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Is there a place for Humour in the Workplace?

For most of us, work is serious business. We have targets to meet, projects to complete and in some cases even lives to save. A wise man once said, “Just because the work you do is serious, it doesn’t mean you have to be serious about the way you do your work“.

There are a number of advantages associated with allowing humour in the workplace...

This quote is perfectly illustrated by the image of doctors in an operating theatre…

DIY Team Building – 6 Solutions

As budgets tighten and in-house trainers look for more inspiring ways to get their message across, our collection of licensed team and leadership activities are proving popular both at home and abroad.

Why not try the DIY approach and organise a team building activity of your own?

Spicing up induction programmes and providing new managers with a safe environment in which to practice taking the lead are amongst the many ways in which our exercises are being used.  …

The Case for Experiential Learning – 5 ways we learn better by doing than listening

For years practical activities have been used in team building to help people get to know each other ‘off the job’. In management development case studies and role plays are used to turn theories into experience.

Fresh Tracks offer a range of Team Building activities which can help your employees get to know each other better

Experiential learning is more acceptable now than at any time in the past as participants have become less fearful of leaving the security of the classroom, relishing the opportunity to take a break from the monotony of the lectures.  …

Imagination versus Reason

Business is driven by reason, as is education, but perhaps our desire for everything to add up is causing us to miss out.  

Why does education and employment value reason over imagination?

Around the world from Cambridge to Calcutta, education has the same hierarchy of subjects, maths then languages, humanities and at the bottom, arts.  …

Is Stress Good? The Science Explains

In this excellent film from Scientific America our body’s chemical response to stress is clearly explained. Take two minutes to take a look and be better equipped to deal with the next crisis, deadline or difficult customer you face.

Gold Medallist TV Presenter Also Hosts Conferences

In this blog we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Gold Medallist and Paralympic TV presenter Giles Long.

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Learn Leadership Lessons Off the Job

To ask a child to perform a piece of music, in front of her peers using an instrument she has never touched before, would rightly be regarded as cruel. Prior to the performance she should not only learn to read music and listen to others playing the same piece, she should also practice playing her instrument in private.

Employees taking part in one of our many team building exercises

Why is it then that we expect our bright young employees to step into management roles having read books and attended courses, yet never having actually practiced leading a team? …

Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

The great Charles Handy made a rare public appearance earlier this week, not speaking to a group of executives but at a fundraising lecture for the family support network Relate.

Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

His lecture highlighted the fact that the ‘always on’ culture, combined with less people doing more work in organisations, is threatening family life.  …

Fallen Leaders

This week much has been written examining the strengths and weaknesses of Margaret Thatcher’s leadership.  Prior to the announcement of her death, another group of once great leaders was being described as reckless.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925 - 2013.

One of those was the chairman of HBOS Lord Stevenson.  In the months prior to the banking crisis, when he was held in high regard, he gave a lecture on the subject of leadership to invited members of his business school’s alumni.  …

Scientific evidence shows that women are hard-wired to make better managers

In the early 1990’s neuroscientists at the University of Parma discovered that brain cells not only fire when we perform a given action, such as reaching for a cold drink on a hot day, they also fire when we see someone else doing that action – hence the name mirror neuron (click here for a link to the research). This is why we sometimes wince when we see another person experience pain or embarrassment. 

The men vs. women debate continues...

This theory has been used to explain characteristics such as empathy, the ability to read other people’s emotions, with some research* suggesting that the female brain is better able to create mirror neurons and therefore better equipped to anticipate the moods and feelings of others. The men vs women debate continues……..