After more than a decade of Friday Finds, you'd think I'd have this newsletter figured out by now. Nope. I'm still tinkering. Lately, I've gone deep on one idea each week. I've loved that. But I've also wondered how many good finds never make it into your inbox because they don't need a whole essay. So I'm trying a new format again.

The plan is to share four finds: the best resource I came across, an idea to chew on, a tool to try, and one wildcard I couldn't resist.

Will it be better? I hope so. After ten-plus years, I'm still learning what makes this worth opening. And I'd love your help. Hit reply and tell me what you think, especially what you'd like more of.

Thanks for reading!

🎵 Today I'm listening to Nightmares on Wax​

Supported by iSpring

Make Training Feel Like Practice, Not a Policy Read

I’m a big fan of scenarios because they make people use what they know, not just read about it. This free iSpring guide shows how to turn real workplace situations into meaningful decisions, with better choices, consequences, and feedback. And you don’t need a giant branching maze to make it work.

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🏆 BEST FIND

The ID Toolbox: 55 Free Tools for Instructional Designers

​Curt Zilbersher made a home for all those small design tasks that eat up half your day.

The ID Toolbox has 55 free tools, including a learning objective checker, SCORM tools, a PowerPoint text extractor, caption fixes, and color contrast checks. There's even a "Does This Need to Be a Course?" tool. That one deserves a round of applause.

You don't need an account. And when a tool reads a file, it does the work in your browser rather than sending the file to a server.

This passes my Monday Morning Test: Could you save it today and use it at work next week? You bet.

Also supported by Neovation

JoySuite automates routine LMS tasks, such as assigning training, and works with any LMS. In the demo, see Joy answer questions from your documents with sources, build dashboards from one question, and turn policies into role-plays on demand.

Heading to DevLearn? Visit Neovation at booth 525 and see JoySuite live.

​Watch JoySuite in action →​

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💡 IDEA

Did AI Help You Learn, or Just Help You Finish?

Here's a question worth asking the next time you use AI at work: Did it help you learn, or just help you finish?

AI can draft a report, spot patterns, and offer a sound answer in seconds. Great. But if it does all the hard thinking, what happens to our ability to do that work on our own?

This piece in Chief Learning Officer offers five questions to help us decide when AI should take the lead and when people need to wrestle with the problem first.

Fast work is nice. Lasting skill is better. We need both.

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🛠️ TOOL

Oh So Video: Video Tools Without the Usual Nonsense

Video work has a gift for turning a two-minute task into a half-hour hunt for the right app.

Need to trim a clip, shrink a file, make captions, pull a transcript, or turn MOV into MP4? Oh So Video has tools for all of it. It also has batch tools and a way to blur faces.

The site says it's free, with no account or watermark. Better still, it processes video on your device instead of sending your files to a server. Some tools have size or length limits based on your device.

Less friction. More finished work. I can get behind that.

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🎲 WILDCARD

20 Rules for Slides That Don't Scream "AI Made This"

AI can build a slide deck in seconds. It can also make every slide look as if it were built in seconds.

This site lays out 20 rules for clearer slides, from one idea per slide to better type, spacing, contrast, and alignment.

My favorite is the three-second test: Can your audience grasp the point of a slide at a glance?

One caution: Some of the rules use exact numbers, like how much blank space to leave. Treat those as prompts, not laws.

A good slide still needs a human with good judgment.

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The Bottom Line

This week's finds share a theme: Good tools can save us time. They can't do our thinking for us.

Use the tools to clear the busywork. Then spend the time you get back on the choices that count. That's a pretty good trade.

Have a great weekend!

📍Where I'll be next

• ​Training 2027 Conference & Expo,
  February 22-24 Orlando, FL
  $150 discount using code TSP1​

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