Think Clearly or Fail Quietly: IDTX Tackles a Cognitive Crisis
A cognitive neuroscientist and a physician researcher join the IDTX: Evidence Informed Practice speaker lineup to address what happens when the people designing training can no longer think straight.
IDTX: Evidence Informed Practice is pleased to announce two further speakers for its inaugural conference on 29th May 2026 in Birmingham.
Sara L. Farwell, PhD, and Maciej D. Zatonski, MD, PhD. Together they will lead one of the day's practically focused sessions, "On the Job Thinking: How to Critically Think Through the Evidence at Work,".
Sara L. Farwell is a cognitive neuroscientist and certified nutrition and physical fitness coach, whose work centres on the mind-body axis and how physical health, energy, and recovery underpin sustainable performance.
Maciej D. Zatonski is a physician, former consultant surgeon, researcher, author, and health and executive leadership coach, specialising in cognitive performance, decision-making, and resilience under pressure. Between them, they bring a level of scientific grounding to the topic of professional thinking that the L&D industry rarely gets to engage with directly.
Their session takes aim at a problem that will resonate with most of us. Practitioners and leaders alike are operating under a growing weight of information, competing priorities, and "evidence-based" solutions that are rarely as rigorous as they claim to be. The result is weakened independent thinking, rising burnout, and a growing credibility gap when it comes to explaining decisions to senior stakeholders. Farwell and Zatonski argue that clear thinking is not a soft skill or a wellbeing topic; it is the core professional competency on which everything else depends.
Participants will leave the session with:
- A specific cognitive tool for maintaining independent thinking under pressure.
- A practical method for reducing cognitive overload in learning decisions.
- A reframing of professional wellbeing not as resilience but as thinking quality.
They will also come away better equipped to articulate what they do and why to management and boards.
This session is one of 8 on the day's programme, spanning motivation and self-determination theory, critical thinking, deliberate practice, evidence-based learning models, learner autonomy, and much more.
The full speaker lineup for IDTX 2026 includes Sukhvinder Pabial, Amy Brann, Sara L. Farwell, PhD, Maciej D. Zatonski, MD, PhD, Kurt Ewald Lindley, Elena Marie Ivanushkina, Joseph Devlin, Laura Watkin, alongside keynote speaker Matthew Richter, President of the Thiagi Group.
Tickets are available now at https://idtx.co.uk/events/eipc
Places are strictly limited and early booking is strongly advised.
IDTX: Evidence Informed Practice is accredited for CPD hours by The CPD Group, making it a valuable day for any professional maintaining an industry certification.
The event is proudly sponsored by Evolve, L&D Free Spirits, iSpring Solutions, and Manageable.