“The quality of your relationships determines the quality of your life.”
— Esther Perel
This quote hit me right in the dad feels. My daughter’s wrapping up her senior year—last homecoming, last first day, last spring break—and while those “lasts” tug at my heart, I’m mostly just proud watching her step into what’s next. What amazes me most is the circle she’s built—friends, teammates, coaches, and mentors who truly care and push her to grow. That network will carry her through college and beyond, because in the end, your people are your greatest asset. It’s not just who you know—it’s who knows you, who believes in you, and who shows up when it counts.
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Format experiment alert: I’ve trimmed things down a bit. Love it? Hate it? Want the longer reads back? Hit reply and let me know.
I'm on the road for my daughter’s last band competition and a stop to see my son at school in Oxford. So it will be Roadtrip Songs Everyone Knows for me today.
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Discover Why Human-Centered Pros Thrive In the Age of AI
AI can already write high-quality training content if you know how to create good prompts. What it can’t do, however, is make people engage and care. This article shows how real L&D impact comes from human-centered design and how to stay irreplaceable as an eLearning pro, no matter how fast AI improves.
A Practical Method for Integrating AI into L&D Workflows
Most L&D teams are using AI wrong—and it's costing them quality, credibility, and results.
Research shows that over half of L&D professionals now use AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. But here's the problem: most are doing it without structure, leading to hallucinations, generic outputs, and work that drifts from the brief. Studies even show performance can drop by up to 23% when people misuse AI.
The issue isn't the technology—it's how we're using it. Dr. Philippa Hardman developed FRAME™, a five-step method that captures AI's strengths (speed, creativity, pattern recognition) while managing its weaknesses (guessing, generic content, wandering outputs). The steps: Find evidence-based research first, constRain AI with clear context, Assemble your constraints, Model and refine through iteration, then Expand into reusable systems.
👉 The bottom line:Don't just prompt and hope. Build structured workflows that ground AI in research, maintain your quality control at every step, and turn AI into a reliable tool instead of a risky shortcut. Your expertise guides the process—AI just speeds it up.
When students struggle, it's usually not about ability—it's about bad instructional design.
Most teaching accidentally works best for students who need it least. Strong learners can work through confusing examples and fix their own mistakes. Meanwhile, struggling students get left behind—not because they can't learn, but because poor instruction makes learning impossible. The solution isn't making work easier. It's designing better examples from the start. Show clear boundaries: what something is versus what it isn't. Control your variables so students learn the right pattern. Build basic skills before trying complex ones. Think of it like building a bridge. If it only holds weight for people who can already jump halfway across, the engineering failed—not the users.
👉 The bottom line:If students mislearn, the fault is in the design, not the learner. That's not just good pedagogy—it's a profoundly equitable way to think about education.
As AI tools become more powerful, L&D professionals aren't becoming obsolete—we're becoming directors.
The technology can generate content at lightning speed, but it can't replace the human skills that matter most: knowing what your learners actually need, understanding the nuances of your organization's culture, and making judgment calls about what works and what doesn't.
Think of AI as your production crew. It can handle the heavy lifting, but you're still calling the shots. You decide the vision, set the tone, and make sure everything serves your learners—not just the algorithm.
👉 The bottom line: AI is a powerful tool in your kit, but your expertise, empathy, and strategic thinking are irreplaceable. Use the technology to amplify your impact, not to automate yourself out of the equation.
This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
What L&D Should (& Shouldn't) Be Doing With AI
Donald Taylor and Egle Vinauskaitė's 'AI in L&D' report shows AI is mainly used for content creation and learning design, but L&D consultant Heidi Kirby argues that this content focus is a mistake, urging L&D to look beyond mere generation for more impactful applications.
This book is for everyone tired of watching marketers effortlessly grab attention while we're over here begging people to care about compliance training.
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