Workshops

The team at Macnaughton McGregor is passionate about designing and delivering effective workshops that actually deliver real results for the individuals attending the training and the companies. Our workshop delivery style is highly participative, challenging but supportive with a strong emphasis on practical tools and techniques which can be applied in the workplace.

Our style is a person centred approach and is based on principles of experiential learning. We believe that learners should be involved and have ownership of their learning, they should be able to think, reflect and do; using their experiences to assess their practice in all learning frameworks. Our methods include a variety of learning opportunities to meet all preferred learning styles.

Drama Based Learning

We use drama simply because it works.

People are engaged on an emotional as well as intellectual level and studies conducted by St Andrews University show that using an approach like ours, the learning goes to a deeper level and stays longer.

Headed up by professional drama based facilitators who have had corporate experience our drama based learning options provide an engaging and stimulating environment where individuals feel safe to take part and practice.

Emotional and behavioural issues are difficult to cover effectively within traditional training methods and the use of drama lends itself to any training topic where behaviours, attitudes and people interaction are critical to success.

Examples of techniques:

• Scripted Drama – A scripted drama addresses specific issues that are pertinent to the needs of the group. Through research, design and rehearsal we create a fictitious organisation where difficult or complex issues can be addressed in a safe environment; sensitively and often with humour.

• Interactive Case Study – A scene, or scenes, is acted out and at the end of the scene, the action is ‘frozen’ and the delegates are invited to guess what the characters are thinking, and asked to voice their (the characters’) thoughts.
  
  The delegates get the chance to discuss with the facilitator their first impressions of what they have just seen. The delegates are then invited, as a group, to interview each character to gain an understanding of thoughts and feelings. Using this information they are then invited to make suggestions to a character in order to make the exchange more constructive.
  
  The original scene is then re-run, but with the benefit of one character having been advised. This time however, the delegates are in complete control and every time anyone sees/hears any behaviour not conducive to a positive outcome, they shout ‘Stop!’ The action will freeze and they can advise the actor what to do differently.
  
  The scene then rewinds to an appropriate point and we do it over again. This process is repeated as many times as necessary until the delegates are satisfied that the scene is going to have a much better outcome than previously.

• Corporate Brain - Using this method, the facilitator splits the group into three teams and they are taken through a process whereby they ‘invent’ a character, which they would find difficult to deal with, again focussing on attitudes/behaviours. They are then assigned an actor who will help them expand the character and working together they deal with a situation in a constructive way.

• Individual Case Study - This is the process which involves the delegates engaging a character on a one-to-one basis. This can be a useful learning technique, especially if the delegate is observed by a colleague or two during the process, who can give appropriate coaching/feedback when the interview comes to an end. The actor will also come out of character at the end and will give coaching and hints on approaches that the person may not have considered.

• Auction – Delegates are split into small groups and invited to bid at an auction for between 12 – 15 ‘lots’. These comprise different facets of the learning agenda, for example, assertiveness could be made up of ‘eye contact’, ‘voice tone’, ‘posture’ and so on.
  
  The interactive and fun auction is held with the delegates spending up to their budgets and at the end the teams present on the reasons they bought their lots and the learning points they have gained.

Action Learning

Our workshop style is participative and grounded in the actions and changes to take back to the workplace. This can be backed up by including Action Learning Sets or Improvement Teams to maintain the momentum of transferring learning into real results at work.

Project Work

With development programmes one of the key challenges is the transfer of learning from the workshop environment to the application of skills and behaviours in the workplace. Either as part of a training programme or as a separate activity at Macnaughton McGregor we regularly carry out guidance and workbased coaching to enable individuals and teams to take on and complete improvement projects.

The projects can follow in house project management methods or we can guide individuals using our standard practices. Results from recent training programmes where projects have been part of the design have ensured that there has been a return on investment that has been far in excess of the programme costs.

Coaching

Coaching unlocks potential as result of individual and tailored support provided by management and executive coaches who not only hold coaching qualifications but have the credibility gained through years of experience in leading and managing in organisations.

Coaching can be provided either as a route to the development of individual leadership and management capability in its own right, or integrated as part of an overall programme of development .

Coaching includes:

• Coaching for Personal and Professional Development planning
• Coaching to improve business performance
• Coaching to develop leadership and management capability
• Coaching and 360 degree feedback
• Coaching and psychometric profiling
• Coaching on Accredited programme

E-Learning

A flexible e-learning process enabling study at home or at work means that your people can carry out learning without lengthy periods away from work. Either used as a stand alone activity or as part of a blended approach, the e-learning provision provides learners with:

• Competency profiling
• Personal development planning
• On-line learning courses with self assessment of learning gained
• On-line assignments and testing of knowledge
• Support and feedback from experienced trainers
• Discussion forums
• Access to further learning materials

You also have access to management information on the progress of each learner and the results being achieved.

E-learning options will be tailored to suit your exact needs and bespoke programmes can be developed.

There are a number of current programmes to take advantage of and they include units in the following Institute of Leadership and Management qualifications:

• Level 2 Award in Team Leading
• Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management
• Level 3 Diploma in First Line Management
• Level 4 Award in Management
• Level 5 Diploma in Management

In addition we also offer non-accredited programmes in the following:

• Learning Lean: making lean thinking work for you
• People Make Lean Work: a managers guide to developing a lean culture
• Management Essentials Programme
• Customer Excellence Academy Programme