1. Clean language

From: Liz Brant
Email: liz.brant@pineappleconsulting.co.uk

Liz asks about clean language and any book or training recommendations.   

Penny Tomkins and James Lawley have written the following book: 'Metaphors in Mind'. For courses, check out the website below. I did an excellent course on this with Marian Way of Apricot Island back in October - http://www.apricotisland.com/ The course - Module One: Less is more - was very inexpensive and a great introduction to the whole area of clean language. Marian also runs a practice group to keep your skills up to scratch and this is run monthly.

Just so you know, I have no way of making any personal gain from this recommendation except the satisfaction of pointing you all in the direction of an outstanding practitioner in this field for whom I have the utmost respect and from whom I have personally gained a lot.  

Liz

2. Clean language

From: Elouise Leonard-Cross
Email: elouise.leonard-cross@yhn.org.uk

Hi Elizabeth,

You ask about clean language.

Caitlin Walker of Training Attention did an event for our regional group and this was a new subject area to many of us. Her website is: www.trainingattention.co.uk and you can get free stuff and sign up for a newsletter plus buy some training/ books on the subject.

I have no vested interest, other than Caitlin doing an event for us which was very well received. Her approach to clean language was really clear and practical and I got a lot of positive feedback on the models she used with the group.

Best wishes,

Elouise

3. Exec training or coaching

From: Katy Limmer

Hi all,

I am researching into some exec training or coaching for my company. Can anyone give me some ideas on what sort of training their exec team has had to give me a better starting point, or recommend a reputable company in the Cambridgeshire area I can contact?

Many thanks,

Kate

4. Lessons learnt project review: facilitation ideas

From: Barry Johnson
Email: barryj@learningpartners.co.uk

Jonathan,

Let's go back to basics. People learn what to do from success. They learn what not to do from mistakes and failures.

The first question is what did you do well? It does not matter whether the task or project was a success the important thing was, what behaviours were used that were useful. The difficulty and skill is to get the learner to recognise their behaviours and the effect of them.

The second question is what might you do differently next time? We are interested here in broadening the learners' perspectives. We never ask what they did wrong.

As for reading, any of the works of the behaviourist BF Skinner is valuable.

5. Lessons learnt project review: facilitation ideas

From: Sally Murfitt
Email: sally.murfitt@bt.com

Hi Jonathan, you ask about ways to facilitate a project review. At a simplistic level there are a number of ways for instance:

· Stop, Start, Continue,
You could have a flipchart for each and get each member of the project review to post at least one on each. Red, amber and green Post-it if you want a bit if fancy footwork.

· Timeline
Put a timeline up on the wall and get people to recall how the project went, populate it with general happenings such as Christmas or bank holidays. Again, they can use different coloured post-it notes depending on whether it was positive, negative or interesting (de bono).

· You could use the six different hats (de Bono again e.g. black for negative, white for information etc) and either people can only use the colour they are wearing. Or put a particular colour on the table and people can only talk in terms of the one currently on view).

· There’s an Agile version where you ask four questions.

. What we did well that we want to remember and try to repeat?

. What should we do differently next time?

. What did we learn?

. What still puzzles us?

The keys to any one them are :

· Get people talking without point-scoring or “he did, she did” kind of conversations. PLEASE don’t have a 'leader' who refutes all opinions and suggestions. This has to be a sharing exercise

· Make it obvious this is an opportunity to learn and do things differently.

· People need time to recall what actually did happen and also to draw out that was might have been a disaster from one perspective could have been beneficial from another. So set aside enough time. And each viewpoint is right.

· And there is absolutely no point doing it if no action plan is forthcoming. If people have been through something similar before and no lessons have been learned or actions taken to prevent it happening again you will have a lot of convincing to do for them to engage.

I’ve lots more detail if you want it and happy to talk offline.

Regards,

Sally Murfitt

6. Lessons learnt project review: facilitation ideas

From: Deborah Willis
Email: dwillis@dwtrainingsolutions.co.uk

Hi Jonathon,

There are some good project review tools out there for general project managment within the business. A useful website is www.michaelgreer.com. And some people may find it amusing, but I always recommend 'Project Managment for Dummies' to my students - it's simple and easy to follow and does what it says on the tin!

The format I tend to use is:

Project aims
project activities
outcomes achieved
anything that made it difficult/stopped us achieving outcomes
what we did about it
what we are most proud of
what we would change if we could
key learning to carry forward to next project

Hope this helps,

Deborah Willis

7. Using critical success factors

From: Liz Brant
Email: liz.brant@pineappleconsulting.co.uk

Does anyone have a matrix of typical critical success factors that they would be willing to share. I am looking at the ones used by Philips Electronics and I am interested to see some more examples. I will be working with a client to help them identify their own and I want to show them some examples.   

Many thanks,

Liz

8. Venue around the top of the M3

From: Tim Royds
Email: timr@highcleresales.com

I have been asked to help urgently with a directors' awayday NEXT WEEK!

I'm facilitating and have also been tasked with finding a venue. Ideal is:

* in keeping with the day (future direction, success, etc. - the normal 'away day' stuff!)

* Six delegates including me

* The real challenge - we want to finish the formal day at 5.00pm, have dinner around 7.30pm, and in between do some sort of team activity. Bowling would do - but that's not very different. Better to find something novel. Since travelling time is extremely limited, the venue will need to be very near to where the activity is - so I really need to source an activity of some description first.

Can anyone help with any ideas (please!). As this is urgent, please contact me directly (as well as via the Digest so we can have a pooling of ideas/recommendations).

Keeping fingers crossed!

Thanks!

Tim Royds

9. Workforce development planning

From: josie okafor

Hi,

Does anybody have information on workforce planning? I am new to this area and wonder if there is a website I can use to find more information. I am due to give a presentation on relocation project.

I have re-arranged the seating plan for a department and have been tasked by my manager to decide on what information I need to take into consideration when interacting with the project group that I will be presenting to.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

TJ Discussion Forum Rules

To post your own messages to this digest, send your messages to: discussion@trainingtournal.com

Please make the subject clear in your subject field. This will allow better searching of the archive.

PLEASE MAKE THE CONTEXT OF YOUR MESSAGE CLEAR. NEW PEOPLE ARE JOINING EVERY DAY AND MESSAGES MAY NOT MAKE SENSE IF READERS HAVE NOT SEEN EARLIER CORRESPONDENCE.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Training Journal does not accept any responsibility for the content of messages posted on the Discussion Forum. Readers should satisfy themselves as to the correctness or otherwise of any advice, opinions or statements made by contributors to the Discussion Forum before acting upon them. Please be aware that while we are ever alert to viruses and do scan for them, we can accept no liability for any that may somehow be transmitted with this message.

All Discussion Forum postings are searchable at the TJ Online archive at http://www.trainingjournal.com/archives/

Contact: contact@trainingjournal.com

Please aim to keep postings to around 400 words or less.