The Train Like You Listen podcast is a series of short audio clips offering insights and bite-sized nuggets on trends, cool tools, and tips for L&D professionals.

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When training is a matter of life and death. Literally. - There's a lot that training professionals can learn from other industries. Certainly marketing and advertising, brain science and k-12 education. But how often do we look to the U.S. armed services for inspiration on how to do our jobs better?

What is xAPI and should you be using it to collect data? - Are you getting all the data you need to determine the effectiveness of your learning programs? On this week's podcast, Megan Torrance shares some insights on how xAPI can help you collect the right data.

Help! My podcast was highjacked! - Ok, "highjacked" may be a little extreme. I have a new book coming out tomorrow and it might be a little too unconventional to interview myself. Today, Sophie Oberstein takes the interview chair to ask me about my new book: What's Your Formula? Combine Learning Elements for Impactful Training.

The Importance of Informal Learning: A Conversation with Jon Tota - Jon Tota has literally made his living through the "70" part of the 70/20/10 model - by having conversations with other people. Recently, I had a chance to talk with Jon not just about the value of having conversations, but simply how to have meaningful and productive conversations with others in order to learn.

What are some essential elements of effective sales training? - The most effective sales training in the world doesn't simply rely on a sales model. According to Spencer Wixom, Senior Vice President at Challenger Inc, the ability to listen to training participants trumps both a trainer's sales experience and a training program's instructional design.

What are some of the similarities between training people and training puppies? - What's the difference between training people and training puppies? It turns out, there may be a lot more similarities than differences. In this week's episode, we talk with Baxter & Bella Online Puppy School founder, Amy Jensen, who shares some of the keys to her successful podcasts and virtual training programs.

A Conversation with Dialogue Education Pioneer Jane Vella (Part 2) - On Monday we began a conversation with education theory titan Jane Vella, and left on a sort of cliffhanger note. I asked her if dialogue education was ever not an appropriate approach to learning design. Today, in part 2 of this conversation, we get her answer to this and several other questions around effective learning design and facilitation.

A Conversation with Dialogue Education Pioneer Jane Vella - I recently had an opportunity to talk with a legend in the field of education whose concept of Dialogue Education built upon her mentor, Malcolm Knowles', theory of Adult Learning to further transform the world of learning: Jane Vella. While this is a longer conversation than our typical Train Like You Listen episode - and has been split into 2 parts, I hope you'll indulge me and spend some time listening to (or reading) this conversation with someone whose work has influenced every corner of every training program I've developed (or written about on my blog) since I learned about Dialogue Education in 2007.

Finding Success in DEI Training - As a therapist, facilitator, consultant and coach, Carrie Heron spends a lot of her time focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In today's episode she shares some of her experiences on what's worked, and what hasn't, when it comes to organizational DEI initiatives.

What it means to be an “L&D Detective” - If they made a "Law & Order"-style television series about the world of learning and development, one of the characters might be based upon Kevin Yates, a real-life L&D detective who is constantly in search of the impact and value of training initiatives.

Reading for improvement is different than reading for information - When you pick up a book, sometimes all you want is information, or perhaps you just want to be entertained. If you truly want to improve your skills based on what you've read, there's a 5-step process you may want to take.

Animation isn’t just for Saturday mornings anymore! - In a recent conversation with Vyond's Manager of Communications, Kevin Doherty, we discussed some ways that animation can be a powerful element in any instructional designer's bag of tricks.

How do you train your colleagues how to train? - Do SMEs need to know about adult learning and levels of evaluation in order to be effective trainers? Ajay Pangarkar shares his thoughts on how you can help your colleagues and other SMEs be more effective, including some insights on how much "non-training" and "non-presentation skills" content is important.

An L&D-style Easter Egg Hunt (with Karl Kapp) - "Easter Eggs" are a game element that can bring randomness, joy and delight to training programs. They're "next level" instructional design elements that can offer surprising new ways for learners to access content. As a treat for blog readers, you may also find four different Easter Eggs hidden around this post. The first person to send me an email (brian@endurancelearning.com) that identifies all four Easter Eggs will find themselves on the receiving end of a $50 Amazon gift card. You'll need to earn this gift card because these Easter Eggs may not be so easy to find. Look closely at the images, the transcript of the conversation (see if there are any acronyms that can be found!) and the links (is there anything weird about any of these links?). Happy Egg Hunting!

What can L&D folks take away from the 2021 Global Sentiment Survey? (Answer: A lot) - As the fog of 2020 burns off and a slightly clearer picture of what 2021 could have in store for us takes shape, Donald Taylor offers some insights from innovators and early adopters across industries to offer some insights on what trends learning professionals should be keeping an eye on.

Better Visual Design: Advice from Connie Malamed - Think charisma and good instructional design are enough to make up for mediocre visual design? Think again. Visual design impacts both the learner's experience and their confidence in the training program you've put together. Connie Malamed joined me for a great discussion of how to get the most out of your sessions.

Technology to Make Virtual Feel Less “Virtual” - Today's podcast features some technologies that are better seen, so we've embedded some video which we hope will inspire you as you look to make your virtual learning feel a little less virtual.

A Trainer’s Responsibility: Staying On Top Of Current Trends - In today's podcast, Lorri Freifeld, Editor-in-Chief of Training magazine, offers some advice on how to spot a true trend from a shiny object, and how to get the biggest bang for your own professional development buck.

Storytelling as a Learning Device - If they're well-crafted, stories can be one of the most powerful learning devices in a trainer's toolbelt. In today's podcast, Rance Greene offers some insights on how to craft a well-designed story for maximum impact in your next training session.

Resources, Not Courses! - When someone tells you they need a training course developed, is your first response: "Ok, by when do you need it?" or is your first response: "Why?" Asking the right questions can help make sure you deliver the best solution.

Talking Games and Gamification (for Learning) with Karl Kapp - "Games" and "gamification" are different, but both can be very powerful elements when it comes to effective and engaging learning design. Oh, and according to Karl Kapp, the main object of a learning game or gamified learning experiences isn't to make a training program "fun". If you have 20 minutes or so, this conversation with Karl Kapp could change the way you design learning programs.

Artificial Intelligence in Talent Development - We’ve been hearing so much about artificial intelligence (in the news and in movies) for years and we’ve heard some theories on how it might impact the learning and development world. My conversation with Margie Meacham digs into the myths and realities of AI and begins to paint a picture of what the intersection between AI and learning might be. I’m curious whether you have any examples of AI in your work. How is it already impacting your organization? Tell us in the comments.

Time To Develop Learning Programs - Anyone who has been tasked with building a training program has struggled with the question of “how long will this take?” I’m delighted to share my conversation with Robyn Defelice who has been studying this question. My conversation with her digs in to the value of these numbers and what they say (or don’t say) about the quality of training. Give it a listen (or read the transcript below) and then share your thoughts on this conversation or Robyn’s article in TD.

Organizational Learning Strategies - We’re lucky to have gotten to know the fine people at Humentum over the last few years. Today, we are excited to share a conversation that Brian had with Gus Curran and Rachel Gathagu from Humentum about organizational learning. There are some great observations about how to approach and measure organizational learning initiatives. We’d love to hear about your experiences with organizational learning in the comments.

Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace - We’ve talked in this blog about the need for diversity and inclusion in the learning and development field and have talked about the impact that learning and development professionals can have through their training initiatives. As we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it feels like a good time to share the conversation Brian had with Natalie Mazzie from F5 about the realities of doing the work of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. If you're working today or get this on Tuesday, please add your thoughts in the comments.

Technical Presentations - If you follow TED talks on instructional design, you likely have watched or heard Melissa Marshall’s TED talk “Talk Nerdy to Me.” During her compelling talk (with over 2.6 million views!), she discusses making technical presentations accessible to anyone in the audience without compromising the integrity or talking down to the more technical audience members. … Continue reading Technical Presentations

Training Measurement Demystified - Happy new year and welcome to 2021!!! How do you measure the success of your training programs? Yeah, that is a pretty complicated question for many learning professionals. However, we all know that it is critical to our programs that we show how and why they are working. The big gaps seem to be the mystery around how exactly we get that information. We're excited to begin 2021 with Brian talking to David Vance and Peggy Parskey from the Center for Talent Reporting and authors of Measurement Demystified, Creating Your L&D Measurement, Analytics and Reporting Strategy to find out more about how to measure training programs.

Virtual Training Lessons Learned - Kassy LaBorie is one of the early adopters for virtual tools like Zoom, Teams, etc... as a remote training tool. On this week's Train Like You Listen podcast, Kassy joins us to share some insights on virtual instructor-led training after a year where many of us were unexpectedly thrust into adopting these tools. We've been adding transcripts to all of our recent (and many of our older podcasts). If you like seeing the conversations in this format, let us know in the comments.

GIFs as a Training Tool - I'm sure you've either seen or used animated GIFs. But have you thought about their value in training? This discussion (both podcast and transcript) with George Hanshaw about how you can use GIFs as a training tool may give you some ideas about how to support your learners.

Finding Gratitude in 2020 - 2020 has been one for the books. Very few people have been entirely unaffected by the events in our world over recent months. Notwithstanding, there have been some lessons learned this year, and just like any training, it is important to debrief what we can take away from this year.

Preparing Teachers to Train with Lisa Spinelli - Lisa Spinelli took some time with us this week to talk to us about what she learned while writing her book, Teacher to Trainers. We take some time to dig into why teachers tend to move into training, how to build your skill set if you are a teacher looking to move into training, and what challenges to expect for professionals thinking about this move.

The Journey from Teaching to Training - On this week's podcast, we talk to Shermaine Perry-Knights, author and Chief Learning Officer at Innovation Consultants of DeKalb, about her learning and development journey. Like many L&D professionals, Shermaine started as a K-12 teacher. She gives us some insight on why she made this move, and how she takes the lessons she learned teaching 7th grade Social Studies and applies it to her adult learners. This week you'll also see that we have a full transcript of the discussion if you prefer to read.

Podcasts in Training - As learning and development professionals, we are always looking for new ways to deliver content to our learners. One approach to this challenge is to consider how you like to have content delivered. Podcasts have become a big part of the way many of us learn during our busy lives. In our conversation with Betty Dannewitz we get some great ideas about how to incorporate podcasts into your next training initiative.

The Monsters We Don’t See - We face monsters every day as training professionals. They cannot be tackled the same way the stories of our past have taught us to tame mysterious beasts. They lurk right in front of us...

Learning Campaigns - What is it like to be on the other side of the training? In other words, do your participants have a working world that lives beyond attending your training? Of course they do. Because of this, we often need more than one way to get information to our learners. Learning campaigns can be a great way to achieve that.

Resources for an eLearning Department of One - Training departments are often small, often comprising of just one individual. How do these small teams find the resources and tools they need to make great training. Check out this post to find out.

Troubleshooting for Trainers - Sophie Oberstein, author, coach, adjunct professor, and Learning & Organizational Development consultant, joins us on the Train Like You Listen podcast to discuss how you can find solutions to training problems. Make sure to check out her new book, Troubleshooting for Trainers, which is available October 6, 2020.

Can Curiosity Be Taught? - Facilitating and training people, young or adult, to be curious is important, but is it really an outcome that can be trained and measured? Bethany Kline talks about her approach to scaling innovation across an organization by training learners to be more curious.

How to Engage Learners - When it comes to engaging learners, finding the magical formula can seem like catching a mythical creature. In theory, it is absolutely attainable, however, in practice, unexpected obstacles abound. Cara North shares her approach to unlocking these obstacles.

Trainer’s Approach to Effective PowerPoint - At Endurance Learning we talk a lot about the appropriate use of PowerPoint. This conversation with Mike Parkinson gets into how to create engaging and effective PowerPoint presentation.

What You Need to Know Before You Gamify Your Next Training - I know for a fact my experience with gamification is not unique. I have failed more than once to make games work in training. I talked to Marci Morford about how she finds inspiration to gamify her training, and she discusses the why the dynamics, mechanics, and components of a game are play a huge role in game play success.

How do I show up to Virtual Training? - If you have been in training for more than a few years, it is likely you are familiar with the Ken Blanchard Companies. The Ken Blanchard Companies have more than 40 years of in-person training experience and are a power-house of instructor-led training. Like many other companies, this group of individuals is looking forward to … Continue reading How do I show up to Virtual Training?

Voice User Interfaces and Training - Voice-activated digital assistants are household items for many of us. Smartphones, speakers, even watches can be voice-activated to help us with any number of things. My mom and her 81 year-old neighbor spent the weekend setting up and activating skills for several smart speakers in her house. They set up entertainment, reminders, asked questions, and set up some safety features. What else can we do with devices with a voice user interface?

Taking a Conference Virtual - Conference season is coming! What do conferences look like during the time of Covid-19? One of our favorite conferences, Learnapalooza, is taking things virtual this year and we sat down with Chief Innovator Erin Peterschick to hear what she and her team are planning. This conference is typically set in the Seattle area and offers … Continue reading Taking a Conference Virtual

The Business Case for Learning - Recessions and economic downturns happen. Many of us have worked – or tried to work – through more than one economic downturn. As training departments tend to be small compared to other departments, how do we stay relevant in tough economic times? Chris Pirie from the Learning Futures Group sits down with the Train Like … Continue reading The Business Case for Learning

eLearning Development with Ashley Chiasson - Training isn’t created in a vacuum. Many learning professionals spend hours reading about and looking for inspiration and the latest trends in design and development. There are a few key people in our industry who are interested in helping all of us move forward and push the limits of engaging and creative training. Award-winning eLearning … Continue reading eLearning Development with Ashley Chiasson

Rapid Virtual Training Design is Here! - Nobody knows what the world will look like in a few weeks, months, or years. One thing is for sure, there is a drastic increase in virtual tools to facilitate meetings, and we need to be successful working with them. This time has shown many of us that virtual meetings may well be a way … Continue reading Rapid Virtual Training Design is Here!

Connecting With the Learning Community – Bianca Woods - The Learning and Development community is not always easy to break into. Even in an office setting with a relatively large training team, finding one’s connection into the community can be a herculean pursuit. In this week’s podcast, we talk to someone who works hard to solve this problem. Bianca Woods of the Learning Guild … Continue reading Connecting With the Learning Community – Bianca Woods

Getting Started as an eLearning Developer - How did you get into training and development? Did you study for this job in school? Or, like many of us, did you find your way here unexpectedly? No matter how you wound up in your role, you started the same way we all did, green and looking for resources and a community to help … Continue reading Getting Started as an eLearning Developer

How To Design An Effective Onboarding Program - The first day on a new job can be daunting. People are walking into a group who have already established relationships with each other and found their place in a company. Like being the new kid at school, new employees may feel lost and out of place before even walking through the doors of the … Continue reading How To Design An Effective Onboarding Program

The Value of Being Active on Social Media in L&D - What value can learning and development folks get from being more active on social media? Well one opportunity is to talk with people like Mike Taylor from Mike-Taylor.org about all of the cool things he finds on the internet. You can also geek out with Brian Washburn about all things training and development, or Heather … Continue reading The Value of Being Active on Social Media in L&D

Addressing Challenges and Getting Help - How do you move forward when a project challenges you and you don’t see a clear path? On the podcast this week, Brian sits down with his colleague and Director of Instructional Design at Endurance Learning, Heather Snyder, to dig into this topic. During this chat, they discuss some challenges they encounter during the training … Continue reading Addressing Challenges and Getting Help

Training In The Age of COVID - What does training look like in a COVID-19 or even post-COVID-19 world?  A lot of people are talking about how their jobs are changing. Whether it be working from home, adapting to new norms, or changing their skill set as an essential worker, these changes are impacting the way we work and how we approach … Continue reading Training In The Age of COVID

How to Approach Training Like a Marketer - Do you ever find yourself putting on your marketing hat and trying to “sell” a new process or implementation in your training? In this week’s podcast, we sit down with Mike Taylor of MikeTaylor.org and discuss what instructional designers can learn from the advertising and marketing approach and apply it to training. If you are … Continue reading How to Approach Training Like a Marketer

Keys to Successful Training with an International Audience - Good instructional design may be universal, but are there considerations we need to take into account when training an international audience? This week on our Train Like You Listen podcast, Mary Cropp, Director of Learning and Development at Bluetooth SIG,  joins us again to talk about her experiences working with international audiences and how that … Continue reading Keys to Successful Training with an International Audience

Keys to being an effective “producer” in your next virtual training - How many people does it take to put on a successful webinar? A facilitator is obviously necessary to present the content and facilitate activities. If you want to present information while using polls, having participants white board on the screen and getting people into small groups using the breakout rooms feature all while responding to private … Continue reading Keys to being an effective “producer” in your next virtual training

Lessons Learned in Quickly Shifting to Virtual Training - Things have changed for many of us very quickly. Many of us are at home, but we haven’t stopped working. As we get used to a new way to interact with one another, the dynamics of our interactions need to change. As many people have probably experienced, an online meeting or training is a different … Continue reading Lessons Learned in Quickly Shifting to Virtual Training

Innovation In L and D - As professionals in the learning and development community, it is important to push ourselves to find new approaches to problems. Being innovative can be defined many ways, but it isn’t necessarily as complex as we may think. On the podcast this week, Darren Nerland, Learning Strategist at Degreed, sits down with us to talk about … Continue reading Innovation In L and D

Tips For Engaging Learners - Some folks say they don't care about "engaging" training. What does "engagement" even mean, and is it important? 

Creating an L&D Portfolio - Listen to an L&D hiring manager talk about how to get started, what should be included, and what to do about proprietary work samples.

The Path to Getting Published - Becoming a published writer can be tricky to navigate. Now that many of us are working from home and have a bit more free time, stretch goals like writing an article or even a book may feel a bit more realistic. In this podcast, we chat with Eliza Blanchard who is the Learning & Development … Continue reading The Path to Getting Published

How To Keep Learning Going After Training - A lot of magic can happen during a training, conference, or webinar, but what happens after the session ends? Keeping the learning going after a session enables trainers to build on what happens in a session; however, designing this may not be easy. This week we sit down with Nancy Bacon of Nancy Bacon Consulting … Continue reading How To Keep Learning Going After Training

Successfully Working in a Remote Office - Many workers are being asked to work remotely, but how does that change the way we work? In a post last week, we looked at some resources and tips around shifting to a home office. Recently, Gus Curran wrote a timely blog post about successfully adapting to a remote team. This week, Gus sat down … Continue reading Successfully Working in a Remote Office

Trying New Things with Mel Milloway - In a post last week, Brian asked a variety of questions, including whether people are inclined to experiment with new technologies or if they’d prefer to use their old stand-by’s. 83% of respondents said they like to experiment with new technologies. Recently, Brian had a chance to sit down with Amazon’s Melissa Milloway to discuss … Continue reading Trying New Things with Mel Milloway

Designing Webinars with Kassy LaBorie - How to make webinars more engaging, where Kassy Laborie finds inspiration, and a few tips you can bring to your next live, web-based session.

2019 ATD State of the Industry Report - Each year, the Association for Talent Development publishes its annual State of the Industry Report. The data is gathered from organizations across the country and around the world who report on things such as average amount of money per employee spent on professional development and the average number of hours that employees spend in formal … Continue reading 2019 ATD State of the Industry Report

Engaging eLearning Design Tips with Tim Slade - This week on the Train Like You Listen podcast, Brian sits down with Tim Slade of  timslade.com to discuss eLearning. During this conversation, Brian and Tim discuss how to create engaging eLearning, share tips on how to manage expectations with clients who want amazing eLearning developed quickly and cheaply, and discuss where to find new … Continue reading Engaging eLearning Design Tips with Tim Slade

Applying Lean Principles to Onboarding - Applying lean principles to learning initiatives doesn't just mean reducing the amount of time employees spend in the training room.

Are people the biggest barrier to an effective organizational learning strategy? - What's holding workplaces back from getting information and knowledge into the hands of their employees in the moment of need?

Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR & VR) in Training - We are back this week with episode 3 of Train Like You Listen. This week, we sit down with Betty Dannewitz from If You Ask Betty to discuss what role Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality play in training, her experience with these realities, and the future of these technologies.

Competitive vs. Cooperative Games in the Training Room - We are back this week with episode 2 of Train Like You Listen. This week, we sit down with Lauren Wescott from Endurance Learning to discuss a few key things to keep in mind when incorporating games into training, and how to decide which type of game supports your content.

Train Like You Listen: A New L&D podcast - Each week we'll bring you a 5-8 minute podcast on L&D tips, trends and topics. Here's Episode 1!