Tag: CIPD

Preferred Learning Methods

As part of our work with Careergro we’ve been asking companies and people about their preferred methods of learning. This is part of some wider research on career development more of which we’ll share soon, but for now seeing as we’re at the CIPD HRD event, we’d like to share a little of what we’ve seen so far. We’ve had replies so far from 24 companies and 53 individuals, and we asked ‘what are your company’s/your preferred methods of learning and development (please choose all that apply)?’.

Preferred Learning Methods

I showed these figures to Rob Jones who suggested that a reason why further study rates better among employees than employers, might be that the results transfer easily to the CV? And I found the figures for networking disappointing, perhaps the mix of learning and beer isn’t conducive to great post event recall? And training courses remain popular, more so with employers than employees. Is there something here about containment, and ‘we’ve seen you do it ergo you are trained’, perhaps?

I’m interested to know what other thoughts and ideas these numbers provoke so please don’t be shy 🙂

Meantime, the surveys remain open and you can complete the employer one here and the employee one here. They are short, and we mean short. The survey takes no more than three minutes so please take part and help add to this study.

The Man With No Name

So the big nerves are over – for now at least. I’ve given a talk on Smart Use of Social at the CIPD HRD event and it seemed to go well. The little auditorium was overflowing, nothing like a crowd to put the fear in you!

I don’t know about you but increasingly I find straight forward presentations rather dull, and I’m not sure how much learning actually sticks. So I’ve been trying a few ways of making a talk more engaging that you might find useful to think about the next time you are asked to give a talk.

Pictures v Words

I’ve got a confession to make, I’m falling in love with PowerPoint. There, I’ve said it. It is a great tool for adding visual depth to a talk. The session I ran this morning had a few slides, and only one had any words on it (four of them in total). If you’ve lots of written stuff you want to share, that’s fine but please put it in a document, not on a bunch of slides.

Ask v Tell

I started the conversation asking people ‘what do you want to get out of this session?’. The beauty of this approach is that I’m dealing directly with the needs of the audience. It happened that some of those needs mapped nicely onto some of the images I had in the deck so where there was a good fit, I used them. I keep reminding myself that I know what little I know already and because I’m a lousy mind reader I find this a useful way to kick off a talk. 

The Eyes Have It

Eye contact matters. Even though people say I don’t show it I get quite uptight when giving talks. Something that helps me to relax is the personal direct contact I have with others. So when I’m talking I talk to one person at a time. I try and make eye contact with as many people as I can. The interaction that produces is wonderful, and I find it reassuring. And I think it helps people in an audience feel involved too.

So there are three things that worked for me this morning, and it didn’t all go to plan…

Mister Invisible

Several people came up to me after the talk to say thanks, one guy even declared the session ‘brilliant’. Then I detected a buzz of ‘where can we find out more?’, ‘who was that guy?’. I froze. I had made a school boy error. I forgot to tell anyone my name, far less share any contact details. Idiot!

 

Counter Terrorism and Survival

Made it – just!

Good morning! I’m at the CIPD HRD conference and exhibition today and tomorrow. I accidentally tried to muscle my way into the counter terrorism expo round the corner but needless to say, my credentials were found wanting! Still, at least they didn’t shoot me.

What’s going on?

This morning I’ll be facilitating a conversation on smart use of social in the Tech for Learning Zone. If you are free at 10.15 feel free to come along and heckle. Shortly after that I’m helping Gareth Jones with the Twitterversity session and I’m also helping with the Tweet up at the end of today. And through the day I’m hoping to share some of the early survey results on career development that we’ve discovered through our work with Careergro. If you fancy being interviewed about this tweet me and we’ll meet up. The day is packed, phew!

Survival tips

I hope you have a stretching engaging day planned too? It could be tiring and I’m feeling in good shape. I had a chat with the very insightful Ed Percival yesterday and he gave me some common sense reminders about how to enjoy a long, busy day like today. I’d like to share them with you:

  • Get plenty of sleep. Not now, last night of course! There’ll be loads to see and you’ll see it better if you’re well rested. I logged off super early last night and slept like a log.
  • No alcohol. I was at the L&D Unconference yesterday and there was a free bar afterwards. I avoided it. No hangover for me today.
  • Drink plenty of water. I managed 2 litres yesterday and I’ve had a litre already today. OK so I’ll be hopping to the little boy’s room but keeping yourself hydrated is important if you want to make the most of an event like this.
  • Nuts! I’ve had a bowl of nutty muesli for breakfast and I’ve a bag od buts, fruit and seeds in my bag. Maybe if I’d have shown the other expo my secret squirrel stash they’d have let me in?

So there you have it. What I’m up to today, and how I plan to survive and thrive, in a nutshell 😉