February may be the shortest month but we’ve had plenty of great content showing up on TrainingZone! We’re glad to see so many people starting up blogs, posting their thoughts and starting conversations. In this roundup, we want to show off what we think are some of the best bits from the last month.
But first, a little housekeeping. A few people have mentioned that they’re seeing the odd spam comment or strange post on the site. We’ve recently updated our report function to allow you to alert us to things that don’t belong on the site, which should make handling any inappropriate content a breeze. If you have any questions about reporting, just let us know and we’ll be in touch to help.
At the end of January, delegates from all areas of the training sector got together to attend Learning Technologies 2013, including a number of TrainingZone members. Optimus Sourcing shared their generally-positive impressions of the event, highlighting what they felt were the stand out seminars and the key takeaways from each. Coverage from cmooney also picked out the good, the bad and the not-so-pretty (there were a few bugbears but not enough to downgrade it all the way to ugly!) from the day. Overall, people enjoyed their time and felt it was worthwhile but, as comments from blakehenegan and SteveRobson showed, there’s always room for improvement next year.
We love seeing creative approaches to business solutions and blakeyj’s recommendations for using right-brain coaching techniques in helping to develop left-brain business ideas showed us a new way to consider when delivering training. It requires a bit of courage and some hard work but the results can definitely pay off.
One of February’s most popular posts (and an Editor’s Pick) demonstrated the importance of compassion in a demanding workplace and how, sometimes, a simple reminder is all that’s needed to keep teams working well. Thanks to Video Arts for sharing the video that provides so much food for thought.
Looking to Any Answers, this month we wanted to highlight those that received a lot of attention and led to some great responses. Demonstrating how every link in the chain is important was on neverchair’s mind and raised some handy examples to share. Ideas for customer service training for bus drivers came from a wide range of sources in response to MarkyB’s query, including some award-winning examples from the TZ team. Finally, the issue of time management raised its head in a question from Andrew Paine – this time with an aim to help both those who plan ahead and those who try to take everything in their stride. A tricky situation but some great advice handed out from TZ members.
Finally, thanks to everyone who has been voting in our site polls. We hope you’ve been enjoying and gaining as much from the results as we have. The latest vote showed that a whopping 96% of you use coaching techniques in your training, – something we’re keen to explore and hear more about from you. What techniques do you feel are essential to getting the message across when delivering your training?
