The seminars at HRD 2002 deal with the fundamental issues in the industry. Dr Stephen Covey, Alan Briskin and Dr Aric Sigman will be taking new perspectives on the social impact of technological change, values at work, and physical communication.
Dr Covey will be speaking on the global economy, high speed technological change and increasing social problems create a host of new and complex challenges. He will submit that there are only three constants in this world – change, principles and choice: "We can’t control change but we can learn to understand it, to work with it and to influence it according to choices based on timeless principles. When we learn to make choices -- to respond to and leverage change based on changeless natural laws, we create positive and sustainable results."
He argues that in today's complex world because technology and the globalisation of markets have given people access to so much more information, they need common criteria by which they make sense out of that information and a common purpose to work towards. People need to know what's important and how to make the right choices - without this there will only be chaos and struggle.
Masterclass Tuesday 16th April 11.00-12.15
Alan Briskin (Principal, Alan Briskin and Associates) will be suggesting that engaging with values is now a must: "A new movement has begun - a longing felt deep inside the corporate world to find work that appeals to people's spiritual side. But too many workplaces ignore this need and lose the qualities of the soul that are most critical for effective work in a new economy."
Briskin, continues, "There are few things more powerful than engaging in work that matters, linking joy, meaning, commitment, and the bottom line. Employers have long assumed that stability, salary and promotion are what made people tick at work, but this is not the case. Work must be better aligned to the whole being, if not, individuals feel demotivated, less able to face the challenges of a changing workplace, and are more likely to seek work elsewhere. Both the employer and employee benefit when unique contributions are recognised and people feel valued."
In a seminar on Bringing your Soul to Work, Briskin will explore how this shift has changed the relationship between employer and employee from a tyrannical relationship to one of shared responsibility. He believes that there is an urgent need for organisations to move from being organisations that resemble machines, to ones that are organic and soulful, especially since work has become more central to our lives.
Masterclass Wednesday 17th April 9.15-10.30
Tapping into people's intentions, motives and values will also be addressed when Dr Aric Sigman, Consultant Psychologist will share his expertise in Making Sense of Body Language. He says, "Non-verbal communication is an invaluable business tool in today's workplace. In areas such as recruitment, assessing body language can provide a further dimension in trying to predict the best people for certain jobs. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Whether we like it or not, we form stereotypes, make generalisations and value judgments based upon impressions and intuition. All the things political correctness has told us to suppress and deny in favour of emotional correctness in the workplace. Reading people is an essential process we all use subconsciously to check someone's integrity and motives and character."
According to Sigman women are the sniffer dogs of body language and are better at reading the signals than men, which is why they have become so successful in areas such as communications and marketing. He believes that the non-verbal cues people use are a far more accurate indicator of a situation than the words that pass between them.
Masterclass Tuesday 16th April 9.15-10.30
HRD 2002, CIPD Annual Learning, Training and Development Conference and Exhibition, 16-18 April 2002, Olympia, London
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