8 Sketchnotes from the CIPD Festival of Work 12 & 13 June 2024

Rachel writes: I was at the CIPD's hashta#FestivalOfWork last week at Excel in London. And what a wonderful event it was - lots of people, lots of conversations - a vibrant and lively atmosphere. This event is now a free event and all the better for it. The new venue worked a treat for the larger number of participants- the exhibition and sessions were busy, but I never felt crowded. A great range of topics were on the agenda in the multiple stages - business transformation, learning & development, wellbeing, equalities, internal communications, ethics and so on. My only quibble is that most of the sessions were only 30 minutes in length - I would love to see some longer sessions, in addition to the keynotes, where topics are explored in greater depth.

I Sketchnoted 8 sessions over the course of the two days - here they are:

AI and Ethics

The first session I took part in was on the subject of 'The Ethical Implications of AI and Automation and was presented by James Proctor and Louise Johnston of Phase 3 - a Manchester based company. This was one of a number of sessions exploring different aspects of the use of AI in organisations and the changes that we are facing in our working lives.

This session brought out both some of the benefits, but also some key ethical issues to consider in using AI such as risks of bias, issues of transparency and trust, data privacy and concerns about job losses. James and Louise emphasised the value of people and AI working together - the copilot model. I particularly liked the phrase 'human in the loop' which is about designing in that it is always a person that makes the decisions, when using AI applications.

Fireside chat with Stacey Dooley 

One of the keynote session's was an informal chat with documentary maker Stacey Dooley who talked about allyship, gender equality, building relationships and mental health.

AI for L&D

Nelson Sivalingam was speaking about how AI can be used by L&D professionals. A quick survey of participants revealed that we felt AI was already having a big impact in our personal lives, but only a few of those L&D present felt it was having an impact so far on our organisational worklife. Nelson challenged us to raise our game with how we envisaged using AI in our L&D work, from the nearest small hill to a higher peak (not yet even in view) and to move our thinking beyond content creation and automation to a more strategic series of applications to focus on skills.

Have organisations already achieved equality in the workplace?

This was the challenging title of a challenging session led by Lutfur R. Ali.

Lutfur began by considering the future of Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion in the context of the backlash against EDI, what some of the reasons for this vocal backlash are and what the reality of EDI is in organisations. He encouraged us to work on 'developing a shared understanding' but also to simplify the language we use to ensure that it is understandable and accessible for managers throughout our organisations and doesn't act as a barrier to action for them. He challenged us to focus on 'Equality of outcome and impact' and recognise that organisational culture - particularly aspects such as wellbeing & psychological trust are vital and equality is not just about 'representational diversity'.

The Skills Agenda

This hashtag#Sketchnote picks out key points from the panel session 'Navigating the Future: The Skills Agenda and Why does it Matter?', which was chaired by @CIPD's Lizzie Crowley. The panel included: Claire Tunley, from the Financial Services Skills Commission; Liz Williams MBE from FutureDotNow; Tom Ravenscroft, Skills Builder Partnership; and Sonia Pawson, from West Yorkshire Fire Service.

I was particularly struck by the statistic shared by Liz Williams MBE that only 4 in 10 people are planning to upskill their digital skills this year. This seems astounding and shocking in equal measure, giving how fast things are developing in the field of technology. She cautioned us in developing our organisation's digital skills to focus more on where we are now and guided us to the framework for 20 key digital skills which can be accessed on the FutureDotNow website. This was a key takeaway from the event for me.

Green Skills and your workforce

This panel session explored the concept of jobs and skills to support sustainability and included consideration of a wider range of skills linked to the whole ESG (environmental, social and governance) agenda. My favourite advice from the session was about 'layering in new skills' rather than using the language of reskilling - and it gave me the perfect opportunity to draw a piece of layer cake!

Keynote with Dex Hunter-Torricke from Google Deep Mind

The afternoon keynote on the 2nd day of the CIPD Festival of Work last week, was from Dex Hunter-Torricke from Google Deep Mind. This session was a wide ranging walk through some of the challenges we are likely to be facing from the disruption caused by the adoption of AI in 'the intelligence revolution. He shared with us some of the scenarios about how AI could be used in very diverse fields and way the ripples from these changes may impact us socially. He talked about the need to be both BOLD and also RESPONSIBLE and the need for Renaissance leaders. We were challenged to disrupt ourselves and think simultaneously in terms of 6 months ahead and 10 years ahead.

Behaviour and Learning Change

In this session, Amy Brann, shared insights on the brain, learning and behaviour change. She discussed how our brains continue to develop and asked us 'What have you been myelinating recently?' A key point from this session for me, was to focus on reinforcing required new behaviours, when attempting to change behaviours.

Rachel Burnham

17 June 2024

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

Complete Collection of Sketchnotes from CIPD Northern Student Conference 2019

Rachel Burnham writes: On Saturday 30^th March, I was part of the volunteer team contributing to the running of this event.   It was wonderful to be welcoming over 200 participants, mostly students, from across the 10 northern branches in CIPD to Liverpool.   Over the course of the day, a range of presentations and sessions took place focusing on career development and sharing knowledge about the future of our HR and L&D profession.  

I created Sketchnotes live during the event for the 5 sessions that I participated in.  I hope you find them a interesting taster for the event and a helpful reminder if you were there.

Rachel Burnham

1 April 2019

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.  

Conversations, community and who gets to contribute

Rachel Burnham writes: Last week I visited Manchester City Art Gallery with a friend.  We went to see two exhibitions: a collection of Martin Parr’s fascinating pictures of Manchester life from the 1970s onwards; and ‘Speech Acts: Reflection – Imagination – Repetition’ which was asking questions about what museums collect and show, whose work is shown and the narratives around them.  Martin Parr’s photographs are always worth seeing and it was great to see something of the diversity of Manchester and the changes that have taken place of this period. 

The other exhibition was less accessible and I found it harder to get my head around.  It included a gallery looking at representation and expectations, with predominantly works created by BAME artists, a gallery exploring repetition and one looking at the part played by networks and the creation of spaces in shaping artistic practices.  This focused on a gallery that had been run in Cumbria, between 1972-83 by the artist Li Yuan-chia, which was described both as a centre for the local artistic community and focus for a wider cosmopolitan network.   Whilst many of the individual works were interesting, I struggled with the overall exhibition – yet all week, the parallels between the messages I picked up from this exhibition and the work I do as a volunteer and community member in L&D and HR have been tugging at me. All week it has been teasing me and making me look again at what I do and why.

Here are some of my thoughts prompted by that reflection – they are a bit untidy and half-baked, but they set out some of the thinking that drives my volunteering.

Alongside my business, I am involved as a volunteer and community member for a number of bodies within HR and L&D.  I am part of CIPD Manchester’s Branch Committee where I have lead responsibility for both our Public Policy and our L&D work.  I contribute to L&D Connect, being one of a team of people involved in facilitating Twitter Chats and Unconferences and I co-host #LnDCoWork Manchester, alongside Julie Drybrough and Mike Shaw.   All of these things are collaborative and it is wonderful to be a part of such great teams.

Over the last couple of years, I have really moved away from wanting to put my energy into organising events that are the traditional speaker-lead events.  I have been hugely influenced by the experience of being part of the L&D Connect community.   Gradually, in my other volunteering, I have been trying out different approaches and seeing what works and what seems to most valuable to the people participating.   In part this is applying what I know about how people learn and in part this is trying to make sense of what each organisation can helpfully and distinctively contribute to our professional field – eg what part can a CIPD branch play in a major city like Manchester.   And it is also about me trying to use my time wisely and spend it doing things that I enjoy, that feel worthwhile to me.

So, as part of these teams I have hosted focus groups, tried out hackathons, commissioned Ignite talks and ‘warts & all case studies’, borrowed ideas and developed CakeCamps and BreakfastCamps as result (thank you Martin Couzins), collaborated with #HRHour (thanks to Mark Hendy) and tried out a campaign approach with ‘The Big Conversation around Parents, Families and the Workplace’, including a series blog articles by a range of contributors.  All based in the Manchester area.   All with an emphasis on interaction, where participants are active contributors.

What all of this activity has in common is creating opportunities for conversation and creating communities of practitioners.   This is what creates opportunities for real learning and change – I think.

  

I think smaller, local and regional events have the opportunity to be much more radical and experimental in design than many of the national events.   With a smaller event it is possible to try out an approach, to play a bit and see what works.   And if it doesn’t go according to plan – that is OK – what can we learn from that? The costs are less, there is less public exposure, less commercial pressure, less risk if we don’t quite pull it off.

I want to celebrate good stuff right around the UK and not have everything to be originated in London or driven by London or done in response to London.   There are local needs and local agendas all around the country – certainly there are in Manchester, in the North West and across the North.  We need to be addressing these issues and then sharing our lessons and expertise nationally.   

  

I think that face to face events can complement and run alongside on-line opportunities.  I love the way that my PLN (Personal Learning Network) has largely been developed online, but flourishes in face to face meetings too!  It doesn’t have to be an either/or.   It is great to have the international dimension and sheer diversity of an online community, plus there is the convenience factor of being able to connect with people wherever and in odd moments of the day.  But face to face has a neighbourliness to it and a depth, plus opportunities for shared meals and cake eating.

I have been working on designing events and activities that give a greater range of people the opportunity to have their say and share their experience.  I don’t subscribe to the view that we should all have the opportunity to be speakers  – but I do think that we all have stuff to contribute and relevant experience to share.  I want to create opportunities for us to be challenged by putting our own experience into a wider context and through discussion, debate, reflection, problem-solving together develop ideas to take back to our own workplaces.  You rarely get the opportunity to properly do this within a traditional style speaker led event. 

I am particularly interested in what happens when people really start listening to one another and the cascade you get when people start to open up and people respond by listening more deeply. What enables this, what sustains this and what can happen if it is set loose?

I find it interesting to see how word spreads between the different networks, communities and events that I am involved in.   I think that one of our challenges in L&D and in HR, is that people often don’t know about all the good stuff out there, the resources, networks and learning opportunities that are available to them.   So, that if someone comes into contact with the Twitter chat #LDInsight, or turns up at #LnDCoWork or finds themselves at a CIPD Manchester CakeCamp they are then amazed to discover all the different things that this then gives them access to – it is a ‘first contact’ situation that acts like a vortex into a series of other universes.  Or perhaps I watch too much sci-fi!

I am keen for CIPD Manchester to continue to develop all kinds of collaborative relationships and links with other networks and organisations operating locally.  It was great to work this year with Acas on behalf of CIPD Manchester on a joint Flexible Working Conference and it was great to support the eLearning Network with the unconference element of its Manchester event last summer.   It is easy for organisations and groups to work in isolation and be unaware or unwilling to work with other organisations operating in the same field.   We need open gates, lots of signposting and travellers to act as go-betweens.  

I wonder if by having a number of different kinds of networks in and around the Manchester area we can have a bigger impact.  I think it may depend on how open & welcoming the networks are and whether we can continue to reach out and invite in other people within our field who are less connected.   

I feel as though I have only just begun a very interesting journey and there are many possibilities ahead.  But I feel certain that conversations and building community are core to what lies ahead. 

Rachel Burnham

13 January 2019

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.  

Sketchnotes from CIPD NAP Student Conference 2018

Rachel Burnham writes: It was lovely to have the chance to represent CIPD Manchester at the annual Northern Area Partnership (NAP) conference for CIPD students.  I got to meet lots of interesting students from across the whole of the North of England, from Liverpool to Humberside and from Sheffield to the NE. Why not check out the #CIPD18Student for tweets from the event? 

  

The speakers were excellent and the sessions covered a lot of ground from the ‘Future of Work and the People Profession’,  through to ‘personal resilience’ and ‘developing your networking skills and personal brand through the use of social media’.   Particular highlights for me were hearing the personal stories of Jennifer Hulme about heading up HR in a retail environment and Nicky Ingham sharing her story of developing personal resilience.   I thought the emphasis on the practical case studies in the event was very helpful.  It was good to hear from Mike Collins at River Island on how they have re- shaped Performance Management – which is a very topical issue and one that a lot of organisations are working on currently. 

But the stand-out session for me, was from Lisa Rigby and Helen Baggaley at Wigan Council, with how they approached transforming the culture at the council in the wake of the cuts from austerity measures.  I loved hearing how they decided not to use a ‘traditional training’ approach, but created an experience to engage employees instead.  This was a very unique ‘walk-through’ experience and involved colleagues acting as tour guides through a physical site showing the council ‘past, present and future’.  It included a film room showing videos with popcorn and everyone was encouraged to make pledges about what they would do differently as a result.  This wasn’t a stand-alone programme, but linked to many other supportive steps as well.   It was great to hear about the measurable impact this had.

This approach is very much what Nick Shackleton-Jones argues for - creating an ‘experience’ with an emotional impact and it was great to see this approach being developed as a practical response to addressing the particular concerns and needs within this council.

Here is my collection of Sketchnotes from the event: 

If you are a student studying CIPD courses and didn’t attend this year’s event, do look out for next year’s. 

Rachel Burnham

26/3/18

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.