sheridan@keystonedevelopment.co.uk
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Effective training doesn’t have to be boring!!

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I can say with confidence that the Johnson’s Apparelmaster Academy is a highly effective training programme. Not only did it win the Personnel Today award for Talent Management on 21st November 2018, but the feedback from delegates offers plenty of proof. When Keystone Development and Training Ltd had finished delivering our part of the Academy, I asked for feedback. here are just some of the things that people said: I am more efficient when dealing with problems. People now trust me to sort things out. This has given me so much confidence in my ability. I now feel able to step outside of my comfort zone. Because of the training, I was able to bring an angry and disruptive (but very influential) team member on board to implement a necessary change. My line manager has seen my confidence grow and now gives me more strategic work to do. I’ve been able to adapt my management style and achieve 180% of our target. I am now able to get my production team to work as a team – which is quite an achievement. And in terms of the style and content of the programme, I’m delighted that our brain-friendly approach to…

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How to Create an Award Winning Development Programme

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In L&D circles, the fashion is for agile learning; for bite-size sessions, or even micro-learning; for self-direction and curation. Surely no-one still attends workshops? Even worse, 18 month programmes? Well. Yes they do, and there’s a reason for it: They work. They work AS LONG AS the right people are on the programme in the first place, the programme is designed to take them on a development journey, AND those people are given high levels of support and challenge. I’m delighted to have played a supporting role in such a programme for the last 9 months – The award winning Academy at Johnson’s Apparelmaster. The Academy is multi-layered (internal) development programme that I’ve been supporting for the last 9 months. Here I am (on the right) with (L-R) Charlene Howard, Michela Deegan and Jan Fisher-Payne who each manage and deliver a specific stream. I have been supporting the largest group – the Intermediate level. Although my part has ended, the Academy is just half-way through. Twenty-Four people have been through 9 months of structured development, including self-directed learning, five 2-day workshops, telephone coaching and practical assignments. So far, the results have been pretty impressive. I’ve seen the majority of these…

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We’re Different

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Our family is different to most, in that we have no extended family within a 100 miles radius. This brings challenges as we both work – but all families have challenges. The kids are both in high school and we are firmly into the mum/dad taxi phase of parenting. Every evening, one of them has some activity to attend to… and when you factor in hubbies evening work commitments, my occasional nights away for work and my love of Zumba, our evenings are spoken for. This makes getting out for leisure quite a challenge: Lack of time, lack of babysitters. So we have to think creatively. The kids are old enough to be alone for a couple of hours if we time it right. So yesterday hubby and I went to the cinema in the morning. We have been known to go for a quick drink in the afternoon. OK – it’s not what MOST people do, but our circumstances aren’t the same as MOST people. We have to think around the issue. As I have to in my work: No two clients are the same. What’s simple for one is impossible for another. What’s normal for one is unusual…

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Digital Discrimination in Training

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Firstly, the irony that I’ve chosen to post this via video doesn’t escape me – but I’d like to point out that it took 5 hours to upload!! I also want to be clear that I’m NOT anti-tech: In fact, I’ve every intention of creating some on-line courses and running webinars as soon as my infrastructure allows it. BUT – we need to be mindful that we aren’t discriminating against a whole bunch of people who can’t participate in virtual events… just as we must be mindful of leaving those out who live in remote areas from live learning opportunities. I’d love to get your reaction on this Video Blog/Rant

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World of Learning – How to make learning COOL again

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This is a short blog post based on the notes I made during this session at the World of Learning Conference in October 2018. It may not be complete or totally accurate – it’s just “like literally” what I took away. This was a fun session delivered with energy by Di McDonald of Like Literally (formerly with Apple, EE, Expedia and L’Oreal). She works with interns and graduates and found that there was a fundamental difference between the way these young people expected to learn, and the way organisations expected to train them. They don’t want to learn from middle-aged people with 20 years experience – they want to learn from people like themselves, who are just one step ahead of them. Di said that 3 things matter: Audience – who they are as a whole person. Working and learning must be integral to actual lifestyle. Brand – learning needs to be sexy so give it a brand – make sure it’s seen as different to normal communications. Make it stand out, give it a personality, a logo. Think like an agency… you want them to buy into what you’re offering. Content – create content quickly, keep it punchy. Provide…

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World of Learning – How to Curate Learning

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This is a short blog post based on the notes I made during this session at the World of Learning Conference in October 2018. It may not be complete or totally accurate – it’s just what I took away. This session was of particular interest. Not only do I know the speaker, Mike Shaw, a little, but curation is an increasingly important part of my role, so I wanted to see if there were any tips I could pick up to do it better! Firstly, Mike explained what Curation is: Its about providing resources, not courses and helping people to create their own learning journeys, utilising a wide range of sources. He said that the role of L&D is to provide recommendations, but also encourage people to find their own… this exploration helps to aid the transfer of learning as they’ve invested time in finding and selecting it. Content that is provided on a plate may not always deliver the same levels of engagement. In terms of HOW to curate, he suggested we follow the 3 S’s: Seek, Sense, Share. Seek – Look for content in many places, not just the ‘approved’ ones. Actively seek out views that may be…

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World of Learning – L&D as Change Makers

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This is a short blog post based on the notes I made during this session at the World of Learning Conference in October 2018. It may not be complete or totally accurate – it’s just what I took away. Melanie Lepine talked about the VUCA environments that we all operate in, and what this means for the skills our leaders need, including commercial acumen, resilience, emotional intelligence, curiosity and creativity and cognitive agility. This has an impact for L&D. Again themes of curation, blended learning, agile learning and connecting people came through, as did the importance of demonstrating the value that L&D adds – not just to senior managers but also to the people you want to embark on learning. She suggested that to drive change from within L&D we need to: Connect people and with people… AND engage in PR in our own organisations! Link and label content – find/create great contact and explain how it adds value Hold up the mirror to ourselves Be pro-active – don’t wait to be asked by the business for a solution Be agile – we shouldn’t be driven or bound by rigid processes Know what metrics matter to the organisation and deliver…

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World of Learning – Key Ingredients of Learning Impact

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This is a short blog post based on the notes I made during this session at the World of Learning Conference in October 2018. It may not be complete or totally accurate – it’s just what I took away. I have to say that this session was one of the most insightful and useful – based on transfer of learning, which is a topic that is very important to me. This was an interesting session about an area of learning that matters to me… transfer to the job. Ina Weinbauer-Heidel explained that in most traditional training, 15% of learners get a positive outcome in that they transfer learning to the job successfully; 70% attempt to transfer learning but (for a range of reasons) fail to do so; and 15% don’t even try. So what is the reason for this lack of transfer? Her research identified over 100 factors that influence transfer of learning… she focused on 12 factors that L&D professionals can influence, which she has called 12 Levers of Transfer Effectiveness. These Levers fall into 3 categories: Trainees, Design and Organisation – You can imagine my delight when the importance of training design (not delivery) was highlighted as one…

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World Of Learning – The Future of L&D

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This is a short blog post based on the notes I made during this session at the World of Learning Conference in October 2018. It may not be complete or totally accurate – it’s just what I took away. The opening keynote speaker, Rafal Szaniawski) defined learning as an on-going, active process of enquiry, engagement and participation that living organisms go through to change. He asked us to remember the key lessons we’d learned in our lives. Although this wasn’t explored in detail, it was clear to me that all of my important lessons were EVENTS or CONVERSATIONS. No significant learning has ever been achieved without the involvement of others (though of course, reflection is necessary in some form or another). In a world where we are constantly being persuaded that the future of learning is digital, I have my doubts. Indeed, Raf said that learning needs are complex and multi-dimensional… so our approach to learning needs to be too. Raf then explored two ‘forces’ of future learning; curation and enforcement. He suggested that the L&D departments of the future will be more like DJs – creating a prefect mix tape for a specific person, but they will all have…

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Training Design and Learner Maturity

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In September I ran 2 (identical) workshops for one of my main clients. One of the topics we were covering was Conflict management. It’s not my strongest subject to cover, so during the design phase I spent a lot of time researching different theories and models to get myself up to date. None of the models or theories jumped out at me as being particularly relevant for my client and the likely conflict situations my delegates would find themselves in. So I did something I would never normally do… I DIDN’T design part of this section of the workshop. As someone who ALWAYS designs in detail (I figure it’s better to give the trainer more than they need than not enough – even when that trainer is me) I felt nervous about this. Just to clarify – I didn’t leave a hole full of nothingness: I did include a section on exploring what conflict is, what causes it and created some bespoke case studies/role plays to explore the practical side of conflict resolution. What I DIDN’T do was prescribe HOW conflict should be resolved. Instead, I asked delegates to complete their own independent research into conflict resolution as pre-course work,…

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