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.”

15th May - Reading

Thursday 15th May, Regus Business Centre, Reading - Jigsaw@work taster Day.

Joining instructions have been sent out today for the taster day, which is taking place next week in Reading.

The day promises to be full of fun and jam-packed full of ideas and techniques which participants can take away and implement immediately to improve relationships at home or at work.

Participants will be taken on their personal journey's of discovery, to experience the Jigsaw@work profiling tool first hand, before looking at some of the many applications and implications the framework can have for:

• Individual development
• Team development
• Organisational development
• Leadership development
• Sales Development
• Relationship development

Reading is the first of many taster days running through the summer months. If you would like more details of dates and locations visit www.jigsawatwork.com

National Learning at Work Day

Have you got the date in your diary?

Thursday 22nd May 2008

National Learning at Work Day is an opportunity to promote the work of the learning and development team and raise staff awareness of the many opportunities which exsit for learning and development within your workplace.

Two years ago, Jigsaw@work was invited by South Oxfordshire Council, to showcase the Jigsaw profiling tool and how it could benefit their people and the organisation. The day was a great success with a succession of indivdiuals and teams pouring into the event throughout the day. A lot of thought had gone into the day by the training team, they were busy running games and challenges from spot the baby to building lego figures.

This year we will be once again taking part in the National Learning at Work Day, but this time we will be working with one of our newest licensees, Waste & Resources Action Programme, based in Banbury. We were invited to take part in their celebration as a way of launching their new learning programme to the organisation. Throughout the day we will be working with and individuals and teams giving them a taster of what they can expect when they attend their in house programmes.

So its not too late why not Celebrate National Learning at Work day on Thursday 22nd May.
visit www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk for further information.

An Odd Personality

Whilst listening to the radio over the bank holiday it was reported by one station that the problem with Gordon Brown was that he had an "odd" personality. He was a quiet , private man and not what the population of the UK expect to see in a PM.

In the run up Mr Brown taking over as PM, I had been taking a keen interest in his public appearences, right before our eyes he was despartely trying to become more of a people person, to make himself more personable to the public.

Jigsaw@work can provide Mr Brown with the answers;

By using a simple framework of human behaviour, Mr Brown is what we at Jigsaw call a Mr Huey Blue.

Mr Huey Blue:

• can be perceived by others as quite a formal individual, often seen as being cold and indecisive. He is concerned with the small picture rather than the bigger picture.

What Mr Brown is lacking is some of the traits of Ray O'Sunshine:

• ability to display his emotions, eg enthusiasm and passion for his work, not to be afraid to make a decsion, social adeptness

Mr Brown is a textbook example of a leader who is trying desparately to become someone he is not and does not really want to be. It is possible to develop new qualities and traits but it does rely upon truly wanting to change and applying the principles of whole brain thinking.

Jigsaw@work discovery tools, facilitate the development of awareness of self and gives one an understanding of how we may be percieved by others. In understanding self, indivdiuals can then choose to develop less dominant areas of the brain, and can adapt their preferences and style to accommodate the needs of others, in Mr Browns case the expectations of the voting public.

If you would like to find out more about Jigsaw@work learning and development programmes please contact discovery@jigsawatwork.com and ask for details of our six D's

• Personal Development
  Increased Self Awareness, understanding key drivers and impact of behaviours and actions upon others, managing change
• Team Development
  Creating high performing teams, improving working relationships, dealing with differences
  
• Organisational Development
  Creating whole brain organisations to deliver the strategic goals, unblocking communication channels
  
• Leadership Development
  Unlocking leadership potential, leading with impact
• Sales Development
  Making a “True” connection with the customer, satisfying unconscious needs, improving influencing skills
• Diversity@work
  Valuing individuality in the workplace, Challenging assumptions and managing prejudices

What a hectic couple of weeks we have had;

Week commencing 14th April - we were on the road to EXCEL, for HRD2008.
Despite hearing several little grumbles form both visitors and other exhibitors, this years show is showing signs of being an excellent year.

We have had two very positive approaches from learning organisations in Europe, who have arranged to visit our offices to discuss the opportunities that exist within their markets for licensing the Jigsaw, so watch this space for updates of when we launch our next overseas office.

We also had several visitors who were clients of our People Plus, our Gulf States partners. It was really great to meet some of our overseas clients and hear first hand of their experiences of working with Jigsaw@work

From the Uk we met many of our clients and lots of new people all keen to find out more about how Jigsaw@work could be integrated into their training programmes for Customer Service, Team Development, Leadership, Communication, Managing Change and much much more......

The New Equality & Diversity Jigsaw was exceptionally well received at the show with three major UK based organisations interested in using Jigsaw@work for the Diversity programmes.
The New Diversity training programme has been developed by Head of the New Diversity Unit, William Chadwick, who is the ex National Training Manager for the Equalities Commission.

We returned from HRD, very tired but very excited by the global interest in Jigsaw@work

Week Commencing 21st April, saw us back on the road again, but this time heading north to Gateshead, where we delivered a bespoke Train the Trainer programme, before heading south down to Reading where we had been invited to facilitate a Team Development workshop to a dynamic, high energy, high performing team who work in the Care sector.

Upon returning to head quarters, we had a message waiting from one of our university clients requesting additional workshops as they had a waiting list of 40 people who had signed up for our "Dealing with Differences" workshops.

If you would like to find out more about our Dealing with Differences programme or any of our other learning and development programme, visit www.jigsaw@work.com or email discovery @jigsawatwork.com