Independent Professionals

Lime green Volks Wagon old type two camper van at three sister near Glencoe in Scotland - mountain backgrounds stunning scenary.

Conversations, relationships and learning: Spotify Tag

Julie Drybrough

Julie Drybrough takes us on a tour of Scotland, music and collaboration A couple of years ago we rented a campervan and meandered our way up the west coast of Scotland to Skye. As you can imagine, there were a lot of driving hours. During our travels we developed Spotify Tag – a game where someone picks an initial music track (from Spotify – other streaming services are available) and the next person tags on a song, based on association,…

Neurodiversity concept. Multi-coloured figures of the brain.

Unlocking the power of neurodiversity

Steve Macaulay

In this feature, Steve Macaulay looks at the benefits and importance of neurodiverse employees Every manager aims to make the best use of all the resources available so that their employees feel fulfilled and satisfied that they are reaching their full potential and contributing fully to the success of the organisation. However, a potential performance gap that has not been fully explored is the wide variation in the way each person approaches work and relationships and how each learns. Fostering…

Paper plate, glasses, notepad, pen and pencils on the white background. Business concept. Text THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

Bridging the gap with killer communications: the power of storytelling for building a learning culture

Kerry Jary

Kerry Jary weaves a tale about story telling in L&D An embedded learning culture – we want this, we need this! But just how do we achieve it? In an ideal world, learning and development forms the backbone of our organisational culture, employees want to participate, they are motivated and engaged.  However, in reality, modules often become tick box exercises, we only communicate with our audience when the next training refresher is due, or worse still, we don’t communicate at…

Smartphone podcast app with blue headphones and microphone 3d rendering

TJ podcast: Artificial intelligence in L&D – episode 313

The TJ podcast has a host of L&D experts talk through the Artificial Intelligence in workplace learning, including about digital adoption, impact on our L&D jobs and the opportunity of productivity growth. Speakers include: Links from the discussion: Transcript summary: Created by ChatGPT The podcast for learning and development (L&D) professionals delves into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the sector, presenting a variety of perspectives from industry leaders. The discussion covers the rapid adoption of AI technologies,…

Brunette woman showing time out hand gesture, screaming to stop it.

The art of building winning hybrid teams

James Scouller

James Scouller sets out principles from managing teams to ensure that even when you aren’t together, you can still achieve One question clients often ask me is, “How should my approach to building a winning team change when we’ve switched to hybrid working?” It’s clear that hybrid working has been difficult for many team leaders. And it’s true, navigating the shift from physical to virtual or hybrid teams can seem daunting. Yet my answer is always the same: “The seven…

Photo sign made by human hand with a video play button superimposed over the top.

Kevin M Yates on measuring the impact of training, learning and talent development

Kevin M Yates on the importance of sharing the impact of what we do in learning – it’s all about the “facts, evidence and data” for “measurably influencing human performance”. This video was originally part of the Learning Now TV show. You can see many more videos and the monthly one-hour show at LearningNow.TV

Pile of colourful books and alarm clock on top on white background

Learning from life: writing a book

Michelle Parry-Slater

This month Michelle Parry-Slater is an open book about the challenges of writing This month my book, The Learning and Development Handbook is three years old. Writing that book taught me so much about myself and expectations on learning new skills. Who was I to write a book? I couldn’t write because I wasn’t the right person Writing the book was really hard for me, which came as a surprise. A big surprise! I had written short form content for…

Graphic design studio showing a monitor and lots of creative tools.

From clarity to accessibility: 5 key tips to help content design

Jayne Davids

Jayne Davids draws upon her experience in creating hundreds of guides and help documents to distil the essential best practices for creating user-friendly resources People visit a knowledge base or help centre to get answers or information about a product or task. Providing well-designed help content enables customers and internal staff to help themselves and find answers and information quickly and easily. For the business, enabling customers to self-serve can reduce the number of support calls and empowers users to…

Laptop keyboard with plant growing on it.

The green leader’s toolkit: carpooling, home offices, and sustainable leadership practices

Luke Smith

Luke Smith looks at the impact of leadership on corporate environmental responsibility Companies no longer have the option to put sustainability on the back burner. It’s the responsibility of leadership to ensure their business is operating as ethically and environmentally responsibly as possible. This is a continuous effort — one that you must refine and refresh as employees change, technology advances, regulations update, and climate change persists. Learn how to lead with confidence into the sustainable future your company must…