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.

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
 

Intro to The Planning Cycle

Intro to The Planning Cycle

Learn the role planning plays in implementing your strategic objectives.  Understand the importance of your role and how you can help others.
 - Understand how the strategic objective is implemented into a forecasting, scheduling and real-time plan.
 - Learn about the importance of effective data checkpoints, change governance and hand-overs
 - Play a part in driving continuous improvement and become the nerve-centre of the business

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

Shrinkage Calculations

Shrinkage Calculations

Introduction into shrinkage calculations, tiered shrinkage, historical tracking.  Understand the importance of calculating shrinkages so they are optimised for your operation the key differences and impact on your resource requirements
 - What is included in shrinkage?
 - The importance of calculating shrinkage correctly.
 - Which method should you use for planning, budgeting.

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

The Strategy Pyramid

The Strategy Pyramid

Before setting targets and goals it is important that these are aligned to strategies that support your organisational goals. In this module;
 - Understand your organisational goals
 - See how to balance your strategies
 - Learn how to align the right metrics and targets to your strategies

Introduction to Stakeholder Management

Introduction to Stakeholder Management

Without being able to work alongside key stakeholders, there is little value to being an excellent planner as your plans will not come to fruition!  You need to understand who your stakeholders are and how to communicate with them successfully.
 - Learn how to map your stakeholder network
 - See how different people benefit from different approaches and language
 - Understand how to make your outputs flexible for multiple audiences

Free Webinar: Planning for COVID-19, How COVID-19 is impacting business culture, with guest speaker Lou Banks, Rising Vibe

Free Webinar: Planning for COVID-19, How COVID-19 is impacting business culture, with guest speaker Lou Banks, Rising Vibe

Discover the impact of COVID-19 on your business culture and how to enable small shifts to tackle implications on employee mental health. Gain insight into social pain and how COVID-19 is exacerbating this. 

The World Health Organisation have issued advice and guidance on Mental Health Considerations during the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Rising Vibe understand the impact on both employees and leaders at this difficult time. Whether employees are feeling fear around catching the virus or economic implications on their life, or leaders are experiencing stress and anxiety around managing a business or keeping an SME afloat during this time, we are all experiencing some low vibe emotions in this current climate of uncertainty. 

Listen in and find out how you can learn from this and make changes in your business.

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