Training that Sticks!

This unique resource gives you 50 creative approaches for using Post-it¨ Notes to make your training sessions more participative, more effective and more powerful.

With Training that Sticks! you''ll involve everyone. You''ll get everyone contributing. And you''ll get evident, measurable results from your training, planning and team working sessions.

These are effective, powerful ideas that really do produce positive outcomes. And there are ideas here that you''d never have time to think up for yourself.

You''ve probably used Post-it¨ Notes for creative thinking and brainstorming sessions... now there''s virtually no area of training or development where you won''t find these ''little stickies'' tremendously valuable: assertiveness, handling complaints, learning a foreign language, setting challenging goals, auditing team skills...

Author: Tony Bray
Pages: 488
''OK to copy'' pages: 65

Contents
SECTION ONE: PERSONAL ORGANISATION

1. Setting direction
So much to do and so little time to do it! Make sense of conflicting priorities with this rugged and practical approach to managing time and tasks.

2. Prioritising your workload
So much to do and so little time to do it! Make sense of conflicting priorities with this rugged and practical approach to managing time and tasks.

3. Drafting letters
We often know what we want to say, but can''t seem to get it into a logical and persuasive sequence. This unit helps with a five-step process which you can easily fit your ideas into.

4. Drafting reports
Pulling together all of the elements that need to go into a report can be a draining experience. This unit starts by assembling all of the component parts, then welds them into a comprehensive, logical and thorough document.

5. Preparing a presentation
Fail to prepare - prepare to fail! Every good presentation starts with thorough preparation and this unit takes the would-be presenter through the key stages. Identify the component parts and key messages, then assemble them into the final design.

6. Planning discussions
Feeling nervous or ''edgy'' about a forthcoming discussion? Perhaps it''s a sensitive topic, or the other person might react in a difficult way. Then use this unit to plan the discussion, using the WASP model.

SECTION TWO: PLANNING TRAINING SESSIONS OR EVENTS

7. Planning a training programme
This unit takes you through the topics you need to consider when planning an overall training programme or initiative.

8. Planning a training course
So you know the ''big picture'' - now you need to design a specific training course, seminar or workshop. This unit gives you a practical method for bringing together all of the ideas and moulding them into an overall design.

9. Developing the optimum balance
Striking the right balance between being told and discovering something for yourself is critical for learning and developing ownership. This unit gives you a highly visual and effective way of getting the balance right.

10. Designing a training session
This unit takes you through the final part of the training design cycle, when you get down to creating a detailed individual training session - with a step-by-step process, including timings.

11. Staying on track
The design stage is over and you''re about to deliver the event, whatever it may be. How can you stay on track, deliver all of the key messages and keep to time without seeming to refer to any notes? Easy - this unit gives you a practical, flexible and visual method, which takes just minutes to prepare.

SECTION THREE: RUNNING TRAINING SESSIONS OR EVENTS

12. Achieving your objectives
People attending courses or seminars set out with personal objectives, and it''s important to know what progress they''re making. This visual method enables all participants to see how their colleagues are progressing, which gives everyone a sense of achievement and helps the tutor, or facilitator, to steer the event to success.

13. Best practice
Identify the most and least effective ways of handling situations, by drawing upon people''s experiences and examples of best practice, gathered from others involved in the industry.

14. Twenty questions
Test people''s understanding of a topic, or process, and provide a challenging energiser at the same time by using this unit. Participants are formed into teams and asked to formulate a set of challenging questions for their colleagues.

15. Swap shop
No matter how thoroughly you explain something, it''s inevitable that people will still be puzzled or uneasy about, at least, one issue or concern. This unit gives you a fast and effective way of helping people to identify what the topics are, and a process for managing them to a satisfactory conclusion.

16. I learned something today
At the end of every day we should take a few minutes to review what we''ve learned from our experiences during the day, so that we are better prepared for tomorrow. This fun, fast and effective process enables people to share their learning experiences with their colleagues.

17. Instant feedback
Do you want to know how people feel about what''s going on? Then use this simple and highly effective way of collecting instant feedback on the experience they''re having, whether it''s a training event, a new product launch, or a work practice.

18. Action planning
So much for all the talking - what are people actually going to do about it? Turning ideas into action is so important; this unit gives an effective process that enables people to develop their action plan.


SECTION FOUR: SPECIFIC TRAINING TOPICS

19. Assertiveness
Me - be more assertive? People are often unsure about what being assertive really means. This unit gets participants thinking about the differences between assertive and non-assertive behaviour, and how they might wish to change.

20. Symbol challenge
Being able to recognise symbols, motifs or icons instantly can save time and, in some situations, may mean the difference between life and death. This unit gives a very participative and effective way for people to learn the meanings of key symbols.

21. Handling complaints
People have a wealth of experience, which they are willing to share when it comes to dealing with complaints or problems - all they need is the opportunity to do so. This unit gives an effective way of sharing approaches and techniques, which others can benefit from.

22. A-Z of stress busting
Stress affects all of us. This fast and fun unit helps people to identify 26 causes of stress and 26 ways to reduce it - one for each letter of the alphabet.

23. Personal development
Accepting personal responsibility for our own development is central to our ability to grow and develop as human beings. This unit gives a practical way of developing an action plan for self-improvement.

24. Foreign language learning
Learning a foreign language can often be hard work. This unit shows a quite different approach that not only takes much of the pain away, but it can also be used for learning technical topics in your own language.

25. Plain English
Using Plain English has many benefits - shorter sentences and documents, fewer complex words and reduced reading time. This unit quickly demonstrates the value of Plain English, in a visual way.

SECTION FIVE: EXPLORING PROCESSES

26. Recruiting the right people
Recruiting people can be very expensive, especially if you get it wrong! This unit explores the key issues and questions that should be discussed at every stage of an effective recruitment process.

27. Setting challenging goals
So we have the right people for the job - we now need to set them realistic goals which give them direction, provide a challenge and enable progress to be measured. How? Work through this unit and all will be revealed.

28. Delegating a task
Delegating a task effectively involves a lot of preparation and much follow-on support and encouragement. This unit explores all of the steps and skills required to delegate a task with confidence and motivation.

29. Managing performance
This unit brings together all of the processes involved in managing performance - from setting objective, through to monitoring results, and preparing for and holding formal performance review meetings.

30. Holding effective appraisals
How do we conduct a motivating, yet focused, appraisal discussion? Being able to discuss both positive performance and development needs, whilst maintaining self-esteem, is a very challenging task.

31. Team skills audit
How can we identify the training and development needs for the team, and then develop an action plan? Use the knowledge and experience of the team members to develop a team-profile of knowledge, skills and attitudes, which can form the basis of a structured team development plan.

32. Applying the discipline procedure
Sooner or later, we all come across someone who seems to need a little more ''encouragement'' to deliver the expected levels of performance. This unit takes people through the key decisions and processes.

33. Exploring complex processes
Most processes at work involve several streams of parallel activity - understanding them, and the dependencies between them can be difficult. It becomes even more challenging when you set out to improve them. This unit gives a practical, flexible and visual technique to help manage these complex tasks.

34. Overcoming barriers
People may often have the will to make changes but can only see the potential barriers, which they believe stop them. This unit gives a fast and convincing method for helping people to believe that they can overcome change and move forward.

35. How it works
Do you need to help people understand how a machine or system works? Then use this activating session to bring the topic alive.

SECTION SIX: CREATIVE THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

36. Brainstorming
Everyone is born creative - but life''s experiences often crush our free spirit. No wonder then, when we ask for creative solutions that people often come up with minor variations to something exists already. This unit shows a new way of employing brainstorming to produce new ideas for familiar problems.

37. Fishing for ideas
Getting to the root, or underlying causes, of a problem is fundamental to finding a lasting solution. This unit gives participants a new ''spin'' on a tried problem-solving technique, called Fishbone Analysis.

38. Solution-effect diagram
No matter how good you think your proposed solution might be, it''s always worthwhile exploring its possible ''knock-on'' effects. Their impact may be worse than the original problem! This unit gives a fast and effective way of predicting the results of implementing a proposed solution.

39. Selection criteria
Whenever we start the search for something we should have a good idea of what we''re looking for. Sounds obvious doesn''t it, but very often people have only a vague or hazy notion of what their ideal ''solution'' looks like. This unit gives a practical tool, which groups can use to clarify their expectations about a situation.

40. Must-have and should-have criteria
Making a choice between several options can be a time-wasting and frustrating experience. This unit gives a quick and effective technique for identifying those options that meet your minimum requirements, instead of wasting time exploring solutions that fall well short of what you want to achieve.

41. Force field analysis
We''ve seen it all before - an apparently good solution fails to deliver its full potential and, worst of all, we should have been able to see the problem before it happened. This unit give a practical technique for boosting implementation - by enhancing the ''driving'' forces and minimising ''restraining'' forces.

42. Potential-problem analysis
Risk analysis - if such and such happens what would be the impact? This unit gives a visual and effective way of assessing the risk of something happening, and the impact, should it occur. It then outlines four stages of possible response.

43. Pros and cons
Something is being suggested, and there are many conflicting views about the pros and cons, and the proposal. Use this unit to quickly bring together all of the possible advantage and disadvantages, to facilitate and speed-up the decision-making process.

SECTION SEVEN: TEAM WORKING

44. Valentines
How can you encourage several working teams to give each other direct and honest feedback on how they see each other? Try this powerful process, which asks the teams to send each other ''Valentines'', and so enables them to say the things they''ve always wanted to say, but never had the right time or place!

45. Current working practices
Sometimes it seems impossible to get a group of people doing similar work to agree the optimum way of managing the task or process. This technique enables a team to share what they currently do and identify ''best practice''.

46. New ways of working
Perhaps you''re opening a new production line, or developing a new product. What will be the best ways of making, delivering or supporting it? Getting a group of people to agree new practices or procedures sounds simple, but it can become a nightmare - not if you use this unit.

47. Clarifying job roles
A group of people working together, however informally, need to understand exactly what they each do if they are to be effective. This unit gives a practical and visual method for clarifying job roles, to whatever level of detail may be required.

48. An effective leader
What do we expect from people in leadership roles in our working environment? This unit works well for both the leaders and those they lead. It helps everyone to understand the ''big picture'' that leaders may be expected to deliver, and then explores the issues in more detail.

49. I can offer ...
Get a group of people together and it''s amazing what they can learn from each other ... assuming that they know what''s on offer. This unit offers an effective way for people to declare knowledge or experience, which others may be interested in sharing.

50. Who am I?
A fun, ice-breaking exercise which quickly gets any group of strangers talking with one another.

488 pages, with 65 OK to copy pages.