Rachel Burnham writes: Here are some reviews of recent books I have been
reading for work over the last few months – some of them I read because of
particular projects I was working on and some because they might be of interest
to the students I work with on the CIPD Foundation Certificate in L&D.
‘Conversations at Work: Promoting a Culture of
Conversation in the Changing Workplace’ Tim Baker & Aubrey Warren (2015) Palgrave
Macmillan
‘5 Conversations: How to transform trust, engagement
and performance at work’ Nick
Cowley & Nigel Purse with Lynn Allison (2014) Panoma Press
Both of these books
are written against the backdrop of an increasing dissatisfaction with the
effectiveness of traditional approaches to performance management and in
particular the annual performance review and at the same time an increasing
interest in introducing a more informal, frequent and conversational approach
to managing performance at work. There
is a lot of overlap between these two books – they are the reason for the 5ish
element in the title of this blog. Both books argue for the centrality and
value of conversations in the workplace and set out the benefits of this
approach to individuals, managers and organisations. Each book has much to offer in terms of
frameworks for different kinds of conversations in the context of a managerial
relationship and skills development.
The Palgrave book has
more on barriers to communication and more specific sections on different
elements that make up the skills of conversation such as listening, perceptual
positions and the art of inquiry. The
Panoma Press book links conversation more broadly into the development of
engagement and trust in organisations and so goes beyond performance management
and the line manager relationship.
I found myself both
in agreement with the basic argument of these two books, but then rather
dissatisfied by the way that each book set out a series of specific
conversations each with a distinctive focus.
This seemed to over-complicate and introduce almost a ‘management by
checklist approach’, rather detracting from their simple central point about
the need for more effective conversations in the workplace.
‘Neuroscience for Learning and Development: How to
apply neuroscience & psychology for improved learning & training’ Stella Collins (2016) Kogan Page
Stella Collins very
quickly explains that this book is not just looking at what we can learn from
neuroscience to improve learning, but much more broadly at lessons from behavioural,
cognitive & social psychology. It is
written specifically for an L&D audience and aims to both inform and also
to suggest practical actions that can improve the way we design and deliver
L&D programmes.
The book is broken
down into accessible sections and makes good use of diagrams, mind maps and
practical insights from practitioners.
It includes a helpful section to challenge our thinking on how we react
when something is labelled neuroscience so that we are able to respond more critically.
I think this is a
very practical addition to the material available on neuroscience and
psychology for L&D practitioners and would recommend it enthusiastically.
‘The Mentoring Manual: Your Step by Step Guide to
Being a Better Mentor’ Julie
Starr (2014) Pearson
I bought this as I
had been mentoring a fellow L&D practitioner for a number of months and
thought it would help me to reflect on how this mentoring was going and what I
could do to be more effective. And it
did.
It is a detailed
guide to the whole process of being a mentor or even to setting up and managing
a mentoring programme. It is both accessible if you are brand new to mentoring,
but also provides enough to get you thinking more deeply if you have already
some understanding of mentoring.
The book is well
structured, so that you can either read cover to cover or dip into particular
sections that meet a particular need.
There is a very practical section on the various stages of a mentoring
relationship including very detailed material on how to structure initial
meetings. My favourite parts of the book
though were the sections on principles and on what good mentors do well.
Though at times I
felt slightly over ‘checklisted’, I found this a helpful book that got me to do
some useful self-questionning.
‘More than Blended Learning: Designing World-Class
Learning Interventions’ Clive
Shepherd (2015) The More Than Blended Learning Company
This is essentially a
guide to designing learning programmes effectively and these days this is
always going to include some consideration of how the learning might be blended
to be as effective as it possibly can be.
It is both an introduction to designing for those new to the whole
process of putting together a programme from start to finish and also provides a
challenge to think more broadly about what effective learning programmes
involve for those already with some experience of designing.
It has some great
case studies with practical examples of how organisations have put programmes
together and also considers a broad range of design elements including both
learning methods and choice of media. I
also liked the way it looks at the type of learning – skills, knowledge or what
Shepherd refers to as ‘big ideas’ such as new approaches.
If you are relatively
new to designing L&D programmes or want to design more effectively beyond
workshops then this is a good place to start.
‘Working Out Loud – For a better career and life’ John Stepper 2015 Ikigai Press
This is an
introduction to the idea and practice of ‘Working Out Loud’ (WOL) – it is almost
a course in a book, with practical activities and ideas to get you started.
If you haven’t come
across the ‘Working Out Loud’ approach before, it is the practice of sharing either
with colleagues or more widely, what you are working on in a spirit of
generosity. This is often done whilst
your work is still at the ‘half-baked’ stage, so that you can incorporate ideas
and contributions from other people. And
it is also about you contributing to other people’s work.
John Stepper’s
approach to Working Out Loud very much links this concept with building a
network. I was a little surprised by how
much of the book was about the process of networking through Working Out Loud and
the use of social media. Initially this
rather threw me – I hadn’t expected this emphasis on networking. However, the approach has gradually grown on
me and I can see its value. It very
much links to the idea of networking as a tool for learning and so has
contributed to my understanding of Personal Learning Networks.
Whilst some people
may find the approach taken by the book to be too instructional, others may
find it provides a helpful step by step approach. If you are new to ‘Working Out Loud’ or want
to develop your networking skills this may be just the book to guide you.
So, these are my
views on these books – I would love to hear your views. Why not share these by
adding a comment?
Rachel
Burnham
6/12/16
Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D
professionals update and refresh their skills.
I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social
media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of
learning on performance.
