Breaking Out of Our Boxes
Recent political events have led to a plethora of politically inspired posts on Facebook, which at least makes a change from photographs of food or posts about the weather. I’ve seen insightful quotes, heated exchanges about the merits of Brexit or Trump’s Travel ban and news of an apparent terror attack in Sweden that even […]
Soft skills: everybody wants them but no-one really knows what they are!
Emma Sue Prince is the founder of Unimenta, who are running a FREE webinar this Friday on the topic "Soft Skills: what are they and why do we need them?" This webinar emphasises that soft skills can only be built from the inside and that developing and practising a set of competences that we all possess will […]
How Age Affects Employee Training
When it comes down to employee training there is no “one-size-fits-all.” You have to adopt your training to fit the various learning styles, personalities and even age. First let’s be clear, an employer shouldn’t have any reservations about hiring older employees, as there are many advantages with them. Additionally, cumulative research has shown that there […]
10 influencing tactics at work (or at home!)
Influencing is: ‘the ability to affect someone’s beliefs or actions’ – Oxford English Dictionary In work and pleasure, we need to get others to do things for us willingly at times, or persuade them of a point of view, without losing respect or be seen as aggressive. Some top 10 influencing tactics…. 1. Broken Record Broken Record […]
5 Tips on Dealing with CEO Stress
Everyone likes to admire the freedom which comes with being a businessman, but that freedom comes with different restrictions and responsibilities. Dale Carnegie talked about how a person may start a business in a field in which he enjoys, only to lose that enjoyment as he becomes overwhelmed by his responsibilities. With that enjoyment replaced […]
“I WAS a “Linkedin Lurker”…
"Hello, I'm Ade. I WAS a "Linkedin Lurker". It's Social Media group therapy night here in Shropshire! I've just stood up. My fellow trainers and I are discussing the pros and cons of digital marketing for our training companies. The results are in… Carol enjoys Twitter. It's simple and straightforward. She Tweets like a crazed canary with moments […]
Who are you under your suit?
Steve Jobs once said that intuition is more powerful than intellect. As it turns out, he was onto something big. And the scientific community backs him up. It seems we’ve been giving intuition far too little respect. “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” – Jonas Salk The importance of slowing down […]
Rethinking training for empathy-driven innovation
You know the scenario. There’s a group of you sitting around chatting, mulling over the next steps for the organisation and out of that discussion an idea starts to grow. Maybe someone’s pointed to a problem or a discussion they have had with another member of the team or a customer, or maybe something on […]
Is Learning Obsolete?
When I began working in learning and development many years ago, we didn’t call it learning and development, we called it training. But the word training became unfashionable – it suggested something directive, something given, rather than received. Over time, Training Managers became Learning and Development Managers. But did anything really change? I’ve been wondering […]
“Theft is theft. So sack ’em, right?”
Theft is a severe offence and is normally viewed as gross misconduct at work. The outcome seems pretty clear (after the obligatory disciplinary procedure). Take the the theft of a laptop from the office. It’s high value; the evidence is caught on CCTV; there’s reliable evidence to suggest that the employee sold the laptop at […]
Confidence when meeting customers!
Hi All I've recently been asked to design a half day workshop for staff moving into a new building. They are used to interviewing customers on some quite sensitive issues in very formal meeting rooms. Now they will be required to complete these interviews in "meeting pods" in a large open plan office. Their manager is […]
How to break down persistent silos and connect your organisation – is L&D helping or hindering?
A recent study of over 500 HR managers showed that silo working continues to hold organisations back and that our approach to talent development is perpetuating, rather than solving, the issue. Silos are nothing new, and an understanding of their impact on organisational performance is widely recognised. So why do we continue to experience them, […]
Life’s Little Instruction Book
Many years ago I happened upon a lovely gem of a book that was written by a dad when his son, Adam, went off to college. Called “Life’s Little Instruction Book“, it contains such memorable, honest and accurate advice as: “never turn down a breath mint when offered” and “before taking a long trip, fill […]
Don’t Buy Fiat Drivers a Christmas Present
I loved last week’s excellent Managers’ Library Insight from Frances, ‘A Different Perspective’, and it inspired me to revisit a human trait that disappoints and fascinates me in almost equal measure. I’m talking (again) of Confirmation Bias, that strange phenomenon that goes some way to explaining stereotypes, prejudice and ill feeling, and which, importantly, also […]
Organisational design: here’s the dirty little secret
Whilst a plethora of books have been written about the right way to link the strategy of an organization to the work that people do and how they are organized to do it, our latest research suggests that the reality on the ground can be very different indeed. When interviewing for our research, we were often […]
The Road to Innovation, or bust
One of the great things about Christmas is the reappearance on the TV of all those old films which you first enjoyed as a child. The Sound of Music, The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery, Monty Carlo or Bust; whatever your personal favourites, the chances are that a bit of channel hopping will bring at […]
2017 – The year of the Next Generation
What’s it going to take to lead in 2017? Will Brexit and the change in US President bring fire fighting to the fore or will all those foretellers of doom and gloom be proved wrong once again as 2017 turns out to be a year of unprecedented growth? No I’m not a fortune teller either […]
Mindfulness for leaders: new research shows sustained benefit
Just 10 minutes of mindfulness practice a day can have a significant impact on a leader’s ability to be more resilient, collaborative and equipped to lead in complex times. This is one of the key findings of the world’s first wait-list control* research study to look specifically at whether mindfulness can help leaders become more […]
Training introductions – like “creeping death”?!
My partner is a great advocate for training! "I hate that bit at the start where we all have to say who we are and what we do." I can empathise. I'm self-employed and not a huge fan of networking meetings where each entrepreneur stands up and does their sixty-second "pitch". It's like "creeping death" around the […]
Performance Review / Appraisal
I'm working on a project at present within the public sector. The project is to review the current appraisal process with a view to recommending a new model. I'm keen to know what similar organisations are currnetly doing, whether you've decided to scrap the annual appraisal process in favour of a continuous development / monitoring […]
