460 — The irony of L&D: When do we develop ourselves?
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
As learning and development professionals, we spend most of our days thinking about how we help others build their skills. But how many of us neglect our own development while doing so? It's what L&D advisor, writer and speaker David Kelly calls 'The Irony of L&D', and in this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, David joins Ross G and Claire to discuss: how to make time for personal development how to build this habit among your team the extent to which AI makes personal development existential for L&D professionals. To find out more about David, find him . There...
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459 — OHLs over OKRs: A new approach to goal-setting
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...
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458 — What do you bench(mark)?
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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 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...
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457 — Evaluation or justification?
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
Now for something completely different! A couple of weeks ago, Carl Akintola wrote a provocative guest post for , 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 , an episode of the Decoder...
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456 — Building tolerance in the workplace
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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...
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455 — The case (for some people) to go back to the office
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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...
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454 — Designing learning experiences that feel authentic
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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...
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453 — What's your e-learning P(doom)?
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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...
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452 — Pity the frontline manager
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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...
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451 — Upskilling your managers on AI tools
The Mindtools L&D Podcast
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 now to subscribe to the Skill Bite and try it for yourself! In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Claire recommended '', from the Search...
info_outlineWhy is it so difficult to start something new and stick with it? How do we gain and maintain momentum? And why do we tire of what we're doing?
In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Ross G explore these questions with Smart Growth author and disruption theorist Whitney Johnson.
We discuss:
- what we mean by 'smart growth'
- the 'S Curve of Learning' model
- what L&D teams can do to create an ecosystem where smart growth is possible.
Find out more about Whitney at: whitneyjohnson.com
The Disrupt Yourself wth Whitney Johnson podcast is on Spotify at: open.spotify.com/show/7cn2cgc34znzwPkkwH58sQ
The Grieg piece that Ross G mentioned was 'Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op 16': youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yoyz6_Los
In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G discussed 'What Can TV Teach L&D? - Star Wars', by friend-of-the-show Tom Hickmore: youtube.com/watch?v=42aDTxlmklY
Whitney discussed Emma Seppälä's insight that happiness impacts three degrees of separation away from the happy person. You can see her TEDx talk at: youtube.com/watch?v=WZvUppaDfNs
And Ross D asked 'are gimmicky airline safety videos putting passengers in danger?': wired.co.uk/article/korean-air-k-pop-safety-video-superm
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 G - @RossGarnerMT
- Ross D - @RossDickieMT
- Whitney Johnson - @JohnsonWhitney