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.

Introduction to Influencing Skills

Introduction to Influencing Skills

Being able to influence the decision of others is a key skill for all planners.  In this session, learn the basic approaches which will allow your audience to process information in their own way, using their beliefs and memories to deliver great outcomes.
 - Learn the difference between Tell, Ask and Influence
 - Understand how people make decisions
 - See how the language of engagement helps influencing

Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholder Mapping

This course provides an overview of the fundamental components of successful stakeholder management. Learning outcomes include: 
- The value of Stakeholder Identification 
- Fundamentals of stakeholder mapping 
- The benefits of stakeholder influencing

Shrinkage (3b) - Planning & Tracking Shrinkage Exercise

Shrinkage (3b) - Planning & Tracking Shrinkage Exercise

Deeper dive into shrinkage, historical tracking, forecasting and incorporating in long and short term planning. Understand the importance of tracking and managing your shrinkages so they are optimised for your staff. Learning outcomes include:

 - How to ensure that you are able to track your shrinkage data across all time horizons: annual, Monthly, Weekly, Daily
 - The benefits of shrinkage categorisation when it comes to successful tracking
 - How the inter-connectedness of Shrinkage categories makes effectively managing shrinkage challenging

This module is part of the Shrinkage Box Set

Planning For Wellbeing

Planning For Wellbeing

This module introduces the broader concept of planning for wellbeing and ways to support your colleagues. Understanding these key considerations will help you to create a workforce strategy with wellbeing at the heart. 
 - What is wellbeing and why this is important?
 - The 5-key steps for wellbeing
 - Our responsibility as Planners to ensure we support wellbeing

Volatility and Flex in Real Time

Volatility and Flex in Real Time

Develop a deeper understanding of your supply and demand intraday profiles to understand how much flexibility you have and need.
 - Understand how to measure the variability of intraday profiles
 - Learn how to create triggers for action to flex your staff
 - Improve your operational readiness to become more effective

Understanding your Volatility & Flexibility

Understanding your Volatility & Flexibility

The basis of a best practice scheduling strategy is a clear understanding of the volatility of workload and the amount of flexibility to need and can afford.  This module introduces you to theoretical models and calculations to understand your flexibility need.  Learning outcomes include:
 - What does volatility & flexibility mean and the importance of defining these for your business.
 - How to calculate the volatility of demand and amount of flexibility available
 - Understanding different flexibility needs based on different starting positions, e.g. annually and daily, compared to average, compared to budget

Identifying Opportunities from Patterns & Exceptions

Identifying Opportunities from Patterns & Exceptions

To innovate and be the best that we can we need to identify and exploit the best opportunities not just to improve but also to learn.

In this module we explore,
 - How to find the right opportunities
 - Creating time to learn and improve
 - Striking the right balance between proactive & reactive insight
 

Threshold & Contingencies

Threshold & Contingencies

Drive decisions and continuous improvement by building effectives 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

Descriptive Statistics - Part 2

Descriptive Statistics - Part 2

Following on from Descriptive Statistics Part 1. In this module we look at applying these techniques to real life scenarios, you will receive exercises to complete before we talk you through the solutions.

Communication Planning

Communication Planning

This module will help you to create an effective communication plan to deliver the right information at the right time, with natural review points to continual refresh and maintain relevance.
 - Being clear on your purpose
 - Review different channels and methods for distribution
 - Understand the best time to deliver

Understanding people (including how to say no)

Understanding people (including how to say no)

Understanding Growth / Fixed mindset:

- What happens in our heads when we hear or say "no"
- Learn to handle objections

Benchmarking

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is important in understanding best practice, comparing ourselves with our competitors and becoming the best, but there are many pitfalls to avoid. In this module;
 - Hear the value of benchmarking
 - Learn how to avoid the common mistakes
 - Hear our top tips for benchmarking

Principles of Persuasion

Principles of Persuasion

It is vital that Planning, Quality and Insight teams are able to engage with and influence their key stakeholders within their organisation. Stakeholders may need to be persuaded to change their view on something in order to become an advocate. 
 - What is Persuasion?
 - Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion
 - Key Persuasion Techniques and the Influencing Toolkit

Data Dictionaries

Data Dictionaries

Clear documentation and structure can help us remove single points of failure, avoid arguments, ensure a single version of the truth and avoid duplicated work. In this module;
 - See how to create a data dictionary to ensure a single version of the truth
 - Learn techniques to ensure metrics are used to drive the right behaviours
 - Facilitate exception based reporting with agreed triggers

Target Typology

Target Typology

How do you avoid your targets being misunderstood, misinterpreted and misused. In this module;
 - Learn the different target types
 - Understand tolerances & triggers
 - Avoid common mistakes

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