The Mindtools L&D Podcast

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 [email protected].

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

The HR and L&D sectors are built on a foundation of outsourcing. Often, the secret ingredient to ensuring those products and services add value is… the person buying them!

So, this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we ask: what are the characteristics of a client who has a high likelihood of gaining value from their supplier?

Ross G and Gemma are joined, from our sales team, by Lara Kidd and Samantha Nicks. We discuss:

· why the client is so important to the implementation of any HR or L&D technology

· actions the client can take to increase the likelihood of success

· advice for people in a buying position.

In 'What I Learned this Week', Gemma discussed Douglas Stuart's novel Shuggie Bain.

Ross G discussed David Grann's non-fiction book The Wager.

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:

· Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT or on LinkedIn

· Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey or on LinkedIn

· Lara Kidd – LinkedIn

· Samantha Nicks - LinkedIn

In The Resilience Handbook, occupational psychologist and author Sukh Pabial outlines three elements which can make us more resilient: positive psychology, emotional intelligence and mindfulness. But is this something we can only develop on our own, or can L&D build the resilience of others?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Sukh joins Ross G and Owen to discuss:

· how inner work is a pre-requisite to being able to help others

· the extent to which L&D teams running webinars, workshops and courses can help others build resilience

· the organizational conditions that lead to more resilient teams.

You can find Sukh's book online at: amazon.co.uk/Resilience-Handbook-practical-understanding-resilience/dp/1739331702

During the discussion, Sukh referenced Google's 'Project Aristotle'. See: rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/

In 'What I Learned this Week', Owen discussed the impact of exercise on health: Singh, B., Olds, T., Curtis, R., Dumuid, D., Virgara, R., Watson, A., ... & Maher, C. (2023). Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine. See: bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/02/bjsports-2022-106195

Sukh discussed Lior Locher's blog 'One week in the life of mobility restriction and experiences with the general public'. See: linkedin.com/pulse/one-week-life-mobility-restriction-experiences-general-lior-locher

Ross discussed Ezra Klein's article 'Beyond the "Matrix" Theory of the Mind'. See: nytimes.com/2023/05/28/opinion/artificial-intelligence-thinking-minds-concentration.html

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:

· Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

· Owen Ferguson – @OwenFerguson

· Sukh Pabial - @SukhPabial

You had an idea for say, a product or service. You created it and rolled it out to a small target group. It worked - a success! It's now time to expand, to unleash it onto the world. How do you make sure it continues to be a success? This is the question John A. List sets out to answer in his book, The Voltage Effect.

In this book club episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Owen and Ross Dickie to get to grips with List's suggestions for successful scaling.

We discussed:

• the avoidable errors that lead to "voltage drops"
• the actions that promote "voltage gains" i.e., successful scaling
• what these mean for L&D professionals.

In 'What I Learned this Week', Owen described how he set a goal and trained for the Etape Caledonia 2023. You can find out more about next year's event here: https://limelightsports.club/event/etape-caledonia-2024

Ross told a story about a cunning negotiation concerning an image on Theodore Roosevelt's campaign poster. Here's an article about it: https://wheeler.substack.com/p/update-teddy-roosevelt-the-secret

Gemma was astounded to learn of the number of teeth all dogs have. She found this information on this site: https://www.petvaxah.com/site/blog/2022/07/15/dog-teeth

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

· Ross Dickie – @RossDickieMT

· Owen Ferguson – @owenferguson

You might offer employees the best content libraries, training or toolkits in the world, but if they don't know what's there, or when or why they'd access it, it's useless. In these situations, you need a creative approach to grab learners' attention and give them compelling reasons to keep them coming back.

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by the team behind a successful engagement project at Heathrow Airport: Steph Constantinides, Charlotte Blake and Claire Gibson.

We discussed:

· how Heathrow colleagues were using the toolkit

· the idea-generation and production processes for campaign assets

· the results and the future of campaign-based learning at Heathrow.

In What I Learnt this Week, Charlotte discussed the surprisingly low percentage of LinkedIn users who contribute content to the platform. Read more about this here: kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics.

Claire discovered that she could get US preclearance in Dublin Airport. If you're also heading to the US from Dublin (perhaps you're also going to the Taylor Swift concert?), there's more about that here: dublinairport.com/flight-information/travelling-to-usa/usa-preclearance/us-customs-and-border-protection-video

If you're not going to the concert, here's one of Claire's favorite Taylor Swift songs to make up for it.

Gemma described Naismith's rule, having read about it in Mountaincraft and Leadership by Eric Langmuir.

For more from us, including access to our back catalog 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 (some of) our speakers on Twitter:

· Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey

· Claire Gibson – @claireisdigital

Our other speakers are on LinkedIn, so head over there to connect with:

· Charlotte Blake

· Steph Constantinides

For over 20 years, Debbie Carter has been working at industry magazine Training Journal, tracking the changes that have taken place in our field – and occasionally railing against them!

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, she joins Ross G and Owen to discuss:

· the state of L&D in the early 'noughties'

· the big changes that have shaped our profession

· the constants that have remained the same.

You can check out Training Journal at: trainingjournal.com/

You can read Ross's TJ article, on learning campaigns, at: trainingjournal.com/2023/education-and-skills/if-learning-matters-make-it-a-campaign/

In what is surely our best-researched (and least interesting) 'What I Learned This Week', Owen revealed the quick-drying properties of microfiber towels from the company Dock & Bay: uk.dockandbay.com. That's not an affiliate link, just an excellent way to dry yourself quickly. You're welcome!

Ross G discussed, perhaps with greater relevance to our audience, the language that we use to discuss AI. Check out this blog from Donald Clark for more: donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2023/04/7-words-that-worry-me-in-ai.html

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:

· Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

· Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson

· Debbie Carter - @DebbieCarter20

You can map employee networks in all sorts of ways: formal hierarchy, online interactions, geographic location. But, in this episode, we look at how surveying colleagues unlocks insights into who is a key relationship node – and who is isolated.

In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by Jeppe Hansgaard, CEO of Innovisor. We discuss:

· techniques for mapping employee networks

· the role that the 3% play in maintaining a strong network of

· the impact of network isolation on long-term retention of employees.

During the discussion, Jeppe made a reference to the impact of loneliness on health. This was based on research from the National Institute on Aging. See: extension.unh.edu/blog/2022/05/prolonged-social-isolation-loneliness-are-equivalent-smoking-15-cigarettes-day

Some of the papers Ross referenced were:

Gašević, D., Zouaq, A., & Janzen, R. (2013). "Choose your classmates, your GPA is at stake!" The association of cross-class social ties and academic performance. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), 1460-1479. Online at: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002764213479362?journalCode=absb

Lockyer, L., Heathcote, E., & Dawson, S. (2013). Informing pedagogical action: Aligning learning analytics with learning design. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), 1439-1459. Online at: www.sfu.ca/~dgasevic/papers/Lockyer_abs2013.pdf

Owen referenced 'Dunbar's number', which describes the number of relationships we can maintain. See: bbc.com/future/article/20191001-dunbars-number-why-we-can-only-maintain-150-relationships

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen referenced Snapchat's 'My AI' feature: help.snapchat.com/hc/en-gb/articles/13266788358932-What-is-My-AI-on-Snapchat-and-how-do-I-use-it-

He also discussed the 'Artifact' app: https://artifact.news/

And Ross shared some nonsense about 'Garfield' phones: bbc.com/news/world-europe-47732553.amp

This episode was sparked by a case study from Innovisor, which provides a good overview of how isolation affects retention: innovisor.com/2023/01/31/79-of-isolated-employees-left-within-2-years-work-with-people-networks-to-win-on-retention/

To find out more about Innovisor, see: innovisor.com/

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:

· Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT

· Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson

· Jeppe Hansgaard – @JeppeHansgaard

Adults do not learn as children learn. They have prior experience, they have real-world problems to solve and, crucially, they can get up and walk out if they lose interest!

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and 'Ross Dickie' are joined by Dr Carrie Graham. In amongst talk of bridge building, we discuss:

• the core principles of Adult Learning Theory
• how to apply Adult Learning Theory in the workplace
• why keeping the life of the learner front-of-mind is so important.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross Dickie got smutty by diving into the acronym shift from SMET to STEM. See more here: McComas, W. F. (2014). STEM: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning, 102-103. Online at: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6209-497-0_92

And Ross G got snarky, with a deep dive into the groundbreaking conspiracy theory that surrounds public information game Cat Park. You can play the game at: catpark.game/

Ross read about Cat Park in The Economist. See: economist.com/culture/2023/04/05/games-are-a-weapon-in-the-war-on-disinformation

If you're interested in the conspiracy, you'll need to do your own research. We don't recommend.

To find out more about Carrie, and to book a CALM consultation, visit: drcarriegraham.com/

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:

• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Ross Dickie - @Ross DickieMT
• Dr Carrie Graham - LinkedIn