The menopause, a natural transition that women experience, is finally becoming an open discussion topic in more communities. Does this mean that women have the understanding and support they need to thrive during this time of their lives?  In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by coach Jayne Saul-Paterson, and Nahdia Khan to discuss women’s experiences and how they can be improved. We talked about: ·       The workplace difficulties experienced by some women...

Healthcare is a difficult environment to work in, where decisions literally mean life or death. Combine that pressure with diverse roles, shift-based workers and difficulty getting time away from the frontline - and you have less-than-ideal conditions to promote learning and career development. So how do you support colleagues if you have an L&D role in such an organisation? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner is joined by UMass Memorial Health’s Liz...

In small organisations where everyone knows each other, it’s possible to spot what individuals need and offer tailored health and wellbeing support.   But what about organisations with thousands of employees?  In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Sanaa Khan from Lloyd’s bank and Owen to find out how larger organisations can nurture and protect their employees’ health and wellbeing. We discussed: The benefits of large organisations supporting workforce...

In our globalised world, we work and learn with people from diverse cultures. How can we facilitate multicultural training, for instance, so that the sessions are not only inclusive, but get the best from everyone. This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Gaëlle Watson, director of SyncSkills and our very own Nahdia Khan. We explored: The benefits and challenges of multicultural representation in facilitated sessions  How to best adapt your design and delivery...

In organizations, learning-oriented ‘online communities’ often bring to mind empty forums and unused Yammer groups. But what does a vibrant community of practice look like? And how do you go about building one online? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Ross G are joined by Anamaria Dorgo, founder of L&D Shakers and Head of Community at Butter, to discuss: ·       the benefits of online communities of practice ·       how to build and maintain online...

The Mind Tools L&D Podcast usually focuses on how L&D can help colleagues develop in their careers – but we’re not the only industry with an interest in education. Some of the world’s most exciting tech companies, including Google, Meta and Amazon, use education as a tool to help their customers develop new skills and encourage longer term adoption. In this week’s show, Ross G and Nahdia speak to Intellum’s Lizzi Shaw and Gusto’s Jaclyn Anku to discover:   why marketing teams...

Have you ever found a learning technology that you were convinced was going to transform your organization, only to have your IT team act as a blocker? Maybe they were being difficult, but maybe you just hadn't involved them early enough? In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Jon Baxter, founder of Baxter Thompson Associates, joins Ross Garner and Owen to share the benefits of strategic partnering. We discuss: The concerns that IT colleagues have when asked to implement a...

This year, at the ATD Conference in San Diego, friend-of-the-show Will Thalheimer asked Ross G what he was working on. Ross replied: ‘Well, how much do you know about Mind Tools?’ To whit Will said: ‘I hardly know anything.’ This astounded Ross. Will has been on our show multiple times, and Ross feels like he talks endlessly about Mind Tools and what Mind Tools does. And so Will offered to host this one-off deep dive into who we are, and what we do. We hope you enjoy it! We explore: ...

Coaching usually takes a standard format: a series of conversations in which the coachee considers their goals, reflect on how they think and behave, and sets down their intentions. What if the coachee didn’t just talk, but instead used a variety of other medium to express and develop themselves? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma explores this concept with experienced coaches Andréa Watts from UnglueYou and Marie Loney from Glow Consultancy. We discuss: ...

Productivity is traditionally calculated with a simple division: total output / total input. Great for measuring widget production, not so much for gauging how productive a knowledge worker has been.  So how do we measure productivity when there isn’t a widget in sight?  In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Ross Garner are joined by Chelsea Pyrzenski, Global Chief People Officer at WalkMe, to discuss:  What we mean by productivity  How...

What do we mean by ‘evidence-based leadership development’? Development of evidence-based leaders? Or an evidence-based approach to leadership development? Well, both. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Nahdia are joined by Helen Bailey, Head of Learning and Development at Strategi Solutions, to discuss: ·       what ‘evidence-based’ leadership development looks like ·       what we mean by ‘evidence’ ·       how to measure leadership. During the...

Many organisations are accused of not doing enough to support marginalised groups. But even those who do try to make a difference often end up accused of hypocrisy. Is it safer to stay quiet than to talk about equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) at work? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Nahdia are joined by Heeral Gudka, founder of Convergent, to discuss: ·        the evolution of ED&I ·        the risks both of speaking up and staying...

Earlier this year, the Mind Tools and Emotion at Work teams ran a fringe event at the CIPD Festival of Work. At the event, we asked participants for their ‘Hot Takes’: something that's a little bit provocative - but might actually be true. This week, in a special crossover episode, The Mind Tools L&D Podcast team are joined by Phil and Lizzi from Emotion at Work to reveal the winner: Most employees aren't actually that interested in L&D. We discuss: the extent to which we think...

How do L&D leaders decide where to spend their time? Who gets access to their budget? How do we deal with those colleagues where we have to say: 'No, that's not a priority'. In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G is chatting L&D governance with a panel of L&D pros: From Phoenix Group, Carl Akintola-Davies; from Mitie, Dolly Ogundimu and Marc Harvey; and, from Merlin Entertainments, James Clemence. We discuss: How to prioritize inbound requests and...

Scenario-based learning takes learners beyond a short-term memory check, instead challenging them to respond to real-life situations. But how do we make sure they’re effective? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Gemma are joined by instructional design superstar Christy Tucker to discuss: ·       Why scenario-based learning is effective ·       The characteristics of a great scenario ·       How to write scenarios that are realistic and challenging ...

In the past, if you had difficulty thriving in a traditional school, your parents travelled a lot, or you were a child actor, you had the option to study online. Post-Covid, that approach is growing in popularity.  On this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross and Nahdia are joined by Cambridge Assessment’s Matt James to hear his insights into online education. We discuss:  Techniques for engaging children in online learning  Building social connection and...

What makes a good presentation? When should and shouldn’t you use a presentation to communicate your ideas? Why do most presentations suck? On this week’s episode of the Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Owen are joined by Andrea Pacini, Head of Ideas on Stage and author of Confident Presenter, to discuss: ·       why so many of us feel nervous about presenting ·       the importance of tailoring presentations to the action you want your audience to take ·       how to use the...

It’s been 20 years since the launch of the Learning Performance Benchmark: the industry-leading tool for measuring the health of the L&D profession. And, to celebrate, Ross G is joined on this week’s Mind Tools L&D Podcast by some of the key players in that story. Laura Overton, Founder of Learning Changemakers and Co-Creator of Emerging Stronger, set up the Benchmark in the first place. Nahdia Khan, Chief Impact Officer of Mind Tools, is responsible for the Benchmark today. Dr...

Cognitive diversity brings enormous benefits to teams. How can we proactively recruit and support people who are neurodivergent?   In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, speaker and trainer Reena Anand speaks to Gemma and Ross about neurodiversity, barriers to inclusion and what we can do to topple those barriers.   ·       what neurodiversity is ·       the intersection of neurodivergence and race ·       how managers and L&D can create neuroinclusive...

Coaching, once the preserve of a privileged elite (ie: the leadership team), is increasingly seen as a useful tool that can help all of us perform better in our roles. But how do we roll coaching out to a wider audience when the cost of a single coaching session is relatively high? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by author, speaker and coach Jenny Garrett OBE. We discuss: ·       Opportunities to democratize coaching ·       The...

Do you consider yourself an inspiration? Most of us don’t. But everybody has the capacity to inspire others to act and, in L&D, that’s basically part of the job! In this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen are joined by author and adventurer Sue Stockdale, the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole. We discuss: ·       Sue’s background and adventures ·       How we as individuals can inspire and motivate others ·       How to scale inspiration...

It’s very strange. For years, we’ve been told that people want ‘resources, not courses’. But, when you ask them, it’s longer-term skill development that they’re interested in.  This week, Mind Tools are launching the most dramatic new content type in our library in years, Skill Bites: a nudge-based approach to course design that leverages spaced repetition, retrieval practice and learner motivation to trigger a measurable change in behaviour.  So, to dig into how it works, our...

The HR and L&D sectors are built on a foundation of outsourcing. Often, the secret ingredient to ensuring those products and services add value is… the person buying them! So, this week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we ask: what are the characteristics of a client who has a high likelihood of gaining value from their supplier?   Ross G and Gemma are joined, from our sales team, by Lara Kidd and Samantha Nicks. We discuss: ·       why the client is so important to the...

In The Resilience Handbook, occupational psychologist and author Sukh Pabial outlines three elements which can make us more resilient: positive psychology, emotional intelligence and mindfulness. But is this something we can only develop on our own, or can L&D build the resilience of others? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Sukh joins Ross G and Owen to discuss: ·       how inner work is a pre-requisite to being able to help others ·       the extent to which...

You had an idea for say, a product or service. You created it and rolled it out to a small target group. It worked - a success! It’s now time to expand, to unleash it onto the world. How do you make sure it continues to be a success? This is the question John A. List sets out to answer in his book, The Voltage Effect. In this book club episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma is joined by Owen and Ross Dickie to get to grips with List’s suggestions for successful scaling. We...