Learning Log

A little light and good news to brighten the gloom at Christmas

I have collected and collated some "feelgood" items for this little seasonal offering to spread the learning point that even in the gloom and doom of Britain 2008/09 there is some happiness; enjoy….

If you are a training provider, or a trainer, and you are currently feeling that life is pretty grim, just be grateful that you aren't in the same business as this organisation…

…as you struggle to work with your laptop and PowerPoint slides, your Blu-tac and flip chart, spare a thought for this guy, and count your blessings! At least you don't have to wear rubber gloves to work

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An amusing anecdote regarding customer service;

My wife bought a new watch from a gift retailer she knows locally and after a couple of months it stopped. The retailer said that if my wife took the watch back to her, she would send it to the wholesaler and get a new battery fitted free….sounds good so far.

A few weeks after returning the watch my wife asked if it had come back yet. 

There was a moment of embarrassed silence before the retailer confessed that she had completely forgotten about the return for a new battery and had…

…sold the watch to another customer!

Read On >>>>>>>>>>>

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As regards Christmas Greetings click here to visit the Coach-and-courses Christmas Card for 2008.

Read On >>>>>>>

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And finally, just to prove that even the criminal fraternity occasionally get an attack of conscience at this festive season:

A thief has been captured on CCTV footage returning the diary of a woman killed in a car crash to her parents' home on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border.

A figure was filmed bringing back the journal written by Lisa Wilson who died in a car accident in Australia in 2002.

Her parents kept the journal and other mementoes of their daughter's final days in a safe which was ripped out during the burglary on 30 November.

Lisa's father, Clive Wilson, 56, said: "This is the best Christmas present."

The thief returned to the Wilson's house a week after the burglary in Nomansland, between Southampton and Salisbury, while the couple were at a Christmas party.

'Irreplaceable'

The burglar was caught on CCTV cameras installed outside the house putting the stolen items in a cat basket.

He or she also gave back postcards, letters and photos belonging to 23-year-old Lisa but kept valuable family items including jewellery.

Mr Wilson said: "Lisa's journal was irreplaceable, it was full of her words and she will never be able to say anything to us again.

"We have had all her special thoughts returned to us which is amazing. In some ways it brings her back to life for us.

Lisa's mother, Patricia Wilson, 59, said: "She saw the good in everyone, no matter who they were. I think she touched the hearts of those guys who broke into our house.

"It proves her point that there is good in everyone."

Lisa's parents have set up a trust fund in memory of their daughter and have so far raised £160,000 to help students with financial problems.

 Have a good Christmas and as prosperous a New Year as Messrs Brown and Darling will allow!

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November

November has been an excellent month for new discoveries and learning for me, on both the direct work and the life side.

Non-work

I hit 47 this month and in an idle moment was surfing around when I come across this website, http://www.fiftyplusnorthantsadventureclub.org.uk/, I suppose it goes to show that whilst life may not "begin at fifty", if you can find a group of like minded adventurous souls, it can certainly get a new lease.

Many of the readers of this Llog are laptop users and many of those fund their own machine (rather than having a large IT department to fall back on). In a similar situation my son found that his laptop was becoming depressingly slow and clunky and was hankering for a new one….my wife found this website, http://www.crucial.com/. This website will analyse your computer and tell you exactly what hardware you can buy to upgrade it, they then offer to sell you same for a surprisingly low price. We were able to upgrade the laptop for £26 and ten minutes with a screwdriver, all instructions included. Log on time has gone from 25 minutes to about 30 seconds!

If you happen to love seafood and you happen to be an un-precious sort who can cope with an eatery that is completely frill-free, make a trek to The Company Shed. Bare concrete floor, bring-your-own-booze-and-bread, mismatched glasses and cutlery and mindlessly fresh seafood-to-die-for at amazingly low prices (eg less than £50 for 5, two courses), fantastic!

On the work front

In these days of soaring fuel prices and economic gloom I asked for a received an eco-button as a birthday present. This cunning little device drops your PC into sleep mode at the touch of a, well, eco-button. I've had mine attached to my home-office desktop for three weeks and to date it claims to have saved me £5.32 in electricity and the environment 10.41 kg of carbon. Extrapoliting that up if you have a personnel population of 50 and they only use it half as much as I do you could save over £4500 per year! Yes, I'm sure someone will point out that this simply speeds up a feature that is already on your computer, but, hey, it's that speed and ease that actually makes you use it isn't it?

Having written a response to a question on trainingzone I have been contacted by a US specialist publisher, the Bob Pike Group, who have asked to publish my answer in their regular newsletter entitled Creative Training Techniques, it is nice to learn that in the information age someone in a small village in Hampshire can have an effect on people as far away as Chicago, Illinois!

I'm writing another topic for Alchemy on "Mission, Vision and Purpose" (whilst waiting for "Communicating Change" to get through the editor's grasp!) and this is providing a great stream of "new" learning, from the varied opinions of what mission statements are, to how to produce them, to what to do next. Particularly insightful was the comment on a forum (from which I am seeking anecdotal vox-pops), which asked, "Have you thought about your personal mission statement in life?" This is a question I often used to ask in career counselling mode.

I'm also learning a considerable amount of new and revision stuff around contract law and court case history regarding non-payment of invoices…but I won't detail this as it may embarrass a certain organisation who is currently proving "difficult" 

October 2008

On the work front

As times get more worrying in terms of income I felt it might be appropriate to see if I could get this site to earn me some money; loath to actually charge for the resources and downloads I've been giving away for years, my wife suggested an "honesty box". 

Conscience box or honesty box?

I'd never really thought there was a difference, but I have learned that an honesty box is where there is a fixed price and an honour system for collecting the payment, whereas a conscience box is for people to donate what they think is fair.

So I learned how to set up an on-line shop but instead of "products" there are different levels of voluntary contributions, a virtual conscience box!

I also learned that, according to studies, an honesty box is more effective when accompanied by a picture of eyes looking at you or of Jesus looking down at you! The eyes I felt were a little threatening and recognising the rather one sided view of Jesus, in our multi-cultural and secular society, I'm afraid I succumbed to Jiminy Cricket;

I suppose I'll learn over time whether folk actually place a value on these things!

For the past six months I've been providing an online career coach and executive coaching service to a corporate client, I've also been providing some ad hoc career coaching to private individuals, again on line and via the phone. I have decided to make this service a more formal offering and thus have put it on the website here.

I came across an interesting little "policy" for improving "time management" and productivity, a download is available here, and don't forget, if you like this you can leave a little contribution on your way out!

The editorial staff at Training Zone took two of my ideas up this month as the Trainers tips, the first relates to the issue of senior managers failings in the area of speeling and gramer and appears here…

The second relates to making training manuals "sexy" and appears here

On the home front

I live in a house with two other generations; our children and my Mum-in-law. I recently discovered that this three generation lifestyle is a growing phenomena so I have set up a website to provide advice and assistance to folk thinking of going to this lifestyle.

This exercise has taught me a lot about a wide range of things;

~Unlike the UK Border Agency and at least one Police Force, I learnt to create my own logo in 20 minutes before breakfast rather than spend thousands of pounds on it.

~I learnt how to write a PR plan and a press release; so well that I issued the press release and got my first request for an interview from a journalist within 6 hours!

~I learnt that I have some serious spelling problems and a rather iffy taste in colour schemes (I learned this courtesy of some of my virtual web colleagues at TrainingZone and TrainerBase from whom I solicited some feedback about the site)

And on a mixed front

Since we reopened the fireplace in our home I have noticed a frequent tendency for downdraft to fill the living room with smoke; I did a bit of googling and found the right product but whilst looking I came across this. It is a great lesson for any business thinking of cutting costs and going to a remote or virtual customer help desk.

September 2008

Once again a lot of lessons have been learned on both the work and the "life" fronts….in the latter section there are some lessons that will be valid for a lot of folk particularly as relate to the roof over your head!

Work Front

I have just completed the manuscript for the Management Guide on Communicating Change for People Alchemy- at time of going to press it is with the editor so should hopefully be live within the next couple of weeks. This work has taken me into the world of TJ Larkin whose extremely well referenced work explodes quite a few pieces of the received wisdom in regard to change management.  Alchemy is now available online as well as a down load so it offers even greater flexibility to your people....and is very cost effective in these difficult times.

I'm now working on a Guide for Mission and Vision which again is showing me that there are, as Kipling said, "nine and fifty ways"!

During these studies I have come across two very useful websites; the first is a production of the HSE; it aims to dispel all those horrifying 'elf & safety myths that are promulgated in the press and on TV (mostly by Messrs Clarkson and Fry!), have a look http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm.The second is one for anyone looking to give their company, product or service a name…it is humorous but real and therefore not falling into the category of "just a laugh." Take a gander at www.bspcn.com/2008/06/07/the-50-best-pun-stores/ 

On the "Life" Front

We bought a VAX Mach 6 upright vacuum cleaner….this is the sort of machine that Jeremy Clarkson would buy; it is not a domestic appliance, it is a Weapon of Mess Destruction; if Hans Blix had found a couple of these in Iraq, Tony and George would never have had egg on their faces. If you want a vacuum cleaner that sucks the muck OUT of your carpet, rather than just OFF your carpet, get one of these!

It is also guaranteed for 6 years!

 Being country folk we made a large batch of bramble jelly in July and after the fruit pulp had drained I added a bottle of vodka and four dessertspoons of sugar to the pulp that otherwise would have gone in the compost bin. I left this for a couple of weeks and then drained it off and bottled the vodka…the taste is heavenly!

Over the past two years my wife and I have been battling for my Mother-in-law over the sale of her previous home to a developer with a Deed of Covenant to her benefit over future planning applications. Many British homes have Deeds of Covenant and I would like to share some of my learning about these legal instruments.

~ A Deed of Covenant is worthless unless someone has the financial wherewithal to enforce it through the courts; a long and expensive process.

~ Legal Aid (it has a different name now but we all still know it as Legal Aid) doesn't cover you if you are the victim of a breach of contract

~ Having Legal Service insurance may well not cover you for what you think it does, especially if it is linked to your car insurance or a credit card.

~ You don't have to be a solicitor to represent yourself or your family in court....but it helps if you can get some free legal advice from qualified neighbours or friends.

~ There is a product called "After The Event" legal insurance which you can buy to cover the legal cost of suing someone....perhaps! (I'll let you know if this works when we have gone further down this road) 

August 2008

August passed half in Turkey on holiday and half in the UK back at work but again lots of lessons were learned both on the professional and the outside-work fronts.

Outside work

One of our chickens has gone "broody" and the received wisdom is to pop her into a separate cage where she can't snuggle down warm and comfy. Broody cages seem to be about £60 if you want to buy them but I remembered from my Army Engineering days a thing called a "gabion basket" that sounded remarkably similar. B&Q sell a product called the "Qube" by Metpost, which is a perfect broody cage at c£8! I simply used some cable ties to connect it together rather than the structural spirals provided and Robert was my parent's brother.

I also learned (from a book) how to clip wing on chickens so now our little flock is truly free range…and the garden is slug-free to boot!

Should you ever find yourself needing parts for your car but not wanting to pay the full dealer prices/wanting to recycle go to http://www.1stchoice.co.uk/ this brilliant FREE service found me a steering rack, an exhaust manifold and a new wheel, all with a guarantee and at a saving around £500 on garage prices!

On the Professional Side

A client has asked me to help them to "refresh" their Balanced Scorecard and roll it out amongst their staff and managers to get some understanding and commitment to the management techniques and cultures appropriate to make it work. As a result of this I have been learning all about the history of the Balanced Scorecard and devising/adapting some management tools to support the achievement of successful outcomes. This has led me to delve deeper into Action Centred Leadership as well as SMART goals & objective setting, effective delegation, feedback skills, cascade briefing and leadership competencies. I'm producing a supporting e-book for the roll-out but sadly some internal politics have caused the project to be put on hold so I can't finalise the work, hopefully all will be re-started shortly and we can complete the material and get the workshops done.

I've had some very positive feedback from clients using the Process Improvement Module I have written for People Alchemy, in one particular instance a major insurance brokerage has found it perfect to help them to produce the documentation they needed to finalise some major business.

I recently came across a rather cute little joke that perfectly explains what an "osintot" is, for anyone who wants to use it in Project Management Training I've put it as a downloadable resource on this website.

July 2008 

July has been a quite quiet month on the work related learning side, partially due to the holiday season, but there have still been a few nuggets;

On the work front

Some years ago I was contracted to write a workshop, which included a workbook. The client wanted the workbook to include a sample of a contract; the contract was the complete document, which, though obsolete still contained real client names and details. Said document was produced and placed on a password protected page on my website. A delegate had visited the password protected page of my website and "copied" the link in the address line at the top of the screen. This then somehow got posted as a link on Google, allowing anyone who did a Google search to simply click on the link and bypass the password protection straight into the confidential page. On discovering this I had to delete the page and the actual server download of the document. 

Lessons learned; beware the apparent confidentiality of password protected pages; if a client copies and pastes the link it is still the supplier's website and therefore responsibility. Also beware of including ANY confidential information in course materials; they can surface years later with the only apparent attribution being the author's signature!

My third management guide has just been published on People Alchemy; this one is on Process Improvement and I learned a lot more about the tools as I wrote the piece. I'm now working on a module entitled Communicating Change.

On the home front

We took our holiday in Turkey this year and this led to some learning about packaging; most packaging in Turkey has exclusively Turkish labels and so when we wanted a bottle of milk I bought a white plastic 500ml bottle with blue writing and pictures of cows grazing. There were also identical bottles with green writing, which I assumed to be UHT or skimmed milk.

I later discovered that in Turkish, milk is "Süt".

However, there is also a popular product called "Ayran"; this is strongly salted drinking yoghurt.

Lessons leaned; salty yoghurt does nothing beneficial for the flavour of PG Tips and sometimes a picture paints a thousand inappropriate words!

A little guilty secret

As a true Englishman I have always eschewed the American food staple of the PB&J, or peanut butter and jelly, sandwich. Recently I read a couple of excellent books by a female American writer called Nevada Barr and her lead character refers to a peanut butter and honey concoction. Purely out of scientific interest I tried it…..it really is very good!

June 2008

June has gone and what a lot was learned in that merry month, on both the work and non-work related front.

On the work front

I needed to put some sound bites into my laptop to allow them to be used on a Recruitment Workshop…having done so I discovered that my laptop's soundcard was burnt out and apparently you can't replace a soundcard in a laptop. However, I discovered that you could get a USB Plug and Play soundcard for about £14; this allowed me to use the sound on a computer that had no internal card. For any folk whose desktop PC in the office, being configured and built for work, has no soundcard, this is a useful way to be able to access e-learning modules that require this facility.

The laptop concerned above is slowly unravelling and desperately needs replacing…. those who know me will know that I'm nothing if not a bit tight-fisted, though nowadays it is more acceptable to dress this as "environmentally friendly"!  Did you know that PC World on-line sell guaranteed, second-hand laptops for just over 50% of the new price? I've just received a very nice Toshiba wide-screen laptop for less than I'd have paid for a cheapy in Woolworth's; delivered to my door and in virtually brand new condition! 

"Growth?"- A client wanted to run a team away-day for a large team which consists of several autonomous business sub-teams. They wanted to have each team give a presentation relating to their plans and needs for the future financial year.

I came up with a mnemonic-based "plan" of which I'm quite proud (on the grounds that it worked well both to focus the teams' minds and to gain feedback for management). 

The mnemonic was GROWTH; Goals, Realities, Opportunities, Wants, Tools and Hurdles. There is a free downloadable resource for anyone who wants to get more information and or to use it.

I also learned that bookmarks and hypertext links in Word work in a very different way to the "same" things in .pdf documents; in fact it seems almost impossible to use bookmarks in a similar way on a .pdf, although sometimes they transfer faultlessly!

The Equation that:

Performance = Skill + Will has always been a favourite of mine and I heard another one last week which I think is equally valuable;

Failure + Excuse ≠ Success

On the non-work front

I have a garden fountain that I don't like to run permanently as the water splashes out and it slowly empties.  When it isn't running the water drains back down the pipe into the reservoir below which renders it useless as a birdbath. Not wanting to "plug" the feed pipe I popped a sheet of Perspex into the bowl, loaded it with large pebbles from the water feature and zapped it with a hot air gun. The Perspex softened and created a modernistic bowl inside the stonework….it just lifts out when I want to run the fountain and it doesn't detract from the look of the stonework!

May 2008

May has been a good month for learning new things on both the business and the personal fronts.

Any fool can sweat... 

On the personal side I discovered that even a cheap Woolworth's pressure washer can save you a ton of elbow grease in terms of getting all the green stuff off the garden furniture, I'm sure that the electricity it uses isn't very environmentally friendly but being able to avoid using any cleaning agents probably makes up for this!

Bok, bok, bok, bokaaaaa   a hobby that provides a meal!

We have recently become the proud owners of four chickens who are gaily providing us with delicious free-range eggs, buckets of chicken poop for the compost heap and hours of delight. I'd never realised how pretty the 'umble chicken is! Apparently owning chickens is the fastest growing "hobby" in the UK.

Something to make you go "Huh?"…….

My son suddenly pointed out the following:-

 ~we use acronyms because they contain fewer syllables and are therefore quicker and easier to say than the words they represent, for example "V and A" (4) instead of "Victoria and Albert" (7) or MP (2) instead of Member of Parliament (6 or 7, depending on your diction)

~but the most common acronym in the modern world is probably "www" (9*) which is "short" for "world wide web" (3)

*[or 6 of you come from Texas and call the President "Dubya"]

Making corporate values earn their keep..

On the work front I've recently come across a situation where an organisation wants to ensure that their "Values" are more meaningful than a bit of paper in the bottom drawer. What they have done is to link their organisational Values to their Core Competencies so that espousing the values through behaviours becomes an element of their recruitment process and their appraisal cycle....

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sticky notes rule...

I had been told that "Post-It" type notes (which I love) are not re-cyclable and gum up reprocessing plants…since the source of this was a highly qualified environmental scientist I accepted it as fact…however, I mentioned it on a forum and was taken to task by another contributor; follow this link to see the latest on how you can use "post-its" with a clear conscience! http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/faq.html

And finally...

Courtesy of any answers on Trainingzone.com I have discovered how to easily make a recording to put a sound bite into a Power Point presentation. I'm just producing some "listening" exercises to go into a training course I'm writing and this will provide a perfect repeatable resource for testing people's listening skills.  To prove I can do it, and to tell you "how to", you can listen to it here (if you have a sound card and speakers!)

April

I have picked up a range of useable and insightful little learnings this month:

E-mail lifesavers

To avoid accidentally sending an unfinished or un-thought out e-mail

1. Set spell checker on your emails- it will usually give you a second chance if you accidentally hit "Send"
2. Don't put the subject line in until you are ready to send- here you will always get a prompt option if you hit the button prematurely
3. Avoid using the "Reply" option and always "Create"; you are less likely to send to the wrong people and your emails don't end up 200 pages long!

Make a Word document more interactive

By adding a hypertext link to a section of a word document you can then add a "screen tip" as an answer to a question or a clarifying comment…put the cursor over the words "hypertext link" above to see what I mean (but don't click!).

Making the simple complicated

I picked this up as an example of how to blind 'em with bulls**t if you can't baffle 'em with brilliance.

Again I was approached for some input to an article about dealing with difficult delegates….follow the link below to see the outcomes.

Holiday-makers, prisoners and learners

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=181428&d=680&h=608&f=626&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y  

Are you being "negative"?

This quote appeared during a BBC Medieval Season documentary.

"By doubting we come to enquiring and by enquiring we discover the truth"

Peter Abelard 1079-1142

It struck me as a neat encapsulation of why a cynic can be a useful catalyst to development.

And finally….

Click here to see an image that could teach us many things; for example

"Men work better with a clear target"

"Think laterally"

"Prevention is better than cure"

"Not making a mess is better than cleaning it up"

"Customers are sometimes in control of their own satisfaction"

March has been a great month for learning new things;

On the professional front

I realised that I was being a bit free and easy with my outputs, giving away lots of stuff gratis…even to my competitors. (This realisation came about courtesy of a thread on TrainingZone). Consequently I have decided to prioritise my largesse into two categories;

a)      exercises and short handouts which I'm happy to give away free to those in want

b)      larger pieces of output, such as workshop plans or e-book manuals, which I will continue to offer but for which I need to be paid.

Hence there will continue to be a growing group of a) on the website and if anyone wants to buy the right to any of the b) type material, give me a call!

Learning Point

You just have to be commercial about things if you want to eat!

I was running a customer focus workshop for a business in the design and decorating business and the subject of "competitors" came up.  Delegates were discussing who their competitors are and what they are doing in the field (in order to plan a the "Signature" of a Triple S approach).  One of the delegates was from the Marketing function, which had just completed an awareness and attitude survey amongst actual and potential customers.  Interestingly the survey told them that the single biggest competitor for the design and decorating business was Thomson Holidays!

Stunned silence!

Deep thought

Ah-ha moments!

Learning Point

You may be competing for the principle as well as the contract!

Another work related learning this month concerns to the issue of reviewing-yesterday's-learning-on-Day-2 of a training course.  The colleague I was working with produced a series of 3x5 cards with the key aspects of Day 1 as one-word summaries. 

He then divided the delegates into three teams of 6 and got them to play competitive Pictionary™ with a six-pack of Cadbury's Cream Eggs as a prize! 

Simple, but highly effective.

I picked up the following list from a press release from the Carbon Trust:

Workplace emissions - fast facts

• Office lights left on overnight use enough energy in a year to heat a home for almost 5 months

• A 2°c increase in office temperature creates enough CO2 in a year to fill a hot air balloon

• Air conditioning an office for 1 extra hour a day uses enough energy in a month to power a TV for over a year

• A computer left on overnight for a year creates enough CO2 to fill a double-decker bus

• A photocopier left on standby overnight wastes enough energy to make 30 cups of tea

• A chiller door left open for 30 minutes a day wastes enough energy in a year to power a lighthouse for nearly 4 days

Learning Point

Even if you are a sceptic about the whole CO2, man-is-destroying-the-planet thing you can look at the wasted money and still see the point of cutting down on the power useage.

On the outside work front

When you buy something on the web using PayPal™ you are protected, right?

            …Well up to a point and read the small print;

I bought a new laptop battery on e-bay and paid through PayPal.  The seller didn't send the battery as contracted until I reminded him by email, it was 21 days before he mailed it. 

It arrived and I put it on to charge overnight as recommended.  It ran my laptop for 7 minutes!

I tried again

3 minutes

I contacted the seller, who responded, after five days.

I replied, he responded after another five days.

I sent back the damaged battery and waited for the promised replacement.  

Two weeks later; no replacement.

I contacted the seller, he replies three days later he hasn't sent a replacement and won't.

I contact PayPal but….the protection is only for 45 days….I'm out of time!

Learning Point

Be aware of buying things from CHINA via PayPal…the cut-off period doesn't take into account the long reply and shipping times.

Did you know?

If you have a garage/shed full of part empty cans of paint did you know that lots of Local Authorities run a paint recycling scheme; you drop off your unwanted paint and charities can collect it for free.

Google "paint recycling" in your locality and clear the shed!

February 2008 

February has been quite a juicy month for learning new "stuff";

I was asked to stand in and run a two day assertiveness workshop in place of a trainer who had to go into hospital; I got the delegate workbook but there was no trainer guide material at all! It was quite an enlightening journey to work backwards from the end result through the to the timetable and the learning objectives. The delegates came from investment and retail banking, a global charity and a professional services firm so there was quite a range of personality types. Suffice to say it was a successful workshop with comments including "The BEST course I have ever been on"

I use the "Any Answers" feature on Training Zone as an exercise area to practice problem solving and this month there was a question relating to assertiveness strategies, particularly saying "no"…one respondent, Colin Boxer, proposed a novel methodology which I thought was so brilliant that I "stole" it!

If you would like to see the original post click the link below

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=179677&d=728&h=608&f=626&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y  

Or, if you prefer I've written it up as a download

I've also learned a fair bit about glass fibre this month, and, having just gone through a minor outer circle of Hell with an insurance claim for a kitchen floor, I've learnt that insurance contractor Homeserve couldn't plan a prayer meeting in a church and not to try putting down expensive Karndean thermo-plastic tiles on "Sticks Like Sh*t" gap filling adhesive; this is what the tiler did and it makes the tiles go soft and the adhesive expands!

October 2007
October has been an interesting learning month with a range of discoveries in the work and non-work fields. Looking first at the non-work;

My home came with a 10-year guarantee on a section of hardwood floor. The varnish on the floor has deteriorated and the surface of the wood is now stained. I called the company and was told that the guarantee is on the wood not the varnish; if the wood wears through in 10 years they will replace it. So I now have an ugly, badly stained floor, four years old but the guarantee doesn't kick in until we've worn through 10mm of solid beechwood. I asked what I should do about the surface. "Sand it down and re-varnish it" came the answer….But "Of course, as soon as you sand it you are damaging the wood, which invalidates the guarantee". Choice; six more years of a stained and pitted floor or let the company off the hook and get a decent looking floor!

Learning Point: paying extra for a guarantee may be a false economy if it turns out to be a "weasel warrantee".

Teenage energy levels: last week was half term and I badgered my seventeen year old son to get out of bed before 2 in the afternoon and do something worthwhile. My entreaties fell on deaf ears. One day his phone rang just after midday but he was still in bed and didn't answer it.

Half an hour later he got up for breakfast/lunch. 

The missed phone caller had left a message, it was a mate asking if he wanted to come shopping in the local town. 
My son's lie-in had made him too late. 
The mate took two of their female college friends and went without him. 
Sadly, he ran off the road, hit a tree and rolled. 
The girls both received cuts, bruises and a lifetime of nightmares. 
My son's mate is still in a coma.

Learning Point: I'm still working on that, and preying for a happier outcome.

Looking at the work related arena:

A client company's chairman wants all managers to have refresher training but the downtime seems to be prohibitive. I hit on the idea of using an e-learning package that could be self-managed and following it up with a short "virtual workshop" via conference call. I've been investigating this and the benefits of using this methodology are many and varied. I've invested in some learning in design and delivery of learning by phone and am hopeful that the company will agree to at least pilot the method. I'll let you all know if they do.

I wrote a workbook some months ago which was a simple "download and read" Word Document. A delegate passed comment that whilst the content was good more interaction would have made the experience more engaging. Unable to invest in "proper" e learning, I filed the comment under "G" for "Good Idea, but not do-able".

I've just delivered a Workbook on Public Relations for a bit of Charity Days Work; it is still a Word Document but it is quite interactive through the use of bookmarks and links. The client and I are both quite pleased with it so I'll let you know how it goes down with delegates! I'm planning on putting this Workbook on the downloads site BUT selling it for a small sum on behalf of charity, If you would buy a "how to" guide to PR for a couple of pounds let me know.
Last month I mentioned that I was producing a little guide to SWOT analysis; it is now available free in the downloadable resources section of this website.
 
And finally Esther...
I published the charity e-book for Sebastian's Action Trust last month, priced at £5.40.
Not one copy has sold!
In the interest of learning I'd welcome all feedback as to why people didn't buy.  Please let me know by e mail   

 Making an assumption that the issue was price I've reduced the price to £2.50....if it was price, buy it now and I'll know!  

September 2007
 

September has been an interesting month from the learning point of view; I have been developing a module on SWOT analysis for a Key Account Management workshop I run with a professional service firm and this has led me around the net and the library looking at posted and published "best practice", as well as having some in-depth discussions with end users who want their SWOT analysis to produce plans that produce results. I may publish some of the outcomes as a downloadable resource on this website in the fullness of time.

I've also continued to learn a great deal about the subjects I'm aiming to publish in my charity ebook, these range from protection against computer viruses through to business philosophy and even how to keep weevils out of your self-raising flour!

Self-generated learning about document layout, in-document search facility and bookmarks is also proving to be quite fun.

I still want input for the ebook so if you have been saving your snippet (on the basis of "save the best til last") please get it in to me very soon as I'm intending to publish this in time for Christmas. Please note I've added a new chapter subject of Health and Beauty if you have any tips (I certainly need them personally as well as for the book!)


August 2007
I learnt a bit about travel this month and I also learnt quite a few lessons in the arena of customer service...travel first;

~When travelling with others DON'T have a suitcase each; if you do, and the airline loses a piece of your party's baggage, one of your party will have lost everything.  'Tis therefore wise to spread the content around, that way, though all will have lost some, no one will be left trying to fulfil a business trip or a fortnight's holiday with only the clothes they stand up in.
(I'm sure someone will point out the two questions you are always asked by the smiling happy security people at the airport; "Did you pack this case yourself?" and "Are you carrying anything for anyone else?"~~~I'm talking about sharing your luggage with people you know and trust!)   
~Also pack your mobile phone charger in your carry on luggage....you'll need that mobile to phone the airline to track the lost stuff down.

Which brings me to the Customer Service stuff....
~If you are responsible for Customer Service for your organisation remember that good ways to upset a customer are:-
1) have a customer service phone number that no one answers for 6 days
2) have a non geographic number that may be barred on many peoples mobiles.....and that they are sure you get paid a proportion of the tarrif for
3) have a "For x department, press 1" system that ensures they have been on the line for 8 minutes before they are told "all our operators are busy please try later" and are disconnected
3a) ditto above but after eight or nine minutes the customer is given a different phone number to ring......number dictated at Mach 4 by a strongly accented recording
4) only having operators manning the "Sales" line when you are a 24 hour operation so a customer with a problem can't get any help
5) have a help system only available on-line....not every customer has access to the www.
6) ditto but a fax number, again not everyone has access to a fax, besides which the customer may want to do more than "tell" you something  

July 2007
July has been a quiet month, paid business wise, so it has given me an opportunity to reflect on the subject of "learning"; as some of my readers will know I am a consistent subscriber to the "Any Answers" forum on TrainingZone
I enjoy the challenge of finding answers to other peoples' questions as a way of learning through problem solving; this month a question was posted that went like this...

"I need to assess candidates' ability/skill in producing effective board-level documentation. It's a recruitment exercise, and although I will probably use some Verbal Reasoning tests, my client also wishes us to assess our candidates' writing skills in a more "real life" way. For example, writing a strategy document.
I guess it would be in the form of an in-tray exercise?? But I could do with some external inspiration on this one!
Chris"

This being a recruitment question it isn't my area of current, day to day expertise, but my answer was...
 
"I'm reading this as being a recruitment exercise for someone who reports TO the board but IS NOT an executive member of the board.

In order to assess the "ability to produce board level documentation", rather than getting into an assessment of the ability to actually "come up with a strategy", there needs to be some clarity of what constitutes a "board level document".

My take on this would probably be akin to the production of an "executive summary" from a more complex document.

Perhaps you could get a weighty report (you know, organisations buy them by the kilo from management consultancies (joke)) and ask the candidates to produce an executive summary that could be read/presented in less than x minutes at a board meeting.

This might also give you an insight into the individuals ability to "extract" the pertinent bits for board members; HR implications, Accounting implications etc.

I hope this helps
Rus"

The reply was gratifying;
 

"Very many thanks, Rus.
I'll be doing just that, and I appreciate your time.

I'll be giving them a wad of documentary notes, probably stuff from the company they're applying to, give them one hour to absorb, assess and analyse, Get them to produce a paper based on their assessment. From there, get them to prepare a presentation and deliver it to the Chief Exec. Over to him for final analysis/judgement.

Just hope it does the trick and makes me look like I know my stuff, and without me and my intervention, the world would stop spinning, his firm would go bust, and any chance of World Peace would be dashed....