sheridan@keystonedevelopment.co.uk
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Training and Development: Walk before you Run

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I’m reasonably active on Twitter and for quite a while now, the view of the more progressive thinkers is that as L&D professionals we should stop ‘providing’ training for people. We should instead help people learn how to learn and encourage them to curate their own learning from wherever they feel it is appropriate. Whilst I agree with this in principle, I’ve always had a nagging feeling that it’s not quite right. I think that’s because I spend a lot of time working in financial services, manufacturing and retail where much of what people need to do is still relatively process-led. Of course, to execute processes well you need a wide range of (what’s traditionally termed) soft skills at your disposal: communication, problem solving, personal organisation etc… and each of us have different strengths and development needs here. Each of us operates in a different context so we need to apply our skills differently. So there’s clearly a need for self-driven development. But this development needs to be built on a solid foundation of doing the basics right, consistently and to the required standard. Even professionals need to be trained in using the in-house HR system, how to present their reports…

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I’m with Richard Hammond

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I was listening to Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2 earlier this week, and Richard Hammond was interviewed. I have no strong views of Richard Hammond. I can pretty much take him or leave him. Douglas Adams may describe him as ‘mostly harmless’. But he did say something that resonated with me. He said that now, at age 44, he has realised that he isn’t a leader of men, but he is a bloomin’ good foot-soldier. He likes to be told what to do, and then he does it to the best of his ability. That’s two things that Richard and I have in common then… well, as of next week 😉 Clients don’t use Keystone Development and Training Ltd to challenge the status quo. They don’t use us to be provocative, introduce something radical or to be told what to do. They use us as a resource boost. Our clients typically know what they want to do: they have confidence in internal leadership. Often they simply don’t have the resource to make it happen in a timely manner. That’s where we come in. Because we don’t have a set training or development programme to sell or a leadership model…

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Under Constant Surveillance

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I was sent this image by Tim Scott as part of a #blimage challenge on Twitter. The idea is to use an image to provoke a blog related to learning/HR/management. I’ve mulled it over for a few days, and my initial thoughts were to remember that like it or not, we are all being seen and judged by someone at all times. As a result, we need to make sure we are doing the right things right, even when we think no-one’s looking. But this isn’t L&D/Management enough for me. There’s no real message there – surely we all know that we should do our best at all times? But then the message hit me in the face: It’s about constant surveillance in terms of keeping one eye on the broader picture; seeing what’s around you; looking out for things that might affect you. I’ve been running my own business for nine years now (hard to believe). My main driver then (and even more so now) is flexibility. Although I pretty much do ‘full time’ hours, I need to be able to fit these in in a random pattern over a 7 day period. In August I reduce my hours:…

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Unlocking Learning

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“Help! I’ve lost my car keys!” Was the cry I heard on the school run a few days ago. The lady in question has one of ‘these new cars’ where you don’t put your key in the ignition. My husband has one too. He thinks it’s great. He never looses his key. He gets in the car, puts the key in his trouser pocket and thinks no more of it. Brilliant. As long as you’re a man. Men tend to always have trouser pockets: Whether in shorts, jeans or smart wear for work, there’s a pocket. I hate this little gimmick. Apart from my jeans, my clothes tend NOT to have pockets. Skirts, dresses and smart trousers just don’t have them, so where to put the key? It’s a problem. The person (presumably a man) who came up with this idea couldn’t see a flaw. It works for him, so why wouldn’t it work for everyone else? There’s a danger that we all start to see the world through our own particular lens, and this is also true of when we are planning, designing and delivering training. I’m on twitter, and the view of a number of twitter users is…

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A course of leeches? Not likely! Why neuroscience is challenging accepted HR practice

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If you had complex medical symptoms 200 years ago, you may have been offered a course of leeches, and would probably have happily accepted that as a cure. Of course, today, we realise that this treatment is useless. But at the time, it was the best solution available based on the best knowledge at the time: Doctors knew that the blood transferred disease around the body, so if we remove the blood, we remove the disease. Logical. But there was so much that they didn’t know about. Decisions were based on snippets of information. At the neurobusiness conference in Manchester today, Dr Paul Brown suggests that when we look back on the psychology of the 20th century, we will see similarities. Jung, Freud and all the fathers of psychology did pioneering work on understanding how the brain works. They weren’t wrong…as the 18th century doctors weren’t wrong about blood taking disease around the body. However, we are now realising that these views are incredibly simplistic. We have built our organisations, performance management systems and training around these accepted models. But now, through neuroscience, we are learning how the brain REALLY works. We are at the start of a new frontier….

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The Value of Forced Conversation

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I took the family on a short hike this weekend. The kids weren’t keen, but I insisted. Like many families, there are times when we exist together but separately: one watching TV, one playing computer games, one reading and one busy doing chores or work. Taking a walk into the countryside with no distractions forces conversation. I heard about my daughters art project and my sons camp. They heard tales from my childhood. It was illuminating. By coincidence I’d had two conversations with two different clients last week about the value in getting people into a training room… It forces them together. It forces conversation. Both clients commented that just locking managers in a room for 3 hours with no agenda would be valuable. When we make time for colleagues (or family) to talk, listen and share stories (and problems) we learn. That’s why live training always has been and always will be incredibly useful, and although designing (and sometimes delivering) workshops isn’t the only thing we do, it still forms an important part of the L&D mix.  

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Dig a little deeper to transfer learning

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It’s one thing ‘know’ good practice but quite another to ‘do’ good practice. We see this all the time time training: People arrive on workshops complaining that they know all of this stuff already, yet most of them don’t SHOW that they know it in their everyday work. Knowing and doing are not the same thing. Understanding and DEMONSTRATING that understanding are not the same thing either. As a professional training provider, we always actively encourage follow up to formal training. Some clients choose to do little, leaving it in the hands of the learner. Others choose a more structured and formal path. Apart from in very few cases, the latter approach always works better… What gets measured gets done. We are all busy. We all have multiple demands on our time. There is a temptation to be satisfied with what we have learned and move on to the next thing. Even as a training professional, I am no different. I’m currently receiving training on using the Strengthscope™ profiling too. I enjoyed the training session. I understood what was covered. I am motivated and keen to use what I have learned, but going from an internal focus (knowledge, feelings) to an external one (demonstration)…

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It’s a Kind of Magic

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Forgive the cheesy title. I went to see Queen and Adam Lambert in concert last night, and it’s this what has inspired my thoughts today. As we left, I wondered “How can two OAPs, a bunch of session musicians and a runner up from ‘American Idol’ pack stadiums across Europe?” Taking nothing away from Brian May and Roger Taylor (the latter who we met once, briefly, in Spain by the way… but I digress) who are rock legends and exceptional musicians, or the amazing power and range of Adam Lambert’s voice, the real draw was the songs: Songs that were written (some 40 years ago) and still sound incredible, even though they are being performed by someone new. Good songs stand the test of time. Good songs get covered over and over. Good songs stick in our heads… and of course, the same is true of training. A well written training programme, workshop or one-off session will work no matter who ‘performs’ it, where or when. It will always have an impact and it will always deliver results. Although I can’t promise to deliver the training equivalent of Bohemian Rhapsody, if you want quality training programmes designed for your business that…

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Talent Multiplied

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Although my days of listening to Radio 1 are long gone, I have the radio on almost all day, every day and listen to a wide variety of music stations. As such, I’m generally aware of what’s happening in the charts. As I write this, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars are number 1 with their track ‘Uptown Funk’. It’s very catchy and just oozes class and talent. I heard that they wrote that track quite quickly when they were just ‘messing about’ in the studio together. Proof if ever it was needed that talent gets the best out of other talent. It’s exactly the same when you design a training programme. The more talented people that can get involved with it, the better the result will be. Each person inspires others and everyone raises their game, resulting in a programme that is better than any one of those (highly talented) people could create by themselves. That is why: The Bespak Management Development programme I designed last year was done so in collaboration with the internal HR team and one of my associates The Assistant Manager Development Programme for Johnson Cleaners was designed with input from the Head of Operations and…

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Reflecting on Success

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Well here we are in 2015. Hope you had a great festive break and that last year was good for you. For me, it was. Regardless of how 2014 turned out, we are all at that time of year when it’s good to take stock of where we are and identify how to either achieve more of the same or make things better going forward. 2014 brought 3 major projects for Keystone Development and Training Ltd – all management development programmes, but each very different. We designed a 15 Module ILM Level 3 ready programme for Bespak which is being delivered internally We designed and delivered an Assistant Manager’s Programme for Johnson Cleaners with some great results (see below) We are designing a true blended management development programme for Brook charity which includes e-learning, the use of social media and self-directed practical activities, and supporting its delivery Of course, there have been a number of smaller projects too, but these three are really what 2014 was about for me. So as I reflect on a) how these projects came about and b) what made them successful I find a couple of things spring out: Networking. Bespak and Brook Charity were both…

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