ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Persona workshop

I recently carried out a persona workshop for my team. With the help of our research team, we posted 5 user personas for our web site on the walls of the training room and asked the team to comment on what we had created.

Personas are people profiles (in our case web site users) which have been created by our research team. They are not real in the sense that they actually exist, but rather they have been created from what we know about types of users from our research.

So, we presented 5 types of people to the team. The profiles included a picture of the person(a), what they did in their spare time, what they did at work, what info they need from the media etc.

Asking the team to comment on these profiles proved to be a very useful experience. Everyone was engaged with the personas and scrawled notes on them.

The aim of the workshop was to engage the team with our users and to give the users a name and a face - turn them into real people.

I am currently looking at the feedback. The next step is to give the updated personas back to the team and get lifesize cutouts made up so we can have our users dotted around the office and so we can 'take them' to meetings. That way we keep our users top of mind.

This was a very useful and successful workshop.

The end of a training department

Well, if you follow the Divestment Watch blog you will be aware that Reed Business Information (my employer) is up for sale.

Interesting times. I'm not sure this is linked to the divestment, but RBI has just made its editorial training manager redundant. Now, I know this does not mean the end of training - indeed, I have been told it is training as usual - but it does mean that training will be delivered from elsewhere within the HR team.

Is it a good or a bad thing that there is no longer someone with the title 'editorial training manager'? I'm not sure. I'm sure there are good reasons behind the move and as long as delivery is not affected then maybe it is not a bad thing.

But it will be interesting to see how this move will affect training delivery.

Will training be on a request basis from the business? Who will decide what training is highest priority?

We shall see . . .   

Train the trainer course decided

I've opted for the train the trainer course run by Adelphi Associates. And despite the fact it cost hundreds of pounds I was very excited about booking it. I feel as if this is the start of something new and very exciting.

It's a two-day course that has Institute of Leadership and Management accreditation, so I hope this will mean something to someone in the future.

I was impressed that I can submit training proposals and session plans prior to the course so that the trainers can have a look at my work - I plan to take full advantage of this.

Taking this course is just one of the things I have to do to gain recognition in this field. I'm looking forward to the course (and blogging on it) in early May.

Setting up the Aspiring Editors' Group at RBI

About three years ago I decided that RBI should have a forum for journalists who wanted to become editors - it's what I wanted to become but had failed at a couple of interviews to land an editorship. I approached then RBI board member responsible for editorial Iain Melville and he said it was a great idea and that I should go ahead and organise it.

After pulling off a list of people one or two steps away from an editorship - we had to be selective so the group was at a similar level of experience - I arranged the first meeting.

I felt a programme of six lunchtime sessions throughout the year would work well as everyone was short of time. I even got a lunch budget.

I thought the best way to kick off the group would be to define what the company was looking for in an editor so I asked HR director Nathan Cahill to talk about the skills and aptituteds the company expected from an editor. I also asked Karl Schneider, editorial development director to give his slant on what was expected from an editor as well as Trevor Parker, publishing director of Farmers Weekly, who talked about who he would recruit as an editor and why.

The session was a big hit in more than one way.

First, the delegates were able to quiz senior RBI managers on what they were looking for.

Second, they really got an honest view of what an editor was expected to do. I think delegates were quite shocked at how much they would have to achieve to land an editorship.

Third, Nathan got to see would-be editors and to get a feel of what talent was out there.

Fourth, the company now had a way of talking to aspiring editors, something it could never do in the past.

This is the write-up from the first event . . .

Domain names sorted

It may not look like it by the URL of this blog but I have bought the itsdevelopmental domains - hoorah. so, soon be pointing that domain to this blog. I have been told it is easy.

So, got domains. Now what? . . .

Well, maybe a company of that name providing organisational development services. Some way to go before that happens but that is the plan.

In the meantime, I need to update some of the training related things I have been involved with. 

Monitoring a divestment

My company Reed Business Information is being sold by Reed Elsevier. One good thing to come out of this so far is the Divestment Watch blog, penned by an operations manager in the web team. 

He recently finished an MBA so has an interest in change management issues. It is a great read and really delves into the multitude of issues surrounding a divestment.

I notice that no one from RBI or RE management team or HR have joined in the discussions. This is particularly disappointing from an HR perspective because there are so many useful insights in such a process.

Getting print journalists excited about shooting video

Had an interesting train chat with a colleague of mine. We were talking about journalists shooting video and that talking head-type shots were boring to look at. These are the video extension of a vox pop in print. It works in print but is dull in motion.

We agreed that journalists need to be far more imaginative about shooting video BUT I said that if you give most journalists a video camera and said go to an event and get some interesting footage they would be fearful of what they had to do. Why? For a number of reasons, but primarily because journalists trained in print do not feel confident about shooting video and do not have any kind of visual skills - or they don't think they do.

Although the context is journalism I think the issue is all about how you get people to take risks, to put their knowledge and experience and perceptions of what is required to one side and to try something different. Because that is what this is about for digital journalists. It is all about trying different styles of video and seeing what works. And the exploration of new techiques is such a powerful way to learn.

The challenge is to be able to convince, reassure and encourage people to have a go. And this is easier said than done.

More than half of UK managers want to leave their jobs

Depressing story on the fact that managers are failing to motivate their staff. Why? because they themselves are demotivated.

Oh, it's so obvious but why are organisations so bad at this?

1 Lack of emphasis on management skills
2 Don't employee people (into management roles) on basis of management ability
3 Don't design management roles to include the required amount of time to do the 'management stuff'

Well, there are three reasons to start with . . . and they are from personal experience.

Diary of an HR consultant

Really liked this piece on Personnel Today by HR consultant Lucy Turner. It's a diary piece on becoming a freelance HR consultant having previously worrked in public sector HR.

HR jargon buster #1 talent management

Talent management = making sure you keep those that have the potential to do very well or who are actually doing very well.

The Wikipedia definition is longer . . .