The Mindtools L&D Podcast

Objectives and Key Results have long been a staple of the working world. You set a stretch objective, define the results that will tell you if the objective has been met, and scaffold throughout the organization.

Then what?

Often, nothing happens. The OKRs were too vague. In extreme cases, the worst happens: people bend the rules to hit aggressive targets.

For author Radhika Dutt, there is another way: Objectives, Hypotheses, and Learnings (OHLs).

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Radhika joins Gemma and Ross Garner to discuss:

• Why OKRs so often fail
• How OHLs prioritize a puzzle-solving mindset
• How to ensure OHLs don't lead to analysis paralysis

Radhika offers an OHL toolkit at: radicalproduct.com/toolkit

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G discussed 'parasocial relationships'.

Gemma discussed an article from The Guardian on ways to have more 'fun' at work.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

For more from Radhika, including her last book Radical Product Thinking, see her website.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Gemma Towersey
• Ross Garner
• Radhika Dutt

Here at Mindtools Towers, we're no strangers to benchmarking in L&D. We've regularly mentioned our Learning Performance Benchmark over the years, and we dedicated an entire episode to 'The value of benchmarking' back in 2021. So, naturally, we were intrigued when David James released the 'L&D Maturity Model', and wanted to invite him onto the show to discuss it.

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, David joins us to explore:

• Why David developed his maturity model, and what makes it different
• The limitations of self-assessment-based models
• What practitioners can expect to get out of benchmarking
• How L&D teams can move up the levels of the model and increase their maturity.

You can find out more about The L&D Maturity Model here. You can find the Learning & Development Podcast, 'wherever you get your podcasts'.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Anna explained the history of 'via ferrata', following her holiday in the Dolomites.

David talked about 'imaginal discs' in butterflies.

And Ross dropped a fresh new AI-generated beat about his son, AKA Lil Dribs.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Dickie
• Dr Anna Barnett
• David James

Now for something completely different!

A couple of weeks ago, Carl Akintola wrote a provocative guest post for The L&D Dispatch, challenging L&D practitioners to interogate their motives for measuring learning impact. Are they in it purely for the sake of evaluation and continuous improvement? Or are they merely trying to justify their own existence?

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Carl takes over hosting duties, and runs Ross G and Ross D through the scenario he outlined in the newsletter.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D mentioned 'The Bad-Mouthing of British Teeth', an episode of the Decoder Ring podcast.

Ross G described the so-called 'Gen Z stare'.

And Carl confused the Rosses with a maths problem, based on the 'Monty Hall problem'.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Dickie
• Ross Garner
• Carl Akintola

We know that surrounding ourselves with diverse people at work brings variety in expertise, opinions and ways of working, which can boost creativity and productivity. Sometimes those differences however, can be challenging. How can we make the most of difference?

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Liggy Webb, author of Tolerance: How to respect and accept differences joins Ross G and Gemma to examine the skill of tolerance. We discuss:

• What tolerance means
• The benefits of being tolerant
• How to be tolerant, particularly towards differences in behaviour or opinions that we find tricky.

To find out about Liggy's Bitesize Book Series, visit her website.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross mentioned Anthropic's experiment that revealed Claude's inability to run a shop.

Gemma spoke about the startling dimensions of the Norwegian Fjords.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Garner

• Gemma Towersey

• Liggy Webb

In their new book, In Praise of the Office, Wharton professor Peter Cappelli and workplace strategist Ranya Nehmeh argue that 'the case for in-office work has never been stronger'.

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Peter and Ranya join Ross D and Claire to explain why they believe this to be true. We discuss:

• The benefits and downsides to in-office work, both from an employer and employee perspective
• The challenges of returning to office post-pandemic, and why mandates alone often don't work
• The role of managers in implementing remote, hybrid or in-office models
• The implications of different working models for learning and development.

You can find out more about In Praise of the Office here.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Claire mentioned Flow TV, which shows output of Veo 3, the latest version of Google's AI video generator.

The paper Peter mentioned was 'Employee Innovation During Office Work, Work from Home and Hybrid Work' by Michael Gibbs et al.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• • Ross Dickie
  • Claire Gibson
  • Peter Cappelli
  • Ranya Nehmeh

If we want to motivate learners to engage with an experience, it stands to reason that we need to present that experience in a way feels authentic and relatable to them. But what are the limits to authenticity in the workplace? And are some of the conventions of learning design at odds with authentic communication?

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Kineo's Matt Mella joins Ross D and Claire to discuss:

• What 'authenticity' looks like in the context of learning design
• Why it's important, and how to design with authenticity in mind
• How Mindtools and Kineo have achieved this in practice.

During the episode, Ross D referenced a LinkedIn post from Matt, exploring the growing association of the em dash with AI-generated content.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Claire talked about her enlightening visit to the Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft.

Matt explained the history of the telegraphic address.

And Ross D recommended the 'Food Deserts' episode of 99% Invisible.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• • Ross Dickie
  • Claire Gibson
  • Matt Mella

If you spend any time scrolling LinkedIn, attending L&D conferences, or listening to industry podcasts, it might seem like AI is about to usher in the end of e-learning as we know it. But is e-learning really dying, or is it just evolving?

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Kineo's Cammy Bean joins Ross D and Ross G to discuss:

• The probability that AI will bring about the e-learning-pocalypse
• How the work of learning designers might change over the coming years
• The risks L&D needs to consider as they incoporate AI tools into their practice.

During the episode, Ross D mentioned a recent edition of The L&D Dispatch, 'The future is not now'.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

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

• Ross Dickie
• Ross Garner
• Cammy Bean

Frontline managers have to support decisions they didn't make, translate organizational goals into actions, identify meaningful opportunities for people to develop, remember to acknowledge successes, regulate their emotions, and resolve team conflicts. And they're usually 19-years-old.

This week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, one of our favourite guests - JD Dillon - returns to the show to share insights from his upcoming book on the role of frontline managers. We discuss:

• The pressures faced by frontline managers
• How to help these managers feel confident in their roles
• How AI chat bots and digital communities can help managers respond to daily challenges.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Anna discussed the impact of the climate crisis on education.

JD discussed the banana pose.

Ross shared how to spot a suspicious statistic, via More or Less.

For more from JD, check out his website frontlineplaybook.com, jdwroteabook.com, and axonify.com.

For more from us, including details of our upcoming app (soon!) visit mindtools.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 us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Garner
• Dr Anna Barnett
• JD Dillon

Exciting news at Mindtools Towers this week, as we launch our first 'Expert Skill Bite' course with Dr Markus Bernhardt, available now to all Mindtools Content Hub users!

To share more about what the course covers, and how it builds capability over time, Markus joined Ross G and Claire to discuss:

• Why a 'big top-down AI strategy' is never coming
• How to help managers build AI skills
• What to do if your organization bans AI tools.

Log in to Mindtools.com now to subscribe to the Skill Bite and try it for yourself!

In 'What I Learned This Week', Claire recommended 'How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)', from the Search Engine podcast.

Ross discussed the latest exciting news from the world of Wordpress plugins.

For more from us, visit mindtools.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 us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Garner
• Dr Markus Bernhardt
• Claire Gibson

This week, we're handing the reigns of The Mindtools L&D Podcast over to our friends at Assemble You. Including the show notes!

In this excellent interview, Adam sits down with Ross Garner and Paul Buller of Mindtools to explore one of the most pressing topics in L&D today: the role of AI in content creation and the future of learning. Ross is Chief Learning Officer at Mindtools and a former Learning Designer of the Year. He's also a long-time podcast host and co-author of the L&D Dispatch newsletter. Paul is Head of Content at Mindtools, an executive coach, and an expert in leadership and organisational psychology with a track record in leading hybrid learning teams at global organisations. In this episode, Ross and Paul unpack how AI is reshaping what we create, how we design learning experiences, and the skills L&D professionals need to thrive in this new landscape. They share their reflections on:

• Why content creation jobs are shifting—not disappearing
• How AI can free up time to focus on behaviour change and learning design
• The continued importance of authentic human connection in digital learning
• Practical ways to integrate AI into workflows without compromising quality
• How L&D can defend against "internet slop" with trustworthy, research-backed content

Ross and Paul give thoughtful, grounded insights into what AI means for learning teams today—and why embracing it with optimism and intentionality is the smart move. If you're navigating the shift to AI-enhanced learning design, this is a must-listen episode. Duolingo AI Revolution: https://drphilippahardman.substack.com/p/duolingos-ai-revolution Connect with them on LinkedIn Ross: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-garner/ Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbuller/

To find out more about the performance support available for leaders and managers, from Mindtools, visit mindtools.com. And, good news! You can now add Microsoft Shorts from Assemble You to your subscription.