Matthew Richter talks about his love for self-determination theory, his upcoming book, and what you can expect from his session as the opening keynote of the conference.

Kim Ellis shares why L&D Free Spirits have chosen to sponsor not just the Evidence-Informed practice Conference but all three IDTX events happening in 2026. She also shares a little bit about what the L&D Free Spirits community is up to and why she founded it in the first place.

If you haven't already booked your tickets for IDTX Evidence-Informed practice, now is the time as there are less than 30 tickets remaining.
Remember, you can use code CPDW25 for 25% off your ticket, making it just £75 to attend.
https://idtx.co.uk/events/eipc

Creators & Guests

• Tom McDowall - Host
• Matthew Richter - Guest
• Kim Ellis - Guest

Heidi shares FUSE, her framework for useful learning evaluation, built to scale from small assets to big programmes, and designed to slot into whatever design process you already use.

Helen explores the conditions for real world capability, grounded in psychology and behavioural science, and how to design learning that helps people practise, own decisions, and apply skills when it matters.

IDTX Online is free to attend, and sessions will be available as recordings afterwards. If you have not already, head over to the IDTX website to book your ticket. If you would like to join us in person in May for the Evidence Informed Practice Conference, tickets are available but strictly limited.

Creators & Guests

• Tom McDowall - Host
• Dr. Heidi Kirby - Guest
• Helen Routledge - Guest

• FUSE: A framework for useful learning evaluation (Dr Heidi Kirby)
  Day 1, 18 February, 6:00pm UK time (closing keynote)
• What makes skills stick: The conditions for real world capability (Helen Routledge)
  Day 2, 19 February, 11:00am UK time

What we talk about

• Why many evaluation frameworks struggle to reflect today’s workplace reality, including scale, modern working patterns, and the pressure to demonstrate organisational impact
• What Heidi wanted to fix with FUSE, including avoiding implied hierarchy, and making evaluation workable for both small and large learning work
• The common blockers to demonstrating impact, including the myth that L&D has to be the sole cause of results, and the temptation to look for one measurement approach that fits everything
• The conditions that help skills transfer into real work, and why practice, ownership, and safe failure matter
• How lessons from psychology and the games world can translate into practical design choices, even if you are not building simulations or VR

One thing to try after listening

1. For your next project, plan how you will measure beyond completions and “did they like it”, and aim to triangulate evidence rather than hunting for a single perfect metric
2. Look for one way to create a safer practice moment, where people make choices and learn from the consequences, instead of only being told what to do

Tickets, recordings, and what’s next

IDTX Online (18 and 19 February) is free to attend, and sessions will also be available as recordings afterwards. Book your ticket on the IDTX website.

If you would like to join us in person on 29 May in Birmingham for the Evidence Informed Practice Conference, tickets are £100 and limited to 100 attendees, so now is the time to book. You can also find details on the Virtual Summit on the IDTX site.

Sponsors and supporters

This week’s IDTX Online event is sponsored by L&D Free Spirits and supported by The CPD Group and Learning News.

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:34) - Episode overview and IDTX Online reminder
• (01:20) - Heidi Kirby interview begins
• (09:37) - Helen Routledge interview begins
• (15:00) - Closing and event reminders

Linnéa is speaking to anyone in L&D who’s tired of waiting for “a seat at the table”, and wants to operate as a strategic learning partner, focused on business outcomes, not just training requests.

Melanie is tackling one of the biggest gaps in workplace learning: transfer. Her session uses a practical card game to surface common transfer barriers, create shared language with stakeholders, and plan for application before a programme even rolls out.

Whether you’re joining live or catching the recordings afterwards, it’s worth listening to what they have to say. IDTX Online is free to attend, so if you haven’t already, head over to the IDTX website and book your ticket. If you’d like to join us in person in May for the Evidence Informed Practice Conference, tickets are available but strictly limited.

Creators & Guests

• Tom McDowall - Host
• Linnéa Sjögren - Guest
• Melanie Martinelli - Guest

1. Stop waiting for permission. Become a strategic learning partner (Linnéa Sjögren)
   Day 2, 19 February, 12:00pm UK time

2. Let’s play cards and make transfer a hot topic, exploring the 12 levers of learning transfer (Melanie Martinelli)
   Day 2, 19 February, 5:30pm UK time

What we talk about

• Why “waiting for a seat at the table” has kept L&D stuck for years, and what it looks like to move anyway
• Shifting from “deliver the training we were asked for” to “solve for the business outcome”, including saying no to training when it isn’t the answer
• Designing for reality as it is, messy, complex, and full of constraints, rather than oversimplifying problems into neat course shaped boxes
• Why transfer should never be an afterthought, and how to surface barriers before you launch a programme
• Using a card game to make transfer discussions safer, more concrete, and easier to run with stakeholders who would otherwise push back

One thing to try after listening

• Linnéa: stop oversimplifying. Assume the problem is complicated, and let your approach reflect that.
• Melanie: take a first step into transfer by learning what the 12 levers of transfer effectiveness are, then use them as a lens to spot blind spots and prioritise what to improve.

Tickets and what’s next

IDTX Online (18 and 19 February) is free to attend, and sessions will be available as recordings afterwards. Book your ticket on the IDTX website.

If you’d like to join us in person on 29 May for the Evidence Informed Practice Conference in Birmingham, tickets are available but strictly limited. Learn more on the website.

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:35) - Episode overview and IDTX Online reminder
• (01:20) - Linnéa interview begins
• (11:07) - Melanie interview begins
• (19:09) - Closing and event reminders

Clea shares what it really looks like to select and ship a customer education LMS fast, including what she would do differently next time.

Sheetal shares how she designed employee relations learning that still takes the topic seriously, without drowning people in policy, and what it takes to build organisational trust to deliver learning in a more creative way.

IDTX Online is free to attend, and every session will also be recorded and shared for free afterwards. If you have not already, head over to the IDTX website to book your ticket. If you would like to join us in person in May for the Evidence-Informed Practice Conference, tickets are available but strictly limited.

Creators & Guests

• Tom McDowall - Host
• Clea Mahoney - Guest
• Sheetal Revis - Guest

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:35) - Episode overview and ticket reminder
• (01:09) - Clea interview begins
• (12:54) - Sheetal interview begins
• (21:06) - Closing and event reminders

Bianca and Mike share how to borrow useful marketing principles without turning your job into “content marketer plus everything else”, starting with content strategy, then moving into SURE content principles: Simple, Useful, Resonant, and Easy to skim.

Christy breaks down a simple way to improve assessment quality quickly: one question mini scenarios that help people practise real decisions, even if your reality is still “slides plus a knowledge check”.

To book tickets and see upcoming events, head over to the IDTX website.

What this episode is about

Making L&D content more compelling and more useful, and making assessments better at testing judgment, not just recall.

What you’ll take away

• A simple way to think about content strategy before you build anything new
• How the SURE approach helps you create content people will actually read and use
• Why “easy to skim” is not dumbing down, it’s designing for real humans
• How mini scenarios can upgrade assessments without needing new tools or approvals

Creators & Guests

• Bianca Baumann - Guest
• Christy Tucker - Guest
• Mike Taylor - Guest
• Tom McDowall - Host

Sessions mentioned (IDTX Online 2026)

• Mini is More: Create One Question Scenarios for Better Assessment (Christy Tucker)
  19 February, 2:45pm UK time
• From Zero to Hero: Marketing Techniques for Captivating L&D Content (Bianca Bowman and Mike Taylor)
  19 February, 4:35pm UK time

One thing to try after listening
Pick one existing learning asset or module and do just one upgrade:

• Run it through SURE (Simple, Useful, Resonant, Easy to skim), or
• Turn one knowledge check into a mini scenario that asks for a decision, then give feedback that teaches

Tickets

IDTX Online runs 18–19 February and is free to attend.
For tickets and event details, head over to the IDTX website.

• (00:00) - Intro and what the podcast is about
• (00:34) - Episode overview and IDTX Online reminder
• (01:10) - Bianca and Mike, content strategy and SURE
• (11:56) - Christy Tucker, mini scenarios for assessment

Learning and development is a noisy space. There’s no shortage of confident opinions, shiny tools, or bold claims about what will “fix” learning at work. The reality, as most practitioners know, is that improving practice is usually slower, messier, and far more interesting than the headlines suggest.

This episode introduces the IDTX Podcast, a short, practical show for people working in learning and development, instructional design, and related roles who care about doing the work well, not just talking about it.

Hosted by Tom McDowall, the podcast focuses on clear thinking, evidence informed practice, and real world experience. Episodes are deliberately concise, usually around twenty to twenty five minutes, and feature two focused conversations with practitioners, researchers, speakers, and contributors from across the IDTX community and the wider L&D industry.

In this introductory episode, Tom explains:

• What the IDTX Podcast is and who it’s for
• Why the focus is on practical insight rather than hype or sales narratives
• How each episode is structured, and what listeners can expect
• How the podcast connects to the three IDTX events running this year

Those events include:

• IDTX Online, a virtual conference inFebruary, pay what you want
• The Evidence Informed Practice Conference, an in-person, one-day event in Birmingham on 29 May, focused on the science of learning in practice
• The IDTX Virtual Summit, a one-day online event on 22 October, reflecting on the technologies and practices that shaped the year

Alongside these events, the IDTX Podcast will also feature conversations with speakers, sponsors, and other industry experts, as well as regular webinars throughout the year. While sponsors support the work, IDTX remains a sales-free environment and is not run as a money-making enterprise.

Above all else, this podcast exists to give you short, focused, highly practical insights that help you improve your practice as an L&D professional.

Useful Links

• Tickets for all IDTX events are available now
• IDTX Online and the IDTX Virtual Summit are pay-what-you-like
• The Evidence Informed Practise Conference is £100 including VAT, covering the venue, catering, and the full day experience

If you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast or one of the IDTX events, you’re welcome to get in touch.