ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Illegible advice on starting up a business

This picture fails to convey my point - because ironically it is too blurry. In today's Metro freesheet there is a column on setting up your own business - unfortunately, due to poor printing you cannot read it. The column features on the business pages which are full of tales of economic meltdown. And here I am considering going it alone in the not too distant future. As a previous mentor of mine said, if you can make it work now then you'll be ok when the economy improves . . .

Management consultants who are Twittering

Twellow.com provides listings of those Twittering by industry. So here is the management stream. 

Lifelong Learning UK

I am hoping to start an NVQ (7303) in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector shortly.

I'd like to teach in the further education sector as one part of the training work I do. So as a part of my research around the FE sector�I have been looking at FE-related organisations.

Here's today's find - Lifelong Learning UK - the sector skills council responsible for the professional development of staff working in the UK lifelong learning sector.

I'm trying to fathom out some of what the organisation does - It is not entirely clear. i guess that's governemnt skills quangos for you :-)

One company, many cultures

I was sat in a web editors' meeting yesterday and the topic of digital journalism cropped up. The discussuion that ensued highlighted the differences that exist under the roof of one large company - we have many brands that are in different stages of transition moving from print only brands to multi-media and online brands.

So, one editor of a big online brand made the point that as a company we have been talking about journalists becoming multi-media producers for two years and that journalists should 'get it' by now and that it is the responsibility of managers�to show the way on digital journlaism through clear strategy, appraisal targets,� leadership etc.

On my brand, however, we are lagging because we have been print focussed and have not really concentrated on becoming a multi-media brand. But this is changing and changing fast. So, we have work to do. Hence my summer school programme.

The whole discussion reinforced for me the idea that some training initiatives around this transition to digital journalism must be�carried out�at team level. There are lots of issues around team enagagement and culture change which will not be resolved by sending individual team members on external courses where they are likely to encounter delegates at different stages�of experience, knowledge and skills.��

That's a challenge our new organisational development director is grappling with. There will be far more emphasis on 'local' learning initiatives and support for team members who are keen to train their colleagues. This is a refreshing approach to learning which will be far more enaging for all those involved.

An apprenticeship to be king

Liked this story that Prince William will be undertaking a two-year course in king skills.

Editorial training needs analysis

Had a great meeting this week which was in effect a training needs analysis for the editorial side of the business.

The session was run by our OD director and covered a lot of ground - from an overview of the editorial 'roles' and tasks that are required to the types of skills that the business was looking to develop going forward as well as an attempt to capture the editorial process.

The session did feel like a brainstorm but the key to its effecriveness was the way it was structured. There were also key people from around the business, although only half a dozen in total. This was a good number for such a session.

When we looked at the skills required for the business we focussed on the following areas: management, information gathering, content creation, editing, magazine production, web production, community and selling/marketing/making money (loathe to use the word monetising).

Under these categories we brainstormed skills and then prioritised them and clustered them. The next step will be to drill down a bit and come up with a priority list of skills.

All good - and great to be a part of this. My first senior level piece of training needs analysis.

AND, one of the board directors mention 'commiunities of practice'.

Thirst Thursday at Computer Weekly

Blast from the past. Here is some coverage of one of the many Thirst Thursday events I organised while on Computer Weekly.

The events were modelled on the First Tuesday events held in the days of the dot-com boom.

We sent out invites to IT professional a few days before the event and the events were always informal after work drinks with a pub quiz.

The commercial model was this: Computer Weekly would promote the event and organise it so we had the right feel and venue to the night (for IT programmers this was a room in a pub - in keeping with an after work drink). around 100 people would attend and a recruitment consultancy would sponsor the bar and send along some people who were only allowed to chat with attendees - NO formal presentations allowed.

It was a winning combination - bar cost about £1,500 a night and consultancies got placements.

The sponsor of the first event made £25,000 for placing a guy on in excess of £100,000.

We should have made more from it but the dot-com bubble burst so the event came to an end.

Time saving tips and tricks for journalists

A colleague and I have developed a set of lunchtime sessions that aim to help journalists save time. These have been given the go-ahead from our organisational develeopment director, which is really exciting.

There is nothing earth-shattering here and any jourrnalists worth their salt should be doing this stuff. BUT, not enough are using RSS at RBI and many have problems keeping on top of emails.

We are hoping that short, practical sessions will appeal to busy journalists ie they will attend. And as there are clear learning points from each session our hope is that they will be useful.

I am also looking to set up a blog to support these intiatives so that the content from the sessions is put to use and that journalists can share tips on how to make more effective use of technology.

Here are the session outlines.

RSS readers and news alerts

This will be one hour max and will be delivered in a software training room. Delegates will be shown how to set up an account and populate it with news feeds. They will also be shown how to set up news alerts. As a part of an introduction to the session we will ask a member of an editorial team to explain how an RSS reader has helped him/her with the way they work.

Email tips

This will be one hour max and will be delivered in a software training room. As above, this will be a demonstration of how to more effectively use and manage emails, bringing in someone from an editorial team to set the scene and outline how they manage email.

Online resources to save you time

Prior to this session 5 editorial people will road test some of the time saving tools out there (Remember the milk etc) and they will then feedback their results to delegates and demonstrate what they have been roadtesting. This session will be two hours max.

Running effective meetings

As above, use three or four people from around the business to share their tips on how to make meetings work.

Idea: summer school for journalists

Just come up with this idea for the team - we need to get up to speed on multi-media skills and have smaller issue sizes through the summer. SO plan is to have a programme of sessions (mostly an hour or two long.

Like the idea of calling it summer school, as it has a non-work feel to it - hopefully will be more engaging.

Here are some more thoughts.

Aim of summer school

We need to get the team up to speed with multi-media skills and ways of working. We have smaller issues in the summer which means we have time to work with the team on what we expect from them in terms of attitude and capability and teaching new skills which will enable them to become more effective multi-media journalists.

By branding it a summer school we are

a) saying to the team learning this new stuff is critically important for us to succeed

b) making learning a sound a bit different, show we think it is important and gives us an umbrella term to put our training

Draft of programme 

1 What does a multi-media journalist look like and what are the skills and attitudes expected of our journalists

- I will look at changing media and effect on way journalists work

- work with the team to agree the core competencies we need to demonstrate to be a successful multi-media team and to agree the attitudes we all need to demonstrate - this will feed into annual appraisal tasks

2 Tools to help journalists save time - this will look at RSS readers, Google news alerts, how to better manage emails 

3 SEO training and writing for the web

4 TV/media training - how to use video ahow to be good on video

5 Blogging workshop - for all our bloggers to look at how to improve on what we they are doing

6 Media law refresher – half day for whole team with online focus

The key to this is engaging the team in what is expected of them and getting them to think about and agree the new skills and attitudes that are needed to be a successful multi-media team.

 

 

 

The importance of bespoke training design

Enjoyed this piece on the value of well designed training sessions. Maybe I am being naive in thinking that no (non-product) training intervention should ever be off the shelf.

All delegate groups will vary and the design and delivery of the session must reflect this. Trainers may well have off the shelf offerings but these must surely be shaped to meet the needs of specific delegate groups.