What a week!

Learning & development consultant working at =mc

There isn’t a typical working week at =mc. In any given week you can be involved in delivering a one-off training session online, interviewing stakeholders for a piece of consultancy, facilitating a team away day, delivering modules for a leadership programme or holding telephone calls to sense check training needs.

Yvette Gyles training

Below, Director Yvette Gyles offers a snapshot of how a Learning & Development Consultant’s diary may look.

Monday
10.30 Zoom with Amanda	A regular customer is meeting with a Senior Consultant. I’m joining because I’ll be delivering some modules soon. We’ll be talking about recent programmes – what has gone well, what we think needs to change. And looking at dates for more programmes. A very positive start to the week.
12.30 Hive Meeting	With consultants out delivering training or visiting customers, we have to work hard at bringing everyone together. We have dedicated time to ‘hive minding’ where we share ideas and support each other. This session is to review a new exercise. I have delivered it twice now, and the Senior Consultant leading this project is gathering feedback from us all. I really liked the exercise as participants had some very rich learning from it. It just needs some tweaks to make it work online and face-to-face. I have some ideas to share.
14.00 MMP – Goals & Priorities	I have a two-hour workshop to deliver in the afternoon. It is online and bite-sized. This is one of four sessions, so I’ll be welcoming participants and have a colleague joining me as tech support. This is important for the first session to make sure participants feel comfortable to use Zoom. We’re meeting weekly, at the same time. This first session is all about the bigger picture – excited to see what they come up with!
Tuesday
Leadership Programme – preparation	I’m preparing several sessions for a modular leadership programme that I’m co-delivering with a colleague. I’m tailoring the examples and tools we use to make it really work for them. This means making some adjustments to slides, and pulling together my training plans. Some sessions are in person, and some are online so I’m sorting my notes into the best way to deliver each element. I’ll be updating training materials ready for my colleague to turn into digital handouts. Then I can send them on to the key contact, making sure participants have them ready for the first session.
15.30 – leave to get train	The next day I’m delivering training in Manchester, so I’m heading off to get the train. I’ll carry on editing slides on the way.
Wednesday
Introduction to Management Day 1 08.30 set up; programme begins at 09.30	This is a stand alone two-day programme. I need to arrive early to the venue and make sure the tables/chairs are all sorted; and get my laptop ready. I’ve pre-prepared my flip charts so I just need to hang those up on the stand. The box of materials should have arrived safely, so I’ll be unpacking that too. It’s a fantastic programme, based on our Emerging Managers content. I’m really excited about this.
Thursday
09.30 Introduction to Management Day 2 17.00 – taxi booked to take me back to the station	The group were lovely so it will be another nice day with them. Some interesting conversations happening about changes at the organisation and how to manage this. I think they may need some additional learning support, so I’ve made a note to follow up on that another time with the key contact. In the interim, I’ve shared some blogs with the group. We’re due to finish at 16:15.
Friday
09.30 Influencing (Part 2)	This is the second workshop in a series of 4. It is online, and a half-day session. I’m on Zoom from 09.15, set up and ready to go. As the group have been through a session already, I’m on my own with no tech support – though there is a number participants can call if they get stuck. The programme is based on our standard course, split into manageable chunks with a bespoke case study for them to work on. I’ll be starting the day with breakout discussions to review learning from Part 1.
13.30 onwards	An afternoon with no meetings. A great opportunity to get some writing done, I’m drafting some blogs for our website. I’ll use this time to review the feedback forms from the sessions I had this week, and consider what I am doing well, and what I need to change for future courses. I’ll also prepare for upcoming training, and catch up with emails.