Schools shouldn't just be exam factories!

The Confederation of British Industry, the employers' organisation, made the recommendations in a report released at the start of its annual conference. (19th Nov 2012)

CBI's director general John Cridland said: "In some cases secondary schools have become an exam factory.

"Qualifications are important, but we also need people who have self-discipline and serve customers well. As well as academic rigour, we need schools to produce rounded and grounded young people who have the skills and behaviours that businesses want."

I whole heartedly agree, my daughter is currently taking her GCSE's and the pressure to get higher and higher marks by taking a resit when you already have an 'A' are ridiculous. But I also have to question whether businesses are placing too much emphasis on the school turning out a well rounded person and not enough on their own responsibility to see learning as a lifelong activity and hence give their employees the training and development they deserve.

"We're in a recession, we can't afford to provide training." This is a cry we on the provision side of the fence hear frequently. But there is evidence to suggest that organisations who spend on training in a recession are the first to emerge and grow rapidly at the end of it. It makes sense after all. If you look after your staff and develop their talents whilst your competitors are failing to do so, then your company will be in a much better position to take advantage of an upturn when it does come along.

Not only that, you will weather the storm itself much better. Flexible staff, who are committed to the organisation, inspired by new ideas and commitment from their managers will certainly give more of their best than those who are told "Now's not a good time."

7 Ways to Make an Instant Impact on Your Audience when Presenting

Want your presentations to have more impact? Here are 7 ways you can create impact with your audience and give your public speaking skills a boost.

1.      Make the stage yours. You are in control of what happens up there, so take control.

2.     If you are being introduced by someone, say thank you as you take the stage. Make sure you have supplied the intro material so that you know what is going to be said. Don't leave it to the last minute.

3.       Centre yourself on stage. Make sure that your feet are grounded and face your audience. They may well be as nervous as you are so show them you are not nervous but excited to be there.

4.       Make eye contact with one or two people. If possible, work out beforehand who you are going to connect with initially. And stick to them at the beginning. Once you start speaking you can allow yourself to send one line of your presentation to each person in the room. Try making a figure of 8 across the room as you look to make sure you don't favour one side more than the other.

5.       Have a powerful opening. Make your first words a startlingly fact, an attention grabbing headline or (if you dare) a joke. When writing your talk, think about it as an inverted triangle. The key point  comes first and it may be controversial. The rest of the talk is about justifying  why you opened with that statement. A newspaper report can be a good template to use.

6.       Use humour if you know you can do it well, otherwise stick to the facts.

7.       Have a powerful opening story about yourself so that the audience can connect with you. You are interesting and you are an expert in your subject so it is very powerful if you can combine the 2 aspects.


Want more ideas about how to create successful presentations? Visit Cherrystone

Ways to Design Stories For Business and Presentations (part 3)

 This is the third in a series of posts about designing stories for business and presentations. Stories are so important because, done well, they evoke emotion. And as John Medina explains in Brian Rules:

"When the brain detects emotion the amygdala release dopamine into the system - aids memory and information processing. "

1.                  Create a picture association. People relate to pictures in very different ways to words. Pictures can be absorbed and read at very different levels. There has been a lot of study to look at people's eye movements in relation to pictures and which elements of a picture they go to first.  

2.                  Create a word association. If the important part of a story is to get people to remember particular points then using certain key words that evoke an emotion each time they are used can be very powerful. If for example you have 3 key concepts that you need to get across, can they be reduced to simple words or phrases and how can you build a story around them?

3.                  Start at the end. A trick often used by Hollywood. By starting at the end and then going back to provide an explanation of how the characters got there.

4.                  When, Where, What, Who, Why, How? Ask these questions and fill in the gaps. Goes well with no. 5

5.                  Use Mind Maps. If you haven't used Mind Maps before then learn how to do so. They are great for creating ideas and then finding the links.

6.                  List of characters, emotions, place, time. This is another way to find different elements of a story.

7.                  Look at storylines of films/books/TV and substitute different elements. Most stories have already been written. Whether it is in great classics or soaps, stories remerge, reworked and with new names but often the same outcomes.

8.                  Create a journey. Most stories are about journeys from A to C via B. They are journeys of discovery about self, about others, about power and frailty, about selfishness and selflessness. It is the settings that change.

If you would like help finding your stories, get in touch.

Creating Your Own Stories for Business and Presentations (Part 2)

Looking to create stories for your business? Stories are so powerful as they combine emotion, action, heros and villains and can really bring your business and presentations to life.

To start with you need to ask yourself a series of questions.

◦             What is the goal of your story? What do you want to happen as a result of telling your story?

◦             What’s in it for the audience? Why should they be interested? Why is it important that they listen?

◦             How much do they already know? If an audience is new to an area, how can you make your story simple enough to introduce them to a brad concept when they don't have the detail?

◦             What do you want your audience to spontaneously recall? What do you want people to walk away with?

o   That the lemon was orange? (ie not what they first thought.)

o   That the product is fun? (ie: it makes them smile when they think about it.)

o   An image of the bright red balloon? (ie. a specific picture.)

o  It made me sad, but happy? (ie. a specific emotion)

o A shocking fact (one that is difficult to shift from your mind)

◦             Where is the best place to use your story in the presentation?

o   The beginning - to capture attention and make sure that they have got the gist.

o   The middle - to recapture attention.

o   The end - to leave them with an emotional feeling to remember.

People's attention span is short. So using stories at strategic points cannot only be used to create contrast,  evoke emotion, explain difficult topics well, but it can also bring people's attention back to your narrative. Have fun with them!

Ever wondered what a Johari window was?

The Johari window is named after Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It is a model of human interaction, leadership and influence and how and what we choose to reveal about ourselves.

Check out the video.

Keep a log

Need to keep your motivated? Try keeping a log or diary of your daily events?



To find out more visit www.getmotivated247.com

Team Building with Drama and Masks

On this team building day we were exploring the themes of communication, presntation and working together more closely.

We had a great time using the wonderful Trestle Theatre masks on a drama team building session. They were able to allow us to explore body language and expression in an entirely new way.

Get Motivated, Stay Motivated

Want to get motivated in 2010? Visit www.getmotivatedstaymotivated.co.uk and sign up for the FREE Webinar.

Motivation is about a state of mind. It is about the iner need that creates a compelloig desire to act. On the Webinar we will cover

• A few concepts about motivation
• Some things to do to improve your motivation and that of others…
• …and, a Special Offer!

So if you would like to get motivated in 2010 come and join us on 18th February between 4 and 5 pm GMT

14 ways to Keep your Head when All Around are Losing Theirs

Keeping calm when all around you are in a panic. Here are some simple thoughts on how to Stay Calm! Enjoy

7 Ways to Deal with Difficult People

Dealing with difficult people is about staying in control of yourself, of the situation and the conversation. Sometimes you have to brave it out. This doesn’t mean fighting back but it may mean waiting until they have vent their spleen. Here are a few ideas on how you can deal with difficult people.

Listen – people like to talk about themselves so let them have their say. By listening you are creating an opportunity for that person to release pent up feelings. The trick is to know when to say stop, now I have listened and it is time to move on.

Build empathy – empathy is about being able to respect each others different points of view. You have opened up the communications channels. You do not have to sympathise with someone to build understanding about someone else’s position.

Build rapport – by listening you have started the process. It enables you to find the points of connection and build on those to create a good working relationship.

Be patient – difficult people are not always the loud ones. Sometimes quiet people can be just as difficult to deal with. They may come across as shy, sullen, uncommunicative etc. Give them the opportunity to overcome their reluctance to communicate in a non-threatening environment.

Stay in adult – if someone is acting in a childish way, don’t react by becoming childish as well. Stay in adult mode and wait for them to catch you up. Remember how frustrating toddlers are to deal with. Give them some space to work things out for themselves.

Bring them back to the point – the difficulty may be someone who likes to talk too much. Each time they go off the subject bring them gently but firmly back to the matter in hand.

Watch your language – you can’t always understand someone else’s feeling, but you can accept that they have the right to have them. Avoid “I understand how you feel…” and substitute “I understand that you are feeling…” Always comment on the behaviour not the person.

Give Yourself a New Job Title

How much does your job title define your job? How much does it determine your approach to your job? How does it affect other people's approach to you? The name of your job very often tries to describe what you do. so on that premise if you want to do something different, or want your staff to, then change the name!

Imagine you had a new job title. Not any old title but one that would make a difference - to you and your team. Take for example Director of Making a Difference. What is the difference that you would make? It could be a different way of getting things done, or it might be making the difference to your customers.

What about Head of Momentum? Where might you find momentum in your organisation? How would you go about creating it?

Here are a few more different job tiles you could use:

Company Journey Planner
Director of Money Matters
Head of Executions
Company Team Tracker

Changing the name of your job may change the way you view it and where you place the emphasis - so go on give your job a new name!

Top Tips for Middle Managers

Top Tips for Middle Managers

Based on ‘Managing in the Middle’ by Barry Oshry, which can be found at www.executiveforum.com

Even in today’s world of flatter, leaner organisations, most organisations continue to have three levels of hierarchy. At the top there are the people who shape and give direction to the entire organisation. At the bottom are the workers, who manufacture the business’s products or render its services. Between them are those in the middle, often torn between meeting the demands of those at the top and responding to the needs and concerns of the workers they are expected to manage. The middle can be a confusing and ambiguous place, yet it is potentially a point of powerful influence, both upwards and downwards.

Some Top Tips for Middles

Resist the urge to make other people’s problems, issues and conflicts your own. Your job is to coach and empower them to resolve their issues, not take responsibility for them

Keep your own mind. Pay attention to your point of view, your values, your solutions. This will maximise your personal contribution to collective problem solving.

Be a Top whenever you can. If you can resolve a problem without passing it up to the Top, then do it. Tops only need to be involved with problems that are unsolvable at the Middle level.

Be a Worker when you should. If your team is short-staffed or has a sudden influx of work, then help them out with it. But remember, this should only be a short term solution. If it becomes long term then you need to re-focus on the systemic problems which are causing it.

Facilitate solutions by bringing together the people who need to be together, and helping them to have productive interactions. This is more effective than trying to act as a buffer between them.

Integrate with other Middles. Strong, interactive relationships with your peers will enable you to make a strong collective contribution and reduce your feelings of isolation.


To see the full version of this article visit http://www.satc.org.uk/62/managing-in-the-middle/