Leadesrhip Development

Following the success of our leadership development programmes, we have recently expanded our team of consultants and are pleased to announce that Keith Patching is our new Head of Leadership Development.

He has qualifications in most of the leading psychometric and assessment tools. In addition he has developed a unique suite of instruments to help identify individuals’ primary motivators and values, and the means of evaluating the degree of match between individuals’ primary drivers and the values actively promoted within their organizations. These instruments have been used internationally as a key part of many of his clients’ leadership development strategies.

He has been independently responsible for running development projects and programmes in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America that have ranged from tailored courses to one-to-one coaching. He specialises in team development and dynamics, and helps individuals, teams and organisations to become more effective through the development and implementation of individuals’ unique potential and strengths.

He is also a visiting fellow at Cranfield School of Management, where he previously held the post of Director of the Management Development Unit. In that role he was responsible for a number of Faculty and Business Development activities. He is a leading practitioner of learning design, having worked on hundreds of uniquely tailored leadership and management development programmes over a period of over twenty years. His primary focus is ensuring that effective learning takes place, and this is achieved by a blend of research and teaching at the leading edge of learning theory.

Keith graduated with degrees in Philosophy and Social Anthropology from Oxford University, and has subsequently worked in a variety of industries, including computing, financial services and manufacturing. Since leaving Cranfield he has consulted with a large number of international clients on the development of their strategies for organisation and leadership development.

Recent clients have included: Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Lucent Technologies, Morgan Stanley, Phillip Morris, Toshiba, Oracle, Sara Lee, NCR, European Investment Fund.

He has published a number of books, most recently:

Management and Organisation Development: Beyond arrows, boxes and circles, Macmillan Business, London 1999, ISBN 0-333-75413-1
Corporate Politics for IT Managers, Butterworth Heinemann, London 2000, ISBN 0-7506-4792-2
Leadership, Character and Strategy, Palgrave Macmillan, November 2006 ISBN 0230500846

WRAP Learning at Work Day

On Thursday 22nd May, some of you may be aware that it was the National Learning at Work Day.

Jigsaw@work discovery tool and development programmes have recently been licenced for use by WRAP ( Waste and Resources Action Programme) a government initiative which works with individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.

To mark the National learning at Work Day, Eileen Anderson, Training Manager at WRAP and her team organised a Learning at Work Day for employees at their Head Office in Banbury.

Throughout the day team activities and individual competitions were held along with bite size development sessions. Employees were encouraged to come along for the day and take part in activities which included, a Home Composting Game, Love Food Hate Waste, Build a Car head and shoulder massages and a demonstration of the GROW coaching model.

Eileen invited Jigsaw@work to the event to run mini jigsaw sessions with individuals and teams giving them an opportunity to sample the jigsaw and get a feel for the workshops which Eileen will be facilitating over the forthcoming months.

The first person to take part in a Jigsaw profiling session was the Financial Director, closely followed by his team. From 9.45am through to 3.30pm the Jigsaw team were kept busy profiling individual employees and departmental teams. One team enjoyed the experience so much they booked a second session for the afternoon so that they could profile one another and find out more about how they could work better together as a team.

By the end of the afternoon, the whole of the executive team had completed their profiles and over 50 team members had been along to find out more about the Jigsaw.

The Learning at Work Day concluded with a "Have I Got WRAP News for You" which ended the day on a high.

Eileen commented that " It was a really successful day, hugely down to Jigsaw@work and for getting the company in the mood to play jigsaw in depth over the coming months."

Certified Learning Practitioner

Michelle McArthur - Senior Learning Consultant and Founding Partner in Jigsaw@work has committed to abide by the ethical and professional standards of the new Certified Learning Practitioner (CLP) accreditation.

CLP is a new accreditation which is being awarded by TrainerBase, the new trade Association for independent Learning Practitioners.

If you would like to find out more about TrainerBase or CLP please visit http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/

Team Development was Top of the List

Last week, was the first of this seasons Jigsaw@work taster days. Held in the Regus conference centre, the day was a huge success, with delegates attending from organisations such as Oracle, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of New York & Mellon, CILIP, Travelex, NSW and WRAP.

Top of the agenda for many of the delegates was Team development, closely followed by Customer Care and Communication.

The morning was spent guiding the delegates along their personal journey's of discovery, creating their own unique brain profiles and being introduced to the concepts of whole brain communication.

In the afternoon, the delegates carried out an group activity to identify the true value of individuality within the workplace, before taking part in a fun, challenging communication activity which produced "loads" of learning, much to the surprise of the participants.

The next Jigsaw@work taster day will be held on the 24th June in Harlow. If you would like to attend, visit http://www.jigsawatwork.com

Are you looking for something totally new and innovative?

If you have been following the blog, you will be aware that Jigsaw@work launched a new Equality & Diversity programme at HRD 2008.

The new development programme goes way beyond the normal Equality & Diversity workshops, the new two day programme, which can be broken down into modules offers far more learning than the legalities of Equality.

The programme, takes participants on their personal journey's of discovery enabling them to :
identify what it means to them to be part of a diverse team,
what it means in reality to value the indivdiuality of team members
and how to work well with others, be it their colleagues, or customers

Unlike most other Equality programmes,

• There is no preaching or policing of participants heads
• We always refer back to the individual, whilst talking about legalities
• It is personal and real
• It is FUN and not dry and dusty

We look at ways of managing our:

• Assumptions and Prejudices
• Actions and Behaviours

We are holding a special invitation only Taster Day for the new programme, if you would like to be included on the invitation list, please email mailto:discovery@jigsawatwork.com

New Training Partner - Sue Vogan

Sue has been a Learning consultant for the last 17 years, working with companies ranging from twenty-five employees to thousands of employees in both the public and private sectors including retailing, manufacturing, banking, utilities and leisure sectors.

She enjoys working with organisations to help them develop the skills of their employees through personal development and management development programmes.

Sue has also used assessment and development centres as part of the development process. Consultancy and training projects have been conducted in the areas of improving customer service, management development and implementing practical personnel policies and procedures.

She has previously been employed as a senior personnel manager with Marks & Spencer PLC for 13 years and this invaluable experience means that she brings a practical view point from real experience in a challenging and quickly moving business environment.

Sue first heard of Jigsaw@work® whilst visiting her sister in Plymouth. Earlier that week, Sue’s sister had, had friends visiting from Dubai, who were telling her all about this fantastic new training tool they had just seen and were in the process of becoming the master licensees for the Gulf States. Knowing of Sue’s knowledge of the training world her sister, asked if Sue knew of Jigsaw@work® as we were based within a 5 mile radius of her home. Sue had to admit that she was not.

Upon Sue’s return home, her immediate action was to contact make contact with Jigsaw@work® and arrange a meeting with the founding partners, Keith Nicholson and Michelle McArthur.

The rest is history, Sue left wanting more, eager to see the Jigsaw in action, Sue traveled some 180 miles to a Jigsaw taster Day. In March of this year Sue became an accredited Jigsaw@work® facilitator and joined the team in April as a training partner.

“Sue is a great asset to the business” said Founding partner Keith Nicholson. “She brings vast experience and knowledge not only of learning and development but also of HR procedures and legislation, which means that we can offer a more comprehensive service to our customers.”