What you’re worth: analysis of L&D day rates
Frances Ferguson polled fellow community members on the day rates they charge. Here she shares her findings. After 18 years as a manager, working in-house and as an L&D consultant in the UK and abroad, setting up my own business is a lot of fun but requires a lot of hard work and research. A […]
How Can I Motivate My Learners?
Quite often, I talk about the importance of making training sessions hands-on and interactive to utilise the various learning styles of the student, whether they be visual, audio or kinaesthetic or a mix of same, especially if the session is a lengthy one, running longer than one hour. Generally, after about an hour, participants tend […]
Trainer’s tip: How to ask questions that push the conversation forward
Terri Griffith provides some tips on opening up discussion through asking the right questions. Nilofer Merchant, author of The New How, gave a guest lecture in my Managing Technology and Innovation class a few weeks ago. Her talk, about asking good questions, inspired me to think about how to ask questions that push the conversation […]
The role of the trainer as team leader
Considering the trainer both as trainer and team leader of the learning team gives useful insights into delivering real learning that has genuine value, says Stephen Walker. Have you ever thought about what happens at a training event? Clearly it is a work event. People come together to go through a process to achieve a […]
How to get people to listen to your podcast
Wakey wakey! Hannah McNamara gives us the essentials on getting optimum engagement from your podcast. Whether you’re creating a podcast as part of a mobile learning programme or to showcase what you can do as a trainer, it’s wasted effort if no one listens to it. Just as in live training sessions there are certain […]
Trainer’s Tip: A successful 2011 training strategy
This month’s Trainer’s Tip comes from Cegos’s Francis Marshall, who offers 10 top tips for creating a successful training strategy for 2011. As economic conditions remain tough and training budgets tight, L&D strategies for 2011 must be flexible and effective. In a recent poll of UK companies both small and large, we found that while […]
Trainer’s tip: Time management
Do you ever get snowed under with work? Does your to-do list need a makeover? Mark Walsh gives us his 15 top tips to successful time management. It seems like no-one has enough time these days, in fact I don’t know one person who has less to do than five years ago. Of course, unless […]
Trainer’s tip: How to manage your firm’s dysfunctional star
Do you have a maverick in your midst in the office? Is there someone you work with who refuses to toe the line but whose ability to get the results you need is undeniable? Heather Townsend has a tip or two for you… Every firm has one. You know, the person whose potential/rain-making skills/client relationship […]
Trainer’s tip: Networking
This month’s trainer’s tip follows on from our feature last week on why it’s important for HR to network, as Heather Townsend offers further advice on how to get the most of your networking experience. If you sell a product or a service to business, joining a networking group can be a fantastic way to […]
11 top tips for a successful brainstorm
Paul Sloane gives us his dos and don’ts to get the most out of your ideation sessions. There is a right way and a wrong way to run a brainstorm or ideation meeting. A little preparation pays dividends. It is very important to separate the two phases of the meeting. The first part of the […]
Trainers: How to use the World Cup to inspire creativity
Andy Green offers top tips on how you can use the World Cup as a great opportunity to inspire your creativity. The forthcoming World Cup is an outstanding opportunity to boost your creativity and come up with great new ideas according to a leading creative thinktank. The feast of football can be harnessed as a […]
Free Resource: Training course management tool
Access this free online system for organising, managing and reporting on your courses from MyPlato.co.uk. Thanks to Paul Bennett at Progress Learning. Plato is a free online system – standalone or company-wide. Schedule courses and add delegates with the click of a mouse then let the joining instructions send themselves. The life of the training […]
Trainers’ tips: ‘Alternative’ team building exercises
A recent post which caused a stir in the community has also thrown up some great resources. Jane requested ideas for an alternative team building day, and here is what the community said… The question: "I have been asked to source a team building day, but not the kind that has you lighting fires in […]
Trainers’ Tips: Measuring success
Daviesr4 asked about how best to measure success of a training session for the delegates themselves and was looking for tips on things to try, things to avoid. Here’s what the community said. Observe – don’t test Both Paul Kearns and Nkellingley suggest setting baselines prior to training and then observe the differences in the […]
Seasonal solutions: Training exercises with a festive focus
With Christmas almost upon us, we have trawled the Any Answers forum for the community pick of the best seasonal training exercises. The Christmas Panto ‘Annah’ suggested a fun panto exercise she has used on a project management course as a team building activity: “My aunt had the whole family around one Boxing Day and […]
Trainers’ Tips: Training handouts
Earlier this month Wendy posted in our Any Answers forum asking about the likely take-up of training handouts – do you find they are well received? Is is all a lot of effort to go to when half of them remain left in the training room? We got some great responses from the community… Sue […]
Selling yourself with NLP
Using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as a communication tool can offer trainers a useful insight. Christine Knott gives her tips on using the discipline to sell more effectively. Identifying the ‘preferred’ language The selected words in sentence construction will give a good indication of someone’s ‘preferred’ language. Some of us use visual words such as: ‘see,’ […]
A guide to navigating the digital copyright maze
Avoid getting into legal bother with Martin Addison’s handy tips on what you can and cannot do with digital resources and content. Can you copy a photograph from someone else’s website and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation? Is it okay to link to a YouTube video and show it to an audience of delegates? […]
Creating the engaged learner
Nigel Paine gives his top tips for creating better learner engagment. I spoke to a Colleague last week about work in general. ‘Hey, not too bad, all things considered’ he said, ‘apart from all this rubbish that I blame you for!’ The ‘rubbish’ he was talking about was, in fact, the development plan that he […]
Most popular Trainer’s Tip ever
Taking the top spot in our most popular Trainer’s Tips is Lindsay Campbell’s voice projection exercise. It scooped over 28,458 reads and prompted lots of great discussion. There are two key areas to focus on for voice projection: breathing technique and resonators (the ‘speakers’ in your head). I have one technique for each. Breathing technique […]
