9 Responses

1. Ideas

   how about an online forum with dicussion pages for each of the topics so people could share best practice – maybe offer a weekly prize for best post of the week

   Social networking in learning is becoming bigger and bigger – LinkedIn is expanding and companies are starting to include more information on the site

   Live chat sessions may be another option but could be constrained by different working hours.

   There are alot of example on the CIPD website and their magazine People Management if you are a member?

   H

2. people alchemy do this…..

   Paul Matthews of peoplealchemy.co.uk sends out a weekly management tip… this almost always results in a takeup spike in people logging in to the bigger resource that the tip is drawn from/alludes to.  This is similar to your idea and it shows that it can work.

   If you can create a culture of individually-motivated development (perhaps linked to your succession planning and or performance appraisal processes), this would help to get a "pull" from the population rather than you doing all the pushing.

   Rus

3. Delivery methods

   I have two ideas which were inspired by my own position of supporting 4500 people in EMEA and APAC. The first was to set up a network of part time business trainers. These are people with day jobs who are enthusiastic about training and who have committed to providing one hour of soft skills training per month. They have each received an intensive two day trainer training course and receive regular coaching, observation and feedback from each other as they train. One hour may not seem a lot but with a network of 160 people this is a significant edition. The training takes place during regular team meetings so there is no additional costs for travelling etc. The training is delivered via short modules which are between 45 minutes abd an hour. The modules were written for us and the supplier makes regular amendments based on feedback from the trainers. some of the changes have included the use of different images in certain countries which has made the training much more senstivie to cultural variances. 

   The other idea was to set up and use video conferencing to enable me to delivery more face to face training from Head office to offices aorund the world. I was used to running virtual lessons from working in a college some years ago and this method is very close to being with the attendees in person and excllent for skills training.

   If you want more details please let me know. 

   Cheers.

   Nick     

          

4. 3 things

   Hi Haggie formerly Fraggie

   I too work with Trainers all over the world and can thoroghly recommend Communities of Practice

   http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

   You could manage the main group under the heading "Training" then smaller sub groups could be set up regionally or under subject areas with local CoP managers reporting back to you..

   I would also recommend setting up a Mentoring scheme whereby each reagion has nominated Mentors who spend some quality time with individuals or small groups of staff…you could base this on the NVQ system whereby you have a Candidate / Assessor relationship and a Verifyer / Asessor relationship…this will give structure to your activities.

   Moble learning is also an option but can become expensive with so many staff in Worldwide locations…

   http://www.skill-pill.com/

   We seem to have similar jobs so please do get in touch, and anyne else sililar if you would like to start network meetings?

   Good luck

    

   Steve

    

    

    

    

5. Thank you!

   Thanks for the suggestions guys.

   Using technology in creative ways is definitely the way forward.  I think the Communities of Practice is a great idea  – we could easily (ish) allocate the groups, and people can utilise how they want – we would naturally add information that could be useful.

   One Business head is really keen on the coaching/ mentoring method, and is happy for us to coach/train (worry about methods later!) a pilot group who could then run workshops; getting buy in from the rest of the business will be a challenge though.  One size does not, of course fit all, but a fair few would would be good!hapo

   I spent some time researching ‘informal’ or ‘non-formal’ learning, and I am really analysing the benefits of face to face ‘classroom’ training’. In our business we are especially bad at the ‘follow up’ (training is seen as a miracle cure – you attend a time management course, you suddenly have 3 more hrs everyday!) I completely agree, that training/learning has to be employee led.  I would ‘prefer’ (perhaps a strong word, as I have not thought it through entirely!) that instead of having a multi million pound training budget that we throw away (poorly researched consultants, 3 day leadership courses in one central location that will never be followed or spoken of again), the money is ‘written off’, when an employee spends an hour coaching, or giving feedback etc.I realise there is a whole debate here, as have seen some incredibly good classroom training, but I have also died through powerpoint…

   …. Rant over! 

   I am now looking at creating an online system, with a diagnostic tool; e.g

   I have a poor performing team member. (click)

   q1. Has this team member previously been a high performer? if no, go to q2, if yes, go to q3

   q2. Have you given feedback to the employee regarding their performance? If no go q4, if yes go to q5

   q3. Can you identify whether it is their Attitude (A), Competence (C) or Effort (E) that is causing the change in performance. If A go to q6,  If B go to q7, If C go to q8

    

   It may even take the form of a ‘flow diagram’  – I will use an IT consultant to build the onlione tool.

   This may take a week or two (I am project managing, so am dedicated so no ‘day to day’ business to distract me 🙂 )

   Happy to share once I have finished!!

   Just in case you are wondering, I am in Singapore (I am not really at my computer at 2am  🙂 )

   Thanks again, Haggie

6. Haggie or Fraggie

   Hi Haggie Fraggie

    

   Most of this is available of the shelf from Skill Pill who have a tie in with Pearson Education

    

   http://www.skill-pill.com/news.php?id=44

7. Master Trainers

   I think that has already been expressed in some ways, but one global company that I write training for use a ‘cascade’ system whereby each country/plant nominates someone who has training skills and would be able to take a few days each month to deliver live events.

   These people are then provided with very robust trainer training, to become ‘Master Trainers’. They spend a lot of time practising the material they will be delivering. The material than gets translated into a whole range of different languages and the local businesses then take control of it, with guidance from central HR. 

   I know that my client company has had a lot of success with this over the years.

   Sheridan Webb

   Keystone Development

8. Cameo

   You might want to take a look at Cameo:

   http://www.cameo.net/

   This online tool sends out simple questions to people via e-mail, with automated feedback when the person answers.

   I’ve seen the system demoed and it’s simple and effective.

   Their partner in the UK is Omniplex.

   From what I’ve read in this thread, this might save you a lot of development time.

   Tim

9. Interactive forum maybe using social media could work well.

   Hi, definitely wouldn’t do the email once a month – so many people wont open it and there is little interactive ability. I think the forum idea is a great one where people can build a community. We have one on LinkedIn with 11,000 members and it is a fantastic way of developing thought provoking discussions that people really engage and learn from.

   …………………………………………………………………………………………

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