Analyse the project from start to finish learn everything that needs to be done to achieve the end goal, and breakdown the project into achievable 1-day tasks.

Assign the right person to each task (regardless of department or position)

- if they have the best skills to finish the task efficiently & to the best quality of the group; give the task to them.

Many of us have had to make a switch from working face-to-face with our learners to working remotely and whilst this is reasonably easy with content-based training as long as we make good use of break-out rooms, polls and quizzes, asking learners to bring objects with them and sending surprise items in the post, it can be harder with subjects like team development.

Everyone knows me as an experiential learning specialist but not everyone knows what that means. Many people assume that that means that I use games, exercises or tasks in my training programmes and that is true, but it is only a small part of the story. I don’t use games to spice up a boring training session, every aspect of the programme must be designed to maximise learner engagement and that means getting learners as involved as possible…

Inspired by a workshop facilitated by the lovely Nicki Davey of Saltbox, I decided to write a short article about the ways I already engage people’s senses in learning for more curiosity, intrigue and to help learning more easily enter the long-term memory. I have also included one or two ideas I stole from the workshop.

As you may be aware, we were successful in our application to be on the Register of Approved Training Providers (RoATP) early last year. We thought it would be helpful to report on how we have found the process thus far. After getting a bit excited and thinking about offering apprenticeships in many areas, we decided to focus on two programmes…

As many of you know, I have a large family. Last night (Sunday), after an afternoon of trampolining, I set up a marble run for my 2-year-old, helped my 11-year-old finish off constructing a hydraulic robot arm, tested my 14-year-old on polygamy, monogamy, pre-marital sex and divorce ready for an RE exam and helped my 9-year-old practise for the eleven plus.

I thought I would finally take the time to review my friend and associate’s book, ‘Courageous conversations’. Published by Matador last year, it’s a fairly quick read and I think it’s the perfect introduction to managing people. The only way you can create a high performing team according to Larry is to have good conversations and I agree with him.

I’m writing this article from the point of view of both a trainer and a consultant, so the majority of the tips below are for organisations to implement although you can help them as either an external consultant or a member of the internal HR or L&D team.

Once someone has attended one or a series of my workshops, they often come and ask how on earth I have so many ideas for splitting people into groups. Basically, once you’ve done a few you remember them and you just keep adding to your repertoire! Here are a few to get you started….

I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the revolution in recruitment; finding people that really can live up to what they say in interview so that there’s more chance of them being successful in the job! Part of this means that I design assessment centres, which include candidates doing some or all of the following…

With recruitment and selection costing on average £5,000 to £50,000 per person, it really does pay to select the right person first time round! And with research showing that the predictive validity of an interview is as low as 0.2 even with great questions, it is clearly not the best way to find your perfect recruit.

Bernward Winter and his colleagues tested participants’ ability to learn new made-up words for objects after either two intense sprints of three-minutes length, 40 minutes of gentle running or rest.

Level 3 Apprenticeship for Supervisors / Team Leaders in a Nutshell. Are you thinking of putting some of your aspiring managers through a modern, trailblazer apprenticeship? If so, here a few important things you need to know…

Having recently read this book and seen David speak on the topic last week, I thought people might be interested in an overview of the principles and a little bit of my take on them having worked to improve the engagement of many companies…

Pipeline is absolutely my favourite and most used experiential exercise because of its versatility and the way it never fails to create a high-energy environment with maximum involvement and laughter. For those of you who are not sure what the exercise entails, you can see a short video below.

Careful design of review processes in experiential learning is essential if learning objectives are to be achieved. It is also crucial that you make reviews active, creative and varied throughout a learning programme so that people don’t get bored or come to dread reviews. Here are some of my favourite methods of reviewing experiential tasks, tried and tested over 17 years.