Training

We design and delivery a wide range of workshops and programmes covering a broad range of topics from foundation management skills like delegating & motivating, planning & organising and giving direction and feedback, through to sessions on strategic leadership for senior teams. When talk about leadership our focus is very much 'followership' and what it takes to get people both to engage with the vision and then stay on board when things get tough.  We also ground everything in the real-life issues people are facing and not just looking at the theory.

We've never worked with a business yet where 'communication could be better', it's the one thing guaranteed to come up in every staff survey.  But this really does mean different things to different people so we tailor our approach each time. Workshops vary from mini-sessions aimed at understanding the mechanics of perception and interpretation, through events geared to developing communication skills to more specialist areas such as interview and presentation skills.

This has become one of our real areas of specialty over the years and we have put thousands of people through our range of workshops both face-to-face and, since the pandemic, remotely as well. Sessions focus on a range of different aspects including:

• Understanding equality law, what it means in practice and the difference between complying and creating inclusive workplaces

• Cultural differences and their impact

• Understanding and learning how to mitigate the impact of unconscious bias.

Whether it's a new team that would benefit from some accelerated 'norming and forming' or a group that's looking to just work more effectively together - or even if you have a team that's just a bit broken and needs some help putting itself together again, then it's what we've done before and we'll have an event or approach to suit. All our team development events have a strong experiential component and are therefore designed to be fun, but depending on your need we layer in more diagnostic and reflective pieces.  Regardless of which route we aim for "unforgettable and invaluable".

Often included in wider management programmes, we are increasingly seeing organisations turning to continuous improvement tools and techniques to help those who actually do the work, help answer the question "how can we do things better?"  Based on Lean Improvement methods, sessions blend explanations and illustrations of the core principles and tools alongside practical exercises applying these to real-life problems participants are having to deal with.  Ideally this then leads into actual structured improvement activity.

HR professionals, and line managers who take on devolved responsibility for operational HR issues, require a specific type of development support. Here it is a blend of enhancing technical knowledge and understanding and honing the skills, tools and techniques needed to deal with situations effectively. Typical topics are:

• Recruitment & selection (inc. interviews)

• Performance conversations (inc. appraisals)

• Grievance and discipline (conducting investigations and holding the meetings)

• Dispute resolution and mediation