The Mindtools L&D Podcast

Data and analytics have long been hot topics in L&D, frequently finding themselves the subjects of conference keynotes, fierce Twitter debates and enlightening podcasts... So why aren't we implementing them more successfully?

This week on the show, Looop's David James and Mike Collins join Ross D to discuss their whitepaper, 'Achieving More with Data & Analytics in L&D'. We cover:

• the lessons L&D can learn from the world of marketing
• the challenges associated with data and analytics
• some of the keys to effective data analysis

Show notes

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.

To learn more about Looop, or to download a copy of their new whitepaper, head to: https://www.looop.co/ebooks-whitepapers/

If you'd like to hear 'Jesus Refulsit Omnium' for yourself, you can listen to a recording of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMJnlPHqch0

Barack Obama's memoir, A Promised Land, is available in all good bookshops. You can also find the audiobook at: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/A-Promised-Land-Audiobook/0241991420

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW
• David James @DavidInLearning
• Mike Collins @Community_Mike

When it comes to gender parity, we've made progress but have some way to go. Our guests on today's show believe it's not just up to women to make it happen: men need to get involved.

This week on the show, authors of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace, Brad W. Johnson and David Smith, join Gemma and Ross G to talk about practical ways men can hurry along gender equality by becoming allies for women.

We discuss:

• what it means to be a male ally
• challenges in being a male ally
• what effect male allies might have.

Show notes

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.

Our Learning Health Check is open until the end of December. This free tool will help you benchmark your organization against others. Try it now! emeraldworks.com/research/learning-health-check

Find out more about Brad and David's research by visiting their website: https://www.workplaceallies.com/

You can buy the book Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace from any bookstore.

In our What I Learnt This Week feature, David spoke about his niece's allergy to exercise. You can read about this condition in this "Allergic to exercise?" article from NBC News: nbcnews.com/healthmain/allergic-exercise-1C9926288

Brad gave us an example of a man being an ally to a woman in Doug Emhoff. This BBC article tells Doug's story, "Doug Emhoff: The first 'second dude' in the White House". Access it here: bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54899230

Ross gave a shout out to The Crown: a series about the British Royal family on Netflix. You can find the episodes here: netflix.com/gb/title/80025678

Gemma talked about some of the unique features of Stonehenge. Her information came from the BBC Podcast "You're Dead to Me - Stonehenge". You can listen to it here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08zqq6y

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW
• Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey
• David Smith @Davidgsmithphd
• Brad W Johnson - LinkedIn

Author, speaker and presenter Kevin M. Yates last joined The Good Practice Podcast back in episode 117 to share his insights into whether we can measure the impact of training. This week, he's back with a new e-book to help you do just that.

This week on the show, Kevin joins Ross G and Owen to unpack his L&D Detective Kit for Solving Impact Mysteries.

We discuss:

• the secrets behind why impact often isn't measured
• how impact measurement starts with planning upfront
• the basics of good survey design.

Show notes

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.

Our Learning Health Check is open until the end of December. This free tool will help you benchmark your organisation against others. Try it now! emeraldworks.com/research/learning-health-check

You can download The L&D Detective Kit, for free, from Kevin's website at: kevinmyates.com/l%26d-detective-kit

You can find more from Kevin at his website (kevinmyates.com) or on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/today/author/kevinmyates).

The paper that Owen recommended was: Denrell, J., & Kovács, B. (2020). The Ecology of Management Concepts. Strategy Science. Available online at: researchgate.net/publication/344519162_The_Ecology_of_Management_Concepts

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
• Kevin M. Yates @KevinMYates

Covid-19 has profoundly altered our lives. Some changes have given us the space and time to build more positive habits; others have been purely restrictive.

Our Head of Research has been monitoring the effect of Covid on learning and L&OD teams across the globe. In this podcast, Gent joins Gemma and Owen to discuss his findings - the good and the somewhat troublesome.

Show notes

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.

The research we discussed in this podcast will be published in a series of infographics. Look out for the first one on our website and through our social media channels towards the end of this month.

In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared his surprise and delight in the series Ted Lasso, available on Apple TV+. You can find it online at: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/ted-lasso/umc.cmc.vtoh0mn0xn7t3c643xqonfzy

Gent's movie recommendation was Alpha Go, available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y&ab_channel=DeepMind

Gemma's mycelium fact came from Fantastic Fungi, a film available on Amazon Prime Video: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantastic-Fungi-Brie-Larson/dp/B08DK1Q9TJhttps://fantasticfungi.com/

Connect with our speakers

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

• Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj
• Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson

Sorry everyone, there's no podcast today! Instead, Ross G is here with a brief reminder to complete your Learning Health Check.

Show notes

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.

You can find a link to the Emerald Works Learning Health Check by following this link:

How does your L&D strategy compare with your peers?

Connect with us

If you'd like to share your thoughts, connect with us on Twitter:

• Emerald Works @Emerald_Works

Do you find learning science dry, academic and inaccessible? Then fear not: Learning Science Weekly is an email newsletter that provides short and practical advice... every seven days.

This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Learning Science Weekly author Dr. Julia Huprich (Vice President of Learning Science at Intellum) joins Gemma and Owen to share her insights into the role of science in learning.

We discuss:

• the importance of research in learning design
• common approaches to learning design that are not supported by research
• the role of practitioners in shaping our evidence base.

Show notes

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.

You can sign up for Learning Science Weekly at: learningscienceweekly.com

Learning Science Weekly is on Twitter at @LearnSciWeekly.

The books that Julia recommended were:

• e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, by Ruth Clarke and Richard Mayer, available from Amazon at: amazon.co.uk/Learning-Science-Instruction-Guidelines-Multimedia-dp-1119158664/dp/1119158664
• Evidence-Informed Learning Design: Creating Training to Improve Performance by Mirjam Neelen and Paul A Kirschner, available at: amazon.co.uk/Evidence-Informed-Learning-Design-Creating-Performance/dp/1789661439

Mirjam also spoke to Ross G and Owen about her book in episode 177: podcast.goodpractice.com/177-evidence-informed-learning-design

Owen's evidence-informed 'people to follow' were friends-of-the-show Dr Will Thalheimer (@WillWorkLearn) and Clark Quinn (@Quinnovator).

He also recommended Bad Science by Ben Goldacre: amazon.co.uk/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X

If you're interested in the calculation for 'blue Monday', see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Monday_(date)#Calculation Note that there are two different formulas, so you can pick one or suffer both.

In What I Learned This Week, Owen recommended 'Your job application was rejected by a human, not a computer', by Christine Assaf of HR Tact: hrtact.com/2020/10/05/your-job-application-was-rejected-by-a-human-not-a-computer/

Gemma's 'word of the week' was 'empleomania': a mania for holding public office.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Dr. Julia Huprich @juliahuprich

Back in 2013, Basecamp's Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson published Remote (Office Not Required), a beautifully concise insight into how remote working had shaped their business.

Seven years and one global pandemic later, remote working has become a lot more common. But are we making the most of the opportunities that remote working presents?

In this edition of The GP Book Club, Ross G is joined by Gemma and Owen to share their thoughts.

We discuss:

• a brief overview of the book's main points
• the advantages of remote work for businesses and employees
• how the way organisations communicate during the pandemic is shaping reactions to remote working.

Show notes

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.

Remote: Office Not Required, is available on Amazon: amazon.co.uk/Remote-Required-David-Heinemeier-Hansson/dp/0091954673

In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared FiveThirtyEight's 2020 US presidential election poll tracker. You can find it online at: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/

Gemma recommended the book The Making of the English Landscape, by WG Hoskins. It's available from Amazon at: amazon.co.uk/Making-English-Landscape-Classics-Library/dp/1908213108

Ross shared his observations on the romantic sounding 'winter halo', described on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW
• Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson

Where do learners and managers experience 'pain points' at work, and how can organisations take steps to remove these?

This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Emerald Works Senior Research Analyst Gent Ahmetaj joins Ross D and Owen to share practical insights from our 2020 Learner Insights research.

We discuss:

• what managers can do to address pain points
• what organisations can do to address pain points
• the characteristics of 'inspiring' learning content.

Show notes

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.

Our 2020 Learner Insights report will be available soon.

Gent referred to a paper from the UK Behavioural Insights Team describing learning content:

Team, B. I. (2014). EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Behavioural Insight Team, London. Online at: https://www.bi.team/publications/east-four-simple-ways-to-apply-behavioural-insights/

In What I Learned This Week, Owen shared some insight into LinkedIn's new (for them) 'story' feature: https://medium.com/@efeng/why-media-formats-like-snapchat-stories-and-tiktok-music-videos-become-hits-c6d2b9c79371

Ross shared the story of the QWERTY keyboard, based on 99% Invisible's podcast episode 'The Next Billion Users', online at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-next-billion-users/

In reference to the above, Gent discussed the 'Library of Babel' project: https://futurism.com/meet-the-digital-library-of-babel-a-complete-combination-of-every-possible-combination-of-letters-ever

You can find the Library of Babel online at: https://libraryofbabel.info/

If you really want to do a deep dive, then Owen also discussed the 'infinite monkey theorem': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem

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
• Gent Ahmetaj @GentAhmetaj

Being able to empathise helps us to better connect, communicate and respond to each other. It's a skill that can be developed through practice.

This week on The Good Practice Podcast, Gemma and Ross G speak to Mark Davies from See Learning about using video to build empathy.

We discuss:

• the benefits of building empathy at work
• why video is an effective tool for building empathy
• how to encourage people to share their stories on video filming on a smartphone.

Show notes

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.

In his first answer, Ross referred to Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone, which is summarised on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone

In What I Learned This Week, Ross continued his sporadic series on space-based toilet anecdotes with the news that NASA has invented a device that supports 'dual ops': https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/space-toilet-nasa-women/616686/

He previously discussed NASA's list of US material on the Moon: https://history.nasa.gov/FINAL%20Catalogue%20of%20Manmade%20Material%20on%20the%20Moon.pdf (in Episode 133)

And, more recently, how astronaut pee can be used as a construction material: https://www.wired.com/story/on-the-moon-astronaut-pee-will-be-a-hot-commodity/ (in Episode 199)

Gemma mentioned the podcast "Something rhymes with purple". You can find it on most podcast streaming services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and acast.

Mark spoke about his video series "You are Pure Story". You can access it here: https://www.lifebooth.co.uk/free

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 @RossGarnerEW

Mark Davies is contactable via email: [email protected]

Love your Mac? Find your vacuum cleaner cumbersome? Despair at the booking system of your local leisure center? User experience design (or lack of) plays a significant part in whether you love or loathe the products and services you interact with. This week on the Good Practice podcast, Gemma and Ross D talk to Rhys Pendred, Emerald Work's Lead UX designer. We focussed on the what, why and how of user experience, discussing:

• What UX is
• UX fundamental principles
• How we might think about and improve the UX of our products / learning.

Show notes 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.

Rhys mentioned Jacob Neilson's "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design". This article can be found online at https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

If you'd like to find out more about UX in learning design, we would recommend listening to our previous podcast "Design thinking for instructional design" with Connie Malamed. You can find it here https://podcast.goodpractice.com/78-design-thinking-for-ld

Rhys talked about Eddie Van Halen's quirky, brown M&Ms stipulation. This is mentioned in The Independent's Eddie Van Halen obituary. You can read the obituary at https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/obituary-eddie-van-halen-39608991.html

Gemma referred to a piece of research on muscle loading. It was mentioned in Tom Goom's video "What muscles should runners strengthen". The video is found online at https://www.running-physio.com/muscles/

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

• Gemma Towersey @gemmatowersey
• Ross Dickie @RossDickieEW
• Rhys Pendred linkedin.com/in/rhys-pendred