Blog

Sustainable Learning in Soft Skills Training

I’m constantly asked by harried HR managers how we can ensure the learning from our soft skills training courses is sustainable back in the workplace.

The problem is that all too often people go on a training course, think ‘that’s interesting’ and then go on with their lives pretty much as before.

HR managers want to make sure they’re getting value for money and, what’s more, they want the training to actually change behaviours in the workplace. And so do we.

But change is not easy.

People are comfortable in their patterns and even when there’s a benefit to changing them they don’t always want to make the effort. And of course it does take effort.

There are definitely things that trainers, in partnership with HR managers and line managers, can do to help.
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Seeing the Glass Ceiling

I remember several years ago debating with a CEO on the shocking lack of senior women in an organisation I worked in. After a frustrating time trying to convince him of the unconscious bias women faced in a male dominated workplace, he asked me what I thought the main problem was.

I said that maybe women just weren’t as intelligent or capable as men.
“I don’t believe that for a minute!” he said, totally shocked.
“Neither do I” I hit back, “and that’s my point!”

If it’s not a lack of intelligence or capability then something else is at work.
And it’s appropriately called a glass ceiling because it’s really difficult to see.

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questions are gifts

The 3 Most Important Tips – How to Handle a Great Question & Answer Session

In our Presentation Skills training course the subject of how to handle Question and Answer sessions can be greeted with anything from  sunny optimism to doom laden dread.

Some people look forward to them as a welcome relief from having to hold court alone and have the chance to enter into a more natural dialogue with their audience. For others there is a very real fear that questioners may be challenging or even hostile  or, quite simply, leave the speaker completely at sea as to how to respond.

As trainers we spend our days handling questions and challenges. If we dreaded them we couldn’t possibly offer the high level of interactivity that we do, and all discussions would be fraught with tension. The stress level would be ghastly.

 

Questions are Vital

 

But questions are vital to the way we work. They mean people are awake (which is always a good sign) and engaged.

So we actively encourage questions and apart from a few sticky moments here or there where we have to get creative, on the whole, we enjoy sharing ideas and exploring different ways of looking at the world.

Our mission is to help people feel so good about asking questions that they all ask even more!

 

How do we go about handling them?

 

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