making his annual appearance). Ross Garner is joined by Owen Ferguson and Ross Dick to discuss: ·       How have tools like ChatGPT and Bard evolved over the year? ·       How are we using them? ·       What’s coming next? ChatGPT then asks its own questions, with a spattering of festive zingers. And George shares his observations on the prevalence of AI, and provides an insight into the Baileys’ favourite drink at this time of year. In ‘What I Learned this Year’, Ross Dick recommended two newsletters: Platformer and One Useful Thing. And Ross G wanted to provide the phone number for Samaritans: 116 123 You can also visit their website: samaritans.org For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. 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 also email rgarner@mindtools.com Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: ·       Ross Garner ·       Owen Ferguson ·       Ross Dickie

Hey listeners! Here's a fun stocking filler for you: Throughout this year, Rosses D and G have been writing The L&D Dispatch, a weekly newsletter from the Mind Tools Custom team. In this bonus episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we reflect on the effort involved to write a newsletter, the personal benefits we've experienced from doing so, and how our use of AI tools for content production has evolved over the last 12 months. Never heard of it? Subscribe now at lddispatch.com

In the past, we’ve always talked about Virtual Reality training in the context of skills that are expensive to learn or dangerous to practice. But Lucie Coudret and the team at Cappfinity are using VR for coaching and leadership development. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson speak with Lucie Coudret, to discuss: ·       The advantages of VR for coaching and soft skill development ·       How to overcome the cost and technical hurdles of providing VR learning experiences ·       How the VR ‘fad’ has continued to evolve and improve, even if it’s not always in the spotlight, During the conversation, Lucie referenced PwC’s study into the effectiveness of VR for soft skills training. She also referenced the DICE model (Dangerous, Impossible, Counterproductive, Expensive). Details of the VR EY Summer Internship, developed by Cappfinity, are on YouTube. Ross referenced the popularity of Snapchat’s ‘My AI’, which by June of this year had been sent 10 billion messages. In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Owen recommended Lenny’s Newsletter. Ross recommended The Rest Is History podcast. For more from Lucie, see luciecoudret.com For Cappfinity, see cappfinity.com For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. 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 also email rgarner@mindtools.com Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: ·       Ross Garner ·       Owen Ferguson ·       Lucie Coudret

Ever launch a workshop that no one attended or an e-learning module that nobody accessed? It’s surprisingly common: and one reason is that we’re not always great at marketing our L&D initiatives. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Dick and Owen Ferguson seek to reverse this outcome with the help of Ashley Sinclair from MAAS Marketing – the world’s only (we think) marketing agency focusing specifically on L&D. We discuss: ·       Why L&D teams need a marketing strategy ·       What an effective marketing strategy looks like ·       How to measure the ROI of a marketing strategy   For more from Ashley, visit maas-marketing.co.uk Ashley’s podcast is at maas-marketing.co.uk/podcast The Mind Tools reports that were mentioned are available at: mindtools.com/business/research Ashley also mentioned the LPI’s ‘Workplace Learning Report’ In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Ross D discussed the BBC’s new series on Shakespeare., He also the Netflix series ‘Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul’. For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. 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: ·       Ross Dickie ·       Owen Ferguson ·       Ashley Sinclair