tfpl blog

TFPL Training - end of term report

Until relatively recently, many people viewed training as something that was 'done to them' or that they were passively sent to, rather than something that they directed.  The world of work has changed and workplace learning has changed with it.  We are all expected to take charge of our own learning and professional development, and this learning can take many forms.

In 2007 we began to offer delegates the opportunity to undertake one-to-one coaching with trainers.  We also developed courses that we call 'intensive' one-day sessions.  Not only is the training day itself longer, but delegates engage with the trainer both before and after the event to derive maximum benefit and develop customised outputs.  For other courses we created extranets ensuring that delegates have access to updated resources after the course itself is completed.

People Management Matters, which we launched in February 2007, was a ten-month long development programme for a group of delegates moving into more senior management roles.  Working together, and with their Programme Director, they have benefitted not only from monthly face-to-face sessions but from a dedicated online forum and from the supportive community that developed amongst the delegates.  This collaborative continuous learning model has been enormously successful and will be continued with a new group of delegates in 2008.

Next year we will increase the number of courses we offer on demand as coaching options which delegates can schedule to suit their own timetables.  We will also, of course, continue to launch new events, revise [or drop!] existing ones and work to keep in touch with the needs of the information, knowledge, records and web content professional.

Innovative learning at the NHS

Many thanks to Chris Collison who told me about an NHS Leadership Development event he contributed to last week. 

Senior managers participated in life-like scenarios with role-players and were then taken through an after action review process by Chris to help them embed lessons learned.  More details are now available on Chris's blog. 

Chris has also asked me to say that his new workshop, Creating a Learning Organisation, covers After Action Reviews and other learning and performance improvement techniques. 

To change or to transform?

As well as running training courses for TFPL, Ruth Sanderson [pictured below] runs her own business called Blue Pea Pod (great name!) specialising in change, cultural capital and branding.  Here, Ruth writes about how transformation differs from change:

Change is doing something a [slightly] different way.  Sleeping on the other side of the bed or getting dressed in a different order are simple examples of change.  The end result is still the same - you have slept or you are dressed.  Transformation is when there is a major shift - like a caterpillar waking up as a butterfly! 

When you set a goal the courageous question to ask yourself is 'given everything I am right now, can I achieve this goal?'.  And in some instances the answer will be no.  If you still choose to achieve your goal you will begin the journey of transformation.  This journey can take months, it can take years, and because it's transformation you are undertaking, it will have moments of pain and vulnerability.  As you keep moving through and towards your goal, you realise that it is this process of transformation that is teaching you the resources which will enable you to reach your goal.  There is no by-pass or quick fix.  It just helps if you're clear beforehand whether you are embarking on change or transformation.

On further discussion here with my colleagues, we decided that Faking It is almost always about real transformation while What Not to Wear is usually about change (although sometimes about transformation too!). 

Trainer on the move

We have always worked with a network of trainers, associates and consultants.  It's a really flexible business model, ensuring we partner with the right people for each project.  Our associates and trainers are a pretty flexible bunch of people as well.  They are geographically scattered, commuting to our office from all over the UK - and beyond - to run our training courses.   More often we are sending them into our clients to deliver training on site and they are happily letting me send them off to such places as Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, as well as cities and towns across the UK. 

Last week one of our trainers Maud Hand confirmed she has decided to leave London  after 18 years and move 'home' to Ireland - 'thanks to broadband and communication gadgets 2007 style, I'll be as plugged into London and the wider world as much as I've ever been whilst living here...' she writes.  Even a couple of years ago, we might have anticipated 'challenges' but these days perhaps it's true to say that for some of us at least location is immaterial.  Best of luck to Maud in her move.

New copyright courses

For Spring 2007, we are launching two new copyright training courses.  We asked Paul Pedley to explain why and how the copyright landscape is changing.

"In 2005 the Labour Party manifesto promised to modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.

This resulted in the Gowers Review which published its findings in December 2006. The government accepted all of the review's 54 recommendations. Some can only be implemented if there is international agreement, but the UK government is committed to implementing all which are within their powers to implement, and they are doing so during the period 2007-2008.

The UK's Intellectual Property Office is responsible for implementing the majority of the Gowers recommendations. But some are being implemented by other parts of government - such as the DCA, DTI, and Office of Fair Trading. A Gowers Implementation Team has been set up to oversee the implementation process.

There are issues around the creation of a digital library which have come to the fore - such as how to deal with "orphan works" (where it isn't possible to identify or else to locate the rightsowner in order to get the necessary permissions) or how to deal with out of print works."

TFPL courses:

Introduction to copyright

Digital copyright

Who is managing information?

TFPL published their white paper  'Who is managing information?: information responsibilities in the digital world' this week.  It includes an 'Information Management Framework: responsibilities in the digital world'.  This Framework suggests 6 responsibility clusters:  information strategy; enterprise information architecture; information governance; creation and acquisition; communication and publication; information exploitation and use.  You can download the report and Framework  from our website www.tfpl.com

This is a topical subject.  There are number of streams on information skills and career development at the Online Information Conference this week and we will be presenting some of the conclusions of our white paper at a free seminar on the TFPL stand.  The recently formed IM Group are also presenting a seminar on IM skills as part of the IMS exhibtion. 

Do let us know what you think of the  Framework and you ideas for its development via the blog, by email, discussion at Online - or call us.

Strategy for records managers

I was pleased to hear this morning that nine people had signed up for my TFPL course Strategic Planning for Records Management at the end of November.

Strategic planning has enjoyed mixed fortunes over the years and  we have all become more generally aware of the limitations of fortelling the future especially in business.  However, for many of us (records managers included), the question of what best to do next remains a major pre-occupation.  Records management and records managers have traditionally thrived in the face of external pressures - just think of all the work generated by the Freedom of Information Act.  However, in "quieter times", acting with purpose and intent and being able to judge what is an appropriate and effective amount of planning to achieve that purpose will keep records managers firmly on their organisations' radar screens.

Training and skills nostalgia

We all moved our desks around on Friday afternoon.   This type of desk-swap is great.  You get a whole new set of neighbours, a new view and you find all kinds of interesting 'stuff' in cupboards and drawers.

Which is why, on Friday, I spent a few moments flicking though our archive of training brochures and catalogues.  How about this course from a 1987 brochure:

So you want to computerise? [a 'non technical course for people about to decide on computerisation'].  Or, in 1996, An introduction to the internet ['the focus will be on the World Wide Web using Windows based computers'].

OK, so some things change, but others don't change that much.  In 1987 we were offering Management skills for the information manager and in 1996 we ran Time management courses for busy LIS professionals. 

Can someone please find me a 'non-busy' LIS professional?

Something completely different

A group of us here spent a great Friday afternoon with Drama for Training, finding our more about the exercises and techniques they use to roll out 'attitudinal' training programmes on, amongst other topics, diversity.

All concerns about role-playing were soon forgotten - there was none of it!  Instead, the Drama for Training actors play out scenarios and encourage discussion and debate. We followed a story about a domineering and sexist manager and were given the opportunity to change the outcome of a scene by 'stage managing' a previously passive witness to the bullying behaviour - with great results!  The actors were able to improvise in character and follow our instructions to completey change the scenario.

These are really unusual training events and client feedback has been consistently excellent.  We loved it and hope to work more closely with Drama for Training in the future.

Autumn is on its way!

TFPL's Autumn training programme begins in September. The courses which start the season include:

Thesaurus and taxonomy construction (5-6th)

Understanding how records, document, knowledge and content technologies fit and work together (7th)
Strategic information architecture design: building the platform for corporate delivery (8th)

Added value, business case and return on investment for libraries and information services (11th)

Introduction to records management (12th)

Information architecture foundation programme: bringing order to information chaos (13th)

Contract negotiation (14th)

Training the trainer: preparing the LIS professional to train their users (15th)

Book now! - and don't forget our Autumn promotion - buy one course and get another half price!