Howard Gray
Teacher who builds things.
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Designing Learning Experiences

Designing Learning Experiences

For educators, facilitators, and L&D folks who want things to actually stick.

I've run 300+ sessions - workshops, keynotes, courses, offsites - and I've become slightly obsessed with why some experiences land while others just fill time. These pieces are about the craft of making learning actually work.

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The essential reads on learning design

A panel of mixing-desk dials, one purple dial turned all the way up
Learning Innovation

a16z, Scott Galloway and Paths to Power

A venture capital firm opens a school for fifty. A professor defends college for millions. Two American answers to what school is for, and they're closer than they look.
Learning Innovation

The Inside Intro

How to get buy-in during any workshop or live session
Learning Innovation

Three types of tough crowd

"Tough crowd." You've heard someone say this after a gig, a presentation, a workshop. But there&
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Creative Business

Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have

Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it. Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Learning, Education & Growth

Worksheets and Worksheets

Dealing with the tension of using physical and digital assets in learning environments
How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual
Learning, Education & Growth

How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual

It’s 1985. Nintendo is either about to save the gaming industry or disappear. Everything depends on getting one thing

How-To Guides

Practical playbooks for designing learning

Creative Business

How to run a retrospective that actually works

Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
Creative Business

Two ways to define 'Good Enough'

Ever found yourself endlessly tweaking a project, chasing that elusive perfection? Yeah, me too. But here's a thought.
Future Of Work

Soft Skills are dead. Let’s talk Character Skills.

Forget buzzwords—how do we build environments that make developing Character skills exciting, impactful, and irresistible?
Learning Innovation

Why Learning Beats Education (and Why It Matters to You)

Education mandates; learning invites. Discover the key differences and why flipping education into learning unlocks serious growth and fun.
Goodbye Google Slides. Hello, Figma
Creative Business

Goodbye Google Slides. Hello, Figma

Death by Powerpoint? Perhaps ‘Death of Powerpoint’ is more apt. Because Figma just launched a slide design tool, and it’
Future Of Work

8 questions to get better at hiring

How to get better at hiring? A few simple questions can go a long way… Hiring is one of the

Resources

Tools and templates for learning designers

Learning Innovation

Always do a run-through. No exceptions.

24 hours before our big workshop, we spotted a problem that could've killed the room. One case study had to go. Here's why the final check saved us from disaster.
8 shifts in the future of learning & education
Learning Innovation

8 shifts in the future of learning & education

Over the past few weeks (ok, months) I’ve been working on a big article on how fitness and learning
18 elements of the Zoom revolution (remix)
Resources

18 elements of the Zoom revolution (remix)

In the latest instalment of his ‘Akimbo’ podcast, Seth Godin switched it up. On the surface, nothing was different. As
“What do you mean, ‘a workshop’?”
Learning Innovation

“What do you mean, ‘a workshop’?”

For centuries the word ‘workshop’ simply referred to a place where goods were manufactured or repaired. To begin with, these

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Everything on learning design and education

A panel of mixing-desk dials, one purple dial turned all the way up
Learning Innovation

a16z, Scott Galloway and Paths to Power

A venture capital firm opens a school for fifty. A professor defends college for millions. Two American answers to what school is for, and they're closer than they look.
Learning Innovation

The Inside Intro

How to get buy-in during any workshop or live session
Learning Innovation

Three types of tough crowd

"Tough crowd." You've heard someone say this after a gig, a presentation, a workshop. But there&
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Creative Business

Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have

Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it. Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Learning, Education & Growth

Worksheets and Worksheets

Dealing with the tension of using physical and digital assets in learning environments
How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual
Learning, Education & Growth

How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual

It’s 1985. Nintendo is either about to save the gaming industry or disappear. Everything depends on getting one thing
The hidden layer in Spotify's CTO's take on AI vs. machine learning
Learning, Education & Growth

The hidden layer in Spotify's CTO's take on AI vs. machine learning

Gustav Söderström's insight reveals why creative professionals need to master the feedback loops AI can't touch.
The case for all-age everything: lessons from PBS Kids
Learning Innovation

The case for all-age everything: lessons from PBS Kids

I'm shopping for my 4-year-old and keep thinking "I wish they made that in Dad
Music

What Brian Eno knows about learning (that we've forgotten)

The ambient music pioneer's new theory about art as "adult play" reveals why case studies don't stick - and what does.
Yale's Bad Bunny course reveals the future of learning
Learning Innovation

Yale's Bad Bunny course reveals the future of learning

Pop culture becomes the doorway, not the destination. When you're vibing to the rhythm but absorbing something deeper.
Two Pilates studios - and the great capability divide
Future Of Work

Two Pilates studios - and the great capability divide

One teaches craft, one delivers product. In an AI-driven world, the gap between human expertise and scalable systems is widening fast.
Fitness and Education: from IRL to URL
Best of...

Fitness and Education: from IRL to URL

8 lessons for the new era of learning Give your social media timelines a cursory scroll and it probably won’
How to create an interactive workshop in Zoom
Resources

How to create an interactive workshop in Zoom

A step-by-step guide to setting up and running an interactive 90-minute workshop in Zoom. Note: This is
The Educator in Residence
Learning, Education & Growth

The Educator in Residence

Why a different type of EIR could be your firm’s new secret weapon In 1989, the Hollywood talent agency
6 lessons from going live with Oprah
Stage Left

6 lessons from going live with Oprah

I was sitting at my computer willing the words to come. I’m creating a workbook/guide for independent professionals
My Podcast Gear: recording, editing, and publishing
How-To Guides

My Podcast Gear: recording, editing, and publishing

I’ve learned a lot from creating a podcast series [https://www.howardgray.net/podcast/]: from asking good questions and
Lowercase skills
Portfolio Career

Lowercase skills

You may be familiar with concepts like T-shaped or I-shaped people to help simplify the way we think
Stage Left

7 lessons from the story of CAA

A few months ago, James Andrew Miller released his new book telling the tale of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one