The Mindtools L&D Podcast

What do employees and managers care about in 2023? How do we keep them feeling happy, interested and safe?

A new report from Reward Gateway offers six human-centred strategies to build strong, resilient teams. So, this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by Chief People Officer Nebel Crowhurst to discuss their findings.

We explore:

· - whether it's important that your manager 'cares' about you

· - the role of mental, physical and wellbeing support in engaging employees

· - if it's OK just to turn up and do your job.

You can find the full report online at: https://www.rewardgateway.com/hubfs/Resources-eBooks/uk-2023-employee-engagement-trends-report.pdf

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed Mastodon and Mark Gilroy's YouTube tech reviews: https://www.youtube.com/@ThatMarkGilroy

Nebel discussed Australia's new approach to domestic violence leave: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/family-and-domestic-violence-leave

Ross discussed Glasgow City Council's plans to build a 'feminist' city: https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/glasgow-becomes-uks-first-feminist-city-as-town-planning-motion-from-councillor-holly-bruce-passes-3896633

For more from Nebel and Reward Gateway, visit: https://www.rewardgateway.com/uk

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.

And, this week, we're giving a special shout out to our Learning Performance Benchmark. Not sure how your L&D function is performing? Find out now, for free: https://mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark

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 (or https://mastodon.scot/@owenferguson)

· Nebel Crowhurst - @HR_Nebel

Ten years ago, Henry Stewart wrote The Happy Manifesto, outlining 10 principles for happier workplaces. Among them: Make your people feel good; Be open and transparent; Celebrate mistakes.

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Henry joins Gemma and Ross G the relevance of these principles in 2023. Spoiler: They're even more important.

We discuss:

• how the workplace has evolved
• the emergence of 'self-managing organisations'
• the factors that stop leaders creating a happy workplace.

During the discussion, Henry recommended the following books:

• Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet
• Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
• Maverick by Ricardo Semler
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

He also mentioned the paper: Edmans, A. (2011). Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial economics, 101(3), 621-640.

• actions you can take when budgets are tight
• how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross discussed the use of cannabis to unlock creativity at work (or not, as it turned out): economist.com/business/2023/01/12/how-to-unlock-creativity-in-the-workplace

The original paper is at: Heng, Y. T., Barnes, C. M., & Yam, K. C. (2022). Cannabis use does not increase actual creativity but biases evaluations of creativity. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Henry discussed neurodiversity, sparking Ross to recommend this Learning Guild article from Judy Katz: learningguild.com/articles/designing-for-autism-adhd-and-more-representing-neurodivergence/?rd=1

For more from Henry, see https://www.happy.co.uk. Or you can contact him at: [email protected]

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 Garner - @RossGarnerMT
• Henry Stewart - @HappyHenry

With inflation high, and high profile redundancies hitting the headlines, L&D is once again under pressure to demonstrate the value it offers and to have an impact in our organisations. So what can you do if your budget is slashed?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, David James shares his experiences of managing the L&D team at The Walt Disney Company during the 2008 financial crisis. David is the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning and host of The Learning & Development Podcast, and joins Ross G and Owen to discuss:

• the impact that recessions and cost savings typically have on L&D
• actions you can take when budgets are tight
• how the lessons of 2008 can be applied today.

David has also written about this topic for Forbes, which you can read at: forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2023/01/04/heres-how-ld-can-achieve-more-with-less/

During the discussion, David referenced a LinkedIn post from Ross Stevenson, which you can see here: linkedin.com/posts/rstevensonuk_learninganddevelopment-education-humanresources-activity-7019651016069410816-tAGI?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross mentioned a LinkedIn post from Dr Philippa Hardman on ChatGPT for educators. See: linkedin.com/posts/dr-philippa-hardman-057851120_chatgpt-for-educators-a-practical-guide-activity-7020331313136074752-xxik

For more from David, see 360learning.com/ or subscribe to his podcast: looop.co/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 find out more about The Mind Tools Expert Voices Podcast, including where to subscribe, at: https://www.mindtools.com/podcast/

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
• David James - @DavidInLearning

Last week on the show we had James McLuckie join us to share his advice for winning an award, and this week - as we're approaching Oscars season - we thought we'd host our own award show: where the nominees haven't entered, the winners don't get anything, and the only criteria is what we think was interesting or cool in 2022.

So, in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Gemma, Nahdia and Owen are going to reveal their winners from the following shortlists:

Book of the Year

• The Business of Race, by Gina Greenlee and Margaret Greenberg
• Smart Growth, by Whitney Johnson
• The Digital Mindset, by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley
• HR for Hybrid Working, by Gary Cookson
• How to Work Remotely, by Gemma Dale
• Learning at Speed, by Nelson Sivalingam
• Decisions Over Decimals, by Paul Magnone, Oded Netzer, Christopher J. Frank
• The Expectation Effect, by David Robson

Guest of the Year

• Margaret Greenberg and Gina Greenlee
• Nathalie Nahai
• Professor Doctor Jonathan Wilson
• Oded Netzer
• Bedford Falls' own George Bailey

Episode of the Year

• Christmas Special: Home Alone
• Halloween Special: Edgar Allan Poe and 'unity of effect' in learning design
• 300 — Celebrating live from London!
• Live from the Metaverse: VR for learning
• What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2022?

Technology of the Year

• ChatGPT
• The Metaverse
• Miro
• Dall-e 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion

Tweet of the Year

• Elon Musk - Let that sink in
• Sam Altman - Today we launched Chat GPT
• Rob Briner - 18 things I think I got wrong in trying to promote evidence based practice
• Rob Lennon — Everyone's stuck in beginner mode with ChatGPT

L&D Pro of the Year

• Nelson Sivalingam
• Ross Dickie
• Michelle Ockers
• Donald Clark

During the discussion, Gemma referenced the book Statistics without Tears, from Penguin: penguin.co.uk/books/13568/statistics-without-tears-by-derek-rowntree/9780141987491

In 'What I Learned This Week', Gemma recommended the book Cairngorm John, by John Allen: sandstonepress.com/books/cairngorm-john-pb-1

Ross recommended the film Cliffhanger.

At Mind Tools, we're continuing to offer 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023. This offer only applies to new custom learning customers and work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply. Contact Ross and Gemma from our Custom team for details: [email protected]

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 elearning, 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
• Gemma Towersey - @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan

Industry awards offer a chance to reflect on your work, raise your profile and win some prestige, but they also take a lot of work. So if you're going to enter, you want to maximise the chances of winning.

In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, former co-host James McLuckie of MAPAL joins Ross G and Ross D to share his insights and entrant and judge. We discuss:

• how the process works
• advice for structuring your submission
• how to deliver a persuasive presentation.

If you're interested in entering an award, check out the Learning Technologies Awards (learningtechnologies.co.uk/learning-tech-awards) and the Learning Awards (thelearningawards.com/)

For details of Ross D's recent win, see: mindtoolsbusiness.com/resources/blog/ross-dickie-wins-bronze-learning-technologies-awards-2022

At the top of the show, Ross G referenced the Learning Performance Benchmark, a free tool that can help you take a data-based approach to evaluating your team's L&D performance. To find out more, visit: mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D recommended Deep Work by Cal Newport: amazon.co.uk/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/0349411905

James discussed #SpedUpSounds and an article from The Guardian: theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/10/sped-up-songs-spotify-youtube-tiktok

Ross G recommended Stephen L Chew and William J Cerbin's article on the need for a theory of how people learn, published by Inside Higher Ed: insidehighered.com/views/2017/12/05/need-theory-learning-opinion

Thanks @NeilMosley5 on Twitter for that one.

For more from MAPAL, see: mapal-os.com/en/

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.

And if you're looking for help designing digital learning experiences in 2023, why not contact our Custom team at [email protected]

We're offering 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023. This offer only applies to new custom learning customers and work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply.

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 - @RossDickieMT

James McLuckie - @JamesMcLuckie

In January, many of us like to take stock, reflect on the last twelve months, and make plans for the year ahead. In this spirit, we're kicking off 2023 with a few early insights from our Learning Performance Benchmark.

On the podcast this week, Ross D is joined by Gent Ahmetaj and Anna Barnett from our Insights team to discuss the state of the profession, and what this means for L&D practitioners. We cover:

• what the Learning Performance Benchmark is, and the value benchmarking offers organizations
• early insights from this year's Benchmark report, with a focus on capabilities, barriers, and strategy

To learn more about the Learning Performance Benchmark, or to start benchmarking your organization's L&D capabilities, head to: mindtoolsbusiness.com/solutions/learning-performance-benchmark

In WILTW, Anna recommended the game 'Settlers of Catan': catan.com/

Gent described how he was led astray by a fake research paper, cited by ChatGPT. You can generate your own A.I. truths and lies at: chat.openai.com/chat

Looking for help designing digital learning experiences in 2023? Why not contact our Custom team at [email protected]

We're offering 10% off your first custom project if commissioned in January 2023.

Terms and Conditions

• Offer only applies to new custom learning customers
• Work must be commissioned before midnight, January 31 for discount to apply.

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 Dickie - @RossDickieMT

Gent Ahmetaj - @GentAhmetaj

Anna Barnett - @DrAnnaBarnett

Back by popular demand (ish), the Mind Tools L&D Podcast team are wrapping up this year with a tenuous spin on festive favourite Home Alone! This time it isn't Macaulay Culkin getting left behind: it's Ross G, Ross D, Nahdia and Owen!

What would WE do if left for Christmas in the L&D department of a large organisation? When our colleagues return, what will they find?

We discuss:

• the laughs we'd share if we could get hold of IT admin privileges
• how stock photography haunts us still
• the benefits of an AI personal assistant on every device.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D recommended the Scrubs podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends: open.spotify.com/show/6qckOLN3q2qpZilM6i1MKv

And for something festive, he shared 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' by Zach Braff and Donald Faison: youtube.com/watch?v=ZAGCZMQUeXo

Nahdia shared a Dolly Parton fact. If you don't already love Dolly, check out the Dolly Parton's America podcast: wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america

And Ross G shared a Twitter thread from @Ammaar, who wrote a children's book in a weekend with ChatGPT, MidJourney and other AI tools: twitter.com/ammaar/status/1601284293363261441?s=20&t=I60XsKrPtGFMEQi7uUwA2A

For the last time this year: you can find 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 - @RossDickieMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Nahdia Khan - @NahdiaKhan

In this episode, we'll be chatting about the common jargon used in the Learning and Development field. We'll break down these phrases and explain what they mean, so you can understand and use them in your own L&D conversations.

Here are some of the phrases we'll be covering:

• Blended learning: This refers to a combination of different learning methods, such as online courses, face-to-face training, and e-learning modules.
• Microlearning: This is the use of short, focused learning sessions to help learners retain information and apply it in the workplace.

• Agile learning: Which can mean anything you want it to mean!

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed his favourite new tool: ChatGPT, which wrote the entirety of these show notes up to the 'agile learning' line in italics. Give it a go here: chat.openai.com/chat

Ross D discussed the Natural Language AI from Google: blog.google/technology/ai/join-us-in-the-ai-test-kitchen/

And Ross G shared some fun simulated nonsense he found on Twitter, in the form of a 'rock, paper, scissors' simulation: twitter.com/juanbuis/status/1600155605112496129?s=20&t=51X4p1tzACbY1tg7sxEcaw

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 @[email protected])
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Megan Reilly - Linkedin

'Big data' promised us an end to uncertainty, but we realise now that this is a myth. Uncertainty will always remain, and intuition can help us navigate it.

That's the claim of Oded Netzer, one of the authors of Decisions Over Decimals: Striking the Balance Between Intuition and Information. On this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Oded joins Ross G and Ross D to discuss:

• Why looking for a 'perfect' answer isn't helpful
• How 'quantitative intuition' (QI) can help us make decisions
• Techniques for identifying the data you do need to make decisions.

You can find out more about Decisions Over Decimals, including where to buy a copy, at dodthebook.com/

During the discussion, Ross D referenced the website FiveThirtyEight.com. You can find it here: fivethirtyeight.com/

In 'What I Learned This Week', Oded discussed Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History episode 'My Little Hundred Million': pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/my-little-hundred-million

Ross D referenced FiveThirtyEight (again) to explore the technology within a football: fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-world-cups-new-high-tech-ball-will-change-soccer-forever/

Ross G encouraged all of you to follow him on Mastodon (the hottest new social network, pew-pew!). Check out: mastodon.scot/@rossgarner

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 @[email protected])
• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieMT
• Oded Netzer - @OdedNetzer

Bonus content! Check out this photo of Ross D with his award: twitter.com/MindToolsFB/status/1593232298358763521?s=20&t=BXnJsjoQ0bYR1_DzvPdjpg

This October saw cities across Scotland play host to the first ever 'Scottish Games Week', a nationwide event featuring a conference, an education symposium, and awards show. What lessons from that event can the organisers share with the L&D community?

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Sam are joined by organisers Brian Baglow and Julie Drybrough to discuss:

• the elements of a good 'learning' game;
• some of the problems that come when we design games with an explicitly 'learning' focus;

• how to leverage game mechanics to improve learning.

During the show, Brian discussed the game Island Saver, from NatWest. See: natwest.mymoneysense.com/island-saver/

Sam referenced McDonald's gamified approach to till training: kineo.com/case-studies/mcdonalds-till-training-game

For more on Scottish Games Week, see: gamesweek.scot/

In 'What I Learned This Week', Sam discussed what a World of Warcraft virtual outbreak taught us about how humans behave in epidemics: arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/that-time-world-of-warcraft-helped-epidemiologists-model-an-outbreak/

Julie discussed the relationship between trauma and coaching, with reference to Dr Gabor Maté. See: drgabormate.com/

Brian discussed Bugzy Malone's Grandest Game, a podcast series about Grand Theft Auto, available on BBC Sounds: bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0df1893

And Gemma discussed 'inosculation', courtesy of Robert Macfarlane on Twitter: twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1592220645697486856?s=20&t=NcanHDv48LNdU1BAdl0qaQ

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
• Sam Brown - @SBrownMT
• Julie Drybrough - @Fuchsia_Blue
• Brian Baglow - @FlackBoy