Here at GoodPractice we are thrilled to announce the re-launch of Eden Tree, the toolkit designed to support the Learning and Development, Organisational Development and Human Resources communities. Eden Tree is built on the quality of its 3000 resources. It offers instant access to the best materials covering key L&D, HR and leadership and management topics, but is also committed to nurturing the Eden Tree community, to share thoughts, ideas and knowledge.

The Eden Tree really is the place where busy Trainers and Learning and Organisational Development professionals can save hours of time, as it contains everything needed for the most common types of learning intervention, including self-assessments, exercises, case studies, workshops and handouts. Why not take a look for yourself?

Talent management and development at Bupa

GoodPractice client Bupa has a fundamental belief that it is people who make things happen, as they provide the capability to deliver strategy objectives. So talent management and development are critical to the future success of the organisation. GoodPractice CEO Peter Casebow caught up with Keith Stopforth, Head of Talent and Development at Bupa’s UK and North America Division, to find out more about his role and how he goes about aligning his work to the business performance of the division. Find out what Keith had to say here.

Industry Spotlight

World of Learning Conference and Exhibition
2010 conference programme announced

The World of Learning Conference is unique. By combining extensive research with authoritative input from key industry figures, the conference programme provides an up-to-the-minute overview of the vital issues facing the senior L&D professional.

Featuring high profile case studies, interactive seminars and discussion forums, the World of Learning conference programme concentrates on the current issues of most concern to L&D professionals.

GoodPractice are looking forward to exhibiting at the event and what’s more, our very own Peter Casebow will be presenting the ‘What do managers find challenging and how you can best support them’ seminar on Tuesday the 28th of September at 13:45. You can view the full 2010 conference programme here.

Getting Things Done

Over the last couple of months here at GoodPractice the team have been embedding Getting Things Done, the groundbreaking work-life management system by productivity consultant David Allen. Designed to help busy people gain control of their lives, both at work and at home, Getting Things Done is a powerful method to manage commitments, information, and communication. Listen to our podcast where GoodPractice CEO Peter Casebow talks to leading thinker David Allen about staying in control, decision-making and why Getting Things Done is so much more than time management.

Top five toolkit search terms

What over one million managers have been searching for this month

1. Change
2. Appraisal
3. Time Management
4. Feedback
5. Coaching

Featured Client

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue (SFR) is the UK’s second largest fire service. It goes without saying that highly effective management and leadership are central to its ability to meet the demands placed on the service, and to help safeguard public safety.

This case study examines how the organisation has worked in partnership with the Scottish Fire Services College to put continuous learning at the heart of its leadership and management development strategy (read more)

Join our Learning and Development Group on LinkedIn

To coincide with the re-launch of Eden Tree, GoodPractice has set up the Learning and Development Group on LinkedIn.

The Learning and Development Group aims to provide a place for professionals to discuss matters relating to learning in the workplace.

So why not join us today? We look forward to hearing from you soon.

You can sign up to recieve a regular copy of our monthly Newlsetter either below or directly from our home page.

GoodPractice, a leading provider of learning platforms, has launched Eden Tree – a new dedicated online toolkit designed especially for learning and development (L&D), human resources (HR), organisational development (OD) and training professionals. Eden Tree boasts a catalogue of over 3,000 individual resources tailored specifically to the needs of busy professionals who need quick access to the latest thinking on organisational leadership and management topics. Eden Tree will replace GoodPractice’s existing Knowledge Bank product, with over 50 large corporate and public sector customers moving to Eden Tree.

Capitalising on ten years of experience in delivering on-line resources to the L&D community with Knowledge Bank, existing users were actively involved in ‘road testing’ Eden Tree to ensure that it closely matches their needs. Users stressed three core requirements – access to the latest thought leadership for their discipline, downloadable training resources to support their day-to-day training roles and the chance to network and share best practice across a community of like-minded professionals.

Responding to user’s needs, Eden Tree allows users to access quality content which is updated regularly to reflect current thinking in each core management area; content is written and researched by GoodPractice’s team of professionals. To help time-pressured professionals, Eden Tree offers a suite of training resources each completely customisable by the user. Eden Tree is also set to become an essential networking community for L&D professionals using our interactive forum.

Eden Tree subscribers can achieve significant cost savings with three subscription options allowing users to download entire training workshops for as little as 50p per download1, and users report an 80% time saving when using Eden Tree to prepare training materials. With training budgets stretched, using Eden Tree training materials can free up time and budget for more specific organisational training requirements.

Emily Bookless, director, Eden Tree, commented:
“We see Eden Tree becoming the community that the L&D professionals turn to when they need quality training resources and to explore best practice within L&D. Our existing Knowledge Bank members, some who have been with us for ten years, really value the depth of our resources and have used our downloadable training workshops to help them beat a training deadline. Eden Tree is an evolution to a new area, involving our members even more and allowing L&D professionals to build a strong, networking community.”

James McLuckie, learning engagement manager, Eden Tree, commented:
“What makes Eden Tree really unique will be our interaction with our subscriber base – our subscribers can request materials and resources and we will respond, whether it is for a new training course, or to explore a new area or topic. We’ll be making extensive use of social media tools to help to customise our support even further.”

Claire Bradshaw, staff development advisor, Loughborough University, commented:
“Eden Tree by GoodPractice is an invaluable resource. It saves me time and provides some useful new ideas and summaries of tools and thinking on a variety of topics. Selective use of the models and strategies is also helpful when working with teams at away days to stimulate their thinking and provide a starting point for discussions about what will work in their own environment. There are also lots of diagnostics in the tools section, and I love to use these as pre-work before a workshop – they are simple and effective in getting people engaged with the topic.”

*Based on annual subscription package of £250 per year excluding VAT, which includes unlimited access to Eden Tree for a single user and up to 500 file exports/downloads per year.

For further sales and marketing information about Eden Tree by GoodPractice, please contact:
Emily Bookless, Director, Eden Tree by GoodPractice
Tel: 0845 22 33 00 2.
Email: ebookless@goodpractice.com
www.edentree.co.uk

In this paper we present some additional findings of research that was carried out in November 2009 with over 200 managers across a wide range of sectors. As part of this research managers were asked to give their view on the challenges they faced.¹

Download your free copy of ‘The challenges of being a manager (in their own words)’

¹ Research carried out by ComRes: www.comres.co.uk

Welcome to the June edition of the GoodPractice newsletter. We can hardly believe that June is upon us, but summer is certainly in the air here in Edinburgh.

Last month saw the launch of the GoodPractice and Learning Sanctuary’s Learning Trends Index, our new and unique review into the trends affecting learning in the UK. We look forward to sharing the results with you next month. The Learning Trends Index will be produced every six months to track the industry and help you understand some of the issues you and your peers are facing. If you are interested in receiving the Learning Trends Index and contributing to the research, please register here.

ASTD Annual conference, Learning Supersized by Peter Casebow

Owen Ferguson and I attended the ASTD conference in Chicago in May and it was great to be surrounded by so many people involved in learning. The conference is so big that you cannot hope to cover it yourself, and as part of the UK delegation we made sure we covered all the sessions and events that people were interested in. We’ve still to have the full debrief, so the following is very much my personal view.

My reflection after 10 days is that even as budgets return to learning, learning and development is still being asked to do more with less and recognising that there are new ways of achieving results. Social media is being talked about a lot, but it is still to move mainstream and be implemented in a big way. Learning how to get the best from new technologies such as social media and virtual learning are becoming key skills for learning professionals if you are going to make a significant difference to performance in your organisation.

Read Peter’s full blog post here.

Industry Spotlight

CIPD annual survey report
Did the results of the CIPD annual survey resonate with you?

Amongst many other interesting findings, the CIPD Learning and Talent Development 2010 survey report revealed that the main skill that employers say they need to focus on to meet their business objectives in two years’ time is leadership skills (65%). Looking more closely at leadership skills, one of the main gaps identified was leading and managing change.

These skill gaps show a clear coalition with the behaviour of our current user base of over one million managers and leaders. The top search term from our user base for both the months of April and May was Change. Moreover, both An Overview of Change Management and An Overview of Leadership appeared in our top five most downloaded documents.

You can read the full survey report here.

Listen to the GoodPractice podcast with Visa

GoodPractice client Visa, talks to our CEO Peter Casebow about how the organisation has fully implemented the Investors in People (IiP) framework.

Listen to the podcast to discover how, through the organisation- wide implementation of IiP, Visa has improved personal and team performance across the board. And why the company strives to gain gold to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Top five toolkit search terms

What over one million managers have been searching for this month

1. Change
2. Feedback
3. Time Management
4. Appraisal
5. Coaching

Featured Client

The Improvement Network

GoodPractice works in partnership with the Improvement Network to deliver its dedicated online toolkit, the Improvement Tool.

The Improvement Tool content is continuously updated and has been developed to support the partnership agenda and to deliver a positive impact on working practices.

There are currently over 10,500 users working in local government, police and health sectors using the website’s Improvement Tool. The tool provides free resources on a range of management topics (read more)

Are you looking for some award-winning in-house resources?

We know that many of you may already have a fully functioning in-house portal or ILM system and that’s why GoodPractice doesn’t just provide toolkits.

Did you realise that GoodPractice resources can instantly transform your in-house provision – providing
up- to-date learning tools to everyone in your organisation?

If you think your organisation could benefit from our award winning content and resources, then request your copy of our A-Z content lists for Leaders and Managers here.

You can sign up to recieve a regular copy of our monthly Newlsetter either below or directly from our home page.

Welcome to the May edition of the GoodPractice newsletter. Last month the GoodPractice team exhibited at the CIPD-HRD show, and were thrilled to chat to clients and prospects alike. The most exciting news from last month was the launch of our fourth generation toolkit, which promises to deliver a personalised training enviroment akin to leading netwoking and media websites (read more).

The challenges of being a manager (in their own words)

What aspects of their work do your managers feel challenged by? Understanding this can help provide the right support to improve a manager’s performance.

In this paper we present some additional findings of research that was carried out in November 2009 with over 200 managers across a wide range of sectors. As part of this research managers were asked to give their view on the challenges they faced.
Download your free copy of ‘The challenges of being a manager (in their own words)‘.

Industry Spotlight

HRD 2010: Online network boosts learning at BT

Innovative and collaborative training programmes are shaping the changing landscape of learning and development, delegates at the CIPD’s HRD conference heard.

Both BT and GoodPractice client the Big Lottery Fund outlined how internal learning was vital to addressing both skills gaps and cultural changes in organisations, particularly in the current climate of shifting workforce demographics, reduced budgets and new communication channels (read more).

Re-inventing the GoodPractice User Experience

Last month we made a change to our technology platform that will allow us to offer our clients the next generation of GoodPractice toolkits. Early last year we embarked upon a project to examine the whole user experience of our products. Starting from scratch, we wanted to find out how we could make interacting with our toolkits even easier and more useful than it is already.

In order to do this, it was important to us that the end user was placed at the very heart of the development process. Follow our journey with our series of posts describing how we approached the redesign of our online toolkits for managers and leaders:
1. Re-inventing the GoodPractice User Experience
2. User Experience: Planning and Requirements
3. User Experience: Design
4. User Experience: Implementation, Testing and Measurement

Top 5 toolkit search terms

What over 1 million managers have been searching for this month

1. Change
2. Feedback
3. Time Management
4. Appraisal
5. Coaching

Featured Client

Canterbury Christ Church University
“Using the GoodPractice site and materials to support our relaunch of appraisal has been hugely beneficial and shown our staff that learning can happen in a variety of ways, not just the standard ‘course’! We have been very pleased with our staff use of the site, the support from GoodPractice and the flexibility the tool offers us”, explains Tracy Bell-Reeves, Canterbury Christ Church University (read more).

GoodPractice interviews Daniel Pink

Daniel H. Pink is the author of several provocative bestselling books about the changing world of work. His latest is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, which uses 50 years of behavioural science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation and offer a more effective path to high performance.

Listen to the podcast of the interview between GoodPractice editor David Edgar and Daniel, which explores the subject of motivation.

You can sign up to recieve a regular copy of our monthly Newlsetter either below or directly from our home page.

GoodPractice, a leading provider of learning platforms, will launch and demonstrate its fourth generation toolkits for leaders and managers at the HRD 2010 exhibition (Olympia 21-22 April 2010, stand #471).  The design process for the new toolkit has taken over 12 months with Good Practice getting back to basics to focus solely on the needs of its users, with the primary goal of delivering quality content as intuitively and quickly as possible.

Users of the new toolkits start at a totally redesigned home page which provides the user with a more personalised experience, similar to leading next generation websites.  By providing personalised reminders and highlighting content that may be of further interest, the new GoodPractice toolkits allow each user to access information relevant to their needs. Users can now:

• Pick up where they left off with a personal reminder of when they last logged in and the content they visited

• Access the latest leadership and management news through the topical content feature

• Find out the most read and recommended articles features in their organisation

• Quickly reach the content they need with an indexed A-Z content list

• Send and receive messages within their organisation via the message centre

In building the new interface, GoodPractice conducted extensive research involving users to find out their needs to ensure quality leadership and management content is delivered when and how they require it.  Many users enjoy using social networking sites and the opportunities for interaction with others.  Throughout the new toolkit, users can review and recommend content, with the option for users to share, ‘tweet’, email and comment on the content.

Sharing new rich media and audio content is simple, as organisations can easily upload content to their own toolkit with users still enjoying optimum toolkit performance. The new toolkit also allows users to continue their learning journey by suggesting related content and further relevant reading across external such as Wikipedia, Bing and BBC News.

Owen Ferguson, Product Development Director, GoodPractice, commented:
“Our next generation toolkit is a real departure for us. We are really excited about the opportunities it offers our clients, but most of all our users, by giving them access to the workplace knowledge and skills they need, in a way that makes most sense to them. Our new platform offers all the benefits from before, but in a much more flexible and accessible way, while many of our new features and functions will also appeal to our more tech-savvy users. We wanted to deliver a more personalised experience, which makes learning engaging, relevant and keeps our users coming back for more. We are very proud of the result.”

GoodPractice will also be launching a new white paper at HRD as part of its Learning and Performance series, entitled ‘What managers find challenging (in their own words)’.  The white paper follows on from its recently published ‘How managers learn (in their own words)’ and includes findings from a recent ComRes survey of over 200 UK managers and leaders.

We wanted to know where managers looked for learning when faced with a challenge in the workplace, how frequently they did it, and how effective they perceived the different methods to be. Most importantly, we wanted to take a learner-centric approach and ask managers, not HR or learning and development professionals, whose perceptions and needs may be different.

As such, we commissioned ComRes to conduct a survey, and the findings show that managers frequently use informal activities to help them learn, and that on the whole they find them to be very or fairly effective.

Download your free copy of ‘How managers learn (in their own words)’

View the full data tables from the survey.

Welcome to the April edition of the GoodPractice newsletter. Last month GoodPractice CEO Peter Casebow caught up with Jay Cross to dicuss our recent survey on ‘How Managers Learn’. You can view the conversation with Jay, sparking many a great idea, online. We hope you enjoy it!

The Convergence of Knowledge and Work

With the start of the new financial year, we are all looking to the future. However, in looking at the challenges faced by today’s learning and development departments, it’s useful to look back through history at the different strategies that have been adopted to handle two similar, yet different, challenges: learning to handle information and, knowledge and ideas and learning for the purpose of work. This article explores what lessons can be learned from history to help us support learning and development in the modern economy. Read more.

Industry Spotlight

The GoodPractice team will be exhibiting at this year’s CIPD-HRD in London’s Olympia, 21-22 April. At this years CIPD-HRD exhibition we will be publishing our report on ‘The Challenges of being a Manager (in their own words)’, which is a follow-up to our widely received white paper, ‘How managers learn (in their own words)‘ based on the survey results of over 200 UK managers. Why not visit us on stand 471 to recieve your free copy? It’s still not to late to register for free. We look forward to seeing you there!

Toolkit underpins ILM qualifications

The Scottish Prison Service College is the main provider of training and development programmes and learning support for the Scottish Prison Service. The provision is wide-ranging and the SPSC continually reviews its learning provision to ensure it can evidence best value for money.

GoodPractice worked with the College to perform a rigorous gap analysis comparing the current content of the GoodPractice toolkit with the indicative content of each module of the ILM Certificate programmes, and the SPSC Leadership and Management Development Studies Toolkit was developed.

The SPS Toolkit was designed to be the primary source of underpinning knowledge for learners working towards (initially) the Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management and then the Level 5 Diploma. The content is mapped to the structure and content of each ILM module, nine in the case of the Certificate and seven in the case of the Diploma. Read the full case study and learn how customised solutions can really add value.

Top 5 toolkit search terms

What over 1 million managers have been searching for this month

1. Time Management
2. Personal Development Plan
3. Motivation
4. Feedback
5. Conflict

Featured Client

Places for People
“The toolkit has proven to be very cost-effective; we used to send staff on time management courses whereas we now direct them directly to the toolkit, and this alone has delivered a huge saving for the business”, explains Marie Leadbetter, Learning and Development Advisor at Places for People. Read more.

GoodPractice News

Dynamic new platform ready for launch
This month will mark the launch of the fourth generation of GoodPractice toolkits. Placing our users at the heart of the design process, the latest version focuses on getting content to the user as quickly and intuitively as possible, and boasts clearer, more simplified navigation, an A-Z listing of content and enhanced search functionality. Additionally, the home page has been completely redesigned to offer you a more dynamic, flexible and engaging solution.
Be one of the first to see the next generation toolkit on the GoodPractice stand 471 at this year’s CIPD-HRD.

You can sign up to recieve a regular copy of our monthly Newlsetter either below or directly from our home page.

Places for People is one of the largest property management and development companies in the UK, helping to create sustainable communities and affordable housing that meets a range of different social needs.

In 2007, Places for People underwent a restructuring process, in order to align performance standards across the organisation. The HR department knew that employee engagement was key to ensuring everyone was working towards the same business objectives. Places for People also wanted employees to have access to key equality and diversity information, as this is a strategic focus for the organisation.

Why GoodPractice?

GoodPractice was recommended to Places for People by a colleague who had used a GoodPractice toolkit in a previous organisation. The significant benefits were:

• the toolkit’s ease of use
• the customisation potential
• the cost-effectiveness

What solution was provided?

GoodPractice worked with Places for People to provide a bespoke solution to help engage and empower its employees. The Places for People Knowhow toolkit was designed based on the GoodPractice Toolkit for Managers, with customised features including:

• an area devoted to equality and diversity, with information about latest issues, conference details and training    courses
• a trainers’ toolbox that offers advice, tools and templates to help Places for People create its own training materials and learning and development solutions
• a forum facility to encourage the sharing of ideas, knowledge and best practice on key issues and initiatives within Places for People

The outcomes

Places for People is able to encourage employees to use the toolkit instead of immediately requesting a specific course. The toolkit helps employees become more self-directed and enables Places for People to structure employees’ development through some self-paced learning.

Places for People has promoted the toolkit as an essential resource to ensure the organisation works toward the aligned, consistent high performance standards. As a result, employee feedback on the toolkit has been very positive, and the usage has been phenomenal – with an average of over 700 employees accessing the resources every month.

Two recent examples of how the toolkit is supporting Places for People employees at various levels of the business are:

• the use of our Project Management tools to help an employee deliver a major new project
• use of our Communication resources to assist an employee with report writing and minute-taking

Usage is driven by ongoing promotion of the toolkit through the Places for People intranet site, and through the addition of ‘Hot Topics’ within the staff newsletter. The original expectations of Places for People have been exceeded by the service provided by GoodPractice. Continuous support is delivered via both new and updated content, as well as additional resources to assist with the internal promotion of the toolkit.

Client Testimonial

“We see GoodPractice as leaders in this field and we see the toolkit as a great way to encourage informal learning throughout the organisation. The toolkit has proven to be very cost-effective; we used to send staff on time management courses whereas we now direct them directly to the toolkit, and this alone has delivered a huge saving for the business. With the toolkit, for a relatively small amount of money we are able to offer support to all our staff.”

Marie Leadbetter, Learning and Development Advisor, Places for People

Overview

The Scottish Prison Service College (SPSC) is the main provider of training and development programmes and learning support for the Scottish Prison Service. The provision is wide-ranging and begins with an intensive 6 week foundation programme for new recruits, which is then built on through working towards a VQ Level 3 in Custodial Care. The College also provides a diverse range of specialist operational training, IT skills and management and leadership development activities through classroom-based, blended learning and e-learning methods.

Business opportunity

SPSC continually reviews its learning provision to ensure it can evidence best value for money. In 2005 the Leadership Development team were concerned that using workbooks to support their programme was an expensive option, sometimes requiring up to 20 workbooks per person to cover the range of topics included in the programmes. Additionally, there were problems with the publishers, which indicated the potential risk of the materials either not being updated on a regular basis or becoming unavailable. It was clear that an alternative needed to be sourced.
The Leadership Development team were already using a GoodPractice toolkit and were keen to explore the possibility of customising an existing product to map to their programmes to replace the existing workbooks.

What were the organisation’s needs?

The team required a cost-effective means of providing underpinning knowledge to staff studying for the ILM Level 3 Certificate and the Level 5 Diploma programmes. The solution would have to support the full range of learning outcomes for each module of the courses, cover the key theories and models of each topic, include relevant distance learning activities and be regularly updated to reflect the latest thinking and good practice in each area.

Why GoodPractice?

GoodPractice worked with the College to perform a rigorous gap analysis comparing the current content of the GoodPractice toolkit with the indicative content of each module of the ILM Certificate programmes. A high level of correlation already existed; however, a number of areas required additional development work to be undertaken by the GoodPractice team to ensure 100% coverage. This was duly done, and the SPS Leadership and Management Studies Toolkit was produced.

What solution was provided?

Using resources from both the GoodPractice Toolkit for Managers and the Toolkit for Leaders, the SPS Leadership and Management Development Studies Toolkit was developed to be the primary source of underpinning knowledge for learners working towards (initially) the Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management. A year later, a similar exercise was undertaken and the toolkit for the Level 5 Diploma was produced. This is also being utilised to support the Level 4 Award, a bridging award between the two core programmes.
Each SPS toolkit is designed to map to the structure and content of each ILM module, 9 in the case of the Certificate and 7 in the case of the Diploma. The toolkits use module and core element titles to help the learner navigate to the appropriate theory and practice relating to each study unit. The learner also has the facility to bookmark resources for ease of use.

What are the outcomes?

Any member of SPS staff who is studying for an ILM leadership and management qualification with the SPS College has unlimited access to the appropriate toolkit for the duration of their studies, which is usually 12 months. During that time they can access and download as many resources as they require and be reassured that the information is accurate and current without having to trawl through numerous online sites or books to find the information they need.

What are the benefits?

Individual learners no longer have to carry around workbooks and cross-reference several to ensure they’re covering the relevant sections. Instead, they can access the toolkit 24/7 from either their home or work PCs.
The ILM Programme Manager can also access the learning management system to track the scope and level of usage by each learner, so they can identify potential problem areas and address them in real time.

Client testimony

“By investing in the development of the SPS Leadership and Management Studies Toolkits, SPS now has a cost-effective, fit for purpose source of underpinning knowledge that is guaranteed to be accurate and up-to-date and is customised to meet our specific needs. Obsolescence is no longer an issue and the individual licence fees are much less than the costs involved in buying workbooks. The resultant savings meant the Toolkit actually paid for itself within 3 years.”

Julie Preston, Training Operations Manager (Leadership Development), Scottish Prison Service College