Evidence-Informed Practice, Motivation and Freelancing in L&D In this episode, I chat with Matthew Richter and Kim Ellis about the...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of IDTX Podcast: Evidence-Informed Practice, Motivation and Freelancing in L&D. Have a listen:

IDTX session asks are you training passive recipients or causal agents? IDTX: Evidence Informed Practice, announces a session from Kurt Ewald Lindley exploring the missing link between learning design and genuine behaviour change, causal agency.

IDTX session asks are you training passive recipients or causal agents? - Learning News
learningnews.com/news/idtx/20...

Alignment Is How L&D Earns Relevance Skills@Work by Bridge LMS YouTube video by Instructional Design Tips

Alignment is the key to our ability to demonstrate real value to the wider organisation.

This was a key theme in my recent conversation with Bridge LMS as we discussed Skills@Work.

youtube.com/shorts/wNebg...

#LnD #Skills #StrategicAlignment

LIVE SOON: The ID Update with Tom McDowall and Heidi Kirby Starting Mar 27 at 2:00 PM EDT

This month, the ID update is coming to Substack! Come and join me and Heidi at 6 pm GMT this Friday!

open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Are we working quickly or building velocity?

In today's Substack I explore what I learned as a product manager around the importance of asking the right question when measuring progress.

🔗 bit.ly/4ub3br8

#LND #Agile #ProjectManagement

Today's Substack article looks at the importance of trusting the workforce when designing training interventions.

🔗 bit.ly/3OxvRtW

#LND #HR #TalentManagement #Culture

Ahead of this week's podcast learning festival, I thought I'd share some of my ideas on where podcasting has worked well.

🔗 bit.ly/46oulAx

#LearningAndDevelopment #KnowledgeManagement #InstructionalDesign #EdTech

Today's sub stack article explores goal orientation theory.

What it is,
where it comes from,
and how it informs our work in learning and development.

Check out the full article and let me know what you think down in the comments.

🔗 bit.ly/4rwWMVt

#LearningAndDevelopment #InstructionalDesign

A New Framework for Measuring Impact and A Safe Place to Practice In this episode, I chat with Dr Heidi Kirby and Helen Routledge about...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of IDTX Podcast: A New Framework for Measuring Impact and A Safe Place to Practice. Have a listen:

Becoming a Strategic Learning Partner and The 12 Levers of Learning Transfer In this episode, I chat with Linnéa Sjögren and Melanie Martinelli about...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of IDTX Podcast: Becoming a Strategic Learning Partner and The 12 Levers of Learning Transfer. Have a listen:

Evidence Informed Practice Conference 2026: 29 May, Birmingham url:learningnews.com/news/idtx/2026/evidence-...

Instructional Design Tips | Tom McDowall | Substack Tom's thoughts on workplace learning and development. I publish two short reads and three long reads a week. Click to read Instructional Design Tips, by Tom McDowall, a Substack publication with…

If you’re into instructional design, performance enablement, learning science, content, or EdTech, consider becoming a free or paid member of my Substack.

I publish 5x a week. Paid is £35/year and gets you the fortnightly omnibus (3 to 5 extra short articles).

🔗

Today's Substack article explores some of the work I've been doing with leadership teams over the last six months.

The central idea is that leaders don't really need more quadrant-based models for prioritising tasks or horoscope-style personality assessments.

🔗 bit.ly/4bomOoG

Ever had people leave a session with great plans, then… nothing?

Implementation intentions pair the change with a cue and an if/then plan.

Not “I will”, but “If X happens, then I’ll do Y.”

What’s your best follow-through trick?

bit.ly/3NBmTve
#PerformanceEnablement #BehaviouralScience #PeopleOps

Today's article explores perception and how our brains are not passive collectors of sensory input but constructivist builders of our own personal realities.

You'll also find four practical approaches for bridging perception gaps to minimise friction in times of change.

🔗 bit.ly/49P4xyk

#LND

Today’s Connect 2025, my last as organiser.

After 3 years, I’m handing it over.

In L&D, as in leadership, we don’t own things. We steward them for a while, do our best, then pass them on. That’s the work, and the privilege.

Full post ↓

🔗 bit.ly/4qUjSVR

#LNConnect2025 #LND #Leadership

Office politics isn’t toxic by default.
It’s just how decisions get made when people with different priorities work together.

Ignore it, and even your best ideas stall. Engage with it ethically, and it’s how real influence and change happen.

Full post ↓

🔗 bit.ly/43j11da

#LND #Leadership

How much of our professional development ever develops us?

CPD isn’t about collecting courses or points. The real growth happens after the session ends, when you test what you’ve learned and see if it holds up.

Full post ↓

🔗 bit.ly/4qTvh8k

#CPD #LearningAndDevelopment #LND

I dictated over 51k words in October.

Being dyslexic, voice typing turned writing from painful to joyful. It’s accessible, fast, and sounds like me.

What assistive tech do you use to make your work life that little bit easier?

#Accessibility #Writing #AI #LND

What if AI readiness isn’t about tools, but trust?

Most people use AI, yet fewer than half trust it.

If we repeat the mistakes of remote work, focusing on tech, ignoring humans, we’ll gain efficiency and lose connection.

Full post ↓

🔗 bit.ly/4oX1RV8

#AI #LearningAndDevelopment #LND

Every facilitator knows that moment.
An innocent question turns into a full-blown rant about Janet from Finance, and suddenly the room’s gone negative.

In today’s Substack: how I handle it with The Moan Management Matrix.

🔗 bit.ly/3WKHkHr

#LearningAndDevelopment #Facilitation

Been playing Dispatch this week, and it nails four UI heuristics most eLearning forgets: affordance,
consistency,
feedback,
and minimalism.

Proof that great design gets out of the way.

🔗 bit.ly/4oTmL7z

#LND #InstructionalDesign #UX

Certainty feels safe, but it stops us listening, learning, and connecting.

Our strength isn’t in being right, it’s in being useful, in conversation, community, and curiosity.

🔗 bit.ly/47nkz2j

#LND #LearningAndDevelopment #Community #Collaboration

What would it take for L&D to be professionalised like medicine or engineering?

We’re a profession, but we lack shared standards and accountability. Maybe it’s time to stop waiting for them to appear and start building them ourselves. What do you think?

🔗 bit.ly/4qwNl86
#LearningAndDevelopment

We talk about motivation and mindset all the time, but rarely about sleep.
Without enough of it, the brain simply can’t learn.

Today’s post explores what that means for training design.

🔗 bit.ly/4hvqrdc

#LND #LearningAndDevelopment #Neuroscience

Sometimes the credibility gap between L&D and senior leaders isn’t about them not understanding us, but about what we’ve not yet demonstrated.

🔗 bit.ly/3JjUvMo

#LND #LearningAndDevelopment #Leadership

We love to mock vanity metrics in L&D, but sometimes they’re the first sign something’s wrong.

The trick isn’t to ignore them, it’s to read them differently. Today’s article explores how.

🔗 bit.ly/4oEHsnU

#LND #LearningAndDevelopment #Data #PerformanceSupport

We need to talk about what happens when we start treating machines like people.

The science is early, but the warning signs are clear.
When we call AI a colleague, the humans pay the price.

Read the full piece ↓

🔗 bit.ly/4nhSPAM

#AI #LND #FutureOfWork

Are we designing for certainty, or for change?

Experiment-led design helps L&D stay flexible, useful, and relevant when frameworks can’t keep up.

Check out the full article.

🔗 bit.ly/4hjhpQm

#LND #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment #Experimentation

The problem isn’t attention, it’s distraction.

Human attention hasn’t changed, but the world has been engineered to steal it.

Before we make training shorter, maybe ask: are we giving people a fair chance to focus?

🔗 bit.ly/3KY3jb8

#LND #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment