coaching Archives - Keystone Development and Training Ltd

What’s the Difference between Ronnie Wood and Mark Ronson?

November 27, 2019Uncategorizedbusiness, coaching, design, development, learning, mark ronson, OD, training, training design

A strange question perhaps for a blog on a training design website. And to be honest, now I’ve asked the question, I realise that there are probably many differences. Furthermore, the one I’m going to refer to may not even be accurate – it’s based on my feeling after watching both men appear on Later with Jools Holland. Clearly, both are accomplished musicians, and for both music is front and centre in their life. It struck me that the main difference is that Ronnie Wood wants to PLAY great music, whilst Mark Ronson wants to MAKE good music. And there’s a subtle but significant difference. Ronnie Wood clearly wants to play the best music he can. He wants to entertain a crowd and play – anything, anytime with anyone. He seemed lost without a guitar in his hand and didn’t know what to do with himself when others were providing the music. Mark Ronson is more about putting together the best possible sound – whether or not he’s directly involved. Naturally he can play music and will if he will add value, but if there’s a better musician, or a different sound is needed, he will step back. In the…

Social and Collaborative Learning

October 13, 2019Uncategorizedcoaching, design, HR, learning, managers, OD, performance, training, training design

Last week I attended a webinar run my Andy Lancaster from the CIPD called “Social and Collaborative Learning: What really makes it work?” It was a very good webinar. I found it useful, informative and interesting. I learned new things and I had some of my own ideas validated. It was also run very well (as you would perhaps expect!). But I do have issues – and I realise it’s probably just me being pedantic. My grumpy old woman is starting to emerge perhaps… A list of the top 200 collaborative learning methods was bought up. However, not one of the top 200 was coaching, feedback, on the job training, action learning, stretch projects, workshops, even having a good conversation i.e. face-to-face, in person interaction…. It’s like we are being hoodwinked into thinking that we can’t be “social” unless we are using some app or technical interface!! Well, as far as I can tell humans have been learning socially since time began, and we will continue to do so with or without apps to help us. Personally, I’m 100% on board with learning via social technology – I learn through it myself – particularly my two favourite Facebook communities: The…

Why L&D needs to be more like HR

July 10, 2019Uncategorizedcoaching, development, HR, L&D, management, managers, OD, performance, training

I’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years developing the performance management skills of managers. This is because HR don’t have time to handle every minor performance issue – and some managers in some organisations were dodging responsibility for managing their own teams. It is widely accepted that HR is there to advise managers (not manage for them), and of course to step in when a situation escalates or is complex/unusual and a more expert hand is required. Makes sense doesn’t it? So why is L&D still expected to do ALL the development? Shouldn’t we be stepping in exactly the same way as HR people do – when informal methods aren’t enough, or a development need requires specialist input? There’s a LOT of talk out there about reducing formal training, and in particular, courses. I understand where this is coming from, but when L&D are expected to develop people, from different roles, different departments, in different locations, and they get a set time to do it, no wonder formal training won’t go away. Not that I think it should. I’m a fan of the workshop and a formal development programme. But just like HR only stepping…

Managers Need Inducting Too!

May 10, 2019Uncategorizedbehaviour, business, coaching, HR, induction, management, managers, OD, training, values

It’s funny how in the last week I’ve had three conversations with three very different businesses about how the lack of a manager’s induction causes problems down the line: Inconsistent approaches to people management, having to go back to basics with experienced managers and the HR team getting way too involved way too often as small people problems haven’t been handled properly from the start. We know that a general induction is important for those joining the organisation, but people being recruited into management positions need a separate (additional) induction. New managers need to understand what’s expected of them, what support is available to them, and how to do things properly. People with managerial experience being recruited into a new organisation need an induction on top of the generic corporate one to help them to understand the managerial processes within their new environment. You would hope that they have been recruited because they have the necessary skills and experience, but the way they are expected to manage and report is probably quite different to their previous organisation. They need to know which forms to use when, where to find them, who to contact if… etc. They also need to know…

Why People aren’t Accessing Training on your LMS

April 11, 2019Uncategorizedbusiness, coaching, OD, training

I’ve had a thought floating around in my head for a year or more, and it came to the fore again when I read a LinkedIn post by a connection of mine posing the question “How do we get people to use our LMS?” On-line learning has it’s place of course. There are lots of benefits including ‘just-in-time’ learning which I think we all agree is a good thing. But there are many reasons why people don’t use it. Here are just a few… It’s difficult to use – especially for those NOT based in Head Office, or those that don’t have a desk job, so they don’t. It’s not well publicised – people won’t use it if they don’t know what it is or what it has. It’s impersonal – one-way ‘training’ doesn’t answer all the specific questions we have; it doesn’t re-assure is or motivate us; it doesn’t make us feel special in the way that face-to-face training or coaching does. It’s not engaging – click, click, click…it can be too easy to pay lip-service to the training and not actually take anything in. It’s not being driven – people need support to get into a habit, and…

Is the future of L&D simply being curious and connected?

January 28, 2019Uncategorizedbespoke, business, coaching, design, HR, OD, training

“That’s what I do: I drink and I know things”. One my favourite quotes from my favourite character in Game of Thrones – Tyrion Lannister, played by the brilliant Peter Dinklage. Yesterday, as I took a short but very bracing walk, it occurred to me that my quote would be very similar: “I think and I know people”. After 12 years of running my own business, I’ve got the two off to a fine art. But I always feel under pressure to increase my skill set and prove my ability through qualifications. I don’t have a Level 7 coaching qualification – should I get one (even though I don’t want to be a coach)? I don’t have digital design skills – Should I invest in a course and expensive software if I’m going to stay in business? I’m not an apprenticeship or ILM provider – perhaps I ought to get accredited (even though I’m very rarely asked to provide this)? This feeling of inadequacy was heightened on Friday when I was talking to a freelance trainer just 3 months into her journey. She believed that she needed to have a raft of qualifications in order to be taken seriously, somehow…

How to Create an Award Winning Development Programme

November 22, 2018Uncategorizedbespoke, business, coaching, design, HR, management, managers, OD, performance, talent, training, training design

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…

Self-Serve Learning: Magic Bullet or Cop Out?

September 10, 2018Uncategorizedcoaching, management, OD, performance, training

Over the weekend, I was listening to a podcast about simplifying learning. The feeling was that we (as learning professionals) should be encouraging people to source their own learning, but making it easy for them to do that. Why do we put people on a full day Excel course when they just need to learn how to do two functions? Of course, encouraging ‘just-in-time’ learning and making it easy to access is a brilliant thing for us to be doing: Agility in the workplace is increasingly important, and enabling people to learn what they need to learn, when they need to learn it is a no-brainer. BUT… What when we don’t know what we don’t know? That’s when a formal workshop or course can be massively helpful. People may enrol on a workshop or on-line course because there’s something specific they want to learn. However, this might only form 20% of the content. OK, maybe 20% of the rest of the content is irrelevant, and maybe they already know another 30%. That means 30% of the session is extra ‘bonus’ learning. Things they didn’t realise they needed to know, or is just helpful in other ways. Case in point: A…

Want learning to deliver? Join the dots

September 23, 2016Blogcoaching, design, management, managers, performance, training

Yesterday I attended my third ‘Unconference’ with fellow L&D professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. It was (as always) a very thought provoking day where many issues were discussed and some solutions identified! One of the sessions focused on empowering learners and engaging managers in learning. It was a very insightful discussion that considered how much training is VALUED in organisations, whether we are defining the right objectives (and whether the right people are involved in that process) to the metrics that we use to measure training (we decided that most metrics favoured by senior management were largely irrelevant to the measuring the effectiveness of a solution). Perhaps unsurprisingly, line managers were identified as one the biggest obstacles to effective transfer of learning. L&D teams may offer great opportunities and solutions, individuals may be motivated to learn, but when managers won’t ‘release’ them from their day job (proof if ever it was needed that learning is something extra, not related to the real work for which they get paid), when no-one takes an interest in what has been learned and how it has been applied, when no-one is helping them to see the link between learning and job performance,…

Dig a little deeper to transfer learning

March 23, 2015Blogcoaching, design, performance, training

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)…

Tag: coaching

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