Trainer Tools

(I didn't write this, it was the AI function on the podcast platform ... see what you think): In this enlightening (hmm, that's a bit much - JT) episode of the Trainer Tools podcast, explore the far-reaching influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in learning and development mechanisms. Our distinguished (I'd never use the word "distinguished" - JT) guest, David Ly from cutting-edge technology conglomerate Iveda, masterfully (it's a bit over-the-top, isn't it? - JT) simplifies the intricate concept of AI, stressing its role in performing tasks for human beings and delivering tangible benefits. Ly emphasizes the significance of letting AI work to our advantage and not the other way around. Not just in theory, but he brings to light actual examples showcasing consistency and safety in training brought about by AI. Anyway ... it goes on like that for a bit (see below if you're interested), but here's David's info before it gets lost in among the superlatives. David Ly is the visionary founder of Iveda, having served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors since the company’s inception in 2003. With over 20 years of experience in wireless data, cellular, IT, and cloud video surveillance, David has built a pioneering cloud video hosting and real-time surveillance infrastructure with use cases across the globe. Here Iveda on LinkedIn and Twitter/X. AI continued ... Driving Progress in Various Industries through AI Advancements The podcast opens up a fascinating conversation on the role and impact of AI across various job roles. With notable advancements in sectors such as the automobile industry, finding AI as a facilitator for increasing consistency and productivity, especially in intricate assembly line processes. The episode continues to delve more into the promising prospect of AI transforming other sectors, helping learning and development professionals alter and improve their approaches. Navigating through the AI Revolution: Impact on Workplaces This indispensable listen invites you to a compelling perspective on the evolving interface of AI and traditional work environments. With its increasing influence in enhancing workplace safety and building operational efficiency, professionals get a glimpse into the future of workplaces. Further, the talks delve into the advent of AI in traditionally analog spaces, such as the warehouse, touching upon AI's role in real-time recognition and processing of environmental data. Getting Ahead in the AI Era: Implications for Organizations The discussion rounds up with valuable advice for organizations contemplating incorporating AI for the first time, urging them to take this leap of faith. With a focus on its role in augmenting learning experiences, catering to personalized requirements, and optimizing efficiency and accuracy, AI can become a significant ally in revolutionizing learning and development initiatives.

In this episode John Tomlinson discusses a favourite topic with Omer Glass: learning evaluation (no, seriously, it is a favourite topic ...). It's easy to evaluate at the reaction level with a happy sheet, but how do we answer the so-what question? That was great training, but so what? What difference did it make? That challenge is one of the most interesting parts of L&D! Omer Glass is the Co-Founder and CEO of Growthspace. Before co-founding Growthspace, Omer worked as a Management Consultant with Shaldor, one of Israel's leading management consultancies, and held various positions in the US, UK, Singapore, Germany, and Turkey. Omer holds an MA in Behavioral Economics from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and is the Chairman of “Hands Of Light,” a non-profit dedicated to supporting ALS and cancer patients. In his spare time, Omer practices yoga and meditation.  

In this episode John Tomlinson speaks to Robert Kirby of People People about the role of the voice in our personal impact, not just in the training room, but more generally how we can train ourselves to improve how we come across with authority and influence. Rob is Director of People, People, which provides workshops, courses and coaching using the ‘People, People Way’. It combines psychology, acting tools and coaching principles to improve productivity, performance, and employee engagement for businesses. With a focus on interpersonal communication, People People have supported a range of public and private sector clients including the NHS, MoneySupermarket Group, and the Crown Prosecution Service.    

In this podcast John Tomlinson talks to David James of 360Learning about how we need to align out digital learning strategies to fixing real problems quickly, rather than building up cumbersome libraries of generic content. It's more fun that I just made it sound, I promise.   David James is Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning (formerly at Looop) and has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.   David is host of The Learning & Development Podcast, a prominent writer and a conference speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D.   Twitter: @DavidInLearning LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.davidinlearning.com  

Heather Hansen focuses on helping organisations communicate better, and helping individuals at work get their voices heard. Her book Unmuted talks through her holistic process of building confidence, capability and connection - not just ticking some training boxes. In this episode John Tomlinson talks to her about how she makes this work. Heather Hansen helps multinational companies enhance collaboration, innovation and inclusion across their global teams through greater understanding and stronger, more efficient communication policies. She focuses on fostering unmuted communication cultures where every voice is heard, resulting in greater inclusion, innovation and efficiency across remote and global teams. Along with private leadership communication coaching, Heather facilitates group training courses and consults on a number of topics related to global communication. Heather is also an External Industry Expert for NUS Business School’s Executive Education programs where she runs modules on communication, presentation, and storytelling skills. Social media links for Heather: Linkedin Youtube Twitter  

I've always though that hospitals are the best example we have of a good learning organisation, and the medical profession the best example of continuous professional development, so I was keen to chat to someone who understood this field better than I did (my medical training is entirely made up of watching Grey's Anatomy) - and so I was grateful to have the opportunity to have a conversation with Dr Alex Young, a qualified surgeon and L&D entrepreneur (and marathon runner etc.). Dr Alex Young is an NHS trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, and founder of Virti. Passionate about improving human performance, he built and sold his first company whilst at university, before boot-strapping and scaling another while still training in the NHS. Virti develops immersive training tools to improve human performance in organisations around the globe. They have won a wealth of awards including being named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021. Check out Alex's website here (with links to his social media presence and YouTube channel) and here on LinkedIn.  

In this episode John Tomlinson talks with Kushal Bose about his remarkable career and how he's used his engineering and film making background to create deep learning experiences in organisations. Kushal Bose is the CEO of teledec.com and learning & development facilitator for corporate clients. He helps companies reduce costs and improve bottom line through the art of storytelling. With advanced degrees in engineering and film production, he founded Teledec International in 1987 to create engaging training tools that combine the different techniques of cinema, explaining complex technical concepts. For 35 years Teledec has been at the leading edge of innovative training development with an impressive client list of Fortune 500 companies including: Abbot, BP, McDonald’s, Philips, Northrup, Ameritech, Kraft, Cisco, Discover and many more. Their speciality is taking existing training material (PDF, Excel, AutoCad, Visio, MSWord engineering specs, job aids, etc) and publishing a seamless engaging presentation for an online audience. These presentations can be instructor led, self-paced, or blended. They excel in developing: Learning Solutions Compliance Training Technology Training Organization Development Training Sales Training Customized Training Solutions Teledec has an impressive in-house capability including subject matter expertise, video production, graphics and animation, programming, authoring, instructional design, technical writing and LMS administration.

We all make mistakes, and when we're forced to suddenly start working entirely online after a lifetime of facilitating training in training rooms, we might make a lot more of them! No problem, mistakes are learning opportunities, and so in this podcast John Tomlinson talks to Caroline Black about five mistakes she's made since the Covid pandemic and moving her learning and development sessions into the virtual world. Caroline Black is a specialist in leadership development and communication skills. She is a Fellow and Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Caroline designs and delivers bespoke online and face to face training courses, workshops and webinars. She is also a corporate event facilitator (online and face to face) and conference chair. Her clients in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors include the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Cabinet Office, The Royal Navy, ACCA and Lloyds Banking Group. Caroline is a published author of The PR Professionals handbook (Kogan Page 2014) and The PR Practitioner’s Desk Top Guide (Thorogood second edition 2009). In her spare time, she runs baby namings, weddings and funerals on behalf of Humanists UK. Visit her website here or follow her on Twitter (@caroblack) or visit her profile on LinkedIn.    

In this episode, John Tomlinson talks to Mary Brunton about her experience of bringing leadership training into the virtual world as the pandemic took hold and face-to-face training was stopped. In this conversation, Mary and John share their experiences and discuss how imposter syndrome has increased with the new ways of working. Mary L Brunton MA (Hons) CIPD has been working internationally for over 20 years and in more than 30 countries. Mary has extensive professional experience of designing and delivering senior leadership training and executive coaching for teams and individuals. Clients include the UK Civil Service, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), EU institutions, the British Council, the World Bank, OECD, the Commonwealth Institute and Deutsche Bank. For over a decade Mary has been selected as an Executive Coach for the most senior grades in the UK Civil Service and has specialist expertise in promotion, resilience, branding, personal impact and public speaking. Mary is an independent consultant and the Senior Director of the successful Pilot HR Consultancy (established 2006) which delivers training, coaching and facilitation services to organisations in the UK and internationally. To contact Mary, email: marybrunton@pilothr.co.uk  

In this podcast John talks to Sunita Sehmi about how Learning and Development professionals can approach inclusion in our work, and how we can move from talking about words like "diversity" and "inclusion" to thinking about "belonging" Sunita Sehmi is a Certified Executive Coach, Consultant, Speaker and Trainer. She is of Indian origin and was born in London before moving to Geneva in 1992. She has a Psychology degree, specializing in Occupational and Developmental Psychology and a Post Graduate certification in the Development and Training of Adults from the UK. She also has a Masters in Human Resources, Coaching and Career Management from HEC University of Geneva. Where she wrote her Master Thesis “How does proficiency in English affect French-native professionals at work?” A qualitative research conducted in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. She is the founder of Walk The Talk, which provides tailor-made professional coaching consultancy and training. Her business background includes working with International companies in banking, finance, media, pharmaceuticals, and FMCG industries. Sunita’s coaching style advances the skills and approaches needed to develop performance. Her forte is the fact that she has studied and worked in several different countries and thus her understanding and knowledge of language communication and culture is compact and solid. During her twenty-five years of international experience, Sunita’s objective has always been to support people to uncover and utilise their potential and to help individuals and organizations to perform at their very best. Sunita is an accomplished speaker and business writer furthermore she has had several articles published articles in the press. She has written two books: The Power of Belonging How to Get Out of Your Own Way    

In this episode John Tomlinson talks to Lydia Hooper of Venngage about how to make great visuals for use in education and training, or more generally to communicate complex information in an engaging and effective way. Examples used during the discussion: Visuals about diversity, equity, and inclusion: https://venngage.com/blog/designing-for-diversity/ Visual about vaccine barriers: https://venngage.com/blog/vaccine-education Examples of good infographics (including relationship timeline): https://venngage.com/blog/good-infographic Other articles by Lydia on Venngage: https://venngage.com/blog/author/lydia-hooper Lydia Hooper is the information design expert at Venngage, the simple and powerful design solution for making infographics for business. She has designed and facilitated workshops for dozens of organizations including the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Association for Talent Development and the American Institute of Graphic Arts-Colorado. Her writing has been published by numerous publications including Training Journal and SAGE Publishing’s MethodSpace, and she is the co-author and editor of the forthcoming Authoritative Guide to Designing Infographics. You can follow Lydia on LinkedIn.  

In this episode John Tomlinson talks to Matt Somers about his five dos and five don'ts when training managers on using a coaching style of management. Matt Somers is a coach, trainer and author. He helps managers get good at coaching and with the areas people most want coaching on: Sales, Leadership and Communication. He has been in the training and development business for most of his career, focusing on the idea of the Leader as a Coach since 1995. His training programmes, books, articles and seminars have helped hundreds of leaders achieve outstanding results through their people and teams. He has an MSc in Human Resource Development and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Working internationally, he has helped multiple high-performance organisations, including HSBC, Citigroup, Scottish & Southern Energy and Sage PLC. To get in touch or find out more, please drop an email to matt@mattsomers.com or connect on LinkedIn.    

Most leaders are not succeeding in their roles as leaders, sometimes because they're in the wrong job, and sometimes because they're not self-aware enough and so cannot manage their behaviours to improve their effectiveness. In this episode, John talks to Nancy Parsons about the work she does in coaching leaders and running leadership development programmes, and how her company has developed a suite a tools to really dig deep on self-awareness. Nancy E. Parsons is the President and CEO of CDR Companies. She is one of today’s foremost experts in combining the science of assessments with the art of developing people. As CEO and President of CDR Companies, LLC, she and her team shed new light on personality strengths, inherent risks and motivation and change performance, careers and lives. Esteemed author of two research based books including the Amazon best-seller, Women Are Creating the Glass Ceiling and Have the Power to End It, Nancy is the 2019 MEECO International Thought Leader of Distinction in Executive Coaching and continues to break barriers in her field.  In 1998, Nancy and Kimberly R. Leveridge, Ph.D, authored the break-through CDR 3-Dimensional Assessment Suite®, an ideal coaching tool for global clients. The CDR 3-D Suite measures character traits, inherent risk factors for derailment, and drivers and reward needs. Combining this scientifically-validated assessment suite with cutting-edge technology, Nancy and her team launched CDR-U Coach in July of 2020. This product is the first of its kind that provides a scalable, personalized, online coaching feedback solution based on the results of the most in-depth assessments available on the market today. Because of the rich data source, predictive results, and complex algorithms, CDR-U Coach provides an A/I type experience for users with no two users having the same feedback. Nancy works with global leaders to accelerate success by helping them identify and develop their true talent at the launching point of a coaching engagement. She provides executive coaching services for the C-Suite and leaders across all sectors, facilitates strategic executive team development sessions, and instructs custom “Authentic Leadership” and “Women in Leadership” workshops. Additionally, she instructs and leads CDR Executive Coaches’ Certification Workshops and teaches advanced coaches’ programs. She has authored countless articles and blog posts on topics ranging from diversity and inclusion in the workplace to employee retention and has presented at international, national, and regional industry conferences. In 2016, Nancy developed the architecture of “Vets Coaching Vets,” which is a philanthropic initiative helping to accelerate veterans’ success in the job market. CDR Companies has worked with more than 5 veterans’ organizations and has provided assessments, individual coaching, and training workshops for over 50 veterans. CDR Companies, LLC is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women.   Social media links Instagram: @cdrugroup Facebook LinkedIn

In this episode of the Trainer Tools podcast, John Tomlinson talks to Nikie Forster about how we can use LEGO in Learning and Development. Nikie Forster was convinced she was going to be a Radio One presenter from an early age, so took a less than conventional route into the world of Learning & Development. This has given her a wide range of experiences that enables her to see learning in every interaction.  Two decades later, having backed up these experiences with a plethora of professional qualifications, she is now Director and Founder of Curious Lighthouse Learning Consultancy, where she specialises in enabling Curious, Creative, and Credible training solutions for Managers, Trainers, and Entrepreneurs to enhance their performance, whether they are at the very start of their journey or experienced professionals. She often uses LEGO in her learning solutions and has created several online courses to help others do the same.   ​​​​​​​​​​Curious Lighthouse is based in Hampshire and mainly serves the south coast and worldwide virtually. Link to the main page for Nikie's Lego courses, including a freebie: ‘Introducing your Learners To LEGO’ 14-page free guide Link to the open-source Lego Serious Play guide (PDF download)

Universities and colleges like MIT are fantastic at the theory, and great at technical training, but they have traditionally been less strong on teaching their students the practical skills needed to succeed in the workplace. Mark Herschberg works with MIT as a mentor-instructor, his role is to work with students to plug this gap, teaching them essential professional skills and lessons in management and leadership. He has captured 20 years of his learning into his book, The Career Toolkit (see link below). In this podcast he talks to John about the methods they use at MIT for leadership development and other practical workplace skills, and, as a special bonus, we add the terms "firm skills" and "Schrödinger's opinion" to our vocabulary!   Mark Herschberg is the author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia. He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually. At MIT, he received a B.S. in Physics, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and a M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, focusing on cryptography. At Harvard Business School, Mark helped create a platform used to teach finance at prominent business schools. He also works with many non-profits, including Techie Youth and Plant A Million Corals.  

So often L&D is about righting wrongs and filling gaps in our knowledge or skills, and OK ... yes, this has a place for specific learning needs, but when thinking more deeply about personal development, positive psychology gives us an engaging way to focus on the good stuff and build on strengths and opportunities, and not just fixing the crap stuff. In this episode, John talks to Alex Bailey about how we can use positive psychology in L&D, and especially for social learning where the focus is on learning and sharing, and not on knowledge-transfer by a know-all trainer. Alex Bailey is CEO and founder of Bailey & French, a purpose led global consulting company that is focused on humanising the World of Work. Alex is pioneering a new paradigm in psychology strengthening what’s already uniquely brilliant about individuals and teams in all types of organisations. Her work over the past 20+ years is focused on large scale cultural evolution that combines the latest evidence based research with innovative approaches to help people, teams and organisations grow.  Over the past seven years Alex has led her company to successfully expand reach and scope across the world in all industries, sectors and markets bringing her ambitious vision to life. See here for Bailey and French on Twitter, and here for Alex's profile on LinkedIn.  

John Tomlinson talks to Shirley Gaston about how we can make our online learning sessions more experiential and engaging - feels like an important intervention given the amount of PowerPointy crap there is out there! Some links mentioned in the podcast: article on online games can be downloaded free at https://www.azesta.co.uk/resources Learning with Lego link: https://www.curiouslighthouse.co.uk/learning-with-lego-courses.html and the direct link to the PDF for an introduction to Lego serious play: https://www.serious.global/lego-serious-play-open-source.pdf   Shirley Gaston is the founder of  the experiential learning company Azesta which has been developing people for 21 years. As such, she is one of the driving forces within the company. She values openness and this quality is intrinsic to her award-winning learning programmes. It is important to her to be really approachable and, although professional, her overt friendliness is part of her style. Shirley’s passion for learning through experience has led to her working in learning and development for her entire career and also representing experiential tool maker Metalog and virtual exercise creator Gaminar in the UK. She has a first class degree in Education, a Post Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Professional Training and Development, she is a qualified coach and holds numerous psychometric qualifications. She is an absolute CPD addict and attends facilitator development programmes on an almost weekly basis as well as running the non-profit Yorkshire Trainers Development Network. Working directly with her own clients, she specialises in leadership and management, engagement, team development and coaching skills. Working with trainers, she shares her passion for programmes that fully involve the learner and incorporate active and creative review and the most possible variety. She has had several articles published particularly in the field of experiential learning and outdoor management development and is currently working on her first book on the subject. Shirley lives in Yorkshire with her partner, four children, a dog and three cats. She enjoys a range of outdoor activities, theatre, book groups and is also a Humanist wedding celebrant.      

In this episode John talks to stand-up comedian Sam Carrington about how organisations can use stand-up comedy for staff wellbeing, leadership development and running fun and engaging away days - we talk mainly in the context of remote working where issues of wellbeing, mental health and motivation are especially pertinent. Sam Carrington is a working stand-up comedian who has done over a thousand gigs, including three stints at the world famous Edinburgh Festival. He also runs Smirk Experience, a company that runs corporate training events about how to use the skills and techniques of comedy to improve your confidence, communication and leadership ... in their words, they "harness the power of comedy to transform people and businesses"  

John Tomlinson speaks to Jeff Wald about the future of work, what knowledge and skills workers will need in the future, and why he put up $10 million dollars for a prize! Jeff Wald is the Founder of Work Market, an enterprise software platform that enables companies to manage freelancers (acquired by ADP). Jeff has founded several other technology companies, including Spinback, a social sharing platform (eventually purchased by salesforce.com). Jeff began his career in finance, serving as Managing Director at activist hedge fund Barington Capital Group, a Vice President at venture capital firm GlenRock and various roles in the M&A Group at JP Morgan. Jeff is an active angel investor and startup advisor, as well as serving on numerous public and private Boards of Directors. He also formerly served as an officer in the Auxiliary Unit of the New York Police Department. Jeff is the author of The Birthday Rules and The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations. Jeff frequently speaks at conferences and in media on startups and labor issues. Jeff holds an MBA from Harvard University and an MS and BS from Cornell University.  

In this episode I talk to author and coach Amy Lyn Durham about her approach to tackling loneliness at work through creative "magic": crearing emotional and meaningful workplace experiences Amy Lynn Durham  is a U.C. Berkeley Certified Executive Coach and Emotional Intelligence Practitioner who has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly -traded companies. She is often referred to as a Corporate Mystic due to her unique ability of providing Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) in order to energize and transform the workplace. Links https://createmagicatwork.net/  https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amydurhamexecutivecoaching/