Why Harder is Better: The Surprising Science of Desirable Difficulties

The training session crushed it. Ninety-four percent completion. Satisfaction scores at 4.8 out of 5. Your VP sent a congratulatory email. Three months later? Those same learners failed the audit. Couldn't recall key steps. Couldn't apply the principles they'd supposedly mastered. What happened? You fell into what cognitive scientist Robert Bjork calls the fluency trap.Continue reading "Why Harder is Better: The Surprising Science of Desirable Difficulties"

AI Can Help Us Be More Human: The Director’s Job

AI has become the loudest voice in every room right now. Especially in learning and development. The headlines promise revolution. The vendors promise automation. And many of us quietly wonder what happens to our own value when machines can generate courses, videos, and entire learning modules faster than we can write a learning objective. ButContinue reading "AI Can Help Us Be More Human: The Director’s Job"

Friday Finds – Better endings, smarter work, and your new AI research sidekick

Friday Finds – How to end better, learn smarter, and research faster “There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.” — Christopher Morley I’ve always liked that saying: you either win or you learn. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of learning. The kind that comes with friction — theContinue reading "Friday Finds – Better endings, smarter work, and your new AI research sidekick"

Stop Overloading Your Learners’ Brains: A Practical Guide to Minimizing Extraneous Cognitive Load

Marcus spent six weeks building the perfect compliance training for his company's 2,000 employees. Interactive scenarios. Animated compliance mascot. Video testimonials from leadership. Gamified quizzes with leaderboards and achievement badges. Custom dashboard with real-time progress tracking. Background music to "enhance focus." (spoiler: that usually backfires unless it serves a clear instructional or motivational goal). CompletionContinue reading "Stop Overloading Your Learners’ Brains: A Practical Guide to Minimizing Extraneous Cognitive Load"

Workflow Automation for Beginners (and Why L&D Pros Should Care)

If you’ve never heard of workflow automation, don’t worry—you’re not alone. The phrase sounds like corporate jargon, but at its heart, it’s simple: workflow automation means teaching your tools to do the boring, repetitive steps for you—automatically. What Is Workflow Automation? Imagine you’re making coffee. Normally, you grind beans, fill the filter, measure water, pressContinue reading "Workflow Automation for Beginners (and Why L&D Pros Should Care)"

Stop Creating Content From Scratch: The L&D Strategy That Marketing Has Perfected

Your employees waste nearly 10 hours every week hunting for information they need to do their jobs. (1) That's more than a full workday spent searching instead of performing. But here's the counterintuitive truth: The problem isn't too little content. It's too much. While L&D teams scramble to create more content, smart organizations have discoveredContinue reading "Stop Creating Content From Scratch: The L&D Strategy That Marketing Has Perfected"

My Top 10 Learning Tools for 2025

It's survey time again! Jane Hart is collecting everyone's top learning tools for her annual report. I love seeing what everyone's using these days. Want to share yours? Head over to the Top Tools for Learning survey and submit your list. You've got until August 29th. Don't wait! Here's my lineup for 2025. No rankingsContinue reading "My Top 10 Learning Tools for 2025"

Embracing Productive Failure: Why Getting it Wrong First Might Be the Right Approach

A counterintuitive learning strategy that's changing how we think about instruction Here's a wild idea: What if we told learners to dive into complex problems before we taught them how to solve them? What if we let them struggle, make mistakes, and yes—even fail—before stepping in with our carefully crafted lessons? If that sounds backwards to you,Continue reading "Embracing Productive Failure: Why Getting it Wrong First Might Be the Right Approach"

🎧 Clickbait & Cognitive Load

A Soundtrack for L&D Pros, Marketing Nerds, and Anyone Caught in the Creative Crossfire Let’s be honest: working at the intersection of Learning & Development and Marketing is like directing a Broadway show… during a thunderstorm… with a script that keeps changing. Some days, you’re designing beautiful learning experiences, guiding behavior change, and aligning toContinue reading "🎧 Clickbait & Cognitive Load"

Friday Finds — OpenAI’s ‘Deep Research’ Feature, Consistent AI Characters, Standing Out as an L&D Pro

Subscribe via email "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."​– Albert Einstein I've been thinking about all of you reading this from outside the US, and I just wanted to say - I know things look pretty chaotic over here right now. Honestly? I'm a bit embarrassed by what's unfolding in ourContinue reading "Friday Finds — OpenAI’s ‘Deep Research’ Feature, Consistent AI Characters, Standing Out as an L&D Pro"