How can first-time managers become good leaders?
Whilst there are many factors which can influence the success of your team, a great manager is a key factor when it comes to keeping people motivated and on the road to success, either as individuals, a team, or an organization. An effective manager can make all the difference between a successful team and one […]
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 […]
An Alien Challenge and Teamwork
Glasstap will be 17 in April and it’s nearly 14 years since we launched Trainers’ Library. I often wonder where the time goes! If you were to ask me what one thing has contributed most to our longevity and success, I’d say teamwork. And what makes our team so successful is its diversity. From our […]
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 […]
Leading in uncertain times
2017: a time of certainty or uncertainty; a time in which we lurched from one supposition to another or a time in which previous speculations clarified into fact? As January draws to a close either, or both, could be true. And the problem is that even when uncertainties crystallise, the very act of confirmation won’t […]
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 […]
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 […]
8 L&D trends you can’t ignore
Like any other field, Learning & Development has been influenced a lot by the omnipresence of smartphones nowadays. But there are more factors that are growing in importance, according to research by Deloitte. What are the most important L&D trends at this moment? Deloitte interviewed hundreds of managers, who identified several trends coming from the […]
Don’t use PowerPoint: Use Jelly Babies!
Let’s bust a myth. You don’t need slides in order to run a training session. You don’t need PowerPoint in order to create a presentation. You don’t need bulletpoints to illustrate a speech. Training sessions, like any other presentation or speech (and they really are all variants of the same thing) need to be engaging, […]
Do sweets help evaluate training?
One wet Friday I delivered an interpersonal skills training course. The manager who hired me popped into the training room at 5pm whilst I was clearing down and said: “Bryan, good job done. I’ve just had a quick word with some of the participants and they were over the moon about the training. They really enjoyed it and loved […]
3 steps for aligning training with business goals
The concept is obvious, really. In order to be most effective, employee onboarding programs should directly connect and contribute to one or more of a company’s larger business objectives. Intuitively, we all understand that the more everyone’s work is oriented toward the same set of goals, the more efficient, profitable, and cohesive the organization as […]
Curveballs
The nights are drawing in, the clocks have gone back; the heating has gone on. Venturing into town the shops are, unsubtly, reminding me that Christmas is just around the corner and with it comes the realisation that we will soon say goodbye to one year and hello to another. As I ponder on the […]
Reflections on a satire
I like a dystopian satire as much as the next person, so when Netflix announced they had given a home to professional pessimist Charlie Brooker's brilliant series Black Mirror I was delighted. Cut to: months later and the thing was actually being released. In their customary have-them-all-at-once fashion all six episodes came out on the […]
Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed – book review
This is an excellent, highly readable, book with much relevance for those engaged in management learning. The key message is that ‘Black Box Thinkers’ are not afraid to face up to their mistakes. In fact, they see failure as the very best way to learn. The book begins with a tragic story of how a 37 […]
AI – It’s a question of perspective
Watch out, watch out, the robots are coming! They’re going to take our jobs, take over our homes, and then eliminate us as being an unnecessary disorder in an ordered world. Yes you may have read the book or seen the film (or at least a variant on it) but should we really be worried […]
Why Do Coaching?
If you’re a provider of leadership and management training as we are, you’ll no doubt recommend coaching as a key ingredient in the recipe for successful leaders and managers. But what can you say if someone asks the king of the open questions: “Why?” This article will spell out some of the amazing benefits of […]
The choice every trainer has to make…
Despite the economic crisis being largely behind us, many trainers are still feeling its impact. New technologies are creating a momentum that offers opportunities for the innovating trainer, while the real expert has to consciously position himself. A non-profiled trainer who keeps doing the same thing, has a problem. Similar agencies are in trouble too, or […]
Digital skills policy must engage most excluded
I welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Karen Bradley, that, in an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, all adults in the UK who need basic digital skills training will receive it. It’s great to see digital skills recognised alongside English and maths as some of the […]
Refocusing the Leadership Development conversation
Pick up any professional journal and you’ll see that the subject of human capital metrics is on the organisational agenda. With leadership development programmes competing with other organisational projects for financial resources, a natural consequence is the need to demonstrate the return on investment from such talent development. It would be naïve to suggest that […]
Augmented Reality Takes Gamification to New Level
Since the early 2000s, “gamification” has been a favorite buzzword of the corporate training world. The idea is simple: Transform unexciting, routine activities into engaging and memorable experiences by adding game elements, such as competition, points, rewards, and interactive challenges that engage learners’ problem-solving skills. Many companies, including big names like Chrysler, Nike, and Coca-Cola […]
