WHY CHOOSE ME
Throughout my career, like most people I have tried to manage my time and the stress of life by applying different strategies. It became clear to me about 10 years ago that I needed not to manage just my time at work, but time in all areas of life; and not only time, but also the way I think in order to achieve happiness at work, in relationships and my personal goals. In these courses I share my findings.
After many years in the management, training and teaching sectors it became evident that although much of the training had been excellent on many occasions there was wasted time. Poor marathon presentations, uninspiring, a lack of easily implementable practical tools, incomplete solutions and a failure to follow up on implementation are just a few of the factors that caused this. An article published in Forbes stated as little as 25% of the billions of dollars spent on training in the US had any impact on employee performance for these very reasons.
During my career which included some very high stress jobs such as a training manager for a chain of building suppliers in charge of training for over 500 employees, responsibility for the writing systems operations manuals, producing training resources and being the Leader of ICT for the largest school in Buckinghamshire I have always tried to think outside the box in finding solutions to problems. I have applied these same thought processes and the skills I have acquired in producing these courses and have used my experience to address all of the problems of unsuccessful training mentioned above. I am sure I too will fall foul of some of the negative aspects of training but am always welcome and listen to feedback to try and improve the services I offer.
Time - I have limited sessions to one hour of formal input. The sessions are face paced, interactive and fun, Taking into consideration that the average attention span is 20 minutes although some studies suggest it is as little as 8 seconds! After each session I block one hour at the end for feedback and individual assistance for any who want to help with setting up a plan or further clarification of any points covered or tools introduced. This time is not compulsory for attendees who may wish or need to leave immediately.
Resources - Many training companies seem to think that supplying lots of colourful booklets filled with graphs and the dreaded powerpoint printout to be useful - not so; this doodle covered literature is often filled away and forgotten about, if not thrown straight in the bin. I supply the bare minimum of printed materials. However there is a bank of up to date resources directly related to each of the sessions online resources available free of charge for one week following the session.
I also allow no phones laptops or other distracting electronic devices to be used in the sessions. If attendees wish to make notes pencils and paper are available.
Blended learning and Follow up - "Blended learning is an education program (formal or informal) that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods" (Wikipedia). All attendees are offered to join an online classroom free of charge for a month and offered the opportunity to correspond in relation to any goals they have set as a result of one of my sessions. A simple chance to communicate can revitalise the task. The person organising the course is invited to make this a compulsory part of the training if they wish. To see a test classroom click here
"James how did you get on with achieving the zero inbox and did you start applying those ideas about making your phone calls more productive?"
"No have got there on the inbox yet, but making great progress but I am much more efficient on the phone now. will drop you a line if and when I get there on the inbox - might need some advice on folder structure if thats ok"
Also included in the price of the session is the offer of an informal half hour meet up with attendees after a month where they can share their success's and how they got over hurdles and next steps.