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.
Workshop Design
Practical guides on workshop design, facilitation, and learning experience design. From session structure to engagement psychology - everything you need to run sessions that work.
I've spent over a decade designing workshops, training programs, and learning experiences for companies like EY, Publicis, WeTransfer and The New York Times. These posts cover everything I've learned about what actually makes people learn - from session design and facilitation to the psychology of engagement.
Whether you're running your first workshop or your five-hundredth, there's something here for you.
Start Here
The essential reads on workshop design
Best of...
I struggle horribly as a student. So I rebuilt the class. Here's how.
I had a horrible experience in a class recently. So I tried to figure out why - and what I could do to remedy it.
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 Guides
How I do Morning Pages
The theme of my most recent newsletter was New Wine, Old Oak
[https://howardgray.substack.com/p/adventures-49-new-wine-old-oak];
encouraging readers
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 part 1 of
Learning, Education & Growth
Why the future of learning is in the middle
Become a workshop creator and magical things can happen
The view was spectacular and the light poured in.
In a
How-To Guides
Step-by-step playbooks for better workshops
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.
A.I.
Pascal's Wager for AI (and why you should bet on Scenario 2)
Dan Hockenmaier just cut through all the AI noise with a simple framework. Here's why his "scenario 2" bet makes perfect sense.
A.I.
The 80-hour reality check: What actually happens when you build with AI
Everyone's talking about AI magic, but what's the messy reality behind actually building something? Here's my 6-week journey through format fails, bad vibes coding, and the breakthrough moments that made it all worth it.
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.
Resources
Tools and templates
Learning, Education & Growth
Worksheets and Worksheets
Dealing with the tension of using physical and digital assets in learning environments
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.
Storytelling
Live at CMX Summit 2021
Here's the recording of the workshop I ran on storytelling at CMX Summit
[https://cmxhub.com/summit/] a
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
Want more on workshop design?
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All Posts
Everything on workshop and learning design
Future Of Work
Harvard's varsity blues - and a new MBA
In the hallowed halls of Harvard University, an unexpected tremor is shaking the foundations. But forget presidential resignations for a
Learning Innovation
6 ways to reimagine a conference panel session
A few weeks ago I spoke at a conference on how emerging tech - especially AI - will impact live
Learning Innovation
From 100 Days to Lifelong Skills: How to Spark Engagement in Online Learning
10 Lessons from Replit’s “100 Days of Code" and Beyond
Learning Innovation
Four flashes of insight: a catalyst for my teaching work
And why it's worth telling those people who impacted you most.
Learning Innovation
How to fix the conference Q&A segment
Live events are back. Conferences, summits, conventions, festivals. All hail human interactions! Fresh ideas! A variety of salted snacks!
But
Learning Innovation
Did you lose them? Or confuse them?
Lose. Confuse. These are common problems when we’re sharing our work and ideas. It’s worth being aware of
Best of...
I struggle horribly as a student. So I rebuilt the class. Here's how.
I had a horrible experience in a class recently. So I tried to figure out why - and what I could do to remedy it.
Learning Innovation
Why conference Q&A segments kill the experience
Live events are back. Conferences, summits, conventions, festivals. All hail human interactions! Fresh ideas! A variety of salted snacks!
But
Freelancing
Teaching. Denied.
I recently applied to do some adjunct teaching. I like teaching. I’ve done a lot of it, and have
Battle Scars
Don't read your Amazon reviews
Today I received feedback from a free workshop session I ran a few months ago. I wasn’t expecting to
Portfolio Career
The keynote speaking grapevine
Notes on format innovation, how to get an agent, and experience design
A lot of people want to do more
Future Of Work
Baby got Bach
Our baby’s not sleeping much at the moment. The only thing that seems to help is
classical music: Brahm’
5 baby steps
5 steps for brain development that can have a Titanic impact
Storytelling
Live at CMX Summit 2021
Here's the recording of the workshop I ran on storytelling at CMX Summit
[https://cmxhub.com/summit/] a
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’
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
Learning Innovation
Thoughts on How and Why to start a Cohort Based Course in 2021
A couple of weeks ago I attended a session on app-du-jour Clubhouse. It was
entitled “How and Why to start
Future Of Work
“This call may be recorded for quality & training purposes”
For a long time, this kind of automation was incredibly expensive and complex to
set up.
Then, for most companies,