For International Leadership Week ILM hosted a series of webinars with a worldwide perspective. Regular readers will know that I like to reflect on my learning through blogging so here it is –  some ruminations on International Leadership Week. 

For context I attended the following sessions:

• Get Out of Their Way – Curt Blattner (Institute of Emerging Change)
• Can I be a Mindful and Enterprising Leader Simultaneously? – (Shilpi Chugh Head of HR Dyson)
• How to Push Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone – Ricardo Koanuka
• How to Reinvent Leadership by Empowerment – Aslak de Silva, CEO at Nordic Business Forum
• How to Manage the Changing Workplace – Audrey Clegg Group Talent Manager Coca Cola
• Remote Leadership and Asynchronous Management – Molood Ceccarelli (Remote Forever)
• From a Doing Leader to a Being Leader – Harini Chari 
• Leading in a Complicated World – Marco Buschman
• The importance of data in Business Growth –  Manuj Aggarwal

And below are the themes I have been thinking about:

• As Chugh put it ‘The World has Changed and How’ – which featured

1. Chaos and high turbulence with ambiguity and no cause and effect relationships. The human brain is threatened by ambiguity and when this happens human beings move to the lowest level of Maslow (security and safety)
2. A higher need for a collective intellect as we are trying to solve issues – Information is a commodity and mass collaboration is the key. When the world went virtual there was a huge adoption of virtual tools and we tended to collaborate in our own networks which was relatively comfortable.
3. A need for enterprising Leadership – when there is a question of business survival the need for control is higher. We also need empathetic leadership in the hour of need as people are impacted at a personal level. 
4. Global social networks are more prominent than ever before when the world went virtual. 

• Remember that you can learn as much from a crisis – As Clegg put it “Never waste a good crisis”. She also noted that when she was asked to draw her career on her A4 piece of paper every 10 years there was a crisis and asked to remember that this is a learning opportunity. 
• Leaders have a far and wide ranging impact – Chugh highlights that leaders and leadership raises the collective consciousness of the organisation and Chari took this one step further and talked about having a leadership brand. She went on to say that this brand is made up of a million touches and that when we change someone’s lives this creates an emotional connection. Chari also highlighted a good question to ask ‘What are the after effects of me?’
• There is also an impact on leaders as well – 77% of leaders reported that stress was significantly higher (cited by Chugh)
• The need for Leaders to have a clear purpose is more important than ever – Koanuka suggests that the leader of the future understands the power of purpose which Chari refers to as our inner compass. Koanuka  goes on to explain that we need more than purpose, we also need action – “Purpose without action is hallucination”. Some useful statements were offered to check whether you are aligned with your purpose – you either choose on or the other from those below

Make choices based on courage/adventure	Make choices based on fear or security
Best day is Friday night	Worst day is Sunday
Already thinking about retirement	Love what you do so retirement feels stupid (based on Warren Buffet)
Do you feel pushed to go to work?	Do you wake up ready for work full of excitement?
Success is money/power	Success is creating a life on your own terms

• Reflective Practice by Leaders is Key – As Chugh notes “When we are mindful we operate from a space of awareness – how as a leader am I increasing my awareness of knowing myself.” Chari’s session highlighted how quite often we are working in a driven doing mode and we need to move to a being mode and focus on being present in the moment. The difference between the two is highlighted in the graphic below

• Relationships are fundamental to success – Blattner highlights the need to use the time at work to build high performing sustainable relationships through the use of constructive dialogue. There are also a number of skills associated with this as Clegg highlights including using listening combined with empathy to really understand what is going on in people’s lives. Aggarwal reminds us that we are designed to remember emotions not facts and figures which suggests this is what we should focus on. 
• Consistency is the key – Across teams, leaders and indeed the whole organisation as De Silva notes “It’s the seamless experience across functions and customs which make the difference.” For leaders it is about thinking of the consistency of actions. For teams it is important to harness what Blattner calls ‘Psychological energy’ across the team – effectively this is concerned with harnessing the team’s effort to focus on what’s important. He then goes on to outline 3 steps which are important within this

1. Asking ‘What’s the weather inside?’ – invites people to share their pre-occupations and becomes a ritual and enables the team to focus on what they need to do.
2. Having a cooperation contract within the team which enables a ritualised high quality discussion on how the team will work together and creates a one unit team.. Also suggests a mission contract which focuses on objectives
3. Having a Vision contract which normally sits within the Leaders domain. Here it is suggested as actually working in partnership with the team.

• Flexibility is still important – Buschman stresses the importance of context and suggests using the Cynefin model for effective problem solving  at the moment which helps to identify clearly what this is.
• Empowerment builds successful teams – De Silva explained that this looks like in practice – empower your employees effectively through delegating, lead by example, build the big picture and give feedback using a feed forward approach. (positive feedback for things that have been completed well)
• Trust is still a key underlying theme – As Clegg notes “Trust is fundamental to any relationship including personal” and she explains that the key question is “Can I be authentic and can I be my real self at work?” De Silva takes this further and suggests that we need to have trust in the team’s motivation (that they are coming from the right place) and trust in their skills. He goes on to describe how this should be reflected in the language we use with our teams “I trust you, I chose you, I am so pleased you are in my team.” 
• Effective Remote Leadership is still a Work in Progress – Ceccarelli suggests four pillars of remote leadership as outlined below

1. Using Asynchronous Communication – Stressed as the most important aspect. You need to choose the right communications for the purpose you are trying to make. For great decision making and resolving conflict use synchronous for example online meetings and chat which is an exchange of information in real time.  Whilst  Asynchronous – for example email – gives people the choice to respond when they can do and is great for sharing and gathering information. Ceccarelli also suggests simplifying the tools we use by writing down the names of all the tools you use daily and group them based on purpose. In each tool write down one tool you are going to use and retire the others.
2. Transparency – which needs to go two ways and it is important for leaders to be transparent on what they are working on too.
3. Consider Diversity, Inclusion and Empathy – Remember that not everyone has access to decent bandwidth and there need to be a stable infrastructure IT system to enable remote working
4. Use a Continuous Learning Approach – Think about your time management and respect your calendar. Create boundaries and use different devices for home and work. Think about your self care and movement. For example, have digital disconnection, human reconnection and exercise. Buschman builds on this idea and talks about making sure we have the energy to lead.

This was a great event and there were lots of deep learning here for me especially thinking about 

• What are the after effects of me?
• Being more respectful of my diary and not letting others take it over – this is one of the things I really need to work on and is definitely a work in progress for me. 
• Moving from a driven mode to a being mode
• Thinking about what types of communication to use and when

What are you going to take away and do differently as a result of reading this?

When I was 7 my dad took me to Old Trafford and like millions of football fans before me the die was cast and my footballing allegiances were set.

This was a team managed by Dave Sexton including Martin Buchan and Lou Macari – the latter went on to adorn my bedroom walls for quite a long time. Fast forward to a much later period of my life and I once was so starstruck by Lou Macari coming to the cinema where I was working that I overcharged him – twice!

And so a committed red I remained throughout the tenure of Ron Atkinson, Sir Alex, David Moyes etc. There have been incredible highs – winning the Premier League under Sir Alex for the first time and some difficult lows – the recent loss to Liverpool where I happened to be at The Lowry Theatre across from Old Trafford. Never have I walked through so many Man Utd fans in such an eerie silence. 

And of course there was the baby faced assassin – arriving in 1996 and going on to score 126 goals in his iconic 20 shirt. Every football fan has favourite players of their team and in my Man Utd supporting life Ole has always been one of them. As a footballer the ultimate supersub – seeing gaps and opportunities where no one could see them and as a person always smiling , humble, working hard and willing to give his all for the team. 

He also managed to scar me unintentionally when scoring what is known as THAT goal against Bayern Munich – I jumped up in jubilation,  hit my head on a shelf and cut my head open and I still have the lump on my head to this day! A reminder of  what can only be described as a beautiful if not painful football moment. 

What is interesting about this moment from Ole’s point of view is that what happens after the final whistle is what he cites as one of his regrets – that he went to do media rather than celebrating with the team. There is a lesson there about taking the time to be in the moment, going with our feelings and sharing them with the people who are important to us. 

It’s not the only time that there have been moments where Ole has made me think and reflect. At the funeral of another Old Trafford legend George Best, Ole accompanied Sir Alex and as Calum passed by carrying his father’s coffin Ole simply placed his hand on his back. A simple gesture and one which was full of compassion and humanity to support someone through a difficult moment. 

One of my favourite stories is that there was once a deal for Ole to go to Tottenham and he refused to go – not a mean when Sir Alex is the boss. A sign of how quietly determined he could be, without fuss or controversy and how committed he was to what he believed in. 

When he returned as manager he made the time to buy some chocolate for the receptionist at the training ground as he remembered she liked it – again a small gesture which meant volumes and helped to build loyalty and trust. 

And these are just the stories I know about and I am sure there are many more. As a sign of the measure of the man the leaving of Man Utd including his final interview (how many leaving managers get this?) show many of the characteristics highlighted above including being vulnerable,  showing emotion  and being reflective about all that has happened. Something for all leaders to think about and you can hear Ole reflecting more in the High Performance Podcast

This isn’t my traditional L&D focused post but I think there are learnings here for us all as people and as leaders. And if there is a lesson in all of this perhaps it is to be more Ole. On a personal note #ThankyouOle and as you said so eloquently it’s been a ball.

Recently I had the pleasure and the privilege of speaking to the @DerbyNottsCIPD Learning and Development Community about Evidence Based L&D and for those of you who are interested in the topic and couldn’t make it – here is a summary of my thoughts…

I have always been interested in evaluation in L&D – to me there is a natural thought process that follows through from interventions and what happens back in the workplace. In essence you can do all the L&D activity in the world but if nobody is using it what is the point?

In a previous life I designed and facilitated an award winning management development programme which you can find out more about here and one of the key components in our bid was how the learning had impacted in the workplace. Later on in this piece I will be sharing some of the activities we undertook within this alongside some others I have learned about since!

During the pandemic I pivoted from L&D to a communications focused role and became fascinated by the metrics side and how this guides what to publish and when. My most notable learning from this period was how similar it is to L&D which you can read more about here.

The fascination has remained and here I am still pondering and thinking which is a place I hope to remain for some time to come. 

What is Data Literacy?

Stella Lee from Paradox Learning describes this as “the ability to work with and communicate effectively with data.” I have underlined the communication element as this to me is crucial – in essence what we are trying to do with data is tell a story or build a narrative for our audience so they understand our business case.

So why is an Evidence Based Approach Important?

As an L&D professional the most obvious place to start is the HR Profession Map which defines the key purpose, knowledge and behaviours which underpin being an effective HR Practitioner as outlined below

• Purpose – Evidence based – defined as “Adding weight to your professional judgement by supporting your case with strong evidence from diverse sources”
• Core Knowledge – Evidence Based Practice
• Core Behaviours – Insight Focused – defined as asking questions and evaluating evidence and ideas, to create insight and understand the whole
• Specialist Knowledge – People Analytics – using analytics to inform decision making

It is clear that an evidence based approach runs through the map and this is reflected in wider L&D discussions as discussed below

• We are moving from a L&D driven world to a learner driven world of just in time learning. With this in mind is Kirkpatrick still relevant? Great for measuring training courses less so for content driven interventions.
• Using an evidence based approach means we can focus on the areas where we can have most impact particularly in what could be a resource short world
• Research by Emerald Works as Towards Maturity suggests that high performing learning organisations that embrace business insights are four times more likely to to measure business specific metrics when evaluating learning. 

What’s Happening at the Moment?

• 76% of organisations evaluate learning in some way (CIPD Webinar Evidence Based L&D Business Not As Usual)
• Most common way L&D professionals add value through learning interventions is through using continuous feedback – 38% of all respondents CIPD Learning and Skills at Work Survey 2021
• 26% design or make recommendations using evidence informed principles to address the performance issues (CIPD Webinar Evidence Based L&D Business Not As Usual)
• 46% of L&D are under pressure to show value to stakeholders (David Perring, Fosway Group)
• 2021 saw a reduction in those measuring impact on the learning cycle (David Perring, Fosway Group)
• Only 24% of executive business leaders can articulate the value of learning in their business (Mind Tools for Business 2021)
• 61% of learners report misalignment between content and skills gaps (Joe Hellermark CEO Sana Labs)

It is clear that there is some evaluation activity taking place which is potentially being driven by the need to show value to stakeholders. The last statistic does indicate that L&D activity is not always focused in the right place if there appears to be a misalignment between content and skills gaps. 

So what Could we Measure?

As you might expect there are lots of thoughts around what we could measure – for example Dr Hannah Gore stresses that we need to move away from vanity metrics which please us and Ben Betts makes the argument for not using a single measure. 

Let’s have a look at a few more examples:

1. The L&D Value Spectrum by Laura Overton

This demonstrates a clear split between Learning Value and Business Value with the narrative in the latter being concerned with Performance and Culture. 

The report also goes on to highlight the findings of how organisations talk about value which is outlined below

What is interesting to note here is that the focus tends to be on engagement and efficiency with business performance coming in as the fourth most popular measure – perhaps an example of the vanity metrics Dr Gore was referring to. 

2. Kevin M. Yates (The L&D Detective)

Yates notes that people who analyse L&D data are like unicorns in organisations – rare (hence the name of this blog) and goes on to highlight three areas organisations should focus on

• Operational efficiency – how many people, hrs, what did we offer, consumption 
• Learning effectiveness – results in incremental knowledge, using what has been learned to do differently. Most credible through business/environmental simulation – alternatively use a paper test, 360
• Business and performance outcomes – are people performing differently back in the business and how are they impacting business goals?

There are some clear themes between what Yates and Overton suggests i.e. measures around activity, effectiveness and business outcomes are important. This seems to correlate with Ben Betts idea of using a mixture of measures and perhaps the key is to focus on those which matter to the business. 

What have I learned on my travels in L&D?

In this section I wanted to share some of the things I have learned and used on my journey in L&D over the past years (notice I am not saying how many!)

General Thoughts

• Ask questions from our LMS providers before we start – what metrics can it help us see, can we customise reports?
• Think about using the Return on Expectation Approach rather than Return on Investment. Talk to our stakeholders on what they would like to see differently as a result of the intervention and build in metrics to measure that. 

Learning Management Systems/Intranet

ASK

• What are people looking at?
• When are they looking at it 
• How long do they spend viewing content?

Consider what are the themes and trends  – what are they telling you. 

Remember that lurking is not a bad thing! Consider why people are reviewing and not commenting. 

Nelson Sivalingham recommends using data to personalise/push relevant content. Look at:

• What skills do people have?
• Performance – is there anyone not hitting performance targets
• Career history – what systems have people used before do they need to have that learning again?
• Behavioural – people sending emails out of working hours
• Benchmark – what are people accessing the most and what does this tell you?

Teams/Slack

ASK

• How many people interact?
• What posts get the most engagement?
• Who posts most often?
• What are the hot topics

At the end of posts ask a question to start a discussion i.e. ‘What do you do to help manage your Mental Health

Culture Change

Use 360 degree feedback before and after to monitor changes in behaviour.

Apprenticeships/Working with Third Party Suppliers

• Gather feedback from learners and managers and set up regular feedback sessions for suppliers to address issues early on
• Ask to see any feedback gathered by the provider and compare it to internal feedback.

Leadership Development (My Specialist Area – so there are lots of ideas here!)

• Using online forms increases quality – incentivise where possible or allow time in the session
• Change focus of questions from ‘The facilitator was able to engage me’ to ‘I was fully engaged in the session’
• 4 options to avoid ‘the middle’
• Use Menti or Slido for instant reaction feedback
• Use a Knowledge Uplift (a quiz at the start and end of a session) to demonstrate increase in knowledge
• Ask people to write a blog

• Line Manager discussions at pre, mid and end of programme to measure impact on workplace
• Support Line Managers to help implementation with guides, briefing sessions etc
• Use stretch assignments/internal projects
• Use systems i.e LMS where possible to automate the processes

Whatever you Measure – Remember

• Incomplete data are better than no data at all
• Recent data are better than older data
• Relevant data are better than more data

This is suggested by Sahin Guvenilir and is a useful reminder that there is no perfect moment to start with data and we have to start somewhere.

Some Thoughts on Presenting Data

You may have number crunched to your heart’s content – however the key is to make it presentable to your audience in a format they will understand. The key is to make is

• Accessible to as many people as possible
• Ensure it is clear what you are saying
• Enable people to understand with a minimum of effort

To that end think about using

• Pre Attentive Attributes to help your audience’s brains process information visually
• Utilise the Visual Vocabulary to identify what is the crucial way to present your data
• Think about the story you want to tell with your data
• Consider the titles you use – for example July Results doesn’t draw your audience in whereas Consumer behaviour has Shifted does.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of think about here and consider..If there are three thoughts to take away they are:

• Ask questions
• Be curious
• Use data to support your decisions

And remember – be more unicorn!

When I think about my own journey into the Mental Health space it has been one of education and discovery from both a personal and professional capacity. Given my specialist area I have always been passionate about people being the best they can be at work. Coupled with this has been the experiences of some close friends who have had Mental Health challenges over the past few years which in turn has heightened my own understanding of what is likely to impact on my own mental health. 

To get us started – here’s some key things I have learned:

• We all have Mental Health – The World Health Organisation describes Mental Health as ‘where each individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community.’ As a contrast Change Your Mind defines poor mental health as this is ‘When our mental health is not where we would like it to be. Finding it difficult to manage how we think, feel, and act with respect to daily stresses could be a sign of poor mental health.’ The key difference between the two is being able to cope with the normal stresses of everyday life and I would suggest that as a natural follow on from this would be being able to recognise when this is not the case. Although I appreciate that this is not always as easy as it sounds. 
• It’s more common than you think – The Mental Health Foundation estimates that 1 in 6 people in the past week have experienced a common Mental Health problem. What makes it harder to identify is that the same organisation suggests there is a stigma around Mental Health which potentially means that people won’t feel able to share how they are truly feeling and will mask their feelings. This takes up a huge amount of emotional energy and could lead to further Mental Health issues. 

It doesn’t always look like what you think – If you search for an image of someone with poor Mental Health 9/10 of the images you will find will look like the one below

However, this is not always the case – remember the masking that I was talking about earlier. The This is Me campaign aims to dispel this myth with real people sharing their stories. Mental Health isn’t what defines us completely – there are still all the other aspects of our lives which exist as daughters, wives, colleagues etc

• Everyone will have different drivers– We all have things which will impact on our Mental Health whether it be major life events ( for example marriage, bereavement, moving house), stress, our relationships both at home or at work or health issues including the menopause. What impacts one person will not necessarily impact another so it is important not to make assumptions.
• Sometimes being there is enough – In a previous life I used to work in a hospice and a conversation I had there with a grief counsellor stayed with me in which she shared that sometimes it’s not about doing something,  sometimes just being there and listening is enough. I think the same applies here – in fact sometimes in our desire to help we can sometimes forget to truly listen to what is being said. Listening and signposting are for me the two key things we can do to support this area. 
• Kindness is a superpower – Before her death Caroline Flack posted on Instagram ‘In a world where you can be anything, be kind.’  The Born this Way foundation have taken this one step further and describe kindness as being action based and include activities such as checking in and believing in someone. 
• At work psychological safety is key – The term psychological safety refers to individuals being able to speak freely and openly without fear of judgement and/or retribution. If individuals feel able to share how they are truly feeling and feel supported this creates trust and enables that person to be authentic at work. As leaders you can create this environment using some key questions which you can find here. 
• Let’s have the courage to have conversations in this space – Sometimes we shy away from these types of conversations as we don’t know how to handle them. As we have seen, listening and signposting are key and to help you get started Mental Health First Aid England have created a Take 10 at Work leaflet which has lots of useful hints and tips.

In the spirit of sharing – let me take a deep breath and share two of my key triggers…

• Social Anxiety – I am not a natural social person and as Jonah Lewie once said you can Always find me in the kitchen in Parties In actual fact I never would have made it to the kitchen in the first place and if I was in there I would probably be hiding under the table! Invite me to a meal, or a night out. I will spend days worrying about it and will probably cancel at the last minute. Often people will assume I’m a bit rude when in fact I find these kinds of activities genuinely stressful.
• People Pleasing – If you ask me to do something my first reaction is to say yes (please note that this is not an invitation for lots of work!) and then I will figure out how I will do it. This can lead to me feeling overloaded and working lots of hours when in fact sometimes it isn’t really necessary. 

In addition I have a natural health trigger which indicates when things aren’t all well in my world – I have cluster headaches which sometimes leads to migraine. Whilst this isn’t the most favourite part of my life I have reason to be grateful for it as often when I experience symptoms it causes me to stop and think what might be causing this. 

Being aware of my triggers is definitely the first step and here are some examples of thing that work for me to help manage my Mental Health

• Exercise – Either on my exercise bike first thing in the morning or a walk after work which really helps. In the last few days Adele has been talking about how exercise has helped manage her anxiety and it is nice to know we have something in common! I also find that it helps me work through some of my concerns and helps put things in perspective. 
• Keeping a gratitude log – The last thing I do everyday is write down the three things I am grateful for that day and what I am looking forward to tomorrow. There is always something to reflect on and in the time I have been doing this there have been some interesting themes and trends which I am trying to incorporate into my everyday life. 
• Using a Meditation app – There are lots of these available so find the ones that work for you.Personally  I use Headspace particularly as sleeping is not one of my skills and on those nights when it is difficult I find the Sleep meditations really helpful. 
• Connecting with Friends – One of my key saving graces during the pandemic has been reconnecting with friends and maintaining those connections. In all these spaces I can completely be myself and share what is going on in my world – psychological safety in a personal space if you will. From the Whatsapp group where my packet spaghetti carbonara is legendary where we discuss anything and everything to my trusted learning and development contacts who are a testing bed for thoughts and ideas. 
• Listening to music – Although my musical taste is questionable – Girls Aloud, Spice Girls anyone? I do love a good pop tune and having these on in the background helps lift my mood and puts me in a more positive frame of mind. 
• Gardening – I am lucky enough to have an inherited lovely garden and I feel responsible for keeping it going. The latest addition is Cedric the Cordyline as shown before (who also has ideas above his station!)

A couple of hours weeding, planting, tidying up and being in the fresh air gives me somewhere pleasant to contemplate my thoughts and the sense of achievement drives positive thoughts. 

• Confidence increasing Jewellery – This one is a little thing – I have a very close association with Manchester and in particular one it’s key artists LS Lowry. So much so that I have jewellery with images from some of the paintings on. I will wear this if I need a boost or if I have an important meeting to go to – it makes me feel more rooted to my happy place and helps me at my best.
• A little bit of Learning – I started this blog by talking about a process of education – working in Learning and Development my natural response to not understanding is to go out and learn more. There are lots of free resources available now so I take advantage to try and understand both my own and others’ worlds. 

I want to stress that these are things that work for me and they won’t work for everyone – I would love to hear more about the things that work for you….

• 

(with apologies to Robbie Williams)

Earlier this year my friend and I set up a Well Being Book Club and one of the constant themes we kept coming back to is happiness – what is it, how do we get there and what does it all mean anyway? This blog is my attempt to draw some of these themes together and answer the question: do we always need to be happy anyway? 

What is happiness?

Professor Laurie Santos differentiates between

• Happy in your life – the ratio of positive to negative emotions
• Happy with your life – the meaning and purpose you have in your life. 

Santos goes on to explain that it is possible to have one without the other. 

The World Happiness Report has a slightly different view and includes in it’s ranking factors (in which Finland comes out top)

• GDP per capita
• Social support
• Healthy life expectancy
• Freedom to make life choices
• Generosity
• Perceptions of corruption

Ultimately I would suggest that happiness is a subjective concept depending on your point of view and what you value – regular listeners will know that a Man Utd win, a visit to a National Trust property and a bag of crisps will up my happiness levels even if only for a short while.

Why are we striving for happiness all the time?

Happiness is often seen as the acceptable face of emotion. I have had people say to me ‘Can we have the real happy Helen back please?’ Comments like this suggest to us that being happy at work is what we should be all the time. 

As a natural introvert but as Adam Karpiak recently put it on Twitter “extroverted for pay” I am not sure if the real Helen is happy all the time or if this is the way it should be. Susan Cain in her Manifesto for Introverts talks about ‘staying true to your temperament is the key to finding work you love and work that matters.’ This sits well with a key message of being authentic in the workplace – however what if my authentic self at work isn’t appropriate for work? I guess that might be a topic for a whole other blog!  Marc Brackett  in his work suggests honesty and authenticity are often bandied around  but that this often contradicts the happiness mantra. 

The impact of social media on our happiness is well documented  – the aspiration for the perfect life, with the perfect home, the perfect partner and the perfect lifestyle. However, in reality life is often not like that. Thomas Curran in his work on perfectionism describes this desire to be perfect as fundamentally inhuman and that we need to display more self compassion. As a useful self check ask yourself ‘If this was your friend what advice would you give to them?’ Tellingly, that advice is quite different from that which we give ourselves.

There is  also the thought that happiness is the acceptable face of emotion at work – it’s what people feel most comfortable with. Marc Brackett describes this “…as what is missing from our lives is the comfort of feeling” and identifies that often we don’t know how to respond when someone says ‘I am feeling xxx’ instead of the usual expected answers ‘Great’ or ‘Fine.’

Susan David in The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage notes that a third of us judge ourselves for having bad emotions – sadness, anger, grief and that we actively push these aside. In addition she also highlights that we inadvertently often shame children out of negative emotions. Ever heard of the expression ‘Cheer up – it will never happen?’ – that is very much on the same lines. 

Fundamentally is it much simpler than that? One of my colleagues Ewan describes “Happiness as addictive – we love that dopamine hit.” It’s great to feel good and when it happens we want more of it – so we keep searching and trying to recreate that moment. Then when those emotions happen we try to suppress them or sometimes we seek medical/pharmaceutical help to mask those. Earlier this year The Guardian reported that antidepressant use was at an all time high whilst some of this is linked to the unusual circumstances of the pandemic and the inherent pressures within this, it would be interesting to see how this sustains over time. Particularly as Julie Rucklidge has noted that in the short term they are quite effective and in the long term less so. 

Should we be happy all the time?

Professor Laurie Santos explained that it is not a happy life if we experience joy all the time. Having negative emotions gives us some variance and contrast or as Robbie Williams once sang “You gotta get high before you taste the lows” (Probably meant in a slightly different context!)

Marc Brackett takes this a stage further and proposes that we need to give ourselves and other people permission to feel. In doing so we then mitigate the need to regulate our behaviour. Phil Willcox has a great poem If I should have a workplace which shares this feeling. In it there is reference to not being asked ‘What was all that about?’ when sharing emotion at work. 

Masking our emotions also takes a lot of emotional energy – Marc Brackett cites doctors and teachers for whom it is not appropriate to start an interaction with ‘I’m having a really bad day..” Imagine the impact of that if a primary school teacher said it or a doctor you were meeting to get test results..

Perhaps we need to consider what our emotions tell us – Marc Brackett has coined the term ‘Emotion Scientist’ which means to be open and curious about our emotions and what drives them. It is taking the time to notice what we are feeling and being very specific about it – we need to dig down into the granular detail i.e. how sad or angry are we feeling? Then consider what caused that – if it helps make a note and start to identify trends or patterns. As Brackett says ‘You have to name it to tame it.’

Disregarding our emotions can be a dangerous strategy as suppressing these can mean they will come out later and potentially more exaggerated. As Susan David notes tough emotions are part of our contract with life with discomfort as the price of admission to a meaningful life

Final Thoughts

It is important to remember as Matt Haig describes in The Comfort Book

“You don’t have to be positive. You don’t have to feel guilty about fear, sadness and anger”

Let’s try to be comfortable with all our emotions and not be afraid to show them to others. After all as the Rolling Stones once said ‘You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need.’

A couple of weeks ago the organisation which has the joy of employing me held a Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Day with a number of guest speakers. A couple of projects at work have caused me to investigate this topic in more detail and as a reflector I thought I would pull together some of the strands from this and other research.

Susanna Romantsova started the day by stating that she hoped the day would be an inspiration and it certainly was! Thank you to everybody responsible for organising the day and in particular the Exec Team for sharing some deeply personal moments and demonstrating vulnerability which role modelled one of the key areas.

The last 12 months have been critical – The murder of George Floyd and the profile of the Black Lives Matters events have brought the issues front and centre and have raised the profile of the discussion. In the words of Asif Sadiq the last 12 – 14 months has changed everything around us and that this case made it evident that enough hadn’t been done. 

Changes in the Agenda –  Inclusive Employers have conducted a survey which  noted a number of changes in the agenda including

• Race and Ethnicity is on the Diversity agenda for 85% of respondents
• 10 years ago 8% of organisations had gender identity on their agenda is now 70%
• 10 years ago 10% or organisation had Mental Health on their agenda it is now 80%

Integration is not enough – Inclusion is not integration – that’s not enough. Also needs to include empowerment, having a voice and decision making. The following equation sums up the key elements:

Uniqueness + Belongingness = Inclusion

• Uniqueness is honoured when we communicate across different and are willing to have difficult conversations.
• Belongingness when everyone feels accepted and included for our authentic selves.
• Inclusion when everyone has an equal voice.

Inclusion made up of two elements

• Structural Inclusion – equitable, transparent structure, processes, practices and algorithms
• Behavioural Inclusion – feeling respected and see for how we are

Diversity is not just one element – We need to remember that individuals are not one aspect of who we are. The focus should be on intersectionality – recognising that we are a combination of factors. For example – for myself I am female, married, introverted, L&D, university educated and focussed on making a difference at work. In addition we also need to remember the non visible elements which sit within this including dyslexia. 

It’s about Action – there has been a lot of conversation in this area now it is time to move onto intentional actions both from an organisational and individual level. 

It’s about Courage – Nicolas Hamilton shared the story of how as a 12 year old he spoke in front of the whole school to ask if anyone had questions or a problem with his disability to dispel awkwardness. This topic requires us to have those conversations and to ask the difficult questions. It feels like the phrase ‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable’ is very much of the moment and it is especially true here as covering new ground with people is not always comfortable. We may make mistakes – for example John Barnes when asked about “How do you feel as a black footballer representing England?” discussed the implicit bias in the question.

Creating Psychological Safety – Throughout this blog safe spaces have been mentioned and equally they deserve a place of their own here. You can find out more about these here. These serve two clear purposes – the first is to enable open and honest discussions and the second is to create safe spaces for each other so that we can be our authentic selves. Asif Sadiq cited two clear examples of which demonstrate when psychological safety isn’t present in an organisation

• Lack of questioning to put 3 K’s on a product
• Companies advertising holidays to the LGBTQ+ community in places where it is illegal to be so.

We may need to reframe ourselves – In this space there is a place for a long hard look in the mirror at our own practices and behaviour. In addition we need to open ourselves up for education and rethink our approaches. 

Open yourself up to new experiences – If we only mix with the same kinds of people as you will miss out on a whole range of experiences, opinions and feedback. All of which are essentially to help us grow. For example this could be as simple as sitting somewhere different at work, asking someone for an opinion who hasn’t spoken up in a meeting or saying hello to someone you don’t normally speak to. Sir Alex Ferguson famously would say hello to everyone at the club including the groundsmen, the laundry and the canteen staff – all of whom he knew not just by name but also as characters. He took a real interest in everyone at the club, not just the star football players. Ali Stripling  has also signposted an initiative that exists in 50 countries (from The Human Library) where there are libraries where you can ′′ borrow ′′ a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes. The goal is to fight prejudice. Each person has a title like: ′′ unemployed “, ′′ refugee “, ′′ bipolar “, but listening to their story assists people to realise how much you shouldn’t ′′ judge a book by its cover.”

Let’s Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – Addison Barnett from Inclusive Employers makes an interesting point that “If sessions don’t feel uncomfortable then we are probably covering the wrong topics”. As facilitators operating in this space we need to enable others to have these conversations and be careful how we respond to this type of sharing. It is easy to say ‘I understand how you feel’ but can we ever really if we have not been in that position. 

What does it look like in practice?

• We all be who we are at work – our authentic selves. Each of us has our own story.
• Being curious, asking really good questions of each other to learn more.
• Building on the above point we need to educate ourselves so we can be effective allies. 
• We need to challenge those micro – aggressions we see in the workplace so that they don’t become the norm. 
• It’s a mindset that each of us needs to embed.
• These conversation become the norm and not the exception. 

What should organisations focus on?

• The primary dimensions of IKEA strategy includes Gender, Age, LGBT+, Nationalities and Disabilities. Although as Susanna Romantsova points out it is important not to try and do everything at once – it depends on the maturity of the organisation. 
• Ensuring that colleagues can progress no matter their backgrounds.
• Running fair recruitment processes – we are all responsible for ensuring that happens.
• Establish some measures and strive towards them – remember it’s about a journey rather than achieving a particular goal. 
• Look at the gaps – what can we do to eliminate bias from the organisation.

How should organisations approach devising a strategy?

• Hold listening groups – create safe spaces where people can tell us how they feel and we need to genuinely listen.
• Look at what similar organisations are doing in this space.
• Take learnings from existing activities – for example participants in Windsor Leadership and BBA Talent Accelerator

Where am I as a Leader?

Dr Stephanie K Johnson has developed the Inclusify Leadership Matrix as below – you can take an assessment here to determine where you might sit on this.

Image and further information from Arki Sudito

You can take an assessment here to determine where you might sit on this matrix.

Things to Consider as a Leader

• Consider ‘The Pygmalion Effect’ and how it impacts the way you manage people – This study was originally focused on teachers and pupils although it has a clear application for managers and teams.

1. Manager thinks the person is performing really well.
2. Manager focuses on the person.
3. Person learns more.
4. Person increase their performance.
5. The cycle starts again.

           We need to focus on the whole team not just the people who are performing well or 

           poorly.

• Asif Sadiq suggests that the future of leadership is to be human and to be vulnerable. Susan David suggests that diversity isn’t just about people it’s all about the diversity of feelings inside of people. Leaders sharing some of those enables others to do the same. 

Useful first steps as a leader

1. Understand who you are working with – look at both qualitative and quantitative data.
2. Start with yourself – you can’t include anybody if you don’t include yourself.

Clear benefits 

• At an individual level it helps to attract and retain talent.
• At a team level as inclusive teams perform better.
• At an organisational level as there is a larger talent pool for recruitment, customer loyalty increases, customer bases expanded
• Individuals are 3.5 times more productive in this kind of environment. 
• Our customers sense when we are being authentic and we can’t serve our customers well unless we include everyone. 

A couple of the speakers challenged us to think about what actions we are going to take – so here’s mine:

I commit to

• Ensuring that Leadership development incorporates behaviours which drive of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at work
• Seeking different perspectives from a variety of backgrounds
• Continuing my own research and education in this area

What are you going to commit to?

Recently I had the privilege of attending the 3 day Servant Leadership conference organised by Bakerfish for a project I am working on. I came away with some new connections, lots of reflective thinking to do and of course lots of learning – in fact there were 52 pages of notes!

So after spending a couple of days cogitating, thinking and some additional research –  here are my reflections and let’s start with a bit of context…

Disengagement in the Workplace 

Research in this area highlight disengagement in the workplace with some startling statistics

• Gallup research suggests that the majority of the global workforce is disengaged
• In Hame found that  – just 21% of staff reported that they are full engaged in the workplace
• 50% workers would prefer a change in manager rather than a pay rise

This suggests that leadership needs a strategy to address this disengagement and a recognised style of engaging others is Servant Leadership.

So what is Servant Leadership?

Fundamentally this is about making a conscious decision to serve others. Michael Singer in Surrender suggests putting aside our personal preferences and asking ‘What is leadership asking of me now?’

Servant Leaders ask two fundamental questions

• What do people need? Remember this is not about feelings it is about needs.
• How can I help the organisation?

Larry Spears identified 10 important characteristics for servant leaders including

• Listening  – intently to what is being said to understand what is being said
• Empathy – seeking to understand others intentions and perspectives. Sometimes this may mean we have to put aside our own.
• Healing – supporting people both physically and mentally. Do people have everything they need to do their job and are people happy and engaged in their roles?
• Self Awareness – this involves taking a long hard look in the mirror, How do your emotions and behaviours affect the people around you? Also learning to manage your emotions.
• Persuasion – using persuasion rather than authority to get results. It’s concerned with building a consensus.
• Conceptualisation – this is about developing a long term focus and helping your team understand how their activity links to these.
• Foresight – predicting what is going to happen in the future by reflecting on the learnings from the past and identifying what you will do differently in the future.
• Stewardship – taking responsibility for the actions and performance of your team. Thinking about the values of the organisation which will guide what you will and won’t stand for.
• Commitment to the Growth of People – commit to the personal and professional development of teams.
• Build a sense of community- enabling others to make links across the organisation either formally or informally. 

On the basis of these principles Servant Leaders are able to 

• Facilitate effective teamwork – as Deming notes “When we cooperate everybody wins”
• Create environments for effective problem solving and collaboration – effectively this is moving to a win win position.
• Enable job satisfaction
• Enhance job performance and job commitment
• Redesign work to make it meaningful
• Look beyond the organisation to take into account everyone it touches.
• Create positive relationships which achieve a positive result and generally these relationships last beyond the organisational context.

This causes employees to reciprocate and assists the unlocking of the Black Box as highlighted by John Purcell in his research at Bath University. The Black Box in question relates to performance above and beyond and let’s face it who wouldn’t want that from their team.

There is also a need to create psychological safety in the organisation – for the organisation to be a place where people can speak up and share ideas in a safe way. Simon Sinek refers to this as being a circle of safety at work

So how do you know if Servant Leadership is in place? Robert Greenleaf devised 7 questions to ask which you can find here.

What’s in it for me?

Okay you might be saying – so far so good. Servant Leadership seems to be a good thing – so what do I as a leader get out of it? Well here are some starters for 10:

• Teams feel empowered to make changes and because the changes come from the team they are more likely to be motivated to work towards it.
• Increased creativity and innovation as people are more likely to disrupt the status quo and say ‘Why don’t we do it like this?’ and bring new ideas to the table. 
• Better decision making a a variety of perspectives are brought into the process rather than just the leaders. 

Korn Ferry have identified some clear benefits of this approach including 

• Organisations 70% more likely to capture new markets
• Individuals are able to reach their full potential in the organisation
• Enable employees to feel free to build their authentic self to work

What does it look like in practice?

Bill Bellows talks about the concept of all straw organisations which are organisations who work well together(essentially those who practice Servant Leadership) and within this he highlights both physical and people elements you would expect to find on each.

Physical

• Well lit work spaces.
• Minimal waste.
• Visible Metrics in place.

People

• On the floor management.
• Highly motivated workforce.
• Smiles.
• Coffee break conversations “We have just got a new contract.”
• Ideally everyone is a leader.
• Everything is ‘snapfit’ i.e. is able to work without forcing.

That last point is particularly interesting: everyone can act as a leader – it might be in their specialist field or area or it might be championing a particular initiative. The possibilities are endless. 

My fab colleague Adrian shared with me a great video which encapsulates the key elements David Marquet – Greatness (Intent based Leadership) which really brings some of the concepts we are talking about here to life. 

Remember that this is about a balance of Leading and Serving

Monica Zimmerman sums this up best in her work on ranking and leading. With ranking (usually associated with the leadership elements) being identified as:

• Being decisive
• Clear unemotional communication
• Having integrity
• Managing your energy and addressing issues at an appropriate time
• Having ownership/accountability – your company, your organisation and your culture

Linking is identified  as including:

• Listening
• Having empathy
• Maintaining clear eye contact
• Sharing experiences
• Being present in the moment

This is a useful reminder as sometimes with Servant Leadership we can get focused on the word Servant which is concerned with a focus on the people and building relationships. However, there will still be moments when we will need to be decisive and have ownership/accountability. Zimmerman stresses that these elements need to be done with kindness. 

Communicating as a Servant Leader

As David Bowis notes “In simple terms if your actions as a leader are to stress your people out  then your approach is part of the process that reduces the ability to cope with change.”

He also goes on to state that we should follow the neuroscience which says “Telling is destructive.”

Essentially we need to create a better condition for brains to be at their best. The desire for different will be triggered if 

• We follow our own free will
• The risk reward strategy is sufficient
• We perceive ourselves to be safe i.e. psychological safety

We need to follow the neuroscience in this area – “Telling is destructive.” As John Klymship suggests we need to away from this approach and move into drawing things out of people. j

Given this is our starting point we need to think carefully about the language we use

For example 

• Use experiment rather than failure
• Learn fast rather than fail first
• “Here’s where were heading” – indicates excitement and structure
• “I’ve been thinking about our conversation” – indicates that we have been thinking about the person in their absence
• Be precise and concise

Jane Lewis talks about some of the language we use when relationships break down including 

• Train Wreck
• Car Crash
• Damaged
• Write Off

This language suggests that the situation is terminal and can signal to the other person that there is no hope of rebuilding. Choosing better language can help us maintain our relationships even through tricky periods. 

As we have see above much of Servant Leadership is concerned with building relationship and David Weir suggests a useful model to helps us get this right especially when we are gathering information:

O – Open ended questions – Why, What, Where, When, How, Tell me, Describe, Explain

A – Acceptance  of others and self for others opinions – use a non judgemental approach

R – Respect – for the other person and as we have noted above and their opinions

S – Silence – using silence gives the other person time to think and respond in a considered manner.

The Importance of Trust

As we have started to see a key element of this approach is Trust. Jane Lewis draws attention to the IPSOS Mori Veracity Index (Oct 2020)  which measures the percentage of people who would generally trust someone of this profession to tell the truth. Within this a key measure is that 67% of people don’t trust  business leaders.

Trust can be defined in many ways but perhaps the most applicable one is the one below – 

The Trust Equation (Maister, Galford and Green)

Trust = Rapport + Credibility + Dependability + Intimacy

            _____________________________________

         Self Interest

The different elements are deliberately added together as you can still have trust where one is not in play.

Rapport – my connection with who you are

Credibility – the believability of what you say

Dependability – the reliability of what you do

Intimacy – the strength/closeness of relationships (this is not a prerequisite for trust – think about airline pilots, bus drivers – we don’t have a close relationship yet we still get on!)

Self Interest – Selfish hidden agenda

Stephen Covey suggests a number of ways in which we can build trust as outlined below:

• Listen first
• Understand the need
• Clarify expectations
• Keep commitments
• Apologise and rectify
• Extend trust to others
• Tackle issues – make undiscussable issues discussable

It is interesting to note how many of these are in line with the Servant Leadership attributes we have already identified. 

Decision Making and the Servant Leader

One of Robert Greenleaf’s tenets of ethical decision making is “Is your decision for the greater good?”

The key challenge with this is ensuring that ethical decision making goes through the organisation. Susan Litward has developed a framework to help with this which is outlined below:

Principles – these are our guides for decision making which come with us for every decision and can include passion and integrity.

Information – do we have all the information we need which is important? What is the information gap and how do we monitor this gap?

Stakeholders – is there anything/anyone that impacts and influences on our decision making i.e. policies/environment? 

Consequences over time – we need to get better at thinking about the longer term 

consequences. What are the consequences which are both important and irreparable?

These are clearly in line with Servant Leadership principles as it considers the stakeholders, focuses on key values and considers the long term impact of the decision. 

Change and the Servant Leader

Change as we know is constant and Stella Biden has offered some useful hints and tips on managing change as a Servant Leader.

Biden highlights that the notion of fear can be used as a positive force if it is harnessed in the right way.

Key ways to manage change include

• Transforming fear into possibilities
• Persuasion to change through conscious awareness
• Creating collaboration
• Welcoming inclusion and belonging
• Being confident in making a difference

This can be done through

• Creating a psychological safe space – allowing for exploration and discovery. Google Research noticed that the team which performed the best had psychological safety which infers this has a direct impact on the bottom line. 
• Being brutally honest about your current reality – this can be painful and necessary to change. Usually it’s the elephant in the room that no one is mentioning.
• Creating a structure – this gives a sense of certainty despite the chaos. We are creatures of habit and as such need to address issues and problems regularly. Having things which are controllable enables us to mitigate the constraints. As part of the structure revisit the parameters every single week and ask does our effort still make sense?
• Asking questions differently to trigger transformational moments. What is your story of transformation and change? What is the story of change you are not putting forward yet because of fear?

Let’s Get Started

To get you thinking some examples of where Servant Leadership is being used can be found here.

So what are some of things you can do first

• Determine what needs to be done.
• Listen to people.
• Focus on helping your people grow.
• Be proactive and concerned for your people.
• Check whether we are overloading people.
• Remember the greatest gift you can give someone is your undivided attention.

Patrick Hoverstadt identified two key questions which are great for new managers to ask

• What’s all the crap you don’t think you should be doing?
• What’s all the awesome stuff you could be doing?

As a final thought John Klymshyn notes that powerful leaders are

• Never in a hurry.
• Never on their way somewhere else.
• Never have a mobile in their hand.

As a final flourish some question to think about

• Which of these elements are you practising already?
• What are you going to start doing?

Good luck on your Servant Leader journey!

Recently I have been spending my evenings in learning mode and reviewing some of the sessions from the 2021 Learning Technologies Conference.

For reference I attended the following sessions:

Beyond Zoom and Teams – Making High Impact Learning Programmes Engaging in a Digital Format – Alan Hiddleston (D2L)

Why 2021 is the Year for Social Learning Emma Layton (Thrive)

What You Need to Know About The State of Skills in 2021 Anthony Wilkey (Degreed)

Developing Memorable Learning Experiences Sergio and Ricardo (Netex Learning)

Developing Learning Habits Celine Mullins (Adaptas)

Learning Analytics from Inception to Maturity Ben Betts (Learning Pool)

Measuring Learning Activity and Demonstrating a Learning Culture Dr Hannah Gore (CCG)

To further embed my learning I have also been sketchnoting the key points which you can find on another blog post here. Below is a summary of the themes I found in each of the sessions:

• Reskilling is coming and we need to be ready – We all know the world has changed and there was frequent reference to the fact that 50% of employees will need reskilling by 2025. Anthony Wilkey cited research by Degreed that there is a belief that current skills aren’t future proof and that 24% of core skills will be obsolete within one year and that skills on the agenda are a mixture of people and technical skills.
• The Role of L&D is Changing – It’s not just about design and delivery anymore (whether virtual or classroom) we are now curators and moving into the the world of creating learning experiences. The session from Netex Learning highlighted the role of a Learning Experience Designer as including directing course design and development, determining the content organisation and advising on assessment. Dr Hannah Gore spoke about the need to build ourselves first and equip ourselves in business skills – speak the businesses language and “Claw your way into the boardroom.” In addition L&D objectives should be business objectives – how have they helped develop the business.
• Learning in the Flow of Work – Learning shouldn’t be a seperate activity to work – it is work. Anthony Wilkey stated that where there is dynamic participation in the learning the retention rate was 75%. Celine Mullins cited the work of Richard Boyatzsis on having to practice new thoughts, behaviours and experiments.
• Digital isn’t just about Teams, Zoom and Adobe Connect – As Alan Hiddleston pointed out let’s move beyond the virtual live sessions and think about podcasts, videos, documents and self driven workbooks which are more flexible for the end user. Learning at the point of need was a phrase that occurred again and again and in a potential world of hybrid working it can’t always be a workshop 9:30 – 16:00.
• Learning needs to be personalised – I often talk about the ‘smorgasbord of learning’ where individuals can take a pick and mix approach to learning in a way that suits them best. This idea takes this one step further and highlights the need for a personalised learning journey where learners complete knowledge assessments to check what learning is required. Celine Mullins took this one step further and talked about putting being human into learning and helping people how they learn best which makes the learning more likely to be embedded. This includes identifying our own derailers and limiting beliefs and how we can overcome these.
• It’s about creating a Learning Culture – Dr Hannah Gore describes this brilliantly as you know when you have it as everyone in the business just accesses the learning and also emphasised that learning is no longer geographic. In a past life I have had regional roles where we used central locations – for some reason I was magnetically attracted to Milton Keynes. The idea of learning accessible as Shakira likes to say ‘Wherever, whenever’ would have been attractive when I was sat in those traffic jams on the M6.
• Co-Creation is the Key – It’s not just about L&D/OD anymore – the idea of co-creation and User Generated Content (UGC) was spoken of repeatedly. Emma Layton cited some interesting statistics including the fact that 92% of consumers trust recommends. With this in mind UGC is an attractive with the logical conclusion that if a colleagues likes or makes something we are more likely to view. Dr Hannah Gore noted that sharing learning decreases stress as people feel able to step away from work as someone else can pick this up.
• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway! – Okay I admit I stole the title from Susan Jeffers books but I think it applies here. Again in Emma Layton’s session she discussed why it makes us nervous including the fact that we might want it to be perfect or not everyone will be comfortable. The clear message here is don’t be afraid to be real and authentic. Personally, I love a short iPhone video which I have used before as testimonials for sessions – people love the idea that this is someone recommending this and better still it is someone they know!
• Start Simple – In good northern terms ‘Don’t overegg the pudding!’. In the spirit of not waiting for perfection start with articles, links, questions, discussions and move on from there. As Aerosmith once said ‘Life’s a journey not a destination.”
• Engagement is still key – Netex Learning cited the research of Niels Floor who noted that a good learning experience is positive, has meaning and is human centred. This links to the work Richard Boyatzsis cited by Celine Mullins that if we engage with the parasympathetic nervous system we enter the world of possibility, dreams and optimism meaning that we are more likely to make changes.
• Find Some Champions and Engage – Having champions in the business makes sense who can spread the word, be a test user group and feedback on how our interventions are hitting the ground. It is interesting to note that as Anthony Wilkey suggested that promoters of L&D are 28% more likely to get promoted, 27% more likely to move to another team and less likely to leave the business.
• The Role of Managers Remains Crucial – This includes providing feedback, recommending resources and providing opportunities to put the new skills into action. To support this activity we need to provide templates and guides to support.
• Metrics Remain a Mixed Bag – I love a good metric and a spot of data analysis so this area still continues to be one of huge interest to me so I was interested to hear Ben Betts talk about the fact that 94% of Senior Executives have an interest in learning analytics with 70% having no learning analytic resources – a slight contradiction. He then went on to talk about having a portfolio of evidence that learning has made a difference. In my own experience this has included evaluation data, knowledge uplift data and evidence from manager conversations. In addition it was also interesting to hear that on The Maturity Model most organisations sit between describe (the what’s going on approach) and analyse (why has it occurred) suggesting that implementing this analysis would be a point of difference. My biggest learning here was Dr Hannah Gore who emphasised the need for business outcomes and not vanity metrics to please us.

I want to finish by saying a heartfelt thank you to all the speakers and everyone who attended who made this a really valuable learning experience.

I hope you found my musing useful and what are you going to take away and use?

For reference I attended the following sessions:

Beyond Zoom and Teams – Making High Impact Learning Programmes Engaging in a Digital Format – Alan Hiddleston (D2L)

Why 2021 is the Year for Social Learning Emma Layton (Thrive)

What You Need to Know About The State of Skills in 2021 Anthony Wilkey (Degreed)

Developing Memorable Learning Experiences Sergio and Ricardo (Netex Learning)

Developing Learning Habits Celine Mullins (Adaptas)

Learning Analytics from Inception to Maturity Ben Betts (Learning Pool)

Ever since Marie Kondo introduced the concept of Spark Joy into our everyday language we have been looking at our lives in a slightly different way and not just our possessions. As a consequence of the pandemic a lot more of us are spending time at home and the need to spark some joy into our lives has been increasingly more important.

So here are some thoughts on what sparking the joy means to me.

• Reconnections  – In the past few weeks I have been reconnecting with people I have worked with in the past and it has been an absolute delight. I confess I make a terrible friend as I get so wrapped up in my strange and crazy life that weeks go by and then I realise I’ve left things slip. To those people who I have been reconnecting with recently I thank you  – for your patience and for embracing me back as thought it was only yesterday we just chatted. I have valued our conversations more than you know and promise to try harder!
• Connections – So now you know  I have trouble with keeping in touch – however, there are people with whom I have managed it thanks to the magic of WhatsApp! I love the idea of a quick message and sharing a moment – whether it be my consistently borrowed Lowry Theatre glass which can be viewed on Teams or sharing a joke over my famous packet inspired Spaghetti Carbonara. Either way those interactions bring a smile and sometimes a snort of laughter! Read more about my thoughts about why it’s important to have a friend at work here
• Great Conversations – Now and again there are conversations you have which challenge our way of thinking which are thought provoking. You know the ones – the ones that are still making us think a few days later as we go about our lives. These all contribute to the rich tapestry that makes up our thinking and helps develop our thought processes – to all those who have contributed to mine I salute you.
• Unexpected Joy – As I write this it is FA Cup weekend – so I do love a football match of a particular flavour. However, even for me I have watched a lot of the FA Cup and have been captivated by the exploits of the minnows (Marine, Cheltenham, and Chorley) against the big teams. For me it captures the essence of football I remember, and I have found myself cheering on or more likely shouting at the tv screen. Unfortunately for my other half I watch football like I am the manager and can offer plenty of advice and motivation as appropriate!
• Making the Time – Now I wouldn’t want to suggest that joy needs scheduling, but we do need to make time for it. Whether it’s reading, taking a long bath, or eating maple and bacon crisps! I do realise that last one might be just me….The key is to slow down and take the time and focus on the moment. As an ex-English Lit student I read far too quickly – so I consciously slow down so I take in the words and just enjoy the sensation of peace and quiet. Like a great conversation a good book can stay with you for days – and in that spirit can I recommend Dan Walker’s Remarkable People. Thought provoking reading matter at it’s very best.
• Blogging – As a natural reflector I think a lot and sometimes I need to get all those thoughts out – usually that’s when I blog. There is no rhythm to it – only when I have something to say. Truly – it does spark some joy when people read it – the numbers aren’t important it’s the fact that people took the time  to read my random thoughts which I find amazing.
• Music – This for me is a natural source of joy.Who can’t fail to be uplifted by the Spice Girls or Girls Aloud? Is it sometimes accompanied by a little bop around the front room – well I’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that one. More recently I have been enjoying the Everyone’s talking about Jamie soundtrack  with a favourite being Don’t Even Know It (from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) – YouTube
• Exercise – Now this is a sentence I never thought I’d write – exercise has been a key part of my day as I usually at some point go for a walk whether this is local or to a local National Trust property. For me I find that it helps balance my mood and I’m quite proud of the number of miles I have racked up…
• Find work that you love – This sounds a bit like a cliche but we do spend a long time at work, and it can be even longer if it isn’t sparking joy. Take time to think about what sparks joy for you at work – is there enough of it, would you like more of it? And most importantly – go for it!
• Don’t be afraid to follow Marie Kondo  – One of my favourite expressions is ‘Don’t be afraid to be yourself – everybody else is taken’. Inevitably there will be people who love you, some who are quite frankly indifferent and some who would gladly walk 500 miles to avoid you. Sometimes there are relationships in life which don’t always work out and that’s okay – at work that’s trickier and there are strategies we can adopt to manage these. In our personal lives it’s worth taking the time to think about how much emotional energy we expend with some people – are they bringing joy to our lives?
• My truth is not yours – All of the above is about what sparks joy for me – but just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. Try different things and remember that nothing is wrong – if it works for you it just works…

What are you going to do to spark joy?