Michelle Parry-Slater, is director of Kairos Modern Learning and author The Learning and Development Handbook
From LinkedIn:
“I focus on ‘How to Do’ better workplace learning. I want us to stop sticking plaster learning solutions, instead to dig into systemic and cultural issues which will enable L&D solutions to gain better traction and enable success.”
- Learning from life: Being abandoned portside
When you are left frustrated and abandoned, what can you learn about thinking and communication? Michelle Parry-Slater shares her story The Christmas Holidays are upon us, meaning Boxing Day sales and Summer Holiday adverts will be popping up in abundance, enticing us to plan for summer 2025. There’s nothing like packing… Read more: Learning from life: Being abandoned portside - Learning from life: Trusting my gut
Trusting your gut can be your greatest asset in the freelance world, guiding critical decisions. Michelle Parry-Slater explores the importance of intuition in decision-making Freelance life offers many benefits, not least the ability to set your own agenda and work with people and on projects you enjoy and learn from. The freedom… Read more: Learning from life: Trusting my gut - Learning from life: What I learnt from living with disruption
Noise, mess, things left behind. Coping with decorating and how that applies to job changes – as explored by Michelle Parry-Slater Despite having lived in the house for four years, we had not ‘made it our own’. I often end up doing that ridiculous thing of not decorating until we… Read more: Learning from life: What I learnt from living with disruption - Learning from life: What I learnt from parenting puppies
Michelle Parry-Slater shares puppy cuteness overload and also looks at the importance of knowing your audience, and guest blogger Julie Drybrough adds her experience about letting go A little over two years ago we welcomed two puppies into our family, Georgie and Elsie. Chaos. Cuddles. Cute. A little under 18… Read more: Learning from life: What I learnt from parenting puppies - Learning from life: what I learnt from marketing my business
Michelle Parry-Slater is always Open To Learning, Open To Reflection and Open To Sharing, but this month she looks at being Open To Work I changed my LinkedIn profile to show the #Open To Work banner on my profile photo. I did this as an experiment for this blog. I… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from marketing my business - Learning from life: writing a book
This month Michelle Parry-Slater is an open book about the challenges of writing This month my book, The Learning and Development Handbook is three years old. Writing that book taught me so much about myself and expectations on learning new skills. Who was I to write a book? I couldn’t… Read more: Learning from life: writing a book - Learning from life: finding another way
If you have a detour, do you make the most of it? Michelle Parry-Slater did and reflects upon her experience I turned up to a station in the West of England to catch a train north. Apparently, it was a strike day. The only trains running were Transport for Wales.… Read more: Learning from life: finding another way - Learning from life: What I learnt from writing blogs for TJ
Michelle Parry-Slater reviews a year of writing and, as always, considers what she’s learning by doing Debbie Carter has edited TJ for as long as I can remember. She is a lovely human who has furthered our profession by giving it a voice. A highlight of my career was attending… Read more: Learning from life: What I learnt from writing blogs for TJ - Learning from life: what I learnt from swimming in the sea
Michelle Parry-Slater doesn’t like to be cold. So when a friend suggests a dip in the sea she was less than enthusiastic I was born in August, so I blame my summer birth on the fact that I hate the cold. I would be cold if I lived on the… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from swimming in the sea - Learning from life: what I learnt from having a child move away to university
Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on our lives as parents and asks if L&D do enough to support colleagues in the emotional roller-coaster of parenting For many parents, September marks a month of mixed emotions due to the start of the school year. The joy and heartbreak of your 3-year-old skipping off… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from having a child move away to university - Learning from life: what I learnt from cutting dogs hair
TJ’s resident dog lover and regular blogger, Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on what she learnt from learning a new skill Everyone needs a hobby, right? Some people play musical instruments. Others like to garden. Perhaps you’re more adventurous and spend your weekends hang gliding. For me, I love my dogs and… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from cutting dogs hair - Learning from life: what I learnt from submitting proposals
This month Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on what she has learnt from not always winning the work pitch July is the financial year end for my consultancy business. The business turned 9 years old on 1st July. It is a reflective time of year as I consider what went well and… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from submitting proposals - Learning from life: What I learnt from walking and discussing
This month Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on how our attitudes to each other have become more informal since Covid and she urges us to reach out to colleagues to give and receive valuable support from fellow professionals From where do you get your inspiration? Or perhaps more telling, who do you… Read more: Learning from life: What I learnt from walking and discussing - Learning from life: what I learnt from getting an electric vehicle
This month Michelle Parry-Slater tells us what she learnt from getting an electric car and the pleasure of having acquired new knowledge and skills of finally ‘going alone’ Until last autumn we were driving around in an 18-year-old Volvo XC90 with nearly 200K on the clock. Aware of the environmental… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from getting an electric vehicle - Learning from life: what I learnt from having a straight-talking mentor
This month Michelle Parry-Slater reveals what she learnt from a bold and very exacting mentor At a recent meeting, I heard about a new venture the Charity Mentors Network. Mulling the subject over on the train home I had a few flashbacks to mentors I’ve had – their range of… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from having a straight-talking mentor - Learning from life: what I learnt from supermarket shopping
This month Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on a poor experience and reveals the lessons learnt from the situation Recently I went to a very popular supermarket, and it was awful. The shelves were largely empty. The stock was messy and hard to find. Some areas were really cramped with hardly enough… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from supermarket shopping - Learning from life: what I learnt from a dog that picked me
This month Michelle Parry-Slater reflects on what she learnt from the process of selecting a pet – loyalty kindness and how to be gentle Anyone who know me knows I love dogs. Over the years I’ve had several dogs. Like people, dogs come and go in your life and each… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from a dog that picked me - Learning from life: what I learnt about learning from watching Strictly
In this month’s blog Michelle Parry-Slater talks about the impact of learning well To win Strictly takes much more than raw talent. It is a masterclass in how to learn. I was late to the party on watching Strictly, a UK reality TV dance show. My husband encouraged it as… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt about learning from watching Strictly - Learning from life: what I learnt from running my own business
Expertise, outsourcing and feedback – Michelle Parry-Slater explores what she has learnt from running her own business I have been running my own business for over eight years. Usually after about three years in a role I’m ready for a change of job; I get a bit bored. The joy… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from running my own business - Learning from life: what I learnt from the changing seasons
TJ’s new blogger Michelle Parry-Slater explores the learning we take from our everyday experiences and activities At this time of year, it is typical to start thinking about new learning activities. The start of the school term spurs us on. We are used to learning in the autumn. Perhaps it’s… Read more: Learning from life: what I learnt from the changing seasons
