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Connection in a disconnected world: why learning experiences matter more than ever
I was in conversation with a long-time friend of RSVP Design last week, discussing the present state of workplace training; we'll be heading out to Washington DC for the ATD Exhibition this week and I was wondering what I might expect. Part of her response really stuck with me and I've thought about it a number of times since:
"We've never had a ...
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Practicing Before the Pressure: Building Negotiation Skills that Stick
The literature of Leadership Development has many advocates for an approach characterised as ‘learning on the job’. Strong voices that tell us that the best way for leaders to hone their skills is through the visceral, first-hand practice of leadership itself. I’ve got some sympathy for this viewpoint, there are some parts of leadership ...
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Are you developing teams beyond a culture of blame?
Even a cursory browse through the huge volume of literature about great teams will reveal that there's an understandable interest in how they just seem to 'get it right'. There often follows a prescription to help other teams follow that path to success. We read about aligning individual contribution, solution-focused communication, building a team...
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Do you focus on what you’ve learned, rather than what you’ve achieved?
I was challenged by a friend recently; she was making the point that we routinely ask clients to represent the complexities of situation or organisation in a way that reduces them to banal simplicity. What she asked me to do was to capture my life as it is today in a single representational diagram. I made several starts, only to abandon an attempt...
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DON'T invest in learning (invest in behaviour-change instead)
I know I've written about this before, but it's important and it keeps coming up in conversations I have with L+D people so I feel it would be timely to ask a few questions about how learning in organisations is understood. As you'll know I'm a specialist in experiential approaches to learning, so I'm going to look at the subject from that ...
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2019
Recent Posts
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Connection in a disconnected world: why learning experiences matter more than ever
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Practicing Before the Pressure: Building Negotiation Skills that Stick
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Are you developing teams beyond a culture of blame?
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Do you focus on what you’ve learned, rather than what you’ve achieved?
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DON'T invest in learning (invest in behaviour-change instead)
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The Importance of Reflection
The end of any year has always been a time for reflection, thinking about what has happened in the past year and, perhaps, what changes do we want (or need) to make in the coming year and beyond. My personal sense of reflection has been turbo-charged this year with a visit to CIPD HQ in Wimbledon to deliver a workshop on leveraging the power of ...Read more -
Are You Experiencing Dissatisfaction With Your Leadership Pipeline
I read a lot about leadership, and not just because I’m professionally interested in leadership. What people write about leadership is a great source of insight into how they are viewing business organisations, and what they are thinking about how those organisations are likely to evolve. I’m particularly drawn to well-considered writing about ...Read more -
What is Facilitation?
Facilitation - what do we mean? One of the key learning messages from Colourblind, RSVP Design’s flagship communication skills exercise, is the importance of understanding messages in the way that is intended by the message senders. This requires careful use of language, conversations that explore different interpretations of the same words...Read more -
How to Develop Coaching Skills Experientially
“If I was in your position….” “That sounds like a good idea….” “When that happened to me, I did this…..” “I would suggest….” How often, when working to develop coaching skills, do you hear interventions like those above, closely followed by a groan and a recognition that once again, the inexperienced coach has fallen into ...Read more -
Developing the art of “Getting it Right”
Today’s organisations: flatter, faster, more pressured, more accountable. This situation has created the worrying paradox that every member of the organisation carries more responsibility for ‘getting it right’ yet there is less resource for the scrutiny that protects these members from ‘getting it wrong’. In these circumstances there is ...Read more -
Building trust between a learner and the facilitator
There are a great number of activities that a facilitator can build into an intervention with the purpose of building trust between participants. However, there’s a different, and potentially more ...Read more -
5 Reasons Creative Writing Is One Of The Best Forms Of Experiential Learning
Everyone has unique preferences when it comes to learning, but experiential learning is something that benefits everyone. It engages the brain in a way that no other form of learning does, forcing you to think for yourself instead of simply absorbing and regurgitating the materials you’re being presented with. As for what it can involve, there...Read more -
The Top 3 Reasons To Move Your Learning Outdoors
As I write this blog, I’m looking out at a classic Scottish Summer’s day, low cloud, drizzle and a penetrating westerly wind. I smile at the irony as I look back to what I’m writing, an encouragement to move outdoors for at least some of your experiential learning programmes. Why on earth would anybody think about doing that? ...Read more -
Two questions away from a Workplace Learning Culture
With Learning at Work Week (13th - 19th May 2019) happening soon I took the time to reflect on what makes a difference in terms of building a workplace culture of learning, what really makes a difference. In my opinion it’s pretty simple, doesn’t cost a lot in terms of time or investment, and is achievable without major changes in ...Read more -
Positive intent - developing the skills to lead negotiations
You don’t need to dig deeply into the literature of Leadership Development before you find advocates of ‘learning on the job’. Strong voices tell us that the best way for leaders to hone their skills is through the first-hand practice of leadership itself. I’ve got some sympathy for this viewpoint, there are some parts of leadership...Read more