Training Groups in 2010

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

2009 saw the start of the our training groups – an opportunity for people to come together in order to develop personally and professionally through the medium of facilitated learning, shared experience and mutual growth. It has been an extraordinary year!

For 2010 the concept has been refined; retaining flexibility but within a more recognizable structure. We will continue to address those subjects and issues that are important to the group and each session can be supported by a goal-focused coaching session for those who want it. However, the monthly sessions will now follow a 4-month cycle with the first three months covering agreed topics with the fourth being used to review the learning from sessions 1-3 and complemented by action learning sets (please see below).

Never cast in stone, the subjects will be agreed by the group prior to each phase but in the absence of anything definitive at this stage, we would suggest the following schedule:

• Principles of Performance
• Knowing What You Want
• High Performance Relationships
• Review and Action Learning Sets*
• Persistence
• The Feel-Good Factor
• If You Think You Can – If You Think You Can’t … You’re Right
• Review and Action Learning Sets
• Effective Communication
• Getting What You Want
• Powerful Presenting
• Review and Action Sets

* So what are Action Learning sets well…

Action Learning Sets are a simple yet powerful tool for personal and professional development. They provide the opportunity to work on real problems and implement solutions – learning by doing. It’s a really powerful way for ‘people’ to learn from ‘people’.

What they give us is:

• Space for individual reflective learning
• Learning to take back to the workplace and translate into action
• Support and challenge from peers
• The chance to work smarter and find creative ways to bring about change
• A chance to test beliefs and assumptions and learn what works
• A safe environment to explore new ways of thinking and doing
• Personal, as well as professional, learning and development
• Insight into how others achieve different solutions
• A chance to progress new opportunities and develop new ideas

………..understand yourself.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

…understand yourself!  Then, and only then, can we manage ourselves effectively through constant, consistent and persistent application of focused effort towards the achievement of worthy goals.  If goal achievement is dependent on working with others then being aware of what drives others (Social Awareness) enables a much greater ability to develop high performance relationships and manage them to the benefit of all.

In organisational terms, if Leaders have a clear understanding of the company: the vision for the future, what success looks (and feels) like, the specific goals that drive action etc, the subsequent identification of resources is relatively easy.  I will admit that actually securing the necessary resources might be more of a challenge especially in the current climate, however, taking time to consider the company’s most important resource, the people you have, working with them to align individual needs and preferences with organisational goals is time and effort never wasted.

So, can you give honest and complete answers to the above questions?