Training that you'll remember and use
Most training is dull, forgettable and makes no difference, because it has a one-size-fits-all approach. By co-creating a learning journey that addresses your unique challenges, people leave my workshops with new ideas and skills they can quickly implement. I use a variety of techniques and tools, together with discoveries from academic research, to provide training that just works. That is memorable. That is applicable. And it helps that I love doing it too. Scroll down for more information on the kind of challenges I help with.
Leader development
Leadership can be a hard and scary place. I've been there too. These are techniques and skills to make it less scary, and a little easier.
Team development
Some teams just click. Others grind their way through work. Here are some tools that make teams work together better. To get the sand out.
Personal development
We all want to get a bit better at what we do. To be more effective. Less stressed. More resilient. Here are some tools and new ideas for you.
Leader development
You don't have to see people to get work done or to lead them well. Lockdown has proved that it is possible for us to have teams working remotely. We now have the technology we need. This session explores three key things to consider when leading a team remotely. None of them are technical. All of them much more important than that. And more simple.
Leaders and managers have often received little (if any) training in how to have a ‘difficult’ conversation. Many end up avoiding the situation altogether until it becomes critical. This workshop demystifies the process of preparing for, holding and, most importantly, following up on a difficult conversation.
The ability to lead change is a key requirement and an important skill for leaders at all levels. All change contains complex and intertwined elements of uncertainty, ambiguity, and often feels very personal. As a result many change initiatives fail. Learn effective methodologies to manage change and lead it while taking people with you.
Project management is not hard. It's not simple either, but a simple, memorable model helps to run a project and leading the accompanying change. All projects inherently include change, but many fail to consider or lead that change adequately. The project management model presented here is an umbrella view of ‘industry standard’ methodologies such as Prince2.
The ability to think strategically is a key requirement for all senior leaders, and useful to everyone. It is not a rarified skill. Anyone can learn to think strategically and the ability to do it well provides a competitive advantage. This workshop helps you to understand what good strategy looks like and teaches a practical blueprint for doing it better.
Great leaders know they don't have all the answers, expertise and knowledge. So they take a relational approach of asking the most useful questions within a network of subject experts. This programme considers how to ask better questions, gather richer feedback and make growing yourself a core part of your leadership.
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Extremely helpful and practical
Jonathan provides the opportunity to discuss and share career related matters in an extremely helpful and practical way. I am sure that the results will continue to help impact my career development in the future.
Mark Restall
European Technical Lead for Bi-modernisation, HP
Team development
Whether your team is brand new, or has been together for a few years; this workshop will increase your sense of shared purpose; improve trust and understanding; reduce unhelpful conflict, and make you more productive – to “rinse the sand out of the gears and get moving”.
With many of us moving to a hybrid working model, how do you maintain a strong team ethos when you hardly ever meet in real life? How do you avoid cliques and fragmentation, which gets worse if everyone's working on a different project? One key is to revisit the team's purpose and identity. This course helps a team explore the challenges together and identify ways forward so that you can work well while apart.
I doubt you've ever been in a team where there hasn't been some kind of conflict. But was it dealt with effectively, brushed under the carpet, or resolved through the ultimate action - someone leaving? This course puts conflict front and centre in a safe and useful way so that you learn how to operate as a team that works more effectively and deals with conflict when it happens.
The variable nature of the work of teams and mixture of personalities creates a challenging environment. This challenge can be mitigated by improving mutual understanding and having a common language for strengths, communication and behaviour. This workshop is designed for new or intact teams who need to understand one another better and thus improve their collective performance.
If you've ever been part of a team where the workload or rewards are shared unevenly, you know how this can result in destroy cooperation and cause withdrawal of discretionary contribution. When things are seen as fair, even if decisions are not to our liking, however, we can still feel satisfied. This course helps a team to understand what is really going on, and work collectively to achieve a better balance between contribution and benefits.
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Thought provoking.
Interesting, thought provoking and well presented. Jonathan has a very good presenting style.
Bob Jones
Personal development
Working remotely, are you still not getting as much done as you hoped? Are you still distracted, or your attention span still low? While there are many reasons for these kind of challenges, there are some simple things that you can put in place now that will help. Learn some practical steps to manage your work at home that you can implement immediately. And get your life back.
Life includes unexpected difficulties. Some are easier to rise above than others. Resilience is not purely a genetic trait that only few have, everyone can develop it. So if you want to cope with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", this course is for you. You'll learn principles and ideas that you can use to create your own blueprint for a more resilient you.
Faced with any major change at work, most of us feel anxious in some way. All change contains complex and intertwined elements of uncertainty, ambiguity, and personal feelings. So what can we do to prepare and work through it without buckling under the weight? Whether you are in the storm, or can just see it coming your way. This course will give you tools to do just that.
It is possible to do stress well. We have all spent years trying to reduce our stress, and made limited progress. Sometimes because that's just how life is, and other times because there are some things that the world calls stressful that we don't find difficult. This course highlights three key considerations to make stress work for you, and one very simple approach to implement immediately.
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the 1000's of emails that you get every year? Never get to the things that you really want to because email eats your agenda? Worry that you'll never get to the bottom of your inbox? And that even if you did, it would take so long that it wouldn't be worth it? This course will help you think about and use email in a different way, reducing your stress and reclaiming your time.
Are you tired of being grumpy after work, get ill when you stop working for a holiday, or wake up in the night and lie awake for hours, desperately wanting things to be different? Then this course is for you. In it, you'll build a plan for the next 7 days that you can use to lift yourself out of a job you hate, just like I did a decade ago.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all, these are just a sample of workshops that I've been running over the last decade, on the most common topics. If you have a particular challenge that isn't covered by something, please get in touch so we can talk about what I can help with.
Courses can be delivered face-to-face in 1-day or half-day sessions, or in bite-size 60-90 minute online sessions as suits you. Team-based workshops are best delivered in face-to-face format if possible - with the exception of Working Well Apart which is best in online bite-size. Some courses (nearly all the personal development ones) are available in online self-paced format via app or website (or will be soon).
Webinars are priced on a per-set basis of £18/hour per seat. Minimum seats = 25, maximum = 50.
One-day course fees are £1800/day (max 15 participants). Half-day fees are £1200.
Online fees vary by course. All fees exclude VAT, materials and transport/accommodation costs if applicable. Certain discounts are available, please arrange a call to discuss.
Materials such as workbooks are provided in an appropriate form for the delivery - ie, pdf format for online training, printed material for face-to-face. Links to additional materials such as articles, books, videos are provided via our online learning environment, to which all participants are invited.
I don't believe in one-size-fits all (or sheep-dipping people on a mandated basis). All courses are tailored to suit your specific culture, challenges and environment. Please watch the 'How we work' video on our home page to understand the reasons and process behind this. If appropriate, I will hold semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of participants to ensure courses meet your objectives.
After an initial discussion about your specific requirements, I will create a short outline of a proposed course or programme, including costs. When you agree to proceed on this basis, we will set a date/time and location for the workshop(s) and I will generate a formal quote to enable you to provide a purchase order number. Email confirmation of the booking will be taken as binding. Terms and Conditions are available on request - including cancellation terms.
I use a variety of carefully-selected tools to support courses. For online delivery this can be MS Teams, Zoom or Webex. I will use PollEverywhere for online polling and surveys (in online as well as face-to-face contexts), Mural for collaborative whiteboarding, and GiraffePad to provide an online learning environment.
