Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, “What to Read,” we will share some books and resources that we’ve found to be valuable. This issue of “What to Read” highlights Simple Habits for Complex […]

PPS-SyNet Americas is happy to announce additional dates for complimentary our Interaction Style Mini-Certification webinars. By enrolling and participating in the mini-certification webinar, you will receive one Interaction Style Self-Profile and Guidebook set to determine your own style, as well as access to an agenda you can use to lead an Interaction Style in Action [...]

Learning and development opportunities never stop, especially for those of us in charge of learning and development! Back in February 2020, PPS International Limited held a Trainer Development meeting in Las Vegas, NV to network and learn new skills and refresh the old with our network of consultants. We appreciate and value our relationship with […]

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, “What to Read,” we will share some books and resources that we’ve found to be valuable. This issue of “What to Read” highlights Visual Consulting: Designing & […]

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, “What to Read,” we will share some books and resources that we’ve found to be valuable. This issue of “What to Read” highlights Mastering the Cube by […]

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, “What to Read,” we will share some books and resources that we’ve found to be valuable. This issue of “What to Read” begins with Cal Newport’s book, […]

Spend a few minutes with our Chief Learning Officer Alex Grimshaw as he gives  timely thoughts on developing resilience and agile responses to this current and globally felt complexity we are in now. In this video, Alex Grimshaw, CLO for PPS-SyNet Americas, explores approaches to dealing with complexity and how it relates to current times […]

As many of us support teams who are transitioning to working from home, we will be posting a series of tips for remote work success over the next few days. We will add to this list each day over the next two weeks. #1: Establish A ROUTINE ~ Structure your day in blocks of time and […]

The number of leaders who manage remotely is increasing (see Gallup data), and as a result, they are faced with creating connections and engagement without having the benefit of face-to-face time. And, those who work remotely 100% of the time are the least engaged of all. Just because you manage remotely doesn’t mean you can’t […]

It is true that training and development alone cannot change organizational culture. It takes steady focus and organizational-wide alignment to be able to make culture shifts. However, training and development does have a role to play when it comes to shaping culture. If organizations are interested in educating leaders and enabling them to be more […]

So frequently talent development professionals determine that training is needed but providing it is difficult because participants have very limited time available. Trying to implement training when participants are stretched for time, under pressure to perform and struggling to keep up with their primary roles is a problem most of us will face—in some cases, […]

Whether it’s a swift sea change or starts as a trickle, business is always changing. The key is to spot a trend immediately and be prepared to react and maximize any opportunities. Here are some of the ways we monitor changes and stay ahead of industry trends. We look for industry trends beyond our own […]

Succession planning — once the people-process of the very large, resource-rich organization—is now a necessity for even the smallest. With a generation of leaders leaving their current roles for retirement and employees willing to change jobs and companies without hesitation, more talent and development professionals are asking, “Who’s next?” to fill the talent and knowledge […]

HR and other professionals design and implement training, but also manage other systems that build people-capability, such as strategic staffing processes, succession planning systems and management development.  These initiatives have the potential to make significant improvements. Here are a few of these improvements and ways to measure talent management effectiveness. Strategic Staffing Strategic staffing processes […]

We believe the most successful development of talent happens when you don’t just teach theory, you teach skills. But, how do you evaluate what skills are truly needed by your leaders, sales associates, team members and others? One way is to conduct a training needs assessment. Training content should be real-world, relatable and repeatable. When […]

Many organizations spend time in quarters 3 and 4 of the year establishing financial plans and budgets for leadership training and development activities in the new year. It’s always a good idea to benchmark and compare as a way to check your level of competitiveness in developing talent. Plenty of good data exists to help […]

Fall is often a time we review and begin planning for the next year. As your organization is making plans for the upcoming year it’s important to take a comprehensive look at the ways different individuals can support your company. If you have internal training and development professionals, as you’re considering ways to enhance or […]

The most flexible leaders have the ability to tailor their speech, body language and approach so that others more readily listen and accept their ideas. These leaders capitalize on interactions with others, especially in critical business situations—when implementing change, selling ideas, delivering performance feedback and working with peers.

No matter what role you have in an organization, you are dependent upon others to produce results. Talent Development, HR and Learning and Development professionals are especially tuned in to the needs of internal customers, peers, subject matter experts and others—we need their support for many aspects of our jobs. Here are a few ways […]

Being a success in any role means that you need to be able to manage your own work and manage your manager. We need to get results with our peers, team members and internal partners, but especially with the manager we report to. Statistics tell us that we won’t be satisfied and engaged if we […]

Being an effective mentor isn’t difficult, but it does take some planning and effort to do it well. Whether you have been asked to be a mentor by an HR Manager, are participating as part of being a sponsor in a professional development program or were approached by someone who wants your advice and input, […]

For almost 20 years, PPS International Limited has offered the Harrison Assessment to clients for use in selection and hiring, development planning and coaching. This year, we achieved a milestone by fully certifying the entire PPS assessment center team. The rigorous certification process (or, recertification process for some team members) included a week-long, multi-level workshop […]

Can your leaders walk into any situation as managers and handle them with ease? Do you think that your supervisors are at the top of their management game? Check out our infographic below to see if they have mastered the conversations that are on the top of our necessary list! (And don’t worry, if you […]

As leaders, one of the most important ways to develop team members and build performance is giving specific, targeted feedback–either on-the-spot or through more formal means such as performance reviews and coaching sessions. While most leaders know the value in robust feedback, they also are challenged with providing it. Challenges in Giving Feedback For instance, […]

Few times are as pressure-filled and hectic as the last few months of the calendar year. For many organizations, the last quarter of the year is the time that department managers put the final touches on internal budgets. Others sales leaders are striving to achieve their aggressive sales goals for the year. On the manufacturing […]

There is a direct correlation between the training administrative process and the learner’s overall experience. The way learning is implemented, the consistency of the administration process, the impressions created during rollout, the communication clarity and efficiency all contribute to the ability and willingness of participants to learn. The learner’s experience is directly related to learning […]

Emails, slide presentations, letters and reports: in a single workday we are surrounded with important situations where word choice, phrasing and punctuation matters. Prospects decide whether your organization can be attentive to their needs because of your (hopefully!) error-free emails. Senior leaders give support to your projects based upon the clarity and structure of your […]

As training and development professionals, we often spend a lot of time in the classroom. Because of this, we have a variety of experiences with seeing facilitators in action—some positive, some not-so-positive. Our participants may tell us what they like on evaluation forms, but that doesn’t really define the competencies that make a facilitator shine. […]

As Alex Grimshaw, PPS International Ltd. was talking to senior managers and leaders of successful organizations he discovered that they had one similarity: They kept bumping up against situations where they didn’t know what to do involving limited information and unique challenges never seen before. Watch the video below reviewing the literacies covered in the […]

Using managers as trainers sounds like a great idea. We know that using managers to lead training creates credibility for the training and builds a network of front-line champions for greater commitment. But there are a number of challenges that can get in the way of success. Challenges The challenges of using managers as trainers […]

Recently, we were working with a client to define content to be included in a front-line leadership training program. Surprisingly, we discovered that we didn’t have a common definition of individual development plans. For the client, an IDP meant a specific plan to improve performance, usually because the individual wasn’t meeting performance goals. For us, […]

Strategic staffing is the process used to improve the likelihood of filling positions with the most successful candidates. By creating a few specific components for each role, hiring managers and their recruiting and HR teams can be aligned on searching for and hiring the best person for the role. The more aligned the process, the […]

Many managers struggle with planning and holding a performance review discussion. This formal feedback time is fraught with concerns over what to say and how to manage the agenda. Regardless of what is included in your organization’s performance appraisal or when the process is launched, managers can gain confidence to hold these important conversations by […]

Combatting stress and building more activity into your day are two crucial steps to wellbeing and becoming more resilient, but who really reaps the benefits? When you take care of wellbeing, you increase your efficiency, better manage problems and change and produce higher-quality, more innovative results. Great for you, but also great for your employer. […]

Many of us at PPS International Limited love data: we pour over facts, figures and research so that we are up-to-date on trends and knowledge, regardless of topic. Our Wellbeing @ Work and Resiliency programs prompted a flurry of data collection. We have been reading a range of wellbeing resources that help us have a […]

For many years, I taught a series of workshops at a university on topics such as designing training, conducting interactive workshops and how to conduct a training needs assessment. The audience of Human Resource Managers and Training Managers were very new to their roles. Still others in the program were managers who were aspiring to […]

Whether you are in the break room or the boardroom, chances are you want to be influential. After all, influence approaches are the way we gain support for ideas, approval for projects, input to problems and sign-off on solutions. A key factor in being influential is to adapt to others’ preferences. But, how do you […]

Seventy-five percent of the people with whom we interact with have preferences different from our own. It is important to be flexible and tailor speech, body language and approach so that others become more open to listen and accept ideas. This is especially important in critical business situations, during the sales process, problem solving, working […]

Time and again Training and Development professionals over a decade of projects across dozens of industries tell us that employees perceive their managers don’t fully understand and support what they learn in training. So, a few weeks ago, we presented a webinar on how to build manager involvement. At the same time, we put out […]

The book Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling by Edgar Schein describes the mindset that best suits today’s leaders who are facing the increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) business environment. Schein speaks about the need to move away from an expert mindset (telling) and move towards a humble mindset […]

New Year, New Leader! Many see the beginning of a new year as a “refresh button”, setting new goals with new sights to accomplish in the upcoming twelve months. Have you made professional resolutions for yourself? Will 2017 be the year that you see yourself becoming a leader that is conscientious of others in a […]

According to the Association for Talent Development’s 2014 State of the Industry Report, organizations spend an average of $1,208 per employee on training and development. For companies with fewer than 500 workers, that number is even higher, coming in at $1,888 per employee. How do you ensure those dollars result in a change of skill […]

HR and Talent Management professionals have a challenging task: they have to know their own professions, while at the same time deeply understand the businesses in which they work. This dual level of professionalism is expected of their roles, and is especially important when HR and Talent Management professionals are crafting strategic plans and budgets […]

Fall is often a time we review and begin planning for the next year. As you plan for 2017, consider these top six areas that training and development professionals implement to support their organizations.

In trying to answer the question, “How does stress impact leadership?” researchers found that eighty-eight percent of leaders report that work is a primary source of stress in their lives and that having a leadership role increases that level of stress(1). In our own work at PPS International Limited, leaders in workshops and during coaching […]

Many supervisors and managers dread conducting performance reviews. Others avoid doing them altogether. In this presentation, we point out a few of the benefits to conducting appraisals and performance reviews. In addition, see a simple format for the communication process.

HR and Training Professionals are important resources to ensure that organizational changes are managed well. We know that change occurs in our organizations for a variety of reasons including: Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; Updates and adjustments to company-wide policies; New senior leaders joining the organization; Upgrades to technology; Reorganization or restructuring of departments or entire […]

On-boarding is a critical process to create fully contributing, engaged leaders in your workplace. Even the most experienced of leaders can benefit from a structured on-boarding process. Here is one we often recommend for clients. PHASE 1: Identification This phase occurs during the selection process and the action-items below should be completed through your hiring […]

We are tasked with creating great leaders—often without great resources! One way to gauge how significant the task will be is to complete this quick checklist. The results will give insight into what gaps you will have in creating and implementing talent development initiatives.

Walk into any bookstore or office supply store and you will see an entire section on journals—journals to document your dreams, journals for sketching, journals for list-making, journals with questions, and simple, blank books for any journaling purpose you deem appropriate. For those who enjoy technology, numerous apps are available for the mobile device or […]

Part of our role as Talent Management professionals is to close the gaps between the performance we desire in our organizations and the performance that currently exists. We do this with limited time, funds and support. PPS International Limited has created a tool that matches the reasons and causes of performance gaps to potential solutions. […]

Sometimes the decision as to whether to develop your own 360-feedback tool or partner with a vendor is difficult to make. In this article, we examine some of the key criteria points to use in your decision making.  

Sometimes as an instructional designer it is easier to edit than it is to create. Many times we have a need to develop a skill or capability in others, but don’t know the best way to structure the learning and development experience. For those who need a jump-start, we offer some learning design frameworks—options for your […]

HR and training professionals in industry, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations invest heavily in creating and maintaining performance management systems—and we hope to these systems will create high performers from our employees. While we set up and are the keepers of these systems, we aren’t the main beneficiary or user of the system—managers and their […]

This video shows an example of how to use interpersonal acumen to have a more inclusive conversation with someone of another Interaction Style.

Acknowledgement is an important action for everyone to take. Whether it is feedback to a team member, reinforcement of an agreement that someone has met or encouragement for trying a new skill, this quick reference tool is a great reminder of how to give meaningful and supportive feedback.

Development planning isn’t always a seamless, easy process. Sometimes—and especially in self-directed situations—individuals have difficulty knowing what to develop, how to best develop, and who to ask for support. We’ve created a thinking prompt tool that can be used by leaders and others as they create specific, actionable and relevant. Thinking Prompts for Development Planning

Read about the most critical components of an implementation of a succession planning process, whether on a large- or small scale.    

An overview interview between co-founders of PPS International Limited, Alex Grimshaw and Kelly Fairbairn, of the Communication Cycle and its importance in leadership.

Alex Grimshaw of PPS International Limited, and SyNet Americas describes how leaders benefit from the program “Mastering Personal Leadership”

Seventy-five percent of the people with whom we deal have preferences different from our own. It is important to be flexible and tailor speech, body language and approach so that others become more open to listen and accept ideas. This is especially important in critical business situations, during the sales process, problem solving, working on […]

Alex Grimshaw of PPS International Limited and SyNet Americas discusses the difference between transactional and transformational leadership, as presented in the program, “Mastering Personal Leadership”

A video overview of using Interpersonal Acumen to be influential. Keys to style flexing are covered and an interaction between a manager and direct report are demonstrated.

Stuck in traffic on the way home, Chris started talking to herself.  “Ok, what happened this afternoon? Is this good news or bad news? I mean, in the last nine months, it seems that we all have been required to do more with less: More assignments with quick turnaround time. More duties with fewer direct […]

Shawn, HR Manager, recently was chosen to lead a special project to streamline all HR processes.  Members of the project team include fellow managers throughout the company, including two managers in remote locations. “This project is a nightmare,” Shawn complained. “My team members ignore my e-mails. They ‘forget’ team meetings, or, worse still, they come […]