So here we are at the start of a new academic year and for 1000's of students of whatever age an exciting and daunting prospect ahead.  It is also like that for newbie tutors like me!!

I am delighted to be delivering the CIPD Certificate in Learning & Development for Coleg Gwent this year and at the same time terrified of the responsibility.  However after listening recently to a great speaker on leadership I do feel better that the scared feeling is 'normal' and means that I am only human....in fact it it me being authentic.

This trait of authenticity is one that is key in today's leaders, be they tutors at college like me or industry or country leaders.  You have to be yourself because when people see that they grow to trust and respect you.  In my case this is key to helping students  who are looking to me for support, guidance, experience and knowledge to share.

This role has also thrown up an interesting conundrum that colleges have as they are seen as academic institutions, yet they are also tasked with developing a commercial offering to business & industry.  This then leads to a differing of opinion in how the students are treated...are they students or are they customers?  Well, I would argue that they are both and therefore as tutors we have to recognise that we are providers of learning and of a service.   We therefore need to give consideration to our 'offering' , how welcoming  we are and how we 'serve' our customers throughout their learning time at the college.

This is now happening more and more in academic institutions as more and more students have to pay for their education and therefore want to see value for money.  Something we as tutors need to be conscious of before, during and after our core delivery hours as we do not want to be tarnished with the brush labelled 'unsupportive' & 'elitist'.

This is a fine line to walk for academia going forward but one that cannot be ignored.  Bringing commercial private sector people into the academic arena will help this and vice-versa so that the outcome is a positive one both for the student, the institution & the company involved.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth
www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Assessing for quality

I guess that most of you drive and here in the UK once you have passed your test then you are able to drive, without any further assessment until you are 70.  So no-one has ever checked whether or not my driving is of a certain standard…is this the same with your training skills?

How often do you assess the standard of your training or that of others who are delivering training for your and your colleagues?  Do you accept that just because they work for a training company that the standard of their training is acceptable?  Bearing in mind that training is an expense to any company you surely want to make sure that you are getting good value for your money?

I believe as professional trainers we should be assessed by our peers & colleagues regularly to help us to ensure that our training sessions are always delivered to an acceptable standard. So as a minimum you as a trainer, or you as a manager employing a trainer should ensure that the session that is being delivered covers different learning styles, is delivered using a variety of teaching methods and that the trainer ensures all parts of the learning cycle are covered.

I have recently assessed some ‘baby’ trainers as part of an accredited course and in some cases their idea of a training session is to talk at the group without any interaction at all.  Yes I know that there are times when you have information to ‘tell’ your group but it is also critical that as trainers we are assessing whether or not learning has taken place.  The idea of formative assessment throughout a training session is key to keeping your learners engaged and to ensure that learning is taking place.

It is also about our professional credibility to ensure that we ‘walk the talk’ and regularly get someone who knows what they are looking for to sit in on our sessions and review our style and techniques.  There is a danger that we get rusty and set in our ways so we also need to be innovative and creative in our delivery style to ensure that our learners do actually learn!

The same goes for the material that we use, this should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it is up to date and relevant to today’s audience, not the audience of 5 years ago!!  Yes I know that there are exercises that I have been using for a while because I know that they work but you still have to ensure that they are relevant to the audience.  This is what is good about having another professional trainer look at your work with a critical but friendly eye to remind us of our training as trainers.

You might find it scary with someone watching you at the back of the room but it will give you some good pointers on how to improve your work which is what we want to be doing – failing that you could always video yourself and self-critique that!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth
www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Measurable learning outcomes

As you know I deliver a number of accredited courses, two of which are qualifications to teach/train others. I have recently completed the delivery of a ‘preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector’ course (aka PTLLS) with a great group of people.

What happens to me in the weeks after I have assessed their micro-teach I am acutely aware of my own delivery style and whether or not my sessions would pass an assessed observation, whether my session plans would meet the necessary standards and whether or not you can actually measure whether learning has taken place!

It also makes me aware of how loose and vague a lot of learning outcomes are that are being used to deliver training and development programmes as we speak.   It makes me question how the learning will be measured...surely if somebody identified a learning need which led to the training, then there should be some way to measure whether or not the training has met that need?  

Here are some examples here for you to consider:

•     To understand the value of building long term relationships with customers
•     To know best practice in how to handle difficult conversations
•     To be more assertive and confident

My point being, how do you measure these objectives, how will you know that an individual has learnt anything or they just had a nice day out of the office? 

The other issue with unclear learning outcomes, how do you assess the progress of your delegates during the programme? With great difficulty I suggest!  Or as one trainer said to me: ‘you just know that they have got it’.

So this leads me to question how you employ external trainers or training companies, how do you check whether or not they can train & assess, as you want them to? Do you ask the questions about how they will assess whether learning has taken place or not? Or are you sold on their glossy brochure, great sales pitch and the fact that you are buddies with them?

From a business perspective ensuring good value for money has to be a key driver whether or not we are in times of austerity.  You have a responsibility to spend your company’s money wisely and get the best value training for the investment that you are making.  I am not saying that you should always buy the cheapest, nor am I saying that the most expensive will be the best, but you must make your buying decision on who is going to deliver the learning that is required and who will assess it to ensure that the learning has been transferred and that the original learning need is met.

As trainers we also have a duty to ensure that we provide measurable learning outcomes for all our courses and then carry out both formative and summative assessment throughout every programme that we deliver.  We can therefore demonstrate the value of training to the organisation in changing and improving performance and not just by being a nice to have!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Personal development

I have been lucky enough to do some personal development recently which is always good for a number of reasons some of which I would like to share with you.

As a professional trainer it is good to be on the receiving side of a training session for a change & to sit back & reflect on the information that you are being given. Reflecting is a key part of our learning process and something we perhaps don't value enough in our busy lives. So a key learning point for me was to take some time out each day, maybe 10 mins to look back on what I have done & to consider 'what went well' and 'what could I do better next time'.

One of the biggest issues for me during one of the sessions I have attended recently was the complete lack of involvement by the learners, I was one of about 300!! So practically it had to be a lecture style of delivery. So do you learn in those situations ? Well, yes you do get to know new stuff but the presenter (who thankfully was good) had no idea about my learning & cannot deal with any questions that I may have had. Neither was there an opportunity to practice or measure the learning, so the training cycle was not completed. This is very difficult to prove value for money when you have to consider return on investment.

Also if your audience is bigger than 12 you need to ensure you are engaging in your delivery style, punchy in messages & to add in small activities that could be done by the delegates in 2's or 3's. It is important to keep everyone engaged and to check learning which you cannot do with such a huge number of people. If you know you are going to have such large numbers then plan effectively what the delegates are going to do after your session in smaller groups, in my case our subject area groups. 

The key point about this was that the instructions have to be clear because as soon as you let 300 'get into groups' and meet in a different venue they have to be organised!! Clear communication is vital here and if not done properly a lot of time could be lost causing the delegates to lose the initiative & enthusiasm generated by the speaker, and if you are really careless you could easily lose some delegates in the process!!

Finally for now is the need at all large gatherings of people, be it for training or a meeting, an effective signing in process and the issuing of name badges. The former sets the tone for the day and if not done alphabetically or by department causes a great deal of confusion and impacts on the clarity of the records. Issuing name badges at events or ensuring you have one of you own is another great lesson for me...it makes it so much easier to strike up a conversation with a total stranger if at least you can say 'hello' without feeling stupid - a key point to encourage great networking in any gathering of people.

So personal development is vitally important for everyone to ensure they keep their 'saw sharpened' and next time I will tell you some more insights I have gained from the development I have done recently.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Succession planning - have you thought about it?

Succession planning is a critical management tool whatever the size of your business because without it your organisation may not survive!

So what is succession planning? In simple terms....who is going to do your job when you are not there any more!  This does not mean that you are about to be made redundant or sacked but it is good business practice to consider who will do what you do if you are not here.

It may not be about developing people but you may be faced with a situations affected by external issues. Many organisations, for example, now have in their risk register & planning process what will happen if a group of key workers win the lottery.  This is because the likelihood is that the people will leave work, thus giving the organisation a great deal of problems to fill that gap, especially if they are all members of the same team.

The Harvard Business Review suggests that Succession planning should be called Succession Development as plans do not help people learn about the new job so, yes it should be about developing people who have the potential.This has to begin with regular performance reviews and frank discussions about peoples' aspirations and capabilities.  It is no good if you have identified that George is the ideal candidate to succeed you, if George is quite happy in his current role and has no wish to be promoted.  An even worse scenario would be that you encourage George into thinking he can succeed you when it is clearly beyond his capability.

An even worse crime that you may commit as a line manager is not to consider this at all because you do not know where you are going or you are quite happy in your current role.  That does not stop you being responsible for developing your team, even if that means that they eventually will leave you and go and work elsewhere....that is a natural process.

So we as managers have to be clear about what qualities, competencies, skills & knowledge people should have to be able to carry out a specific role effectively.  It is then important to identify the gaps between what you require and what the person actually has and then develop that person in those areas.

The development can take many different forms and take much time to happen.  Remember it does not just mean 'sending them on a course' or getting an MBA or other such qualification, but it may mean the individual spending time with key people & departments in the business to gain a sound working knowledge of the whole business.  It is also good practice for the identified individual to have a mentor (not their line manager) so that their development can be guided effectively and a realistic time frame needs to be given.  Obviously there should then be regular reviews of the development process.

This is not a job that you as a line manager should be doing in isolation but in conjunction with your HR support as well as other line managers so that you can begin to develop a pool of people who have the potential for more senior positions in the business. Critical for you as line manager is your ability to coach and develop your people but also to recognise that for you to succeed your boss you have to work at your own development & knowledge gaps....so don't forget to look after yourself as well!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Trainer centric or learner centric training programmes?

An interesting discussion took place this week between a number of trainers, me being one of them. The question we debated passionately was that of course design.....should it be learner centred or tutor centred?

Clearly learner centred has to be our main goal as trainers because when people are engaged in the learning & can see the personal benefit they will be more focused & involved in the session.  So then you think about assessment which we have to do to

a) check that learning is taking place during the session (aka formative assessment)

b) end of session assessment (aka summative assessment)

Both of these can be done based on the input you & the delegates have been engaged in during the session.  The difficulty comes in your pre-course assessment.

The purpose of pre-course assessment is to gauge the level at which your learners are so that you can design a course that meets their needs. What happens if the pre-course assessment is only done on Day 1 of the programme which has already been designed?

Here we have the classic training dilemma. How do you advertise & sell a course? We all know that the course should be designed around the needs of the learner but we don't know this so you, the trainer, has to decide on the content and learning outcomes based on your own skills & knowledge.  Then you advertise the programme and when you meet the delegates on day one you may realise that you will have to flex your skills and knowledge up or down or both based on the knowledge of the people in the group.

In an ideal world trainers would like to run a course that is totally based on the learners needs and thus the first session of the programme would involve identifying their needs. Then it would be up to the skills of the trainer to then deliver a suitable programme to meet those needs.  However how would you sell that? Hence the dilemma that we have as trainers!!

In my opinion the more emphasis that is put on achieving set criteria the more trainer centric the learning gets which reduces the creativity and flexibility for the trainer.  More importantly it may mean that the training that the learner is given is not appropriate to their needs so the whole event may have been a waste of time and money.

So as a manager invest some of your time at the front end of this process correctly identifying the needs of your people and then talk to the trainer to ensure that the course will meet those needs....it will make it more rewarding for all of us involved!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Merger? What is your role as a leader?

Bringing two businesses together is a tough ask of any leader in any size organisation.  So how do you get it right? What are your responsibilities?

Well, you could do some research and visit and talk to other people who have done what you are about to do...you will not be the first to merge companies like this.  So you can learn from what worked with them and what did not and then you can avoid the latter!

You can also do desktop research, which is quicker than face to face but you cannot interrogate the websites you find to get to the nub of the issues.

In my experience the single biggest issue in the bringing together of two organisations is that of communication.  Yes, that old chestnut!  But it is true, and borne out again recently when I met some of the people directly impacted on by a merger.  When I asked them how they felt about the situation I got answers such as 'frustrated' 'scared' 'helpless' and 'under-valued'.  I could go on because the list was quite extensive but you get the gist!  When I asked why they were feeling like this it boiled down to a lack of communication by the senior management which means that people's jobs are changing, the location of the workplace is changing and their line manager is changing but no-body has told them how it is changing and what the consequences of those changes will be.

Sure, if you are familiar with the change curve (my blog on April 4) you would say that they are still resisting but what I found interesting was that when you explored their feelings they wanted to discuss the options and what the future held, but no-body could tell them what that was. The lack of clarity around job roles & responsibilities for the future (less than 2 months away) would concern me if I was a shareholder in this business! There appeared to be no plan!

I bet if I went to the senior management team there is a plan and it is all beautifully presented and fits a classic merger format.  My issue is that NO-ONE is sharing that information with the people at the coal face!!

So what about you as the leader, what should you be doing?  Well in my opinion you should be communicating on a regular basis with your team. Even if there is nothing to tell them, that is what you tell them!! You should be pushing upwards to get more information and you should be feeding upwards the feelings that you and your team are experiencing.

We are all human and therefore feel threatened by something as massive as a merger but we as leaders in our organisation have a responsibility to the people in our team so talk to them!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

English as a second language - a training dilemma

Here at Rubus Associates, even though we are based in South Wales, we get involved in leadership and management training  all over the world.  We are often, therefore, in a learning environment with people who have English as a second language.  As professional people developers this is something we have to consider not just in the delivery of our programmes but in all aspects of the training cycle.

As you may, or may not be aware there are four stages to this cycle and they are identifying training needs, designing the solution, delivering the solution and finally evaluating the success of the learning event. So let's consider each of those areas:

IDENTIFYING TRAINING NEEDS

As part of the process of identifying the training needs it is important to clarify and confirm the level and competence of the people who require the training.  This will be vital for you in the design stage.  However if the course you are developing is advertised as an 'open to all' course then it is important that the requirements for attending the course are clearly specified, such as having achieved a certain level of qualification or be in a certain role within the business.  Clarification around terminology used to describe the course content and the ideal course candidate needs to be though through very carefully to ensure that the needs of the attendees are met.

DESIGN SOLUTION

Care needs to be taken here to use correct grammar and punctuation in the documentation as well as not using phrases such as 'wishy washy' or local sayings such as 'where you too?'  These will just be too complicated and too confusing for an audience who is having to learn new theories and techniques as well as dealing with translating the information between two languages.  It is also critical in your design to consider the different cultural requirements of your delegates including religion, dietary and general well being.  For example prayer breaks will have to form part of your design and will have to be managed respectfully.

DELIVER SOLUTION

As a trainer you need to have done your cultural homework before starting the course so that you are fully aware of any situation that you may present itself.  Once you are delivering you need to consider the pace at which you are speaking and the use of correct English.  It is therefore very important that the notes that the delegates have and the visual aids that you are using are used to reinforce the key messages that you are conveying.  So remember to allow people time to read the slides/your flip chart; ensure that you write clearly and slowly on the flip chart and most importantly that you do not talk away from the delegates who need to see you facial expressions to assist in the assimilation of what you are saying. You also need to be flexible around start times and break times to accommodate different cultural requirements.This can be frustrating for you as a trainer as you may have to cut short a session or exercise, but it is also about creating mutual respect and developing an understanding about what has to be covered, especially if the course is accredited.

EVALUATE THE SOLUTION

The methods used for evaluation need to reflect the needs that were identified in the beginning and often need to be developed by the delegate’s organisation.  The first level evaluation that is completed (aka the Happy sheet) is a good base to judge immediate reaction however long term evaluation also needs to be considered. Our role as professional trainers should involve helping & supporting organisations to put robust evaluation strategies in place to assist them in showing an effective return on their investment. As has been stated before the language that is used on the evaluation sheet needs to be considered carefully to reduce any confusion and mis-interpretation.

So if you are about to embark on delivering to an audience whose first language is not English do take some time to ensure that the notes you provide as well as the actual training you deliver consider the needs of the delegates. 

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

 www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Do you coach or do you tell?

In a recent training programme I was encouraged by the managers on the course telling me how often they coached their people and how good they were at it.  I was then hugely disappointed to watch them in a role play situation spending all the time that they were allegedly coaching the individual telling them what to do.  Oh dear I thought, this is going to be a long, long day!!

What has happened is that many people, maybe you included, have thought coaching is about telling people what to do because, lets face it, you are the manager and you should know what to do!  However coaching is about you helping the other person to learn for themselves....this is not done by you telling them what to do all the time! In fact if you do this, the only thing they have learnt is that you will give them the answer and so they don't have to think!

So lets consider the key skills of an effective coach:

Questioning skills - this is not just about asking open questions.  It is about asking the right question at the right time which has the ability to allow a person to see things from a different perspective.  You will know when you have asked a 'killer' question as it will be obvious that your coachee has to think hard about answering it.  You need to question around making comparisons, encouraging the person to evaluate different situations as well as getting them to synthesise information.

Listening skills - once you have asked a question BE QUIET even if you find it is uncomfortable, you have to give the person time to consider their response, formulate that response and then respond.  So do not interrupt them!  But do make sure that it is obvious to them that you are paying them 100% attention, make encouraging noises and tell them, if appropriate, to take their time in answering. You have to develop a desire to listen and ensure that the other person does most of the talking.  You listen 70% and you talk 30% of the time is a good measure of how an effective coaching session should be.  Remember, never impose your solution onto the other person as then it will be yours and not theirs.

Action - Always make sure that both of you are clear about what the next actions will be and when they will be done by.  If you fail to do this there will have been no point to the coaching session.  Do not settle for 'I'll do it soon' or 'As soon as possible' make sure that you have a definite action and a definite delivery time that the action will be done by.  Agree a follow up meeting and make sure you turn up for it!

Coaching can happen anywhere at any time with people at any levels. The best coaching often happens when the coach has no knowledge of the subject or baggage about the relationships that the coachee wishes to discuss.  This can be hard in an organasational situation which is why as a manager you may find it useful to have a business coach from outside your company. It certainly has worked for me both as a coach and a coachee.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Change - how do you cope with it?

Change is something that we all have to deal with and we often think about it in work terms but it is happening in our own personal life as well.  Wherever that change is happening it is interesting to see how people react to it and work through it.

Lets be honest we all like things that we know and are familiar with so when this is changed out of our control, it is very interesting to observe people's reactions to it even in a social environment.  Just recently I have been away with a group of friends to a hotel that we have visited regularly over the last 10 years.  Since our last visit the whole of the ground floor area, lounge & reception have been refurbished....well it was not to my taste, nor to my friends but we bitched and moaned about it as it wasn't like it used to be, not as good and why did they do this, why put that with that etc.

Yet after two days of being in that environment we had accepted the change, we were more used to the decor and the new layout, we still did not like it but we had explored used to it. So we had got to the point of acceptance and this is the same with all different types of change, especially if we cannot do anything about the changes. If you then think about change in the work environment then it is ongoing, for if companies do not change and evolve, they will become extinct. These changes might involve changes of personnel, changes of premises or the amalgamation of two organisations into one and I am currently working with all three of these different types of changes and it is interesting to see the different reactions of the people involved, just like my friends and the hotel refurbishment.

What it shows is that whatever the change, people will react differently and you as a manager need to be able to support and respond to each different reaction as well as dealing with the changes yourself.  If you read around this subject it all comes back to regular and effective communication in all directions and from all levels.  You as a manager should not be relying on other people but getting the information to share with your teams.

I am sure you are all aware of the different stages that people go through with change from denial to resistance to exploration to commitment and as leaders of people we have to help people through these stages and recognise that it is not a smooth passage from one to another but people often go back and forwards a number of times, so you have to have patience.  This is especially important if you accept change readily.  I have known a manager who was like this who just did not understand why her team could not accept what was happening and the relationships got very strained to say the least!!

Sone thoughts on each of these stages that we experience during change:

During denial

Confront individual with information. Let them know that the change will happen. Explain what to expect and suggest actions they can take to adjust to the change. Give them time to let things sink in, and then arrange a planning session to talk things over.

During resistance

Listen, acknowledge feelings, respond empathetically, and encourage support. Don’t try to talk people out of their feelings, or tell them to change or pull together. If you accept their responses they will continue to tell you how they are feeling. This will help you to respond to some of their concerns.

During exploration

Concentrate on priorities and provide any necessary training. Follow up projects underway. Set short-term goals. Conduct brainstorming and planning sessions. Give direction and guidance with gentle persuasion. Allow people to explore.

During commitment

Harness commitment with objectives and goals. Concentrate on team building. Create a mission statement. Acknowledge and reward those responding to the change. Look ahead.

So whatever change you are facing, remember that you must be the best you can in terms of communication, support your people and be honest about your feelings as well.

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Leadership - are you a motivator?

So we have seen in the last week the election of three new leaders and how different they are in their style and personality.  The Pope appeared to be quite a quiet reverend man with a sense of humour, Xi Jinping now the leader of China is quite hard to read and Uhuru Kenyatta  who is now in charge of Kenya appears to be quite controversial.

So what does this tell us about leaders in the 21st Century? I believe that it tells us there is no one standard mould and this is something that we need to reflect on when we look around our organisations at who will be the next leader at whatever level. What we must not do is stereotype, but consider the appropriate competences that are required for leaders in our business.

Fundamentally leadership is not about structure and process but it is about your ability as a person to motivate and inspire your team, especially in this climate.  The people who work for you are looking to you for guidance and support. The motivation that you give to other people is not: 'you should be grateful that you have a job' type of motivation but you should be motivating your team with recognition, support and inspirational moments.

Recognition is one of the fundamental tools in your toolkit as a leader...it does not mean reward, it does not mean saying 'well done' every five minutes,  it means you recognising what contribution people are making to your business and the team and thanking them for it; it is remembering about them as an individual and what they have done and something about them personally.

So often I meet team members who repeatedly say, the only time they hear from their boss is when they have done something wrong! That is just plain bad management!

Why do managers & leaders do this?  Why do you only criticise your people? Why do you always concentrate on the 5% of my job that I am not doing well instead of recognising that 95% of my job I am doing well!!  If this is you, and be honest with yourself.....get out of the habit!!!

Think of it like this:

"People often say that motivation doesn't last.  Well neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily!!" Zig Ziglar

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

The dog ate my homework!!

Well it is one excuse for not getting your work in on time! As you know I deliver accredited programmes for both the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) and in order for the delegates to gain the qualification they have to complete assignments or homework.

I recently sent a chivvying email to a number of these delegates to encourage them to complete the assignments. The variety of responses can compare with all the excuses that teacher friends of mine get on a daily basis. It is also interesting how many people just ignore my email in the hope that I might go away!!

It is just such a shame that many people do not complete the work as they lose out on the qualification. I wouldn't mind but in most cases their companies have paid for them to attend and the government have part funded the programme to encourage the development of managers. I appreciate that people have pressures both personal & professional but there is also a responsibility of the delegates manager to encourage this development.

Part of the role of a line manager is to develop the people in your team, in fact you should be trying to develop your successor. You also have budget responsibility which is wasted on people who do not complete the qualification and this is not a great demonstration of leadership!   So how are you being measured? How are you measuring your people.  If all you measure is 'yes' they have attended the course that does not mean that the learning has happened it just means that the person attended the course. What you should be doing is ensuring that whatever has been learnt has met the originally identified training need.

If you complete the circle like this I will be a lot busier marking work that your people have completed!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

So here I am, the proud owner of a brand new mini iPad!!

As I am an experiential learner I thought I would test out it's usability for a small business like mine, so here I am on the move writing to see how doable this social media stuff is!!!  I am also testing out access and making sure that what I am doing on my iPad is being saved and I can access it from my desk top....and yes it works!!!

Now I know for all you techie people out there you knew that this was going to work but as someone who has to learn from experience I had to check it worked....and it did!

I decided on a mini iPad as I found the original iPad too big, cumbersome & heavy to carry around. The mini is much easier to do this and is even small enough to get into all the handbags I use for work days! I know that is very girly but we are 50% of Apple's target market so it is important.

One of the best bits about the whole IT set up is how everything is connected so that I have all my bookmarks from my desktop  here with me on the move which is just fab!! It means that I can keep in touch with my social media connections and also to maximise the use of my time.  Being someone who hates wasting her time the ability to keep up with blogging,tweeting etc on the move means while I am waiting for a meeting to start I can do a bit of connecting.

So how has it travelled? Well it's easy and as long as there is an Internet connection, it is as good as being at my desk!  I have also taken it for a cover which amazingly Apple have not got round to making...so I've opted for one by Belkin which is great and allows you to read it at an angle etc and it is protected so I am confidently carrying it around and using it in some unusual places....currently in the kitchen!  Don't think the bathroom will be wise but I now fully understand how everyone has got hooked on them!

On reflection I do wonder how I ever ran my business in the 'old days' without all these gadgets!!  Do you remember memos and real post!! It is all part of the evolution of the workplace and it makes being connected and in touch with your clients and world events so much easier.  However, it does not make you a better sales person, trainer or business leader.  That still comes down to how you develop your skills, behaviour and attitude to the people around you.

This is something we have to consider as the digital native generation (born from 2000 onwards) move into the workplace....they might be very savvy about the technology and connected to everyone via social media but when it comes to managing people that is still a face to face relationship (even via Skype) and comes with all the foibles that us humans have.  So thankfully developing managers and leaders to be better at what they do will still be required!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

30 minute training sessions

So here we are in 2013 with the prospect of the economy bumbling along much like last year…so what do you do as a manager who is trying to develop your people?  You only have so much money in your training budget, if any!

So how do you decide which is the best way to deliver the required training to your team?  Well in many organisations ‘tool box’ training is done on a regular basis, say once a week and takes only 30 minutes with the whole team. This is ideal in a shift environment at the beginning of a shift or at a team meeting or huddle as some people call them!

So what can you cover in 30 minutes I hear you cry…well quite a lot if you have planned your session well:

• Clearly defining what you want your team to 'know/explain/list' etc. after the session is crucial
• Ensure that all your people are engaged and involved…do NOT (yes I am shouting) talk AT your people for 30 minutes….get them involved in short, impactive exercises; get them discussing the issue…they might have a great solution that you have not thought about!!
• Put some form of assessment into your session at the end like a quiz so that you can check that the learning has taken place

We ask people on train the trainer courses to run a micro-teach for 30 minutes and you would be surprised at what you can learn in that time.

So yes, in these time constrained and cost restricted situations learning can take place, you cannot use excuses, your people still have to be developed.  Why not get them involved in sharing their skills & knowledge with the rest of the team especially if you have spent some of your precious training budget sending them on an external course….get them to run a resume of the learning for the rest of the team.

If you do not help your people to learn & develop in their role with you when the market picks up they will go elsewhere because you have not developed their potential, which for you as a manager is your job!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

It is quite interesting how different training organisations operate when planning ‘open’ courses.  For example we are involved in delivering a leadership course for a large group of people for an international partner in the coming weeks and it is amazing how the course content is decided upon.  We have been asked to deliver what is effectively 4 one day sessions in one day…so does this mean we reduce the content or extend the day?

The difficulty of this situation is that we are working through a third party for whom English is their second language, who are not learning specialists and who think that ‘chalk & talk’ is the ideal way for people to learn.  As you know we mix our style of training based around the needs of the learners and get our delegates to practice their learning through the use of exercises.  This has been a proven way of ensuring that the learning actually transfers to the workplace.

So how do you manage everyone’s expectations?  Very diplomatically is the answer!! This is where the skill of the trainer is critical to the success of the learning event as they should be able to flex the input and depth of the subject for the benefit of the learner.  What you cannot be in this situation is the sort of trainer who just runs a course based on a script and who does not have the depth of subject knowledge to go deeper or wider as the learner’s need.

The lessons here are:

If you are a buyer of training you want to buy trainers who have a great depth of knowledge of their subject and who can give you proven references of delivering on this subject on a number of occasions.  You want to ensure that you have clarified exactly what the learning outcomes you want from the training are and ensure that the trainer provides the learning programme to meet these and not what they want to deliver.

If you are a trainer you need to only deliver on subjects that you are an expert on so that you can go deeper as the learner needs, as well as wider on related subjects so that you help the learner learn.  

The best example I had recently was delivering a time management course and we got onto the subject of performance management…not completely unrelated but not normal bedfellows! I have a wide & deep knowledge of both of these subjects so we were able to have a valuable discussion on managing performance, which the group found very useful and did not detract from the key learning of the day, but assists your credibility as a trainer.

So get involved in designing what you are delivering as early as possible and ensure that you are able to competently deliver on all the subjects!

Thanks for your time,

Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

So here we are at the end of another busy and interesting year in the world of training and leadership development and just taking a few moments to reflect on the year and to look forward.

For us at Rubus Associates 2012 was the start of our next decade in business and it has been a great year.  We have re-developed our website which is now something that I can develop add content to without having to bother my web designer, this makes life so much easier and faster.  Mind you it was thanks to his patience that I know what to do!!!!

I have also developed my own blog this year which I have found very interesting and a great way to share thoughts and ideas with the world in a short document…I don’t think any of us have got loads of time to read pages and pages of stuff!!  I am also getting better at the whole social media by using Twitter and beginning to develop our Facebook pages, but I must admit that you have to be disciplined to ensure that it is all up to date!

We have also developed a number of different bespoke courses for our clients and delighted to still be working with some key people who have been our clients for many years…..long may that continue!

Now is also the time when as professionals we should all spend some quality time reviewing what we have achieved for our own professional development (CPD) and recording it so that we have that record to look back on.  It is also a time to consider what do we want to learn & develop within ourselves this coming year.   I did not think I would be this far down the social media path last year so I have it on my plan for 2013 as it is something I enjoy doing and I hope that you enjoy reading!

If you are not a great planner or you just like to go with the flow….more spontaneous use your diary to review what you have done this year.  I always find it amazing to look back and to realise what you have achieved over the 12 months, we do forget! So take that time and look back and then, if nobody else does, pat yourself on the back and say “Great Job”

Then the hardest part is to say ok, ‘what am I going to achieve in 2013?’  Write a few ideas down or put together a vision board.  This is where you use pictures of what you would like to see in the future in your world or themes that you want for key areas of your life.  There is plenty of stuff about it out there on the web, but just get a few ideas or thoughts down on paper so that when you get to this time next year you will have done something you wanted to do because you made it happen, not just seeing what comes along.

So here’s to a fab 2013! Thanks for your time,

Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassciates.co.uk