TRAINING NEW TRICKS, by Two Old Dogs: Recent Episodes
Jonathan Smith
Learning and Development has, for too long, lived in the shadows of HR and become the poor cousin of the department. Everyone wants us, but does anyone value us?
In this series of podcasts Nathan Akers and Jonathan Smith discuss the impact of Coronavirus on the industry and role with some original ideas on how to reinvent L&D post-pandemic.
The Two Old Dogs discuss the impact that Coronavirus has had on the learning profession and where this may take us in the future. Are you reading for the change in L&D?
The Two Old Dogs discuss the impact of prejudice, bias and racism in the training room and whether trainers can overcome any unconscious biases that they are perhaps unaware of.
Continuing from podcast 8, the Two Old Dogs review their last three books that have had a significant impact on the way that they think, behave and work.
In this episode (the first of 2 parts) the two old dogs (Jonathan Smith & Nathan Akers) review the first two books, from their top 5 list, that have changed their working lives.
If you've been furloughed during lockdown, or found yourself with more time because you're not commuting to the office, have you used your spare moments to catch up on learning? If not, is this the best time for people to be trained in new things? The Old Dogs (Jonathan Smith and Nathan Akers) discuss the issue and discover the link between this and performance.
How did L&D become the servant of Human Resources, never the senior partner of the group, always the 'broom that is used to sweep the floor clean'? In this episode, the two old dogs (Jonathan Smith and Nathan Akers) discuss how L&D professionals can elevate themselves to higher levels of business respect.
These terms are frequently used interchangeably, along with 'Teacher' and 'Instructor', in order to identify what we do in L&D - but are they all descriptors of the same role? or do they require difference skillsets and experience? These are the questions the two old dogs (Nathan Akers and Jonathan Smith) answer in this podcast.
Resilience is a modern buzz word that organisations throw around the workforce at random times, but what does it mean and how do you become resilient? The two old dogs, Jonathan and Nathan discuss this in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and identify practical things you can do to build stronger mental maturity and resilience.
Since the advent of digital learning, more pressure is placed on L&D to abandon classroom training in order to save money and reduce time spent training people. The Old Dogs (Nathan Akers and Jonathan Smith) discuss whether this is a viable decision or whether there are quality and learning issues that need to be considered before making such policies.
Trust is a huge, if unspoken, issue in business and is nowhere else seen so blatantly as in the training room. Do participants 'trust' you? Why do we have to prove ourselves worthy of their trust? and how do we go about it at such speed that the participants will actually listen and learn from us? All these questions are discussed in this podcast.
Jon and Nathan discuss the pressures that we face due to the COVID-19 virus in Learning & Development including how it has impacted the way that people learn. In addition, they review the impact on leaders who overlook the way that their people are feeling at this time which may effect their performance.
During COVID-19, we are expected to continue as close to normal as we can, yet the challenges we face are that we simply 'MANAGE' team performance rather than 'LEAD' them to an inspired success. Join Jonathan Smith & Alina Perrin as they discuss some tactics and tips for focussing on leadership matters even when you are unable to gather the group into a single venue.
Richard Newman (Body Talk Training) is a master presenter and has appeared on TV for his expert analysis of what makes a great presentation. In this episode Richard helps us unravel the intricacies of presenting in a way that is simple, easy to understand and (more importantly) something that we all can use.
Although corporations talk about wanting a ‘coaching culture’ very few ever take the time to define what that actually would look like. Equally, companies seem to assume that because you have the title of ‘manager’ (or similar) you know HOW to coach! In this short episode we take a look at where the roles of coach and manager differ. Using Premier League football clubs as examples, Jonathan shows how to achieve a greater results by focusing on 'real' coaching. He also introduces you to a mechanism that he has designed and used successfully to prevent your observations becoming subjective criticism.