One Development

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I've just got the new One-Development website up and running, so please go take a look and give me your feedback. You can find it on www.one-development.com . I'm also interested to get peoples views on coaching as opposed to training. As a discipline it seems to get far less coverage yet it is an important tool for the people who are responsible for the running of our companies.

It is often the trite response that training is a solution to problems brought on by a recession. We can retrain staff to re-engineer our organisation to meet changing dynamics in the world. Individuals can train to up their skills in a changing and shrinking jobs market, or to learn new skills to increase their job options. But I would argue that the often neglected area for training is right up at the top. If big changes are needed we need new, creative and innovative thinking by those with their hands on the levers to really make things happen. New thinking is needed - the drivers that power entrepreneurial flair are need in business and in public sector organisations. Owners, directors and senior managers should consider spending a small amount of the training budget on themselves - a little coaching, some innovation thinking perhaps -a little goes a long way at the top.

Once again, belatedly, national Government has seen that training can provide a few answers to some of the issues facing us in the current economic climate... and as a trainer I welcome these, but with some reservations and more than a touch of deja vu . As so often it is too late and unplanned: a knee jerk reaction with with a distinct whiff of panic. Ill thought out initiatives encourage trainers to rush into preparing courses to answer these 'needs'. And there is the key point... who identifies these needs and by what mechanisms? I still deal with clients in the private sectors who identify real skill shortages and I ask them if they have ever been approached by representatives of Government with respect to these needs? I assume (charitably) that consultation is constantly taking place with the main industry bodies. Of course it makes sense to look at where the big numbers are. But I still can't avoid an eerie feeling that behind locked doors someone is deciding what i

What do we mean by creativity? Often it is confused with the obviously 'creative' professions, such as media, arts and music etc. But this is only the application of creative thinking to a particular set of disciplines. I worked for a long time in advertising and we had the so-called ' creatives ' including the writers and art directors (yes, I was one for a while) but it was the way people moved from discipline to discipline that flagged up the fact that it was a way of thinking not a label that matters. I have met many scientists and engineers who are amazing creative thinkers. Look at some of our leading businessmen and women: it requires a high level of creative thought to come up with an original business idea or model and build a whole structure to carry that forward. Accepting that it is a way of thinking, an approach to problem solving, means that it can be taught. Of course people's aptitude varies, but creative thinking is a skill all can learn... and yes

Back in February I wrote on digital media training and in particular writing for the web. This has become quite an issue recently with clients increasingly opting for websites with content management systems ( CMS ). Web copy not only dictates how well you communicate your offer, but how well your site performs in organic listings on search engines. So extracted from my writing for the web training package, here are 10 key points to bear in mind. Remember how you read websites - look and learn from sites you think do it well. Don't expect your visitor to read what you won't read yourself. Customers only listen to one radio station WIIFM - 'what's in it for me'. Talk about benefits to them... don't talk about yourself. Vary descriptions: people use different terms to describe most things, so consider the terms they may search your site on. For example, I was working for a vehicle hire company, but visitors might search on truck rental, truck hire, contract hire,