The Most Dangerous Coaching Question
The entire self-help industry is based on a simple question: “What do you want?” With this one question, coaches and life transformation gurus conjure up your wildest dreams, innermost desires and best laid plans. And what you don’t realise is that this one question is precisely what prevents you from achieving those dreams. In fact, […]
Raising Awareness – with Granny’s Mixing Bowl!
We’ve recently returned from driving around beautiful France. One of the highlights of our holiday was the two days we spent with friends in Bozel, high in the French Alps. Our friends live in a lovely home that they’ve remodelled using reclaimed and re-purposed materials, and it is utterly charming. A wall formed from old pallets […]
Three workplace trends employers need to action
The workplace has changed a lot over the last decade. Low unemployment rates and millennials entering the workforce has seen large culture shifts within offices and organisations in a short space of time. Trends around the way workers want to work have also changed. Flexibility and work-life-balance are huge buzzwords and key selling criteria when […]
The psychology of change: how companies should approach transformation
The key to successfully implementing change in an organisation is psychological insight – understanding your people and what they need in order to adapt to it. No matter where you work or what you do, everyone is talking about the future — anticipating change and how it impacts our lives. Human beings have, of course, […]
How to create participant buzz around your learning
The long-term effectiveness of any training programme relies on the participants’ enthusiasm and personal investment in it – so how can you inspire them to feel this? Delegates on learning programmes often feel like passengers – or even prisoners – rather than participants. If they’ve been pushed to take a training programme by someone else […]
Digital transformation: how to help your people navigate through uncharted territory
Digital transformation is not all about technology. It is easy to forget, but a critical element to consider as your company’s tech evolves is how to support your people as you take them along the journey with you… In 2016 it was predicted that global investment in digital transformation initiatives would reach $2.2 trillion by 2019. […]
Developing female leaders: where are we going wrong?
Women represent half the talent pool, so why the struggle to develop them? Two of the biggest concerns/issues for organisations and CEOs are the lack of leadership talent available and transitioning more women into senior roles to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Despite this, there is still a significant gap of women moving […]
Digital transformation: taking your first steps doesn’t have to be scary
The digital transformation discussion is dominating today’s business world – yet many organisations remain daunted by the thought of constant change. For those working in such a company, here’s how to avoid panic when taking your first steps on the transformation journey. Even though digital transformation has conceptually been around for almost 30 years, it is […]
Overcoming the training transfer problem by adopting a performance-centric mindset
Training transfer – the extent to which learning is applied back in the workplace – is the cause of many a sleepless night among L&D teams. But is measuring the transfer of learning the wrong thing to be worrying about when a much greater challenge – of better integrating learning within work – lies before us? Training transfer is big […]
Power to the people: creating a learning culture to reach every learner
The rise of the machines is upon us – technology is already changing the way we do business. Companies where employees aren’t adequately trained for this new working environment will soon find themselves left behind. We’re in a time of widespread disruption across the workforce. The development and rapid adoption of technologies such as automation, the […]
Resilience in Uncertain Times
Among the interesting sessions at last week’s fantastic Discovery Day was one from Ann Pemberton on the topic of resilience, which gave us a brief overview of this fascinating topic from the perspective of nine specific areas, including Determination, Vision, Time, Mind and Body. At the end of her session, Ann gave us a questionnaire, […]
Dodging Real Learning
The funfair has arrived in town, an event that still gives me a fission of excitement every year. Which is odd, because I hate almost all fairground rides – mainly because I’m scared of heights and, in particular, terrified of falling from them. However, there is one ‘ride’ I love. (When the funfair made its […]
Should we be talking about a learning culture or a business improvement culture?
For L&D to truly have a transformative impact on learning culture, perhaps a shift in the language we use is needed. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m having a relaxed cuppa with a friend who also works in learning and development. We’re chatting about an upcoming gathering of fellow L&D professionals – the second meeting of […]
Learning culture: the wake up call we all need
Developing what Towards Maturity refer to as the ‘high-performance learning culture’ is a long way off for most organisations. How can learning professionals take those first steps towards meaningful change while continuing with their day-to-day responsibilities? I tried to argue in my recent book ‘Workplace Learning: How to Build a Culture of Continuous Employee Development’ […]
Learning culture: why evidence-based L&D is more successful
Communicating the impact of L&D is about gathering the right evidence, using it to connect with the C-suite and creating actionable insights. Sadly, very few organisations are getting this right. Only one in five organisations manage to create a high-performing learning culture, according to Towards Maturity’s latest market insight, and of those that do, only two […]
The Lady in the Boat
My partner and I recently spent two amazing weeks on holiday in North Germany and Denmark, where we got married. During our trip we met so many wonderful people, but one in particular had a lasting impact. We’d started our holiday with a short cruise to Hamburg from Southampton. We were lucky enough to be […]
From learning and development to performance and capability: making the shift
Improving business and individual performance isn’t just about training. It’s time for L&D professionals to provide more value and start thinking in terms of performance and capabilities development. Learning and development professionals around the world have become more ambitious and forward thinking in recent years, but many practitioners lack the necessary capabilities to drive growth […]
Having learning impact, not just showing it
According to early findings from the Learning Impact research study there are three things that are preventing organisations from reshaping their learning measurement strategy. Are any of these actions holding your business back? One of the most common questions we get from companies we advise is, “How can our learning function show impact?” But the […]
Case study: creating a brain-savvy learning strategy
In order to illustrate the benefits of implementing a ‘brain savvy’ learning strategy, this article will draw from my personal experience working with a client who did just this. The background One of our clients, who was in the process of making significant changes to their operating model, came to us because they saw an opportunity to […]
Learning strategy: should your learning programme really be tough?
Neuroscience has proven that our brain function is reduced when we’re under stress – so why are so many learning programmes designed to put participants under pressure? It’s time to rethink our approach if we want to get results. Start by reflecting on these questions and hold them in mind as you read on: Will […]
