Since the 1950s there’s been a perception that most of the money spent on training is wasted, because it either fails to transfer back into the workplace, or fades away over time. Most studies of training transfer suggest a transfer…
How To Improve Your Training With Think Pair Share
‘Think-Pair-Share’ is a tried and tested method for getting learners to reflect on and deepen their understanding of material. It also has the advantage of breaking your course content up into memorable chunks, and helping your students to stay engaged and…
An Exercise For The End Of A Training Course
This exercise will work at the end of pretty much any soft skills course, and especially an NLP-based course. The aim is to help participants transfer their learning from the training room into real life, and anticipate challenges so as…
How To Build Things That Last – Podcast Interview
I’ve been interviewed by Judy Rees for her Collaboration Dynamics podcast. I thought I didn’t have much to say about collaboration (as I think I usually do my best work solo), until Judy reminded me that I’d created what apparently…
Your Unconscious Beliefs Distort Your Perceptions – With Proof!
Your unconscious beliefs shape and distort your perception of what’s around you. Don’t believe this applies to you? This image, the ‘checker shadow illusion’ proves it does! The ‘checker shadow illusion’ was developed by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision…
The one thing you need to know from improv comedy to make co-presenting work
How to stop co-presenting disasters – the one thing you need to know from improv comedy If you’re presenting or training with someone else, there’s one thing that both you and your co-trainer need to know to stop your training…
Training and presentation tips: which way is your audience’s future?
Observe anyone talking for a while and you will probably notice that when they talk about an event in the past, they gesture in a particular direction, and when they talk about the future, they gesture in another direction. Usually…
Symptoms as messengers
It’s as if you’re the king of a vast empire, and in a far-flung border province there’s a famine or a flood that’s causing hardship. The people try to deal with it on their own, but eventually they send a…
Seating layouts for training courses
Or, ‘how to set up the training room’. If you wanted people to shut up and just listen to you, then a ‘theatre style’ arrangement with the chairs in flat rows would be the setup of choice. Everyone is looking…
How leadership, emotional intelligence and coaching fit together – royalty free image
I put this image up on Facebook and a lot of trainers seemed to like it. So here it is – you can use it freely (yes, even for commercial projects) as long as you leave the copyright statement and…