What is good customer service anyway?

At the end of last year, I was booked on a flight from Goa to Mumbai. Two hours before the flight, I received a text message from the airline saying the flight was cancelled due to bad weather. And that was it. You might assume that this was a budget operator, but no, this was from […]
Five Ways To Increase Your Mental Wellbeing…

In the modern always-on-world, where we are expected to be contactable 24/7, have a successful professional and personal life, as well as lead and inspire our teams, it is no wonder that our everyday mental resilience is often tested. So how do we identify if we are heading towards a tipping point where our resilience […]
Ulrich Boser: The 10 commandments of ‘learning to learn’

TrainingZone reports on the key takeaways from bestselling author and educational journalist Ulrich Boser’s opening address on day two of Learning Technologies 2018, which took place in London in February 2018. In day two’s keynote, Ulrich Boser explored how people really learn, arguing that ‘a lot of the conventional wisdom on learning is wrong’. Both in […]
Lessons from NASA: do you understand the ‘success trap?’

Success begets success, as the saying goes, but it can also ironically set the stage for avoidable mistakes and failures. Worse, greater success strengthens the influences that create this risk. This is true for an organization as it achieves more and more impressive wins, and it is just as true for each of us individually as we […]
How to remove the glass ceiling

The corporate glass ceiling is an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a corporation. It is an invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen, but cannot be reached. We hear and read about the desire and need to smash it to allow advancement. Smashing and broken glass […]
Training is a Serious Business – Isn’t It?

People’s reactions to words tell us a lot about their personal comfort zones and how they are changing. Nowadays, when discussing training, the word PowerPoint is as likely to provoke a grimace as a positive reaction, and almost everyone likes ‘participation’. (This wasn’t always the case – we went out on a limb in 2003 […]
Transparency, openness and outcome

No-one is an island runs the saying and in business that concept is certainly true. Interconnectedness abounds and not simply in complex worldwide supply chains. We see echoes of the same ideas across business approaches and strategies, across training methodologies and customer focus. Take for example the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) approach to conduct culture. […]
8 winning tactics for creating gold medal teamwork

This article was written by Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, authors of ”The Team Formula”. The Olympics are now in our rear view mirror. This is a good time to review and learn from the teamwork that goes into making an Olympian successful. Team GB had magnificent success at the Olympics. That kind of success […]
5 steps to building a winning team

In my last article I described five different team types including the Winning Team. The Winning Team is the one that gets exceptional results. Results which benefit the organisation(s) and clients they serve. (And they get results without exhausting themselves. That’s an important distinction as many teams get great results but at significant personal cost). These teams pay equal […]
Mental health training for line managers: useful online resources

Looking to raise your awareness of what resources are out there when it comes to mental health training for line managers? We’ve curated them from around the web, from different organisations, so you can browse them in one place. 1. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England Line Managers’ ResourceLink: PDFOverview: Starting with recruitment and promoting […]
Mindfulness: A New Year’s Resolution

If mindfulness is headlining your list of New Year’s Resolutions this year, here are seven ways to begin your practice effectively, so it is more than a #januaryfantasy and keeps you chill all the way through Summer and beyond! 1 – Begin Intentionally Mindfulness is going to take some of your time and will require perseverance before […]
Six top tips on how to be more emotionally intelligent at work

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others and it can play a critical role in determining our happiness, success, motivation and productivity at work and home. To reap the benefits of Emotional Intelligence training or make significant and meaningful changes to develop our EI, we need […]
Are people holding back digital transformation?

Digital transformation. Businesses can barely escape the phrase. And, in principle, it seems so simple. In a digital age, when you can find smart technology in almost every person’s pocket, it makes sense that they should want businesses and brands to upgrade how they do things. Businesses do so by investing in and developing technology. […]
Flowers for Algernon

I’ve just read Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. Occasionally, you read a book that you know will remain with you forever, and this is one. For those who don’t know it, and I didn’t, it’s a moving, thought provoking and clever novel written through the eyes of someone with learning disabilities who has the […]
How to unleash your inner charisma

It’s a common misconception that charisma is the luck of the draw. Many people believe that you are born either with or without it and that you can’t teach it. There are people who claim to teach charisma and will focus on tips on body language, eye contact, voice tonality, appearance and so on. While […]
Infographic: David Kolb: Training in circles

Learning never stops. It is a circular process that is better explained to us by education scientist David Kolb. Together with Ron Fry, he constructed a theory that has proved its relevance since the 70s and still helps in developing (online) training programs. See why you should train in circles in this infographic! Learning never […]
5 P’s of Vocal Impact in Presentations

When delivering a presentation, voice projection is essential. The 5 P’s is a way of maximising all the vocal aspects. P ower – Too loud a voice can be annoying particularly for those at the front of the audience – Too quiet can say that the Presenter lacks confidence and others at […]
8 ways to improve extrinsic training motivation

Imagine you have put a nice online training in place and you have thought of everything: the program meets your employees’ needs, it’s relevant to their work and it maps their growth. Everything seems to be in order and it kicks off! But then… After a few weeks, it appears that most employees haven’t even […]
5 simple steps to inspiring new employee behaviour

Employee behaviour is key to business success. A lacklustre workforce will negatively impact the bottom line, but the workforce’s inefficiencies could be attributed to shifts in the skills and behaviours that are required to help make a profitable business. It isn’t enough to simply demonstrate the workplace skills and behaviours required to turn things around […]
The funny thing about innovation: an interview with Tim Reid, Writer, Car Share

Tim Reid, comedy writer of Car Share, recently spoke at the Charity Learning Consortium conference. When it comes to comedy, he says, there’s a serious point, as laughter can unlock creativity and lead to big, bold ideas. Jamie Lawrence, Editor, HRZone: People want to believe they are innovative. But where do organisations and individuals go wrong? […]