Winners and Losers
On a recent holiday, I found myself watching some organised games for a group of young children. After each game, one family would be proudly congratulating their victorious child while thirty others were consoling disappointed and often tearful losers. It made me think about the messages we give around motivation and reward. As trainers, we […]
Are filler words really that bad in life?
Sheryl Sandberg once told an employee that she sounded “stupid” when she said ‘um’ a lot during a presentation. The employee, Kim Scott, took this candid remark to heart and used it as the basis for a whole new company. But what about the catalyst for this seismic change, Scott’s use of the filler word […]
Graduate recruits – trainees or the finished article?
Last week, the Association for Graduate recruiters (AGR) released their annual development survey. As reported in school and university bashing newspapers the main focus of the report was, apparently, about how young people joining the workforce in graduate programmes lack team working, problem-solving and other so-called soft-skills when they start work. Employers are, if media […]
Conflict management: Are competing priorities affecting your health?
Everyone can recognise that familiar tug of war inside us; go out or stay in and catch up on work, make a fresh dinner for the kids or finish catching up on e-mails; work late or go to the gym? These are common everyday dilemmas we all face but have you ever stopped to consider […]
5 tips to help leaders develop skills to manage international teams
Every individual deserves to work for a great leader. That’s easy enough to say, but how real is it? Consider this: one in two candidates applying for a management position is lacking leadership skills, according to a survey of 200 HR directors by Robert Half UK. That’s just looking at talent outside of an organisation. […]
Bring Trusted Advisor – Activities
Hi all, I’m looking for some suggestions or ideas for activities or exercises around being a ‘trusted advisor’ in a client/relationship servicing context. Thank you for your suggestions. Hi all,I’m looking for some suggestions or ideas for activities or exercises around being a ‘trusted advisor’ in a client/relationship servicing context.Thank you for your suggestions.
Corporate obsolescence, emotional agility and never changing your mind
Give yourself a well-earned break and take five to catch up on some highlights of this week’s L&D news and opinion. Let us know what you think of the articles we’ve shared, and tell us what you’ve enjoyed reading too! Learning – Learning should be global, but not necessarily digital, say L&D leaders (People Management) – As […]
4 strategic advantages of HR analytics for L&D
HR analytics is the new HRM gold. To put it differently: basing decisions on valuable insights from ‘big data’ has been on the rise in larger organizations for years. Within HR, and more specifically within Learning & Development, there are still numerous possibilities for development. How to use HR analytics to your strategic advantage as […]
The Department Game
I was almost stuck for ideas of what to write about this week, but luckily two suppliers came to my aid and inspired me: 1. Our bank of 17 years, who I discovered last month were charging new customers a flat fee about 70% less than what we were paying, this week refused to accept […]
Rewriting wellbeing: A creative addition to your wellbeing strategy
The latest estimates from the HSE show that cases of work related stress have significantly increased by 224,000 since last year. The cause cited? workload tight deadlines poor management The statistics make grim reading. More than ever, creating the optimum conditions for wellbeing, an environment for employees to flourish rather than flounder, is a critical […]
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 far up your list of priorities are you putting yourself?
I have recently been conducting research for my next book about stress. It’s certainly a fascinating topic and I have been involved in lots of interviews, with an eclectic mix of people, attempting to establish what tips people into a state of distress. Of course we are all unique, and like snowflakes everyone is different. […]
Unconscious Bias training activities
Hello, Can anyone help me in sharing any activities that demonstrate unconscious bias – I remember an activity with a plane from a long time ago – but can not remember this! Hello,Can anyone help me in sharing any activities that demonstrate unconscious bias – I remember an activity with a plane from a long […]
Redundancy recovery: how to get back on track
Redundancy is something many of us will have to deal with during our careers, and it's never a nice experience when it does happen – no surprises there. But what may raise a few eyebrows is just how many people would choose to keep news of their redundancy to themselves. Almost half of those who […]
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 […]
21st century skills: 5 steps to better development
Not too long ago, a focus on soft skills in academia was met with a serious amount of scepticism. By now however, ‘21st century skills’ has developed itself to a ubiquitous buzzword and the sense that students need more than just academic intellectual ability is growing. But how to prime them for success in this […]
Influencing- it’s all in the preparation
We have been working with a national organisation developing staff's influencing skills. Demands on their services are set to increase significantly in this decade to over 1 million service users. This places significant demands on the organisation and their ability to provide a first class service. Influencing has been identified by the charity’s leadership team […]
“I deeply value the opportunity to spend time with people talking about what is meaningful to them.”
We're always curious to hear how our members and contributors tackle the challenges that the ever-changing world of L&D throws at them. We've got a wealth of experience and knowledge across the site, and what better way to showcase the diversity of our community than to get them to walk us through an average day? […]
Harnessing the power of youthful imagination
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle allegedly said – "Give me a child until the age of seven and I will show you the man". This quote probably was based on the assumption that by the age of seven, education would have prepared the child for adulthood. Whether or not this is the case, what is clear […]
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 […]
