Hello listeners! No new episode this week, but we wanted to take the opportunity to revisit our 2021 'documentary special' on product management.

It took a lot more work than our usual roundtable format, but we think it paid off. ;)

To make this episode, we spoke to Myles Runham, Sukh Pabial, Danny Seals, and Gemma Paterson, discussing:

• what product management is
• what L&D can learn from product management
• what 'the product' is in L&D - is it L&D itself?

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

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
• Ross Garner
• Owen Ferguson
• Myles Runham
• Sukh Pabial
• Gemma Paterson
• Danny Seals

According to Donald Taylor and Egle Vinauskaitė's recent AI in L&D: The Race for Impact report, 'creating learning content' and 'learning design tasks' remain the primary use cases for AI in learning and development. But should they be?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, L&D consultant Heidi Kirby joins Ross D and Claire to discuss:

• the obvious appeal of using AI to scale learning content;
• why Heidi believes outsourcing development to AI is a mistake;
• what L&D could or should be using AI for, if not content generation.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross mentioned the website mcbroken.com.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

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
• Claire Gibson
• Dr Heidi Kirby

All children play but, over time, that instinct goes away. We don't lose it, we don't forget. Instead, we get taught to stop.

For author and toy designer Cas Holman, that's a problem. With a very real impact on business performance.

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

• how traditional workplaces surpress play
• the business benefits of play at work
• how to encourage play when your organization won't tolerate it.

You can find out more about Cas and her book Playfulness at casholman.com/book. You can also see her in the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross discussed peculiar experiments involving moths, via The Economist.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

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:

• Cas Holman
• Ross Garner
• Gemma Towersey

Why does L&D so often feel like the drive-thru window of requests—'one leadership program, hold the ROI please'? As L&D professionals, it's not who we understand ourselves to be. So how can we flip the script so that we're seen and treated as strategic business partners?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, we're joined by Jess Almlie, author of "Order taker no more!"

We discuss:

• What keeps us stuck in an order taker role?
• What are the foundations of great strategic business partnering?
• What might a move into this new role look like?

You can find out more about Jess, her work and book on her Almlie Consulting website.

In What I Learned This Week, Gemma mentioned the Tree Equity Score website.

Sadly we don't have a photo of Ross on a horse.

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

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:

• Jess Almlie
• Ross Dickie
• Gemma Towersey

Decision-making is a key aspect of being a manager, and a complex mix of skills, experiences, judgments and instincts. So how do you help your managers make smarter decisions at work?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, our own Dr Anna Barnett reveals insights from our new report 'The empathy problem: Balancing emotion in decision-making', part of our Building Better Managers series.

We discuss:

• Whether managers are more inclined to delegate difficult tasks than those they think will be achieved
• Why too much empathy is a problem in decision-making
• How to build emotionally intelligent managers.

During the discussion, Anna referenced the following papers:

• Maas, V. S., & Shi, B. (2023). ‘The effects of target difficulty and relative ability on managers’ delegation decisions’. Management Accounting Research, 60, 100851.
• Kaiser, R. B. (2024). 'Has empathy really become more important to leadership since the COVID-19 pandemic?'. Consulting Psychology Journal.

To read all of our reports, visit mindtools.com/thought-leadership/reports

For more from Mindtools and Kineo, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our new face-to-face and virtual workshops, each aligned to our Manager Skills Assessment.

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
• Ross Garner

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

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
• 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