I'm taking a quick trip to Michigan this weekend for some cooler weather and a little lake time. Trying to squeeze in a little getaway before school starts and fall activities begin - especially football season, which for me really means marching band season since my daughter is a drum major this year. Hope you're finding some time to relax and recharge too.

Thanks for reading!

👆 Last Week’s Most Clicked

​Blood in the Instructional Design Machine?​

🎶 What I’m Listening To

It's always a good day for 80's music, and today it is Dido Radio over here

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Building quality online courses in minutes is possible (with a little help from AI)

You already know that AI can give you a rough draft of a learning course in seconds. But what comes next? In this free, hands-on webinar from iSpring on August 20th, you’ll see how to:

• Use Microsoft Copilot to generate your course content
• Turn that content into PowerPoint slides
• Quickly build an interactive, good-looking course in iSpring Suite

📰 News & Notes

Given the 18,000+ impressions on this LinkedIn post, I thought I'd share what seemed to connect with so many people

Nobody Wants to Take Your Training

The Rundown:
Learners don’t sign up for training—they tolerate it. Compliance modules, onboarding, leadership programs—they scroll, click fast, multitask. Not because they don’t care, but because they’re busy. The real breakthrough? Empathy for the learner.

The Context:​
Once you accept that learners aren’t eager, you start asking smarter questions:

• What problems do they actually need help with?
• How can training feel relevant to their work?
• What would make them opt in, not just comply?

Use the SURE framework to reshape training:

• SIMPLE: ditch jargon—speak like one colleague to another.
• USEFUL: name it by the problem it solves, not the topic.
• RESONANT: open emotionally—make it human.
• EASY TO SKIM: use hierarchy, bullets, visuals—respect their time.

Why it Matters:​
Designing with empathy shifts training from dull compliance to purposeful growth. Learners become participants, not checkboxes. Instructional designers who use SURE build experiences that genuinely engage and impact.

What would happen if your next training wasn't mandatory—would anyone still choose to take it?

Humans as 'luxury goods' in the age of AI

The Rundown: ​
As AI democratizes knowledge, traits once common become rare and

valuable. The author argues that curiosity, anomaly‑spotting, intellectual courage, humility, and comfort with uncertainty are now luxury human qualities. These aren't just nice to have—they're what makes human contribution irreplaceable when information is everywhere.

The Context:
​AI can reproduce patterns and facts, but it struggles with insight, context, and deep questioning. That means the real value of people now lies in critical thinking, ethical judgment, and adaptivity. Professionals who see what machines can’t, and who are willing to sit with ambiguity, stand out.

Why It Matters:
​For L&D and instructional design roles, this mindset shift is huge. We need to design learning that builds:

• Curiosity and inquiry, not just fact recall.
• Adaptive learning paths that trust learners to explore.
• Reflection and complexity, not certainty.

Learners who practice navigating the unknown—not just accepting answers—become the future luxury human asset. The question shifts: it’s not “who knows the most?” but “who questions best?”

If AI can supply all the answers—what questions will still need a human to ask them?

Create Explainers in Minutes: Google NotebookLM’s New AI Video Tool

Rundown:​
Google has added Video Overviews to NotebookLM—AI-generated, narrated slideshows built from your own documents, transcripts, and PDFs. In tandem, the tool’s Studio panel now allows you to create and store multiple outputs of the same type (Audio, Video, Mind Map, Reports) from a single notebook.

The Context:

• Video Overviews are roughly 7-minute MP4s featuring synthetic narration and visuals sourced from the content you upload—quotes, diagrams, charts—ideal for illustrating abstract ideas and processes
• The Studio panel has been redesigned: new tiles let you generate Audio, Video, Mind Maps, and Reports with a click. You can now launch several versions of the same type—e.g. different summaries for different roles or languages—from the same notebook

Why It Matters:

For L&D pros, this means you can quickly generate role-specific content—like exec-friendly videos, detailed developer briefs, or onboarding guides—from the same source materials. And because it pulls from your own uploads, it’s more accurate than AI tools trained on general data. (e.g. ChatGPT, etc)

How might tools like NotebookLM change the role of instructional designers—from content creators to content curators and strategists?

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🧰 Tech Tools & Tips

If tools are your jam, check out my Work Smarter newsletter.

Genspark Genspark is a no-code AI assistant that automates tasks like slides, and research using multiple LLMs. Check it out →

Evie GPT A custom GPT to help you figure out whether your L&D is evidence-based and if it isn't how to make it that way. Check it out →

🎧 Podcast of the Week

This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.

Will AI Kill Elearning? Is e-learning dying—or just evolving? On this week’s Mindtools L&D Podcast, Cammy Bean joins Ross D and Ross G to unpack whether AI spells doom for traditional e-learning, how learning designers' roles could shift, and what risks L&D teams need to weigh as they adopt AI tools. Listen now →

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🧳 Where’s Mike?

• ​Central Ohio ATD Technology & Design Day
  September 9, Columbus, OH
  ​
• ​ATD Core 4, September 29 - October 1, Orlando, FL
  ​
• ​Cincinnati ATD, October 8, Cincinnati, OH
  ​
• ​DevLearn, November 12-14, Las Vegas, NV

If you or your event needs a speaker or workshop that is highly interactive and super practical, we should talk.

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