8 Responses

1. Team Name

   Hi Khush

   Learning and Development Team is great, don't change it. There is a saying "It does what it says on the tin"

   No need to be "fun" really, that's probably the last thing you should be aiming to be.

2. Thanks

   Hi Steve

   I agree as well, but the department here has been 'dead' for a while and we need to create a buzz in the office to revive it. So one way of doing this was to re-brand ourselves and perhaps create a small motto or an acronym of sorts…

    

3. Re branding

   Hello again

   If your department is "dead" maybe it needs more than a new name? Back to basics to see why you are there, how you are perceived, what you do well and not so well, what you want to be etc etc

   Do you have a budget? If so a complete re brand might be a good idea and not as expensive as you think. Kube are very good at this sort of thing http://kube.co.uk/portfolio/

   If you change the name you pretty much have to change everything else so call in the professionals!

    

    

4. a rose by another other name…

   I have been in teams called:

   The Training Team (for a call centre environment)

   Learning and Development

   Organisation, Leadership and Behavioural Development (OLBD)

   Leadership & Behavioural Development

   and currently…

   Organisation and People Development (OPD)

    

   We have an internal motto within the team which is "Is it worth getting out of bed for?" and we apply that to our work. For example, we picture ourselves as our clients all snug in their bed on a cold and horrible morning and think is what we are designing going to make them glad that they got out of bed to attend and take part. 

    

    

   As per what Steve said, it might be worth looking at what values the team hold and how this are aligned to the work that you deliver and what you intend to deliver moving forwards with this new name. Dead is quite a strong word to use especially for an L&D function and if you are only changing the name does that mean you are also changing the behaviours of the people within the team? 

5. ideas

   I agree with all  of the previous points and in aprticular that a re-brand, re-name will not necessarily make people feel any different about you.

   What we did on a previous team was to change the way we interacted with the operation.  So, rather than be locked away in our own office, we tsrated sitting with teams, we got invited to team meetings and started adding value by helping to run events and generally being more visible and integrated.

   Having said that we did have a motto; unlocking potential that went along with a new focus on consulting with the business and a personal charter called; growing, thriving and sharing which was about growing skills, helping people to thrive and sharing skills and knowledge with others.

   It did require the change in approach though, that was the main thing. 

6. Awesome!

   Thank you so very much for all the help! You've given me a lot of things to think about and I'm gonna go back and see what else I can do..

   I've come back to this site and community after a very long time, and I'm so glad that I did!!

   Khushboo 🙂

    

7. What is it you actually ‘do’ then?

   I agree that your name says exactly what you are, but if it’s become a bit stale, then it might be worth adding a tag line to say what you do and why.  My team at the moment is engaged in a very intense leadership development programme so our unofficial tag line has become “Creating Giants” based on the idea that a great leader makes his / her team feel ’10 feet tall’.  Another team in my company has “Setting New Standards” and so on.  I think your starting point is to look at what is the real purpose of your team, what are you trying to achieve and then think of something aspirational around that.  Word of caution though, make it too ‘whizz bang’ and you’ll look pretty foolish if then you don’t deliver on that.

8. Great

   Thanks Jane 🙂 

   I love 'Creating Giants'