Timely topics for your teams today
We help our partners' teams to build in-demand skills for the modern world of work, with topics explored through a blend of live experiences (virtual and in-person) and on-demand resources and micro-learning.
Popular topics across key themes are shown below, with session plans and resource samples available on request. Drop us a line to learn more.
Ways we can team up
Tackling these topics together
All of these topics and more can be explored by your team via our learning platform with weekly, live virtual workshops and on-demand micro-learning: brain (and diary) friendly development, self-directed among a diverse community of peers.
From energising one-off workshops to ongoing programmatic approaches; resource led collaborations to internally-led coaching circles — we can engage and motivate your teams directly around these topics wherever they're working from.
Personal effectiveness
Don't call them soft skills, they're super-powers!
By continually refining our relationship with the ways we give and receive feedback, we'll enjoy more purposeful and productive relationships and foster cultures of performance.
Good presenting is really about 'being ourselves with skill', and consciously approaching any kind of presentation with practical frameworks and savvy tools to hand.
In today's fast-moving and ambiguous world of work, it's no surprise that we often feel pressured and unfocussed: hardly the best context for making good decisions. There are lots of proven approaches to explore.
Try out five days of tiny tactics and actionable experiments for writing well in any kind of context; from those speedy Slack updates to difficult customer emails, compelling campaign copy to sharp social shares.
With the right mindsets and techniques to hand, conversations we all too easily put off can become positive and transformative learning experiences, with our relationships enhanced in the process.
If you know you deserve to be heard, and want to make a difference, actively working on your influencing skills is important. Practical approaches will create immediate impact in all directions.
Exploring and practicing proven methods for levelling up your listening skills, and deeply appreciating the benefits they'll bring to all kinds of relationships.
We can all benefit from a stronger and more confident voice, and there are accessible and actionable methods for developing one and applying it in-person or when communicating virtually.
By overlooking the power of habits in working towards our goals, we set ourselves up to fail. When we embrace habits, we change our behaviours for the better.
Exploring the principles and practices that can help us to positively forge new connections and help others to do the same. Let's reframe the notion of networking from painful cliché to purposeful endeavour.
Mastering the art of running creative and engaging meetings, groups and any kind of gathering — injecting them with energy, purpose and ensuring equal participation.
By mastering the art of the negotiation, we can positively pull others towards our point of view, and work towards mutually valuable 'win-win,' outcomes.
There are simple and actionable ways to boost our sense of authority, presence and gravitas at work: by mastering them, we can quickly boost our impact.
Refining and combining our skills of empathy, listening and questioning will enable us to intentionally influence relationships with those more senior.
With the right methods and mindsets in effect, mentoring relationships bring transformative and mutually valuable development to all involved.
Master the art of successful delegation; arm yourself with proven tools and techniques, an awareness of your mental blockers and an action plan for shortening your to-do list.
We'll draw from the behaviours of coaches, pilots and hostage negotiators; crafting compelling questions that transform the way we communicate and move us forward in all kinds of relationships.
A coaching mindset, with the listening and questioning approaches that accompany it, will transform and enrich the relationships that matter the most to us.
We can reboot our relationship with time itself by rethinking the link between time and energy, and feeling more in control of what's ultimately finite.
We'll deconstruct the notion of charm, unpack the behaviours of those that possess it, and learn ways we can effectively dial up our own charm quotient.
Kid-tech pioneers SuperAwesome (now part of Epic Games) are on a mission to make the internet safer for children. To support their fast growth, we developed an experiential programme of bite-size workshops and supporting micro-learning to enable more empathetic and effective problem solving among their Customer Success teams globally.
In these hybrid working times, the emphasis on being clear in our written communication is greater than ever. Whether writing an all team Slack update or advising a nervous client on the best way forward, the words we choose to use will greatly impact the change we can effect.
We'll discover how a purposeful, considered 'no' can be deployed to protect our precious time and enrich important relationships, as well as identifying which opportunities merit an emphatic 'yes!'
Starting with the intriguing 'Trust Equation' we'll practically explore how the levers of credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation can help us enrich the relationships that matter the most.
Examining the notion of a personal brand, and working through a proven process to identify and define one for ourselves that can be flexed for real and satisfying outcomes.
While it's not something we'd actively seek out, conflict is something that can lead to positive change and purposeful outcomes when framed, and approached, in the right way
An often elusive feeling, confidence is something we can all learn, practice and intentionally improve. We'll demystify the idea of confidence and pursue practices for getting more of it.
Exploring the notion of assertiveness, learning how to be more actively assertive and recognising (and removing) what's currently getting in the way.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Building belonging in distributed teams
If you've observed some less than inclusive or inappropriate behaviour in your team, how can you most appropriately raise it, avoid that ‘I wish I’d said something’ feeling, or avoid getting into a confrontation?
Awareness of implicit biases is important, as is intentionally equipping ourselves with ways to interrupt and overcome them when they occur.
We all think differently, and by raising awareness of each others' thinking styles we create more inclusive workplaces; where strengths are played to, and innovation is enabled.
Developed alongside Abi Adamson at the Diversity Partnership, this new, positive and purposeful course of micro-learning is for anyone keen to deepen their understanding of the opportunity for greater allyship and advocacy at work, and to discover, try, apply and share practical and proven approaches.
Microaggressions and microaffirmations come in many forms, intentional or otherwise. These small pieces of communication can make a big impact, so how do we get wise to them?
Intentional, inclusive onboarding makes future colleagues feel part of something well before their first day 'in the office,' and in the distributed, post-Covid world of work, the stage is set for motivating approaches.
Privilege can be difficult to admit experiencing, but when we understand the nuance our own, and how to use it for good, we take steps purposeful towards positive allyship.
We all have built-in biases which have historically helped our decision making. It's when they begin to unfairly impact others that problems arise, and so arming ourselves with tools for taking control is vital.
Unchecked privilege, inherent bias, clumsy communication and unhelpful practices still have a hold in today's world of work. Our focus is on actionable steps towards being a better ally and advocate in our own work contexts.
Building on what we cover in our Neurodiversity Awareness workshops and resources, we'll deepen our focus on the strategies and strengths based approaches that are enabling sustained neuroinclusion in modern workplaces.
The modern managerial mode
Timely tools for leading teams in '22
Drawing on Daniel Goleman's six classic archetypes, you'll understand your natural strengths, and when and where you need to be flexing alternative approaches.
An often misunderstood idea: a practical appreciation of purpose is a powerful part of the leadership toolkit. From big visions to small actions, when we correctly connect the 'what' to the 'why', minds are motivated to move.
Human-centred 1-1s, adapted to the individual styles of team members and run to a regular cadence, result in confident, motivated and socially connected people ready to do their best work. Our tried and tested techniques are helping hundreds of managers to have even better conversations around the world.
While there’s often uncertainty about what ‘storytelling’ means in relation to leadership, what is certain from a social, psychological and scientific perspective is that stories ‘work’.
Purposefully providing your people managers with a coaching mindset offers them a toolkit to drive engagement and performance throughout their teams. Accessible cross-organisationally, or delivered directly to your managers anywhere, our Coaching Skills for Managers programme can be experienced virtually, in-person, or as a blend of the two.
In the increasingly hybrid world of work, managers equipped to build belonging and support the differing needs of distributed team members will enjoy better personal and collective wellbeing and performance.
Team members are driven to advance, learn and grow rather than stay still, and will have varying career goals: a promotion, a qualification, an entrepreneurial dream. Intentional conversational styles can help managers get keyed into those goals for mutual benefit.
Exploring how we lead for change, how valuable 'test and learn' mindsets are for cultural and team change (just as they are for product innovation), and how so much more is within our control than we may think.
Supersizing our skills in empathetic listening and curious questioning to enhance performance in all directions. A coaching mindset helps our team members build the autonomy to resolve their own problems, and feel more energised in their everyday.
Examining evidence-led thinking for working more productively when time is invariably tight. You’ll learn to focus like an obsessive, help others get clearer on their goals, and identify where their current blockers lie
Leaders that can actively model a growth mindset and nurture it in others can create tremendous impact and innovation, particularly in times of change. Here, we’ll explore the scientifically proven approaches for doing so.
For the footwear and culture makers we've developed a blended development programme, drawing on our core manager modules, and delivered to thousands of people-managers globally. It's purpose is to support an emphasis of coaching led 1-1s and the roll out of a new performance enablement system.
Creative thinking
Defining problems, solving problems
Getting hands on with a variety of tools and techniques for quick, refreshing and effective creative thinking whether working solo or collaboratively among teams.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." Building elements of play into the ways we work and learn as teams can lead to brilliant outcomes; from the ways we run our meetings to a pipeline of big ideas.
Revealing the perpetual power of stories and how to harness key principles of storytelling to engage and persuade all kinds of audiences in all kinds of spaces — from a work presentation to an email subject line.
Organisations like Jamie Oliver, the Department for Transport, Pip & Nut, Propercorn, Action for Children and many others give their teams enlightening access to our idea generation workshops and team tools — putting live challenges at the heart of invigorating and practical training sessions.
So said Einstein: “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." A well-defined problem will often contain a solution inside it, and so thinking more critically about problems is time well spent.
We'll explore how shifting our perspectives into various aspects of the artist's psyche can enrich our work and lives; rediscovering our inner artist and getting hands on with mindsets and tools to flex in all kinds of situations.
For some people, a creative brief is a dull but necessary part of the creative process. When we evolve the humble (but all important) creative brief, we take it from practical tool to rocket fuel; ensuring clear communication and purposeful outcomes.
It's easy to get stuck. Stuck within a process or a project; stuck on a page; stuck in our own thoughts. The opportunity we have here is to learn and practice tactics to deploy in those moments when momentum is on your mind.
Wellbeing
Building resilience and bounce-back-ability
Together we'll explore the principle of resilience, and discover practical ways for bouncing back from challenges, managing stress, and using our energy more effectively.
We'll explore the realities of stress, reframe its relationship with performance and, together, try out some helpful and transformative tools.
By equipping ourselves with techniques for breathing more consciously, we can improve our sense of connection and wellbeing in the workplace.
We've a popular, positive and highly-practical five day micro-learning course, firmly focussed on helping you keep your resilience reserves proactively topped up. Every day, first thing, we'll share a science backed experiment and an invitation to try it out in the next 24 hours.
Exploring the plentiful and practical benefits of making a mindfulness meditation practice part of your daily routine.
Exploring mindsets and methods for positive and proactive mental agility, and ways we can support those around us too.
When we appreciate the distinction between a fixed and growth mindset, and arm ourselves with tools and techniques to lean into the latter everyday, we set ourselves up for success in many aspects of our work and life.