This article came from Knowledge of Today and we thought it thought provoking so decided to share with you...

 “A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people.

The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”

Seen recently by Della on the wall of a classroom where she was delivering an ILM session for our Bolton West cluster... we loved it so thought we'd share it!


My Impact as a Teacher
 
I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.
 
by Haim Ginott

New arrangements for Teacher Appraisal 


Following a public consultation between May and August 2011, new arrangements for managing teacher performance in England have been introduced. They came into force on 1 September 2012.

 The new arrangements for teacher appraisal, including new regulations, remove unnecessary prescription and give schools much greater freedom to design their own appraisal policies.

The regulations are mandatory for maintained schools and local authorities.

The main differences are:

• The three hour limit on classroom observations has been removed – so that schools have the flexibility to decide what is appropriate for themselves.
• Each year, all teachers’ performance must be assessed against the relevant standards – so that leaders can make sure that their teachers’ performance continues to meet expectations.
• The overlap between the current appraisal and capability systems has been removed - so that under-performance can be tackled more swiftly and effectively.

More information can be found here...

Pulse Training and Development are running half day Appraisal Workshops in Wigan and Bolton early October as refreshers or for those new to the role.


Wigan - Wednesday 4th October or Tuesday 9th October
Bolton - Wednesday 10th October or Tuesday 16th October

Limited places so please book early.
Call Judy on 07740 432986 or email judy@pulsetraininganddevelopment.co.uk

As with so many organisations at the moment, there is a constant challenge to redesign the shape of the business to meet future challenges.  There can be little doubt that those who approach this by remembering their values and putting their people first tend to have a much higher success rate in terms of embracing change.

One of our lovely clients, the award winning City South Manchester Housing Trust in Manchester, who are particularly good at this recently set us a challenge!  They had identified a need for all their people managers to develop a specific skill  - hopefully one they wouldn’t need to use too often but nevertheless very important – How to Carry Out Effective Investigations!

As we all know, managing people effectively is usually the most challenging part of anyone’s role in any organisation, especially when something goes wrong or someone makes a complaint about someone. This is where being able to carry out a thorough, fair and impartial workplace investigation comes in.  

Lisa Manzano, the HR Manager explained that “As it’s not something that generally happens very often, people’s first reaction is often to panic a little and try and find someone to help do it for them i.e. us! So we wanted to be able to equip managers with the skills and confidence to be able to do it themselves.”

This was a new challenge for us at Pulse as it wasn’t something we’d delivered before and we were delighted to be asked to help. In conjunction with one of our specialist collaborators, we set about defining the purpose and aims with the team at City South so that we could develop exactly what was required and then over 4 days in July, we delivered two development programmes for almost every manager in the organisation. 

Using the formal investigation process as a framework, we initially worked with people to increase their understanding of advanced communication techniques, as well as the strategic importance that the investigation process represents to an organisation. We included technical aspects such as unpicking organisational policies and a highly interactive session which allowed people to put their understanding into practice. This revealed City South to have some definite contenders for Best Actor and Actress in next year’s BAFTA’s! 

Rewardingly for us, the feedback from people on what had potentially been quite a “dry” though necessary topic, was great! The acid test of course will be how confident people feel next time they need to carry out an investigation and judging by many of the comments including “It’s not as daunting as first thought”, we’re very hopeful on that front!

For more information on bespoke and cost effective leadership and management development for your people and to arrange a free needs analysis., please email us at

 info@pulsetraininganddevelopment.co.uk

Better by design…..

A successful programme for prestigious Liverpool based architects

As highly skilled professionals, well versed in their craft, the team at Denovo Design recognise that alongside the “technical stuff” there is a need to invest in the continued development of “people side” of the business.

To really understand what would benefit Denovo, we started with a free Training Needs Analysis and from there put together a menu of key topics especially developed for today’s professionals. Delivered in fast paced, interactive 90-minutes sessions, the training conveniently fitted into lunch time training slots. All the sessions were tailored to meet Denovo’s specific needs and designed to be full of practical tips, tools and techniques and not too much like hard work!

From a range of options the Denovo team decided they would get most benefit from the following sessions:-

• Communicating for success
• Building effective business relationships
• Dealing with “difficult” people & “tricky” situations
• Give me time!

The acid test for us was the feedback we had from Denovo about the programme……..

“People are at the forefront of everything we do, in our design process, in our relationships and in the way we run our Practice, and we continue to develop an internal culture to invigorate and empower our team.

 It was a natural progression, therefore, that we should invite Silka Lyon- Fraser of Pulse Training and Development to tailor a training package that would allow the team the opportunity to explore beyond the traditional skill set.

The lunchtime sessions were lively and thought provoking, with the main benefit being that we all came away with practical tips that could be implemented straight away!"  David Duvall, Director, Denovo Design

 ”

If you are a professional business looking enhance your bottom line, please contact us at info@pulsetraininganddevelopment.co.uk to find out more and arrange a free training needs analysis.

ILM level 7 in Strategic Leadership

At Pulse, we’re delighted (and just a little bit proud!) to announce that we have now been accredited to provide the prestigious Institute of Leadership and Management Level 7 award.

By adding level 7 to our comprehensive range of ILM programmes we now have leadership development options to cater from the aspiring team leader to the senior manager – the ILM Level 7 programme in Strategic Leadership is among ILM's most senior qualifications. 

We provide practising and aspiring senior managers with a wide range of topics for their formal development as leaders in their fields. Completion will help participants gain comprehensive understanding of the knowledge and skills required to deliver results for themselves, their team, the organisation, customers and other key stakeholders. 

The programme is delivered through a unique blend of learning, centred on executive coaching, that is tailored to the needs of each participant. 

ILM LEVEL 7 are challenging and rewarding programmes so to find out more about how you and your organisation will benefit contact us at info@pulsetraininganddevelopment.co.uk

Leading Pigs!

At one of our recent ILM Leadership courses, where delegates are asked to do a final presentation to  communicate their interpretation of the learning they've experienced, we were delighted when Louise Baddley from St Edwards C of E Primary school Rochdale decided to go for a more creative and ambitious approach to the challenge....

We loved the way she'd interpreted Daniel Goleman's emotional intelligence leadership styles in this hugely entertaining and practical video.

Thank you to Louise and not forgetting the hugely talented stars of the show Michele, Wibbly & Peppa!

We continue to work with lots of schools in North West on Leadership at all levels so please get in touch with Della, Silka or me... Judy for more information if you'd like to know more.