The podcast discusses the controversial idea that most employees are not interested in L&D. They explore the importance of practical outcomes over theoretical aspects in learning, challenges faced by L&D departments, and the need to showcase tangible impacts. The episode also touches on trust in institutions, weekly learning reflections, and discounted theater tickets in London.

How do L&D leaders decide where to spend their time? Who gets access to their budget? How do we deal with those colleagues where we have to say: 'No, that's not a priority'. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G is chatting L&D governance with a panel of L&D pros: From Phoenix Group, Carl Akintola-Davies; from Mitie, Dolly Ogundimu and Marc Harvey; and, from Merlin Entertainments, James Clemence. We discuss: How to prioritize inbound requests and seek out opportunities How to work with business stakeholders to shape their needs How to measure the value that L&D teams bring to their organizations. During the discussion, a recurring refrain was the word ‘boondoggle’. We also referenced learner surveys. For more on this, see our episode with Dr Will Thalheimer. In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Carl discussed a paper on ‘zombie leadership’ from Professor Alex Haslam. It’s not published yet, but you can get some insight into the topic in this video. Dolly discussed the value of benchmarking. Marc discussed work from the NeuroLeadership Institute. For more from Merlin Entertainments, check out their: YouTube channel Instagram Podcast For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.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 also contact rgarner@mindtools.com. Connect with our speakers  If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: Ross Garner Carl Akintola-Davies Dolly Ogundimu Marc Harvey James Clemence

Learn about the effectiveness of scenario-based learning, creating engaging scenarios, AI impact on radiology, and insights on bouldering and crocheting in this intriguing podcast discussion.

In the past, if you had difficulty thriving in a traditional school, your parents travelled a lot, or you were a child actor, you had the option to study online. Post-Covid, that approach is growing in popularity.  On this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Nahdia are joined by Cambridge Assessment’s Matt James to hear his insights into online education. We discuss:  Techniques for engaging children in online learning  Building social connection and managing wellbeing online  How lessons from online schools apply to workplace learning.    In ‘What I Learnt This Week’, Ross discussed the impact that an AI assistant had on the performance of customer service reps: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2023/05/02/1172791281/this-company-adopted-ai-heres-what-happened-to-its-human-workers  Looking for help creating engaging digital learning for your workplace? Mind Tools can help. Contact custom@mindtools.com.   Connect with our speakers   If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:  Ross Garner   Nahdia Khan  Matt James 

What makes a good presentation? When should and shouldn’t you use a presentation to communicate your ideas? Why do most presentations suck? On this week’s episode of the Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Andrea Pacini, Head of Ideas on Stage and author of Confident Presenter, to discuss: ·       why so many of us feel nervous about presenting ·       the importance of tailoring presentations to the action you want your audience to take ·       how to use the pSCORE method to deliver better presentations To pick up a copy of Andrea’s book, Confident Presenter, head to: https://amzn.eu/d/bKswMEe To get the most out of the book, start by taking the ‘Confident Presenter Scorecard’ to assess your presentation skills in under 3 minutes: https://ideasonstage.com/score If you’re interested in attending an Ideas of Stage web class, you can sign up here: https://www.ideasonstage.com/uk/masterclass In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen referenced the delightful ‘Tiny Awards’: https://tinyawards.net/ His favourite submission was ‘Acronymy’, whose goal is to define every word in the dictionary using an acronym: https://acronymy.net/ For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.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: Ross Dickie Owen Ferguson Andrea Pacini

On the podcast, key players discuss L&D's changing relationship with social media, surprising decrease in blended learning, and pandemic's impact on L&D priorities. They reflect on 20 years of data from the Learning Performance Benchmark, sharing insights and practical applications. The discussion also includes references to a book by Daniel Kahneman and employee wellbeing surveys.

Cognitive diversity brings enormous benefits to teams. How can we proactively recruit and support people who are neurodivergent?   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, speaker and trainer Reena Anand speaks to Gemma and Ross about neurodiversity, barriers to inclusion and what we can do to topple those barriers.   ·       what neurodiversity is ·       the intersection of neurodivergence and race ·       how managers and L&D can create neuroinclusive environments.   During the podcast, Reena referenced a couple of research papers.   Birkbeck University of London’s ‘Neurodiversity at Work 2023’ report can be downloaded here: neurodiversityinbusiness.org/research/    Research by Cambridge University, Maastrict and Newcastle Universities titled ‘Association of Race/Ethnicity and Social Disadvantage With Autism Prevalence in 7 Million School Children in England’ looking at interrelation of autism and race/ethnicity can be accessed here: https://docs.autismresearchcentre.com/papers/2021_Roman-Urrestarazu_Association-of-race-ethnicity-and-social-disadvantage.pdf   Reena has also provided a link to a case study on the Wells Fargo Neurodiversity Program that we didn’t have time to discuss on the podcast. Read it here www.wellsfargojobs.com/en/diversity/neurodiversity/   You can find out more about Reena’s work by visiting her website www.reenaanand.com or LinkedIn page www.linkedin.com/in/reenaanand/     In ‘What I Learnt This Week’, Ross told us about the phenomenon of “Car brain”. Read The Atlantic’s article ‘Everyone has ‘Car brain’’ here https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/07/car-devotion-motor-vehicle-deaths-danger/674613/     For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.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 LinkedIn. Reena Anand Ross Garner Gemma Towersey

Coaching, once the preserve of a privileged elite (ie: the leadership team), is increasingly seen as a useful tool that can help all of us perform better in our roles. But how do we roll coaching out to a wider audience when the cost of a single coaching session is relatively high? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by author, speaker and coach Jenny Garrett OBE. We discuss: ·       Opportunities to democratize coaching ·       The challenges associated with ‘managers as coach’ ·       How technology is shaping the future of coaching. To find out more about Jenny, visit Sue, visit: jennygarrett.global/ If you’re wondering what happened to Skype, check out this post from Wired: wired.co.uk/article/skype-coronavirus-pandemic (basically, it’s been largely replaced by Teams in the business world). In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Owen discussed ‘How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users’, from Lenny’s Newsletter: lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-biggest-consumer-apps-got Ross discussed The Economist’s take on ‘How Britain can become an AI superpower’: economist.com/leaders/2023/06/15/how-britain-can-become-an-ai-superpower If, like Owen, you disagree with The Economist, contact: letters@economist. Looking for help rolling out coaching to your organization? Mind Tools can help. Contact custom@mindtools.com.   Connect with our speakers    If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers: ·       Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT or on LinkedIn ·       Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson or on LinkedIn ·       Jenny Garrett - @JenniferGarrett or on LinkedIn

Do you consider yourself an inspiration? Most of us don’t. But everybody has the capacity to inspire others to act and, in L&D, that’s basically part of the job! In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by author and adventurer Sue Stockdale, the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole. We discuss: ·       Sue’s background and adventures ·       How we as individuals can inspire and motivate others ·       How to scale inspiration across an entire organization. To find out more about Sue, visit: https://suestockdale.com/ In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Owen discussed the strange goings on at Reddit:  nytimes.com/2023/06/16/style/whats-going-on-with-reddit.html Ross discussed Dr Libby Sander’s article on the psychological impact of where we work: news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/disastrous-experiment-real-reason-behind-hated-return-to-work-push/news-story/6f377ea396388a531de6cedf89936fe5 And Sue discussed positive visualization, leading to an unexpected appearance from Ben Goldacre’s Golden Arse Beam: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/08/bad-science-effective-things-silly-places For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.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: ·       Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT or on LinkedIn ·       Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson or on LinkedIn ·       Sue Stockdale - @SueStockdale or on LinkedIn

It’s very strange. For years, we’ve been told that people want ‘resources, not courses’. But, when you ask them, it’s longer-term skill development that they’re interested in.  This week, Mind Tools are launching the most dramatic new content type in our library in years, Skill Bites: a nudge-based approach to course design that leverages spaced repetition, retrieval practice and learner motivation to trigger a measurable change in behaviour.  So, to dig into how it works, our learning experience guru Gemma is joined by product pro Owen, righteous researcher Gent and cool copy guy Keith to discuss:  How ‘Skill Bites’ work  The product development approach that went into their launch  The mechanisms through which they make a measurable difference – and how we measure it!  To try Skill Bites, visit mindtools.com and subscribe for a membership.  In ‘What I Learned this Week’, Gent trotted out a well-known fact about negotiation (well known to listeners of this podcast, anyway): businesstoday.in/magazine/features/story/harvard-business-schools-deepak-malhotra-bt-mindrush-64450-2016-12-26   And Gemma recommended the podcast Mother, Neighbour, Russian Spy: audible.co.uk/pd/Mother-Neighbor-Russian-Spy-Podcast/B0C2WG5CRV#:~:text=She's%20really%20a%20Russian%20spy,boss%20and%20even%20her%20children   For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.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:  Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey or on LinkedIn  Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson  Gent Ahmetaj - @GentAhmetaj  Keith Jackson - LinkedIn