The Mindtools L&D Podcast

Creating videos for training purposes is easy; launch a smartphone camera app and hit record. Creating effective pieces of drama that allow viewers to make their own meaning through compelling storylines and characters is not so easy. However, it is a skill that learning designers can study and put into practice.

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma T and Ross G are joined by Tom Hickmore, to discuss:

• why drama is an effective learning delivery mechanism
• when to use drama
• scripting techniques.

Show notes

Ross' freaky Friday 13th frequency fact came from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th#Occurrence

Gemma found out about the history of Paralympic games in this National Geographic article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-the-paralympic-movement-evolved-into-major-sporting-event

Tom's book "Watch & learn" can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watch-Learn-Designing-commissioning-producing-ebook/dp/B09FB4M471

To watch the "What can TV teach L&D" video series that Tom has made, follow these links:

Series 1: https://www.nicemedia.co.uk/season-1-what-can-tv-teach-ld/

Series 2: https://www.nicemedia.co.uk/season-2-what-can-tv-teach-ld/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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:

• Tom Hickmore @nicemediauk
• Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW
• Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey

The pandemic has been both a trigger and an opportunity for reflection and ultimately, change. We've had to forget, or "unlearn" our old ways.

This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma T and Ross D are joined by Mark Gilroy to discuss:

• what 'unlearning' is
• the link between unlearning and curiosity
• how we can help each other to "unlearn" effectively.

Show notes

Mark recommended the following resources:

"How organisations Learn and Unlearn (Hedberg, 1981)" http://johnljerz.com/superduper/tlxdownloadsiteWEBSITEII/id167.html

The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science by Will Storr. Available at all good bookstores.

The B=MAT model: https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/bj-foggs-behavior-model/

Mark made a surprising claim about rainfall during "What I learned this week". Here's his data source: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitation-Rainfall,London,United-Kingdom

Ross talked about Iceland's four-day week, which you can read more about here: https://autonomy.work/portfolio/icelandsww/

Ross and Gemma referred to Adam Grant's book, Think again: https://www.adamgrant.net/book/think-again/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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:

• Mark Gilroy @thatmarkgilroy
• Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW
• Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey

You can also find out more about Mark's organisation, TMSDI.

What is organisational learning? Is it the same thing as people in organisations learning? And how does it overlap with learning culture?

This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Nahdia are joined by Nigel Paine to discuss:

• what 'organisational learning' actually means
• the difference between organisations that learn and individuals that learn
• the role L&D can play in supporting organisational learning
• the distinction between 'learning cultures' and 'cultures of learning'.

Show notes

To find out more about Nigel's work, check out his website: https://www.nigelpaine.com/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 @RossDickieEW
• Nahdia Khan @_nahdia_khan
• Nigel Paine @ebase

'What did you think of the trainer' and 'How was the lunch?' These are two questions we won't be asking today, as we get stuck into effective learner surveys.

Ross G and Owen are joined by Gent Ahmetaj, Head of Research at Mind Tools for Business, to discuss:

• the problem with traditional learner surveys
• the features of an academically robust survey
• issues with this approach and how to resolve them.

Show notes

For more details on our Insights team, and a delightful photo of Gent, see: https://emeraldworks.com/solutions/mindtoolsinsight

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed The Oatmeal's 'Why the mantis shrimp is my new favorite animal' and 'Why it breaks your brain to take a compliment'.

Gent discussed Veritasium's YouTube video on the '3x + 1' problem: youtube.com/watch?v=094y1Z2wpJg

And Ross discussed the time that the Australian army went to war with the emus, and lost: blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 - @RossGarnerEW
• Owen Ferugson - @OwenFerguson
• Gent Ahmetaj - @GentAhmetaj

Over the last two years, L&D has been forced to adapt to rapid, unprecedented change. As learning leaders find new ways of supporting their organizations, is now the perfect time for them to rethink their learning strategy?

This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, the two Rosses are joined by Michelle Ockers to discuss:

• what we mean when we talk about 'organizational learning strategy'
• what a good strategy looks like in practice
• how to develop a strategy that accounts for uncertainty
• the common pitfalls to avoid when developing a strategy

Show notes

To find out more about Michelle's work on learning strategy, check out her website: https://learninguncut.global/

For details of the Australian Public Service's learning strategy, visit: https://www.apsc.gov.au/learning-and-development/highly-capable-future-ready-aps-learning-and-development-strategy

In WILTW, Ross G shared a story about Utah's novel approach to 'restocking' fishless lakes. You can find out more at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/fish-plane-video-utah-lake

The book Michelle mentioned was How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:

• Ross Dickie - @RossDickieEW
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW
• Michelle Ockers - @MichelleOckers

'Jobs To Be Done' (JTBD) is a framework that can be used to define consumer needs and identify how to meet them. In this week's Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by aNewSpring's Ger Driesen to explore how this can be applied to learning design.

We discuss:

• what 'Jobs To Be Done' is
• examples of Jobs To Be Done
• how to apply this framework to your learning design challenges.

Show notes

Jobs to be Done, by Anthony W. Ulwick, is available as a free e-book at: jobs-to-be-done-book.com

Clay Christensen's 'milkshake' explanation is on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=sfGtw2C95Ms

This article explains why you only need five users for user testing: nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/

Ger has blogged at: linkedin.com/pulse/jobs-to-be-done-approach-empathy-matters-learning-design-ger-driesen/

And his colleague Corjan Bast also wrote on this topic, at: anewspring.com/professionals-dont-want-training-they-want-the-result-of-the-training/

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen shared a study on 'bullshit ability as an honest signal of intelligence':

Turpin, M. H., Kara-Yakoubian, M., Walker, A. C., Walker, H. E., Fugelsang, J. A., & Stolz, J. A. (2021). Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence. Evolutionary Psychology, 19(2), 14747049211000317.

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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:

• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW
• Ger Driesen - @GerDriesen

We tend to assume that, faced with the same problem on separate occasions, professionals will typically arrive at the same judgements — doctors will make the same diagnoses, mortgage lenders will set the same rates, judges will hand down the same sentences. But is professional judgement really as reliable as we think it is?

This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, the team discuss Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement, the new book from Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. We cover:

• what 'noise' is in the context of judgement
• the distinction between noise and bias
• strategies for minimising noise
• potential implications for L&D

Show notes

Noise is out now and is available from all good booksellers.

The ProPublica article Ross G mentioned can be found at: https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing

He also referred to 'This Place Is Full of It: Towards an Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale', a paper which is explored in this article: https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/researchers-explore-employee-perceptions-of-bullshit-in-the-workplace-with-the-organizational-bullshit-perception-scale-61415

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 - @RossDickieEW
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW
• Nahdia Khan - @_nahdia_khan
• Gemma Towersey - @gemmatowersey

It's been 17 months since we last spoke to authors Mark Britz and James Tyer. Since then, the world has shut down - on multiple occasions - and many of us have been working from home on a long-term basis.

In this context, how do we make organizations 'social by design'?

Ross G and Owen are joined once again by Mark and James to debate. We discuss:

• the impact that Covid-19 has had on their earlier predictions
• whether widespread 'working from home' has made organizations more (or less?) social
• the small changes that we can make to increase opportunities for social connection.

Show notes

Social by Design is available now. The audio version is available in the US and Canada:

audible.com/pd/Social-by-Design-Audiobook/B097TTWYVJ (US)

audible.ca/pd/Social-by-Design-Audiobook/B097TSRRGZ (Canada)

For more from Mark, visit: sxdsolutions.co

James referenced the Beezy 2021 Digital workplace trends report. Find it online at: beezy.net/2021-digital-workplace-report

He also referenced soundbite.ai and solvable (social by design for ESG and sustainability teams).

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed Github co-pilot. See copilot.github.com for details and fastcompany.com/90653878/github-copilot-microsoft-openai-coding-tool-backlash for backlash.

Mark discussed the impact of chance encounters on innovation: nytimes.com/2021/06/23/upshot/remote-work-innovation-office.html

And Ross combined his two great loves: Star Trek and behavioral science: timharford.com/2021/07/me-spock-is-not-as-logical-as-hed-like-to-think/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 - @RossGarnerEW
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Mark Britz - @Britz
• James Tyer - On LinkedIn

Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on L&D, super-charging existing trends and forcing learning leaders to re-evaluate pre-pandemic practices. More than a year into 'the new normal', how have perceptions changed within the profession?

This week on the The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D is joined by Gent Ahmetaj and Nahdia Khan to discuss our 2021 L&D Benchmark Report. We discuss:

• the history of the annual benchmark report, and what it tells us about the state of the profession
• the top-line takeaways from this year's report
• the extent to which Covid-19 has accelerated or reversed pre-pandemic trends

Show notes

If you're interested in poring over the benchmark report in more detail, it's due to be launched on 14 July. You'll find a copy of it on our website, www.emeraldworks.com.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Gent mentioned Google's '20% Project'. You can find out more about the project at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20%25_Project

Ross D recommended the Jeff Tweedy episode of the Ezra Klein Show, which you can find at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/01juWYlRq8LuckUJscRASq?si=LuE7Mq17SiOoiOT18GBnkw&dl_branch=1

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.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 @RossDickieEW
• Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj
• Nahdia Khan @_nahdia_khan

Lots of organisations use survey tools to listen to employees, or capture 'employee voice'. But then we hear that no action is taken, or leadership teams don't know what to do with the results. Is there a better approach?

On this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen speak to James Anderson and Donna Hamilton from employee listening platform Peachy Mondays.

We discuss:

• why employee engagement surveys often fail to have an impact
• where employee listening offers value
• strategies for encouraging employees to take part in such initiatives.

Show notes

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen recommended The Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (soon to be a TV series from Amazon): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time

James shared that 4 million Americans a month are quitting their roles: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/23/people-quitting-jobs-record-numbers-companies-take-note-treat-them-better

And, in a related note, Ross shared predictions on the future of work from Freakonomics, episode 464, 'Will Work-from-Home Work Forever?': freakonomics.com/podcast/work-from-home/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.

For more from Peachy Mondays, visit: peachymondays.com

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers:

• Ross Garner - @RossGarnerEW
• Owen Ferguson - @OwenFerguson
• Donna Hamilton - [email protected]
• James Anderson - [email protected]