Collaboration is a vital skill across many fields and disciplines. But effective collaboration is about much more than just working together.

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Paula are joined by Fraser Mcdonald, Head of Collaboration at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) and Deputy Director of the Data for Children Collaborative, to discuss:

• why collaboration is important when it comes to solving 'wicked problems';
• how Mindtools worked with the EFI to develop a game that's designed to build collaboration skills;
• why a game was the right solution to this problem, and how it's being deployed within the EFI.

To find out more about the work Fraser does, check out the Edinburgh Futures Institute and Data for Children Collaborative's websites.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Paula mentioned that she'd been digging into the surprisingly wild history of papal conclaves.

Fraser recommended the website ToS;DR, which provides an eye-opening breakdown of what we're agreeing to when we use different websites and platforms.

And Ross D talked about a recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast, focusing on the relationship between architecture and tax codes.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work. 

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Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• • Ross Dickie
  • Paula Hughes
  • Fraser Mcdonald

Whether it comes to facilitating workshops, designing learning experiences, or developing campaign assets, L&D practitioners are increasingly expected to bring creativity to their roles. But how do you do this if you don't have a creative background, or if you don't think of yourself as a 'creative person'?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross D and Gemma are joined by Kenny Temowo, Senior Director of Talent Acceleration at SharkNinja and host of the Inside the Art of Making podcast, to discuss:

• Kenny's career journey through the creative industries, into workplace learning, and back again;
• what it means to be 'creative', and how this applies in L&D;
• how to meet consumer-level creative expectations with L&D budgets;
• how to earn the permission to be creative at work.

You can listen to Kenny's podcast, Inside the Art of Making, on Spotify. (Or wherever you get your podcasts.)

In 'What I Learned This Week', Gemma mentioned The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.

Ross D gave a lukewarm review of the movie Field of Dreams.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work. 

You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Dickie
• Gemma Towersey
• Kenny Temowo

Often on this podcast we've spoken about how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are enhancing our capabilities. But do they also come at a cost?

In this week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, Ross Stevenson from Steal These Thoughts joins Ross G and Dr Gent to discuss:

• the relationship between tasks and skills;
• whether we are over-relying on AI;
• the long-term impact of AI use on critical thinking.

During the discussion, Ross S discussed the recent robot race in Beijing and the concept of vibe coding, via Lovable. He also mentioned Apple's sometimes-hilarious AI summaries.

Gent discussed cognitive offloading.

The paper Gent discussed was:

Gerlich, M. (2025). AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking. Societies, 15(1), 6.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Ross G shared how you can use a sausage to interact with your smartphone screen.

For more from Ross S, visit Steal These Thoughts.

For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning Content Hub, our Manager Skills Assessment, our Manager Skill Builder and our custom work. 

You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Ross Garner
• Dr Gent Ahmetaj
• Ross Stevenson