Last week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, L&D Detective Kevin M Yates joined Ross D and Dr Anna to talk about isolating the impact of training at work. When listening back, Ross G took umbrage at some of the claims made by his Mindtools colleagues and so, this week, we re-litigate!

We discuss:

• Are control groups really worth it?
• How else can you measure impact?
• Why Dr Anna thinks learning NEVER leads (directly) to business impact

To find out how Mindtools can help you measure the business impact of your learning, despite what Dr Anna says, mindtools.com/services/analyst-insights

Ross D also discussed Dr Will Thalheimer's LTEM model.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross D recommended the Hard Fork podcast.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, 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. 

Like the show? You'll LOVE our newsletter! Subscribe to The L&D Dispatch at lddispatch.com

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

• Ross Dickie
• Dr Anna Barnett
• Ross Garner

Is it up to the humble L&D pro to change people's behavior at work? Or is it up to everyone?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, return guest Kevin M. Yates (aka The L&D Detective) speaks to Anna and Ross D about:

• How to isolate the impact of training at work
• What other factors influence performance
• How L&D pros can demonstrate the value of their roles.

You can find out more about Kevin's work at kevinmyates.com

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, 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. 

Like the show? You'll LOVE our newsletter! Subscribe to The L&D Dispatch at lddispatch.com

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
• Kevin M Yates

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 on LinkedIn. There you'll also find his article, 'The Irony of L&D: We Often Forget Our Own Development'.

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

David discussed Josh Cavalier's guidance on AI prompting with JSON.

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
• Claire Gibson (who it turns out works every second Friday)
• David Kelly

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

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