LEARN WITH PPS

Resources for Leaders & Organizations

We like to share our expertise and ideas. Our resources are aimed at HR and Talent Development professionals, business leaders, and others who have an interest in best practices and ideas to grow in knowledge, skills and ability.

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Article

How to Improve Project Team Challenges with Style Flexing

Project teams can create some of the most challenging interpersonal dynamics in the workplace. People are often pulled onto a project while still carrying their full-time ...

Article

How to Plan Sales Leadership Development

Planning sales leadership training can be tricky. Sales leaders are under constant pressure to deliver results, coach their teams, navigate market differences and build a consistent ...

Article

Using 70-20-10 Development to Build Sales Leaders

Sales leaders face a unique set of pressures: delivering consistent revenue results, coaching teams, navigating regional market differences and building a unified and consistent sales ...

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Article

Coaching at Scale: Group Coaching Makes Development Accessible

Group coaching bridges the gap between individualized development and scalable learning. This is because it combines coach-led support with the insight and momentum of a shared cohort. ...

Video

Video: Designing Training That Works for Hybrid Participant Groups

With more than 25 years experience in designing and implementing learning for global audiences, we’ve configured learning to address distributed workforces, including working with ...

Article

Streamline the Learning Options in Your 70-20-10 Model for Learning

Many organizations subscribe to a 70-20-10 model for learning where 70 percent of learning comes from on-the-job or experiential learning, 20 percent from social learning and learning ...

Article

Does Your Leadership Training Actually Work? Measuring Outcomes for Learning

Measuring outcomes for learning is important to gain support for learning, improve development options and to drive organizational outcomes. So often, Chief Learning Officers and those ...

Article

Create a Learning Culture: Overcoming Low Support for Learning

Talent professionals know they must create a learning culture before their organizations will be poised for the future. With the rapid advancement of knowledge and technology, if ...

Article

4 Ways You Can Improve Communication Skills in the Workplace

To improve communication skills in the workplace, we need to recognize that many people have preferences different from our own. If we tailor our speech, body language and ...

Article

Five Cues That Your Leaders Need to Be More Flexible with Communication Styles in the Workplace

Leaders who aren’t adaptable to communication styles in the workplace often struggle to maintain relationships and manage organizational dynamics. Like emotional intelligence, flexing ...

Article

Ways to Measure Talent Management Effectiveness: A Few Lists

HR and other professionals design and implement training, but also manage other systems that build people-capability, such as strategic staffing processes, succession planning systems ...

Article

How Leaders Can Support AI Adoption

Organizations rank successful AI adoption in their top priorities for the coming year. Because of their reach within the organization, leaders play a key role in AI adoption. While ...

Article

Instructional Design Constraints: Overcoming Common Challenges

Every talent development manager faces instructional design constraints when building new programs and learning processes. When skillfully applied, instructional design isn’t just ...

Article

Measure Training Success: Transform L&D from Cost Center to Impact Creator

In today's landscape where organizational resources are slim, learning and development functions must measure training success. Forward-thinking organizations recognize the untapped ...

Article

Choosing the Right Leadership Assessments for Your Priorities

In the world of talent development, there are hundreds of leadership assessments . Leadership assessments fall into categories such as behavioral assessments (DISC and Hogan), ...

Video

Video: How PPS Ensures Facilitator Quality

We have 20+ years of delivering global training in multiple languages. In this brief video, our CEO, Kelly Fairbairn, shares three ways we ensure facilitator quality so that clients ...

Article

Scaling Leadership Development without Sacrificing Quality

Scaling leadership development programs comes with a unique set of challenges and pitfalls, some easier to overcome than others. With a few principles and a strong facilitation ...

Case Study

Building Innovation with a Gen AI Playground: A Case Study

PPS International Limited partnered with an organization to design and develop a comprehensive upskilling strategy to ignite a digital mindset for global employees. The project purpose ...

Case Study

Increasing the Ability to Deal with Ambiguity: A Case Study

Our Asia-Pacific-based client organization is operating in a highly competitive, price-sensitive, emerging market, producing highly regulated medical devices used by surgeons in ...

News

Winner: Innovative Leader Development Program with GE HealthCare

SyNet is proud to announce that, in collaboration with GE HealthCare, it has received a prestigious Gold Brandon Hall Group Award for Excellence in learning and development with the ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: 6 Ways to Deal with Ambiguity

Knowing the level of complexity in the workplace, it's important for individuals to be able to make progress, manage work, give recommendations and make decisions even with high levels ...

Video

Video: Ways to Learn Beyond Formal Training

In this video, we describe a few ways to learn, beyond formal training. The ideas can be used to jump start how participants continue their development after training.

Case Study

Contract Training Support: A Case Study

A global research and development organization designed and developed a toolkit of learning resources for managers to apply in developing their teams on topics such as influence, ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: 20 Ways to Develop Skills and Knowledge

Talent development professionals, leaders and self-directed learners often create specific development plans around gaining experience and building skills and knowledge. The “go to” ...

Video

Video: How to Have a Feedforward Discussion

In this video, we share the distinction between feedback and feedforward, a process originated by Marshall Goldsmith. We also provide an example of what a feedforward agenda might ...

Case Study

Sales Team Enablement: A Case Study

Employees in a large-sized firm were career engineers tasked to deliver a sales target in order to meet the organization's aggressive growth targets. In discovery with the VP Sales, ...

Case Study

Digital Microlearning: A Case Study

In this case study, we share how our partner, SyNet EMEA , assisted a global organization using digital microlearning to build knowledge and understanding of key digital concepts for ...

Book Review

What to Read: L&D’s Playbook for the Digital Age

Corporate learning is undergoing a massive overhaul as digital and other technologies disrupt more traditional ways of learning. This issue of “What to Read” highlights the book ...

Video

Video: How to Begin a Difficult Conversation

Difficult conversations with employees is an essential part of effective leadership. Whether addressing performance, behavior, expectations or accountability, these conversations help ...

Case Study

Coaching Skills for Leaders: A Case Study

In this case study, we share how one organization built coaching skills for leaders using a blended learning approach including a self-assessment and practice labs.

Book Review

What to Read: The Perfect Story

Storytelling is an age-old way to share information and get and keep attention. In this issue of “What to Read,” we highlight insights from the book The Perfect Story by Karen Eber.

Article

Instructional Design: Capabilities and Example Projects

Talent Development teams within many organizations find challenges in outsourcing instructional design. To create learning solutions in response to business needs, using dedicated ...

Book Review

What to Read: The Art of Gathering

This issue of “What to Read” highlights the book The Art of Gathering : How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker.

Case Study

New Manager Development: A Case Study

Research makes a strong case that new manager development is not a “nice to have.” It is one of the highest-leverage talent investments an organization can make.

Case Study

Digital Upskilling for Global Leaders: A Case Study

Digital disruption drives digital transformation in most organizations. In order to spark innovation and creativity, organizations need to engage and upskill employees in digital ...

Book Review

What to Read: Taming the Culture Tiger

This issue of “What to Read” highlights Taming the Culture Tiger: The Art and Science of Transforming Organizations and Accelerating Innovation by Dr. Kate Price, which focuses on one ...

Case Study

Sales Assessment Center for Global Sales Professionals: A Case Study

A high-growth, global medical technology organization had sales representatives at varying tenures, sales and leadership ability. All were tasked with continuing the double-digital ...

Article

Psychological Safety Is Key to Successful Training & Development

Participants adopt new behaviors from training and development when evidence-based content, engaging facilitation, use of adult learning methods and a culture of psychological safety ...

Book Review

What to Read: Compassionate Leadership

This issue of “What to Read” highlights Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter with Marissa Afton and Moses Mohan.

Article

Ways to Encourage Networking During Training

As part of designing learning that is engaging , we plan for ways to encourage networking during training. Networking is an important part of success for people at all levels of ...

Article

Is Competency Development Still Important?

In the early 90s, competencies became mainstream and were often developed by companies in order to guide training. Many times, companies built competency models for what were (then) ...

Book Review

What to Read: Simple Habits for Complex Times

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, "What to Read," we will ...

Book Review

What to Read: Visual Consulting

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, "What to Read," we will ...

Book Review

What to Read: Mastering the Cube

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, "What to Read," we will ...

Book Review

What to Read: Deep Work by Cal Newport

Those in the learning and development field are often keen readers on a variety of topics. Our facilitators and team members are as well. In our new series, "What to Read," we will ...

Video

Video: Making Sense In A Complex World

Spend a few minutes with our Chief Learning Officer Alex Grimshaw as he gives timely thoughts on developing resilience and agile responses to this current and globally felt complexity ...

Article

17 Simple Ways to Stay Connected When You Are A Remote Team Leader

The number of leaders who manage remotely is increasing (see Gallup data), and as a result, they are faced with creating connections and engagement without having the benefit of ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: A Development Process to Shift Culture

It is true that training and development alone cannot change organizational culture. It takes steady focus and organization-wide alignment to be able to make culture shifts. However, ...

Article

Providing Training When Time is Limited

So frequently talent development professionals determine that training is needed but providing it is difficult because participants have very limited time available. Trying to ...

Article

How We Stay Up-to-Date on Industry Trends

Whether it’s a swift sea change or starts as a trickle, business is always changing. The key is to spot a trend immediately and be prepared to react and maximize any opportunities. ...

Guide & Tool

Training Needs Assessment Quick Guide

We believe the most successful development of talent happens when you don’t just teach theory, you teach skills. But, how do you evaluate what skills are truly needed by your leaders, ...

Article

How Much Should You Spend on Leadership Training? What the Research Told Us

Many organizations spend time in quarters 3 and 4 of the year establishing financial plans and budgets for leadership training and development activities in the new year. It’s always a ...

Article

6 Ways Training and Development Professionals Support Organizations

Fall is often a time we review and begin planning for the next year. As your organization is making plans for the upcoming year it’s important to take a comprehensive look at the ways ...

Article

Getting Your Partners to Partner: How to Build Stakeholder Support

No matter what role you have in an organization, you are dependent upon others to produce results. Talent Development, HR and Learning and Development professionals are especially ...

Article

Managing your Manager

Being a success in any role means that you need to be able to manage your own work and manage your manager. We need to get results with our peers, team members and internal partners, ...

Article

Being an Effective Mentor: Managing Your First Meeting as a Mentor

Being an effective mentor isn’t difficult, but it does take some planning and effort to do it well. Whether you have been asked to be a mentor by an HR Manager, are participating as ...

Article

5 Conversations Top-Performing Managers Have Mastered

Can your leaders walk into any situation as managers and handle them with ease? Do you think that your supervisors are at the top of their management game? Check out our infographic ...

Article

Better (or Worse) Than They Think They Are: Helping Employees Have a Realistic View of Their Performance

As leaders, one of the most important ways to develop team members and build performance is giving specific, targeted feedback–either on-the-spot or through more formal means such as ...

Article

Set Your Organization Up for Learning Success in the New Year

Few times are as pressure-filled and hectic as the last few months of the calendar year. For many organizations, the last quarter of the year is the time that department managers put ...

Article

The Benefits of Training Administration

There is a direct correlation between the training administrative process and the learner’s overall experience. The way learning is implemented, the consistency of the administration ...

Article

Success as a Trainer: The Competencies Needed

As training and development professionals, we often spend a lot of time in the classroom. Because of this, we have a variety of experiences with seeing facilitators in action—some ...

Article

The 7 Mistakes You Make When Writing For Business

Emails, slide presentations, letters and reports: in a single workday we are surrounded with important situations where word choice, phrasing and punctuation matters. Prospects decide ...

Video

Video: How can we deal with the complexity of the unknown?

As Alex Grimshaw, PPS International Limited was talking to senior managers and leaders of successful organizations he discovered that they had one similarity: They kept bumping up ...

Article

Using Managers as Trainers

Using managers as trainers sounds like a great idea. We know that using managers to lead training creates credibility for the training and builds a network of front-line champions for ...

Guide & Tool

Individual Development Plans: Content and Uses

Recently, we were working with a client to define content to be included in a front-line leadership training program. Surprisingly, we discovered that we didn't have a common ...

Video

Video: Strategic Staffing Process

Strategic staffing is the process used to improve the likelihood of filling positions with the most successful candidates. By creating a few specific components for each role, hiring ...

Video & Tool

Video and Tool: Hold a Successful Appraisal Discussion

Many managers struggle with planning and holding a performance review discussion. This formal feedback time is fraught with concerns over what to say and how to manage the agenda. ...

Article

The Cascading Effect of Leaders Who Take Care of Themselves

Combatting stress and building more activity into your day are two crucial steps to wellbeing and becoming more resilient, but who really reaps the benefits? When you take care of ...

Article

Want to Know What Training They Need? Just ASK.

For many years, I taught a series of workshops at a university on topics such as designing training, conducting interactive workshops, and how to conduct a training needs assessment. ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Know 3 Approach Points, Then You Can Influence (Just About) Everyone

Whether you are in the break room or the boardroom, chances are you want to be influential. After all, influence approaches are the way we gain support for ideas, approval for ...

Book Review

What to Read: Humble Inquiry

The book Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling by Edgar Schein describes the mindset that best suits today’s leaders who are facing the increasingly VUCA ...

Article

How to Be a More Efficient Leader This Year

Many see the beginning of a new year or quarter as a “refresh button”, setting new goals with new sights to accomplish in the upcoming twelve months. Have you made professional ...

Article

11 Ways to Reinforce Training

According to the Association for Talent Development, just a few years ago, organizations spent an average of $1,208 per employee on training and development. For companies with fewer ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Are Your Plans as Relevant as They Can Be?

HR and Talent Management professionals have a challenging task: they have to know their own professions, while at the same time deeply understand the businesses in which they work. ...

Article

Top 6 Ways HRD Professionals Support Organizations

Fall is often a time we review and begin planning for the next year. As you plan, consider these top six areas that training and development professionals implement to support their ...

Article

Taking the Heat of Leadership

In trying to answer the question, “How does stress impact leadership?” researchers found that eighty-eight percent of leaders report that work is a primary source of stress in their ...

Article

Creating Productivity in the Face of Change

HR and Training Professionals are important resources to ensure that organizational changes are managed well. We know that change occurs in our organizations for a variety of reasons ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: A Proven On-Boarding Process

On-boarding is a critical process to create fully contributing, engaged leaders in your workplace. Even the most experienced of leaders can benefit from a structured on-boarding ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Does Your Organization Have What It Takes to Develop Great Leaders?

We are tasked with creating great leaders—often without great resources! One way to gauge how extensive it will be to develop great leaders is to complete this quick checklist. The ...

Article

3 Reasons Journaling Builds Better Leaders

Walk into any bookstore or office supply store and you will see an entire section on journals—journals to document your dreams, journals for sketching, journals for list-making, ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Matching Common Performance Problems to HR Solutions

Part of our role as Talent Management professionals is to close the gaps between the performance we desire in our organizations and the performance that currently exists. We do this ...

Article

10 Ways to Truly Get High Performers From Your Performance Management System

HR and training professionals in industry, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations invest heavily in creating and maintaining performance management systems—and we hope ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Acknowledgement & Reinforcement

Acknowledgement is an important action for everyone to take. Whether it is feedback to a team member, reinforcement of an agreement that someone has met or encouragement for trying a ...

Guide & Tool

Tool: Thinking Prompts to Plan Personal Development

Development planning isn't always a seamless, easy process. Sometimes—and especially in self-directed situations—individuals have difficulty knowing what to develop, how to best ...

Article

Who's Next? A Succession Planning Primer

Read about the most critical components of an implementation of a succession planning process, whether on a large- or small scale.

We’re ready for you.

We enjoy discussing possibilities and approaches, so please reach out! Contact PPS International Limited today to explore how we can support your talent development initiatives.