2025 Best Practice Guide
Raising Standards

Learning Academy On-Demand Modules

Over 100 modules of learning form the backbone of our academy, allowing you to focus on what is most relevant and important. Join the courses as online modules for just £65pp and pace yourself, to build a development plan for the year that is bespoke to your needs. If you have interest in a specific category click on the link below any module to see more in that topic.

Dealing with Ad hoc Requests

Dealing with Ad hoc Requests

Not all ad hoc requests are time-stealers!  Some of them add value and insight and quickly become BAU work.  This session looks at the art behind identifying what is urgent and valuable and what isn’t.
 - Understand the inevitability of Ad Hoc requests
 - Learn how to prioritise requests and eliminate waste
 - See how asking the right questions enables you to quickly understand the driver behind the request

The Pattern of Great Presentations

The Pattern of Great Presentations

In this module we look at how techniques from great speakers through history can be used to bring your presentations to live and bring your audience on your journey.

Emotional Engagement & The Power of Stories

Emotional Engagement & The Power of Stories

Often facts and data will not get our message across. We need to understand our audience and use emotional engagement techniques to bring our insight to life. In this module we explore some simple emotional engagement techniques to make your communications, presentations and reports more meaningful. We also explore the power of stories in understanding our stakeholders and overcoming their fears and doubts.

The Pyramid Principle for Effective Communication

The Pyramid Principle for Effective Communication

Like us our stakeholders have limited time, we rarely read every emails and report we receive end to end, and neither do they. We may have just a few seconds to land our message and get our audience to take action or read on. The pyramid principle is a simple technique to help you structure your communications and reports to quickly answer the “So what?” and land your core message.

Layouts & Structure

Layouts & Structure

Whether we are producing dashboards, reports or presentations layout and format is key to landing your message. Learn how to make it easy for the audience to follow your story, draw their focus to what really matters and avoid unnecessary distractions.

Workforce Strategy

Workforce Strategy

Your workforce strategy delivers your strategic objectives, however this too often is an afterthought after budgets have been agreed. This module explores the importance of a fully costed operating model.

 - Linking the shifts that are worked to the business strategy
 - Benchmark your current approach against the maturity model
 - Have clear next steps to improve your workforce strategy

Scheduling & Flexibility Toolkit

Scheduling & Flexibility Toolkit

One you have determined the volatility of your volumes you can start to think of ways to manage this through scheduling. The flexibility toolkit contains 18 options that you can use in your business. Learning outcomes include:
 - What are the flexibility options and which can be combined? 
 - Pros and cons of each method and case study examples of how they’ve been implemented.
 - Understanding how different tool kit options can be used strategically and tactical

Conformance & Adherence

Conformance & Adherence

Measuring and managing adherence and conformance effectively is critical, however this is often mis-understood and can drive the wrong behaviour.  This module takes a close look at both measures, how they should becalculated and classic mistakes. Learning outcomes include:
 - Understand how to calculate and report adherence and conformance
 - Define new measures which drive the right behaviour
 - Learn the pit falls to avoid and how to improve performance

Predictability of Events

Predictability of Events

A chance to practice assessing the predictability of events through a classic exercise from The Forum to help you hone your skills in forecasting ad hoc events.

Data Visualisation

Data Visualisation

Explore effective ways of presenting data in a meaningful, interesting and engaging way. Improve the way you inform and persuade your key stakeholders.  
 - Understand why your existing reports don’t excite or engage your stakeholders
 - Learn the basics of data visualisation and how to communicate information
 - Apply “2 key questions” and start the use the tools and resource you need 

Building and optimising Real-time RAG Models

Building and optimising Real-time RAG Models

Drive decisions and continuous improvement by building effective RAG status trigger for actions, which engage the operation and improve performance. This module follows the “Using RAG models to take action”.

- Learn how to set appropriate thresholds for in-day reporting
- Understand different ways of engaging the operation
- Create a learning mechanism to drive continuous improvement

Driving Strategy through Real Time

Driving Strategy through Real Time

Daily Real Time tasks work best when they are fully aligned to overarching business goals and objectives.  If they are not, the result in wasted effort and add no value.
 - Learn how to identify the strategy of your business
 - Understand the language of engagement and the benefit of strategic communication
 - See how volatile businesses use Playbooks to their advantage

Bottom Up v Top Down Planning

Bottom Up v Top Down Planning

There are two different ways to approach budget planning – but some organisations find themselves involved in a hybrid third approach. There is no right or wrong way but it is vital to understand the process and to understand if it is appropriate.
 - Learn the benefits and drawbacks of each approach
 - Look at how your overall business strategy should determine your budget process
 - Understand if your business is led by demand or by supply

The Power of One

The Power of One

Teamwork and understanding the plan are critical to achieve strategic objectives.  However, too often this is left to chance and not an embedded behaviour. So easy to get wrong, fortunately easy to improve. This module will help you to:  

 - Understand the “power-of-one” and the impact of small changes.
 - Improve your on-the-day decision making and see the result for your customers and colleagues.
 - Learn the classic mistakes and how to overcome these

Free Webinar: Create change with a Leap Of Faith – Rising Vibe

Free Webinar: Create change with a Leap Of Faith – Rising Vibe

A Leap Of Faith is an act of believing in or attempting something whose existence or outcome cannot be proven or known.

So much of the work we do with our clients around culture change requires a leap of faith. Without taking action, 'giving it a go', doing something differently or experimenting with a 'new way', NOTHING changes. Let me repeat this NOTHING changes. Yet the majority of human beings need some kind of 'proof' that it will all work out BEFORE they are prepared to take 'that action'.

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