The Learning Strategy Story – Introduction
Learning and development is a crucial part of medium to large organisations as there is a core belief that the most important resource in an organisation is the people. The aim of learning and development is to ensure people have the required skills and knowledge to do their jobs. This also ensures that if people […]
Evaluating sales training with Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method
If you've been involved in commissioning or delivering training programmes, then you will hopefully have thought about their evaluation. Has the training made a difference? Did the participants find it useful? Did they learn anything? What was the return on investment (ROI)? When we evaluate training solutions we have to do more than answer the […]
Talent does not exist
With the European Football Championship going on in France right now, we can see the most talented players Europe has to offer on the pitch. Just like football clubs, companies are also looking for exceptional talent to join their team. But is there actually such a thing as talent? Not according to Anders Ericsson. This […]
Coffee Briefing: Slack, machine learning and why we should think slower
We've spent another week (well, two – everyone needs a holiday) trawling the internet for the most interesting and thought-provoking articles we can find. Let us know what you've been reading recently, and tell us what you think of the pieces we've shared in the comment below. Pull up a chair, here are our picks for […]
Ignore managers at your peril! Your L&D strategy won’t work without them
Managers are a crucial link between the business and employees but how many organisations focus in on them when designing or deploying learning strategies? In this article Stephanie Morgan of Bray Leino Learning looks at how L&D can leverage the relationship with managers to develop more impactful interventions. If you're interested in getting to grips […]
Training duration: what’s the golden ratio?
I've read quite a lot around the subject of attention spans, and the lengths of time given can range from anything from 5 hours to 15 minutes! Have you found a certain amount of time before learners lose focus, and how do you deal with this – do you break sessions into manageable chunks, change […]
Growing business? Grow your people
As a leader, what are you doing to grow your people? No, we’re not talking here about sticking them out in a field and hoping that with the right soil and the right water they will suddenly become more proactive, more innovative or more engaged. Having said that, with the Glastonbury festival on at the time […]
Measuring the impact of training
Develop-meant Training Consultants has worked with The Rickter Company for a number of years. Manager Adrian Pitt talks about his relationship with the organisation and The Rickter Scale® assessment and appraisal tool. My association with “the brilliant blue board” goes back well over a decade. I’m never far from The Rickter Scale®! There’s a demonstration board in […]
Sales Planning Exercises
I am new to sales training and i am looking for training exercises for advanced sales planning, any help would be appreciated. Nicola I am new to sales training and i am looking for training exercises for advanced sales planning, any help would be appreciated.Nicola
Office designs to boost employee engagement
The look and feel of a workplace has a significant impact on an individual’s day and a company as a whole. While designs can (and indeed should) vary from office to office, some features are beneficial to any workplace. Lilli Hender, from workplace experts Office Genie, discusses the key office design elements every business should consider […]
Engaging Participants in Your Training Sessions = Better Mastery
Training sessions can be wonderfully effective, a total flop, or anything in between. The goal, of course, is that participants master the skills and/or concepts being presented, but for this to happen, presenters have to be mindful of their delivery. One of the biggest mistakes that presenters make is that they teach in the way […]
How to get the best value from apprenticeships
Employers increasingly view apprenticeships as a rich source of future talent; securing the right candidate gives an organisation young learners who they can nurture into keen and loyal staff, eager to learn new skills from day one. In fact, the value of an apprentice’s lifetime contribution to a company has been placed at £105,000 by researchers at […]
‘Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right’ – a review of ‘Clarity’ by Jamie Smart
“If a pond is clouded with mud, there’s nothing you can do to make the water clear. But when you allow the mud to settle, it will clear on its own, because clarity is the water’s natural state … Clarity is your mind’s natural state” The introduction to 'Clarity' by Jamie Smart tells me that it ‘is […]
Training and Development strategy for a member association
Hi all, I have taken over a new role in a trade association that represents its members in the automotive industry. Membership of our association is subscription based and as part of that membership this gives access to industry specific training, such as technical knowledge and compliance. Members themselves are small to medium businesses but […]
Sales Training – Looking for a provider to deliver Sales Training & Closing the Deal
I work for a multi-national recycling and asset management company. The business has identified that the sales team need further development specifically in closing a sale. They currently struggle in their ability to clearly articulate the business value proposition, the differentiators, in defending price points and in up-selling other services. I am looking for a provider to design and […]
Five minutes with Mike Leavy, Learning Technology Lead, Virgin Media
Mike Leavy is the Learning Technology Lead for Virgin Media. In this brief interview he talks about what type of employee he wants in the L&D function and how his team help the business identify capability gaps. Mike will be speaking at the CIPD L&D Show in London on May 11th and 12th. Jamie Lawrence, […]
Coffee Briefing: Offboarding, virtual reality & managing distractions
We're back after a long weekend, and so if you're feeling as groggy as we are, reading through a few interesting articles over a cup of coffee is exactly what you need. Here are some of the blogs, features and opinion pieces we've enjoyed in the past week – let us know what you think, […]
How Is Stress Affecting You?
It’s now the leading cause of workplace sickness and affects one in five of us. When will organisations realise that they or their people can no longer afford to ignore stress? In 2014/2015, stress accounted for 35% of all work related ill-health cases with 9.9million working days lost and with less than three out of five […]
Coffee Briefing: Open plan learning, webcams and the truth behind gamification
Another week has flown by, and we've been devouring as many blogs, articles, newsletters and assorted tidbits to make sure we can bring you some of the more interesting and useful posts out there. Here is this week's pick of L&D news, opinion and research – let us know what you think in the comments […]
There’s a link between assessments and performance
In a report on the use of assessments, the Aberdeen Consulting group in the US have found that there are correlations between organisations that perform well (in terms of performance and retention of staff) and who use assessments, and this includes 360 feedback, in a consistent way. One of the key drivers for using assessment […]
