360 Feedback v Positive Psychology: Are they compatible?

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A couple of weeks ago I was taken by surprise by a comment from an associate; we met for coffee and were chatting through what is current for each of us at the moment. My colleague is a coach and talent consultant, and works with many leading companies, as I do. He told me that […]

How to get your coaching culture correct

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Organisations that build a successful coaching culture will help drive high performance throughout the business, says Graham Scrivener  It may not come as too much of a surprise to know that in a recent global survey, conducted by Forum EMEA in association with The Sales Management Association, coaching was rated as having the greatest impact […]

How to use profiling tools successfully

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Profiling tools are rightly viewed with scepticism in some quarters, but Mike Cooney tells us how to use them effectively in conjunction with other methods. There are few activities in the learning and development world that have a more consistent and broad appeal than personality profiling questionnaires or psychometric tools.  The profiles of which reveal […]

Failure: A training manager’s perspective

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Training managers are increasingly faced with a need to justify L&D initiatives or hold their own against critical scrutiny from the higher levels. Kerry Bellamy questions, shares insight and invites debate around some possible failings of the training manager function. In a climate of reduced resources, increased targets and failing frontlines, there is little tolerance […]

How to change habitual behaviour by remodelling your brain

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Amy Brann offers insights on how to alter negative behavioural habits which can impact the morale, engagement and trust of the people you work with. As professionals, do we fully appreciate how tiny differences in our behaviour can have significant effects on others? Identifying and controlling behavioural habits can be crucial to harnessing the profound […]

Practical people engagement – an excerpt

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Written by Patrick Mayfield, Practical People Engagement will provide change leaders with a rich reference of practices and techniques on how to influence and lead people to new solutions. Here, we exclusively feature a short passage from it. How to waste £billions on projects What really happens if you ignore relationships on a project? What […]

Getting Past the Gatekeeper Training Activity

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I’m rewriting training curriculum for “new hire” sales representatives in a call center environment.  I’m looking for engaging activities for the class to practice this skill.  Ideas? I’m rewriting training curriculum for “new hire” sales representatives in a call center environment.  I’m looking for engaging activities for the class to practice this skill.  Ideas?

Group game activity sites

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Hi there, Where do you go to find the best, cutting edge, interactive group games/ activities? Hi there,Where do you go to find the best, cutting edge, interactive group games/ activities?

Tips for Handling High Staff Turnover

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Generally, a high staff turnover is a sign that all is not well within a business. The UK average employee turnover rate is approximately 15%, but some industries by their very nature tend to rely on casual labour, temporary workers, or simply employees who have no intention of remaining with the firm for very long. […]

L&D industry insight: Matt Pierce

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This time around, our insight comes from Techsmith’s Matt Pierce, who was also April’s podcast guest. Here we publish the unabridged version of the recent interview that takes in training technology, learner engagement and more besides. L&D industry insight: Matt Pierce by Trainingzone on Mixcloud This time around, our insight comes from Techsmith’s Matt Pierce, […]

Five suggestions for making training more memorable

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Jason Silberman offers the community some pointers to make sure that session sticks in the memory. Training officers have to always think of how best to overcome the challenge of having to train and retrain their workers, and yet still have to answer repeat questions later. A key question is how to make the things […]

Seven top tips to build rapport with your audience

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Julie Kertesz offers seven top tips to ensure you build great rapport with your audiences – whatever the occasion. We’ve all sat through them – those presentations where the speaker just doesn’t connect with the audience, leaving you feeling detached from the experience, that your time has been wasted, and more than likely, frustrated as […]

The importance of reflection

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As training professionals we know that reflection is a good thing and we encourage our learners to do it. Needless to say, we also use reflection as a development tool for ourselves; right? Well, maybe not as much as we should. Jo Ayoubi investigates. Why is reflection so important? The science behind reflection is compelling. We know […]

Why focus on engaging teams?

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Now's the time to re-energise your teams for a more productive workforce, says Vernon Bryce. Of the many adverts using the latest 'must have' messages like 'you need', 'have you heard', 'the essentials of' and, 'new to our current ongoing portfolio of e-lessons', the words 'team', also 'engagement'  must feature strongly in any of the […]

The art of learning: Why engagement is everything

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I’ll give you an hour of my time, but will I give you an hour of my engagement? There’s a difference between the two and Julian Stodd wants to explore what it is. Sitting in the room or taking the elearning is not enough; we need learners to be engaged. But what does engagement mean? […]

Challenging Coaching pt5: How to hold accountability in coaching

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Continuing their series on challenging coaching Ian Day and John Blakey, co-authors of ‘Challenging Coaching: Going beyond traditional coaching to face the FACTS’, take a look at how to hold the right people accountable. In our book ‘Challenging Coaching’ we introduce the FACTS coaching model to help coaches and leaders adopt a more challenging style […]

HRD 2012: Vox pops

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Last week we made the short trip to Olympia for HRD 2012. This year's vox pops question: 'What's your top tip for engaging an increasingly diverse workforce?' bits://v/cwfsLgNI-JeYudoL6 For further info about HRD click here Last week we made the short trip to Olympia for HRD 2012. This year's vox pops question: 'What's your top […]

Getting in touch

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Keen-eyed users may have noticed a recent addition to the navigation bar at the top and bottom of every page. While they’ve existed on the site in one form or another, we’ve brought the guidelines covering various aspects of posting and commenting together into one clear page to help with any potential queries you might […]

Make the most of getting out of the office

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David Thomas of Spy Games shares some tips on how to make the most of getting out of the office…   In light of the recent financial limitations, now is a good time to reappraise the value of team building and training activities. Too often, companies invest in rewards and development when times are good. […]

To engage or not to engage? Your choice

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Forget management buy-in, what about employee buy-in? Cris Beswick talks us through ‘Hintrapreneurship’. I’d like to issue a challenge to HR practitioners; actively start encouraging ‘intrapreneurship’. There’s no suggestion here that this isn’t already being done but if it isn’t please start and if it is, please turn up the volume. It’s a term which […]