Amazon Kindle, trainers and a virtual library Technology is changing all the time, but one thing that has moved (historically) least is display technology. Is the Kindle e-book reader from Amazon a valuable tool for professionals? Is it worth the money and more importantly the weight and space in our already busy lives? The launch of "virtual paper" (e-Ink) displays is one of the 'newer' technologies, and being in a household that devours books I thought it was time to explore these, both for … [Read more...]
About Mike Morrison
GDPR Checklist – for sole traders and Micro businesses
Data protection law changes on 25 May 2018 for all of us in Europe & beyond. There is a lot of information out there but little about GDPR for Sole Traders and Micro-Businesses The law on data protection says what you should do when you collect, use, store or do anything else with people’s personal data. This law changes on 25 May 2018. As a freelance or independent professional (be you operating as a sole trader or micro-business - Limited company), we often handle data … [Read more...]
Reviewing employee performance through effective communication
Reviewing performance through good communications As the snow recedes our thoughts turn to the spring and the unpopular annual appraisal season. Why are appraisals or performance reviews dreaded by some and feared by others? Many managers despair at the thought of stopping work as they see it to have to prepare and then interview their team members. This stoppage, of course, is accompanied by a complicated, sometimes arcane system which does not look as if it has anything to do with the tasks … [Read more...]
Why are we so bad at communicating and presentations
Are we catering to all our employees' needs? Are we really aware of everyone's disability? Why are most of us being discriminating? Why do we put some of the people we should be supporting at a disadvantage? A few months ago I had personal reasons to look at the material I was producing for clients. Are we as professional communicators providing the best service we can? Or are we providing what looks good to our immediate paymasters? Am I blind? A few months ago I was unfortunate to … [Read more...]
Organizational Development a true path to strategic development?
Organizational Development a true path to strategic development? - getting holistic Traditionally Organizational Development (OD) was mainly concerned with the three S’s of an organisation: Structures Staff and Skills Specialists and consultants practising in Organizational Development would look at an organization and identify its stage of growth or maturity. This would form the basis of a ‘diagnosis’ and an initial plan for change and developmental action. There are many variants of … [Read more...]
What is a business blog? A marketing tool?
What is a Blog? Lets look at the background behind this technology, so we can understand where it is coming from. Research into the history behind blogs suggests that it was Pyra Labs is the company that adopted the word Blogger, and made the service a big success (now known as Google blogger/ blogspot). The people that were the co-founders of Pyra Labs were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. "Pyra" was also the name of the company's first product. It was a web based application which combined a … [Read more...]
PRIMO-F Model for Business Development
PRIMO-F the Business Growth Model Often in organizations we use a SWOT analysis as a way of identifying priorities and areas for improvement. While theSWOT is a wonderfully flexible tool, it is too easy to miss out key elements. We tend to use a SWOT based on our experiences, rather than the actual situational needs. As SWOT analysis is made up of two internal elements (SW) and two external elements (OT) it is helpful to use a structure to give us a guide for what should be … [Read more...]
The Insanity of looking at the “wrong” LinkedIn metrics on articles
Looking at the wrong LinkedIn metrics? Are you guilty of looking and focusing on inefficient LinkedIn metrics? There are some an old sayings, Just because you can measure something, does not mean you should. And What gets measured gets done. Looking at the wrong LinkedIn metrics? Why do we focus on some metrics and not others? Dowe look at the right or wrong LinkedIn metrics? I was at a networking event recently and the talk was about LinkedIn Posts/ articles and … [Read more...]
Why blog? Is it a Marketing tool?
Why blog? For some time I have been promoting Twitter as a good thing for people running small businesses to do, but recently I have been asked “why blog” and what is the value to small businesses and freelance consultants and trainers. I guess that because I have been doing this for some time that I overlooked the basics. This article is the first is a short series to show why and how to blog for business. People and business blog for a wide range of reasons including: Providing a “space to … [Read more...]
CIPD factsheets – an A-to-Z of HR topics & resources
CIPD factsheets - essential information for any manager & practitioner An A-to-Z of HR and management related factors is an easy to read and easy to apply style. The CIPD produce a wonderful set of regularly updated and reviewed factsheets on a wide range of HR and management based topics., While some are available to members only, the majority are available to all. This pages lists those available as at January 2010. Please note all links open in new windows. UPDATE … [Read more...]
What can Learning & Development learn from childrens education part 2 #VR #hrblog #edtech #learningtechnologies
So what can Learning & Development learn from children's education and the use of virtual reality? Recently I attended one of Europe largest exhibitions for technology in education. The show is called BETT and took place in London's ExCel Centre. In my last blog I wrote about the robots I saw in the education space and explored how they could be used in the business world within the future of work. VR was everywhere And before as a reader you start thinking these things cost … [Read more...]
What can Learning & Development learn from childrens education part 1 #hrblog #edtech #learningtechnologies
So what can Learning & Development learn from children's education? Recently I attended one of Europe largest exhibitions for technology in education. The show is called BETT and took place in London's ExCel Centre. BETT describes itself as being for: If you’re a Learning and Training Professional, come to Bett to discover how technology can improve and enhance learning, from school to Higher Education and workplace learning. Although I saw little directed at workplaces directly. That … [Read more...]
Competencies – are they dead? Or are we ignoring the true 3 core competencies?
Competencies – are they dead? Are competencies and how HR (and managers/ professional bodies) often relate to them irrelevant in today's business world? Do we actively ignore true core competencies? I was at a training workshop recently, and the trainer was talking about competencies. He was talking about the fact that the core competencies had changed in that profession. That new course materials were being developed all the time to ensure. We see this is every profession and industry. … [Read more...]
Twitter as a marketing tool for training courses & events
Using Twitter to market your training event As the training market changes, increasingly more and more trainers are looking to promote their on-line and open courses events, But how do you get people to attend and how do you keep costs down? If you are a member of TrainerBase or Training journal (TJonline), both have the ability to promote your events, however it is doubtful if either can fill a course. Some use paid for services, where a high percentage of the revenue goes to attracting … [Read more...]
Are you credible as a coach or consultant? Are you hiring credible providers?
Why do many people hire a coach or consultant when it seems clear they are not credible? This week I came across a post on Facebook. The post in itself was not unusual or uncommon. But it got me thinking. Do we need people to have any expertise of knowledge to be a coach or consultant? Do we just accept that people delivering training for our employees will just "fly by the seat of their pants" and deliver something? Are purchasers of consulting and training services intelligent … [Read more...]
Transactional Analysis (TA) – is it relevant to todays world
Is Transactional Analysis (TA) relevant? In the first of a multi part series written by RapidBI team associate Vince Whittle, we look at Transactional Analysis and its application in management and people development. Introduction to TA Many people have heard of Transactional Analysis (TA) and it was popular a number of years ago in management development programmes but how relevant is a psychoanalytic tool developed in the ‘50s to today’s managers and consultants in industry and … [Read more...]
SWOT analysis for schools|education|colleges|universities
SWOT analysis for schools, teachers and education |colleges|universities Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in an educational environment. A SWOT analysis for schools is a tool that can provide prompts to the governors, management teachers and staff involved in the analysis of what is effective and less effective in the schools systems and procedures. Often used in preparation for a plan of some form (that could be an audit, assessments, quality checks etc.). In fact a SWOT can … [Read more...]
Twitter as a marketing & CRM tool
Twitter: your CRM & marketing channel Its about more than just followers... Over the past 12 months in my twitter contributions I have often included tips to help those involved in using twitter for their business (marketing). I often get requests to publish a full set - so here is a list of my current thinking about using twitter as a tool for building relationships for future business. In no particular order (other than alphabetical)... Add value - share interesting or useful info, … [Read more...]
Personal & business goal setting – where are the lines?
Knowing the route can be as valuable as the goal This morning as I sat clearingout the spam from the email box, I noticed an update from one of the LinkedIn groups I am a member of. Its title was: "Why are you running?" In the article the author shared their story of some thoughts they had while out on a regular run, highlighting that this was a great strategy for creating thinking time. This all come about because the individual was reflecting on the question "why do I run?". His own … [Read more...]
The Robot will see you now – is your job safe from AI? #HRblog
Artificial Intelligence (AI), meets relatable robot meets human job: The robot will see you now (counsellor) If you missed the stunning documentary from Channel 4 last week, then it is a piece of must-see television if you are involved in HR and business. Jess is an AI robot designed to have human-like discussions and interactions. Her body movements and eye movements appear to mimic a sentient being. In the programme, it appeared that people built a relationship and learnt to trust her … [Read more...]
