The Challenge

Companies can spend a huge amount of time, effort and money on training, often with little benefit to show for it. This happens for a number of reasons:

1. It is not uncommon to be approached to undertake some development work before the company has really identified its training needs..
2. The trainer imparts information without context, making it difficult for learners to absorb
3. Companies rely too heavily on technology, using e-learning, apps and self-directed modules without the necessary communication and context.
4. People fail to really evaluate the impact of training beyond what happens on the day.

Most importantly though, training fails to have the intended impact because it is not the right fit for the organisation’s culture at that particular time. This means people don’t see the relevance, or how they will use it to make a difference in their role. Even when people are motivated and ready to make a change following training the rigidness of the workplace makes it too difficult for them to sustain, so they default back to existing working practices.

The Solution

Most development activity comes from an organisational desire to fix a problem or to develop it’s people. At The Difference, the team understand that to create any real shift in people’s perspective, and subsequently their behaviour, development experiences have to engage them emotionally not just intellectually. All of our learning is designed to be ‘sticky’ – it sticks long after the trainer has gone. Jonathan believes this happens when learning is fun, thought provoking and in context with people’s actual work experiences.

This happens because The Difference take the time to understand what outcome you are looking for, what is happening now, and what your people need to get to where you want them to be. This means we understand your training needs, we use technology to support our training not to replace it, and because we understand you outcomes we can evaluate against them.

For learners training is personal; they too are expected to take time away from their role, interact with their peers and possibly expose what they don’t know. Emotional engagement happens when learners get to explore what they need to explore, in order to make the changes they need to make. At The Difference we pride ourselves on creating individual learning experiences out of group programmes, this way every participant gets the opportunity to grow.

Free Up Fridays

Time management with a difference – We look at time logs, coaching conversations around those logs – your habits and share our hints and tips for creating more time.

Difficult Conversations

Being able to manage difficult conversations in adult way stops things from getting out of control, it helps prevent stress and perceived under performance. In essence it builds personal confidence and helps you to be a more effective leader and manager.

Getting The Best From People

This is all about understanding and tapping into motivation. Nail this and your people will willingly do what you want them to do. You’ll create a team of happy staff who look forward to work. Increase your influence and impact as a leader.

Using Your Strengths

When you are aware of your strengths and know how to use them effectively you appear to possess an innate power, you glide through your day with ease and confidence. Using the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) we help you to understand how you show up, your relationships with other people, what you are naturally best at and what changes under pressure. Operating from your own strengths builds personal resilience and enables you to lead with congruence and efficiency. Understanding the SDI of your team helps you to work together as a team, enables you to enhance motivation and encourage and develop people in the most appropriate way for them.

Personal Impact

Good Leadership starts with trust. In order for people to really trust you they need to feel safe, valued, and that they belong. This can often feel overwhelming for leaders faced with hard deliverables and conflicting agendas, not to mention the odd difficult personality. Focusing on the impact you want to create, the vision you are sharing and the map you want to follow allows people to buy into  shared  priorities, to feel that they want to work for you and to go that extra mile with you because you’ve made them matter. This is the key to happy and productive staff.