HR Archives - Keystone Development and Training Ltd

Creativity in Learning Design

March 3, 2019Uncategorizedbusiness, design, HR, managers, OD, training, training design

Last week, I attended the Manchester L&D ‘Unconference’ – an opportunity for L&D professionals to meet, agree their own agenda and have the conversations they want to have about all things L&D. The first session I joined was all around the question “How can we be more creative in training design?”. It was quite insightful, and here are the summary thoughts that I came away with. Firstly, what do we mean by creative, and why do we feel the need to be creative? We quickly agreed that creative doesn’t mean ‘wacky’. Creativity can be quite serious! Creative training is defined in relation to the topic and the audience. Yes, sometimes creative training may involve crossing streams and building rope bridges: It may involve Lego, singing, or lots of coloured pens; It may simply involve a live demo, detailed case study or expert interview. Creativity in training is simply about providing an alternative way in to the learning – a different way of exploring it from the norm. It’s about providing multiple touch points and appealing to different learning preferences. It’s about getting people off autopilot and grabbing their attention, taking them out of their comfort zone, but only by a…

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…

Boring or Delicious?

December 31, 2018Uncategorizedbusiness, HR, induction, management, managers, performance, training

At this time of year, I tend to withdraw from Facebook. I thought about never returning, but I have a couple of work-related groups on there, so probably will, despite getting little interaction from my ‘friends’. I withdraw because it makes me feel inadequate. It highlights exactly what I DON’T have in my life: No nights out with friends No work’s parties – in fact, no parties full stop! No exciting family evenings out (combination of unwilling teenagers and hubby’s punishing work schedule) No date nights (lack of baby-sitters and hubby’s punishing work schedule) No extended family get-togethers Not just at Christmas – at any time. And whilst I wish I DID have these things in my life, I also realise that these things are just the ‘extras’ in life: the icing on the cake. These aren’t the things that bring happiness (apart from very briefly). They enhance a happy life of course, but they aren’t enough on their own. What really matters is: Being healthy – thankfully I am. Party due to the fact that I Zumba regularly, almost always get my 10,000 steps a day, and cook balanced meals from scratch most days. Of course, this eats into…

Thank You

December 18, 2018Uncategorizedbusiness, design, HR, OD, training, training design

I’ve been working for myself for 12 years now. And for the first 4 or 5, I really did work by myself. I got by. Then, Pam Case, Deborah Dean and Lynda Walkley invited me to a monthly networking group in my village! So I started networking. I met some lovely people who lived near me and a few of them have become friends, which is great and I loved the social side. However, they weren’t the right people for me to talk business with. They didn’t really get what I did or know the people I needed to connect with. So when Rebekah Ayres started a networking group in Liverpool for ‘people’ people I made every effort to go. It was fabulous. I made some more friends there (Hi Simon Jones!) and was able to grow my professional network and meet potential clients through these contacts. I was able to do the same for others. They helped me to gain confidence in who I was and what I did – simply by taking a genuine interest, and being able to have a detailed conversation. They pointed me to useful resources, introduced me to other helpful people and also encouraged…

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…

World of Learning – How to Curate Learning

October 21, 2018UncategorizedHR, OD

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…

World of Learning – L&D as Change Makers

October 21, 2018Uncategorizedbusiness, HR, managers

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…

World of Learning – Key Ingredients of Learning Impact

October 21, 2018Uncategorizedbehaviour, design, HR, managers, OD, training, training design

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…

World Of Learning – The Future of L&D

October 21, 2018UncategorizedHR

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…

Training Design and Learner Maturity

October 4, 2018Uncategorizedbespoke, design, HR, management, OD, training, training design

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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