The Mindtools L&D Podcast is a must-listen for anyone involved in Learning and Development or Human Resources. The weekly show features regular appearances from the Mind Tools team plus special guests to get right to the heart of issues affecting the L&D and HR communities. From learning needs analysis and evidence-based practice through to the impact of technology on work and hot topics at industry conferences, you'll get critical insights into the world of work, performance and learning.
Should we be adopting AI more into our day to day lives? How can L&D professionals move beyond reactive training on specific tools to cultivate a continuous learning mindset in team members? In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Dr Anna are joined by to Head of L&D at Newsquest Media Group, Mel Cooley to explore L&D’s relat…
Armed with a STEM qualification or two, you might think technical brilliance is all one needs to succeed in the space sector. Is this the case though? In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Anna are joined by Victoria Craig to discuss: the importance of ‘soft’ skills in a ‘hard’ science environment; sector-specific skills g…
Effective marketers have an uncanny way of knowing what we want and convincing us to click ‘Like’, add to Checkout and in under 20 seconds, buy their thing. Clever. Meanwhile, over in L&D, we find it more difficult to motivate someone to take action or change their behaviour. So, what does marketing do that we don’t? In this week’s episode of The M…
Having the opportunity to set up a new team can be both exciting and daunting. Where would you start when it’s an L&D team? In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Head of People Development Daneille Ware speaks to Gemma and Ross about her approach to creating an L&D team from scratch. We discuss: · The triggers for creating a new or …
Collaboration is a vital skill across many fields and disciplines. But effective collaboration is about much more than just working together. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Paula are joined by Fraser Mcdonald, Head of Collaboration at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) and Deputy Director of the Data for Children Col…
Whether it comes to facilitating workshops, designing learning experiences, or developing campaign assets, L&D practitioners are increasingly expected to bring creativity to their roles. But how do you do this if you don't have a creative background, or if you don't think of yourself as a 'creative person'? In this week's episode of The Mindtools L…
Often on this podcast we've spoken about how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are enhancing our capabilities. But do they also come at a cost? In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross Stevenson from Steal These Thoughts joins Ross G and Dr Gent to discuss: the relationship between tasks and skills; whether we are over-relyi…
What are the benefits of podcasts for learning? How does L&D respond to people leaving the profession? Should we get rid of email? In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross G is joined by Anna and Ross D to answer your questions! During the discussion, Ross D referenced our post 'If your podcast isn't available on mobile, does it ma…
What drives your delegation decisions? Is it what's best for the business? Is it what's best for your team member? Is it what's best for you? In this week's edition of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Ross D and Dr Anna discuss: Why managers sometimes delegate tasks that they know are too difficult How the organization's culture shapes those deci…
Many organizations treat 'inclusion' and 'wellbeing' as separate issues, but Dr Serena Huang - author of The Inclusion Equation - argues that the two are intrinsically linked. And, that data is how you can make better decisions about how to make a positive impact on both. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Serena joins Ross G and …
We might think that what makes our team culture great (or awful) is different from what supports our learning and development. Are they so different, though? In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gemma are joined by L&D professional turned Culture Manager, Lois Ratcliffe to discuss: what ‘culture’ is and how it gets measur…
Digital learning content offers a scalable, always-on option to help your people build their skills and overcome workplace challenges. But often these libraries get dusty, bogged down by out-of-date content with little relevance, or hidden away in a dark corner of the intranet where no one can find them. So in this episode of The Mindtools L&D Podc…
Most organizations offer some kind of content library to help their people develop. But how much content is too much? How do you give your people choice, without overloading them? In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Ross D are joined by Rosemary Hoskins (formerly of AstraZeneca), to discuss: Why are extensive content lib…
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence once again topped the results of Donald Taylor’s Global Sentiment Survey. Almost every other option on the survey lost vote-share this year, with the exception of the ‘value trio’. So, what do these findings tell us about the state of L&D, and how the profession is evolving? In this week’s episode of The Mind…
It’s ‘Bring Your Paper to Work’ day at Mindtools Towers, as Ross G, Ross D and Dr Anna each take turns to share an academic study that they think has key insights for L&D professionals. We discuss: The impact of AI on critical thinking, as investigated in: Lee, H. P. H., Sarkar, A., Tankelevitch, L., Drosos, I., Rintel, S., Banks, R., & Wilson, N. …
The World Economic Forum’s recent ‘Future of Jobs’ report positioned ‘AI and big data’ and ‘technological literacy’ as skills that will become increasingly important over the next five years. But what do these skills look like in practice? What do we mean when we talk about ‘AI literacy’? In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D …
In last week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, we explored sales enablement from the perspective of sales and marketing teams. But where do product teams fit in? Beyond building products, what role do these teams play in generating revenue? For the second instalment in our two-part series on sales enablement, Ross D and Lara are once again jo…
All sales training is sales enablement, but not all sales enablement is sales training. In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross Dickie and Lara are joined by Darren Bezani, Chief Salecologist at Salecology, to discuss: what ‘sales enablement’ means, and why it’s intentionally broader in scope than sales training; what sales enable…
Those of who work in learning and development like to think we're in the business of behavior change. But we often don't have an in-depth understanding of what current behaviors are, or how to change them. In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner is joined by Ross Dickie and Dr Anna Barnett to discuss: methods for understand…
The National Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity, established 130 years ago to look after the UK’s nature, beauty and history. Its leaders have diverse areas of focus, from protecting woodland to managing properties – and even running a gold mine! In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Ross D find out just how th…
Author, podcaster and award-winning filmmaker Topaz Adizes specializes in creating deeper human connections. So, in this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, he joins Ross Garner and Owen for an in-depth chat about: how to formulate questions to build understanding; how better conversations help us partner with our clients and stakeholders;…
At last year’s Learning Technologies Awards, Mindtools and South Western Railway won Gold in the ‘Best use of blended learning – commercial sector’ category. In this week’s episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast for 2025, Ross D and Claire are joined by Becky Eason, Leadership Delivery Manager at South Western Railway, to discuss: The context in whic…
Do remote and hybrid managers need different skills to those who work in-person? If so, what are those skills and how do we develop them? In this first episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast for 2025, Ross Dickie and Ross Garner are joined by return guest Gary Cookson, author of Making Hybrid Working Work. We discuss: The ‘sensory loss’ that takes pl…
Another year, another Christmas Special! We've scraped the barrel of festive ideas and selected Love Actually, the "greatest Christmas movie of all time", as the unfortunate premise of this year's audio horrorshow. In this edition, Ross G will be asking questions that are very loosely based on the Richard Curtis classic, with answers from Ross D, A…
When your team are faced with a crisis, you want them to be prepared. But how do you build those capabilities when crises are rare, and you hope they never occur? In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G and Owen explore the use of simulations to build capability. We’re joined by Chris Peschanel, who ran crisis management at Bay…