One Development

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.

Part of the reason I got into training in the first place is because I love the interaction with people. And I think there is no better way of developing quality training and coaching than face to face. However, with transport costs, fuel costs and the environmental costs, alternatives have to be found. I have been working on and developing online training modules for parts of courses - these work very well to add another dimension to face to face sessions. And they are useful for academic, quantifiable lessons, especially where assessment is needed. But there seemed little substitute for the interactive, participatory dimension: however over past months I have bee exploring the options provided by social networking sites, particularly Second Life. It was about a year ago that I got interested in the psychological aspects of virtual worlds as research suggests that in general people behave the same in virtual worlds as the would in the real world. This does not mean that they will pl...

This is a serious question, because we don't know. The new England rugby coach has undoubted game skills and experience, tremendous leadership skills and presence and an inspirational record. But as he admitted himself, he has no coaching experience. This is an extreme example, I know, but it does illustrate a point that we tend to think (a) that coaching skills are unimportant and can be learned on the job and (b) that training seems to be seen as less important the higher you climb the management ladder. An employee may need an NVQ before they will be considered for a job in their local leisure centre but it's okay to choose a top coach with no previous coaching training or qualification and keep our fingers crossed that he is a 'natural'.