CIPD Blog

So CIPD have started a blog

Topics include; ageism, migrant workers, and the minimum wage.

I wonder if members will participate????

Action & Design

Here’s a slideshare from Cathy Moore re an action orientated approach to design

Networking & Managers

Great article here re networking via George

“Managers today juggle more responsibilities than ever and for many of them networking becomes an afterthought. Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour says that’s a potentially fatal career mistake. “What you know is who you know,” she says and warns that managers who neglect to build their networks risk failing or remaining stuck in middle management.

Ibarra insists that networking is a requirement for business leaders in today’s competitive environment.

“Other things being equal, what is going to give you an edge?  It’s the relationships that you have that allow you to augment what you know and allow you to take the ‘what you know’ and actually to translate it into practice, into something the organization can use. It makes all the difference.””

There is hope……..

Lost Generation

Learning Technologies; Informal Learning, the brain

Dave’s post reminded me of a  really interesting conversation with someone (a professor at a London University, sorry I didn’t catch her name) at the recent learning technologies conference in London who made some suggestions on how to keep brain connections re-forming & combat the decline as we get older.

She suggested having a 5 year plan in which a new skill was learnt and mastered each year. She suggested year 1; learn a language, year 2; rollerblading, year 3; learn a musical instrument, year 4; study at university, year 5;something else completely new. She also suggested drinking lots of water. (after the rollerblading!) She talked about the importance of a variety of new skills to challenge ourselves and to encourage new connections.

So… I wonder what our 5 new skills would be?