507 — Do learning games still have a place?

More from The Mindtools L&D Podcast All episodes →

1. 

   E512 · 8 Sep 2026 · 44 min

   512 — Learner enthusiasm, AI tutors, and a neuromyth that won't die

   What research papers did you read while lounging by the pool this summer? In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast , Ross D is joined by Claire and Dr Anna to review three studies that have caught our attention over the last few months. Anna's pick was Vestner and colleagues' 'A dyadic training to promote technology-related learning and development among age-diverse employees: the power of co-workers' enthusiasm' , published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology . Claire brought Kestin and colleagues' 'AI tutoring outperforms in-class active learning: an RCT…

2. 

   E511 · 1 Sep 2026 · 40 min

   511 — L&D at scale: How do you support 750,000 people?

   Training one person is hard. Training 750,000 people, in more than 80 countries, spread across frontline shifts, event security and executive teams, is a different problem entirely. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast , Ross G and Claire Gibson are joined by Brent O'Bryan, Senior Vice President of Global Training and Talent Development at Allied Universal, to explore what L&D looks like at genuinely massive scale. We discuss: Why 750,000 employees are never one audience How to choose between the LMS, the classroom and virtual training The role of AI and automation in training…

3. 

   E510 · 25 Aug 2026 · 38 min

   510 — You don't have to talk to add value (Rebroadcast)

   We've been talking a lot about AI on the podcast recently. So this week, we're revisting a distinctly human episode from 2024 on the value of listening. As experts, managers or leaders, we often seek to help others by talking, talking, talking. But what if we didn't talk and just listened? In this episode , Ross D and Gemma are joined by Georgie Rudd, an executive coach, to discuss the trials and delights of listening. We explore: reasons that we don't listen well t he consequences of not listening (and of listening!) how we can improve listening skills. Georgie recommended Nancy Klein as an…

4. 

   E509 · 18 Aug 2026 · 40 min

   509 — What are L&D teams really doing with AI?

   Every L&D team thinks everyone else has AI figured out. Almost nobody does. Ross G recently ran structured interviews with 12 Mindtools Kineo customers, spanning tech, financial services, pharmaceuticals, energy, media and more, to find out what's really happening on the ground. In this week's episode, Ross D and Cammy Bean join Ross G to discuss his findings. We cover: Why every L&D team believes it is falling behind Where teams are continuing to invest at a time when budgets are constrained Why AI ambition keeps stalling at the governance stage During the episode, Cammy referenced a…

5. 

   E508 · 11 Aug 2026 · 44 min

   508 — What will compliance training look like in the age of AI?

   Outside of L&D, most people and organizations see compliance training as a box that needs to be ticked, not something that can drive behavior change. Will AI make this problem better or worse? In this week's episode, Ross D and Cammy are joined by learning designer Anisha Sridhar to explore what AI is really doing to compliance training. We discussed: why the productivity argument for AI is incomplete contextualization, and why it beats personalization in compliance how to keep slop out of your learning content. During the episode, Anisha described using the Gunning Fog index to test whether…

6. 

   E506 · 28 Jul 2026 · 42 min

   506 — Is your AI companion a colleague or rival?

   If you're rolling out AI licenses, how do you get people to use them? For AI learning designer Emily Valencia, there are two key requirements: that people can experiment safely, and that they can share results with others. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast , Ross D and Matt meet with Emily to discuss: What organizations get wrong about AI rollouts What effective AI adoption looks like Whether we should really see AI as a coworker (or whether this framing is one of the obstacles we've created for ourselves) During the discussion, Matt referenced recent news that an OpenAI…

7. 

   E505 · 21 Jul 2026 · 44 min

   505 — Are your managers killing your AI strategy?

   There are at least four factors that influence the success of AI adoption in your organization: training your people, clarity of compliance guidance, how people are rewarded, and the influence of managers. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast , we're exploring the last of these. In his book, Leading with AI - How to build high performance teams with AI as your sparring partner , Joris Merks-Benjaminsen presents an action-focused framework for helping managers adopt AI. In our discussion, we focus on: whether AI can replace managers how to help managers get started with AI why…

8. 

   E504 · 14 Jul 2026 · 47 min

   504 — Becoming a skills-based organization

   As AI transforms the way work gets done, many organizations are trying to understand the skills they need today, as well as the expertise they'll need tomorrow. In this week's episode, Cammy and Gemma are joined by skills expert Koreen Pagano to unpack the rise of skills-based organizations. We discussed: What becoming 'skills-based' in an organization might look like The benefits and challenges of shifting towards a skill-based approach The impact of AI on this shift, skills development and managers. You can pre-order Koreen's forthcoming book, Rewiring Your Organization for AI , and buy…

9. 

   E503 · 7 Jul 2026 · 41 min

   503 — The Eras Tour: Part 4 (AI takes over)

   In the final part of our 500th anniversary 'Eras Tour' retrospective, we conclude by saying farewell to our human co-workers and embracing the technology that will ultimately destroy us all: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ross G and Dr Anna B are joined by our most frequent guest of all time, Donald H Taylor, to discuss: how AI took over Don's annual 'Global Sentiment Survey' the mindset shift that L&D professionals need to embrace to adapt to change whether, 10 years after we first asked this question, L&D is truly dead? During the discussion, Ross referenced the ultimate hidden banger in…

10. 

    E502 · 1 Jul 2026 · 38 min

    502 — The Eras Tour: Part 3 (The hybrid period)

    If the pandemic years saw the office become a 'blank space', the hybrid era gradually witnessed that space fill up again through return-to-office mandates. In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast , Rob Baker joins us to continue our 'Eras Tour'. We discuss: how the pandemic created an opportunity for 'job crafting', and what's changed since we've come out of lockdown whether job crafting has lost relevance since the pandemic, or just gotten harder to realize what new research tells us about the impact of job crafting on performance and wellbeing. You can find out more about the…