In Your Hands

Learn To Share

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:54:47 +0000

The first thing we learn in our family and/or pre-school is how to share our toys. And yet, as adults, we still often struggle with this concept of sharing. Nowhere is this more evident than in teams where the need to share resources is so critical to success. For most mature teams, sharing the tangible resources such as people, materials and equipment is not the big challenge. Often it is the intangible resources like ideas, innovation, encouragement and enthusiasm that we withhold, generally without intention or malice.

For a number of years, I was the Principal of a private school, with 24 teachers reporting directly to me. Often, they expressed a desire to sharpen their skills through continuing education, but money and time were always in short supply. Suddenly it struck me that resident in my staff was about 50 years of formal teacher training and 240 years of teaching experience. How could we unleash and share this valuable resource to the benefit of the team?I chose to grant each teacher one professional development day each year where I would fill their teaching time and they would visit and observe other classrooms within our own school. They would identify learning objectives and then observe younger, older or more specialized teachers. Their goal was to gather knowledge ranging from technical skills to best practices to classroom management techniques and report at future staff meetings on what they learned. The results were amazing. New teachers learned from the pros, while veterans observed new techniques from the recent graduates. A 30 minute Gym class taught by a talented teacher could yield pages of ideas for the teacher who struggled with this discipline. And the stories went on and on.

What about your team? Can you quantify the knowledge and experience resident in the lives of your team members? How can you unleash this invaluable resource to be shared by all of your team members?

By Rick Willis

In Your Hands with a nomination for “Investor in Human Capital”

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:55:06 +0000

On 23th February were given responsible business awards for the ninth time. In Your Hands was nominated in category ‘’Investor in human capital’’.

The Prizes were given to companies with successfully socially responsible projects during 2011 .

In this year 65 leading companies were competing with major projects, addressing important social issues.

In Your Hands with a new program

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:28:26 +0000

PUT THE RIGHT SUPPLIES AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME, AND AT MINIMAL COSTS

Participants in the seminar practice inventory management and gain insight into inventory-control problems.

Making people understand how their decisions influence the overall result of the company.

The participants act as the inventory managers for the “Gizmo” – a high-value part, and make principal decisions of inventory control that such a manager has to make in reality. Aware of the given costs and lead times for each of their actions, they initiate procurement, follow the production schedules, and set inventory and distribution policies.

Demand for the “Gizmo” is a variable beyond the participants’ control, as in the real life. Participants are given certain limited information on the basis of which they must predict demands and establish inventory levels. They make decisions and in time learn their consequences.

Participants:

Select a strategy for the life-cycle of the part;
Decide for procurement… units and delivery times;
Decide to expedite or not… bare the cost for it;
Decide to stock or not.

Their immediate objective is to minimize the total costs, that is, the costs of their action and the penalties assessed against then whenever they are unable to satisfy the demand for parts. The educational purpose of the simulation is to spotlight the effect of management decision upon costs.

Key Concepts:

Stakeholder value;
Operating costs;
Capacity utilization.

Succession Planning

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:43:40 +0000

None of us like to think about being replaced. But that is exactly what senior executives at leading organizations should be thinking about. Developing talent for the future is one of the most critical issues facing organizations, yet despite the growing awareness around the importance of succession planning, few organizations have taken the necessary steps.

So, how do leading organizations approach the task? Typically they will connect several processes together. They focus on selecting the right successors (succession planning), making their career paths visible (career planning) and providing the right learning opportunities (development planning). As a result, they tend to select the right people, with the right skills, for the right roles, at the right time.

But why is succession planning so important? Well, by making the proper investment in succession planning, your organization can strengthen its ability to build the next generation of leaders and gain a competitive advantage. Benefits from effective succession planning include:

A higher hit rate for selecting the right candidates

Greater consistency across business units in terms of planning

Better integration of succession management with strategic planning

Stronger engagement and retention among high potentials

So, if there are significant advantages to succession planning, why aren’t more companies doing it? The reality is, there is no cookie cutter solution. That said, I’ve spent time reviewing best practices of leading organizations and have come up with five steps that characterize effective succession planning:

Create alignment;
Determine linchpin positions;
Assess bench strength;
Select and chart successors;
Measure and manage progress.

In Your Hands now in Ukraine

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:23:16 +0000

We are very glad to announce that the family of IN YOUR HANDS grew bigger with the addition of “IN YOUR HANDS” UKRAINE, which is now officially open!

A special guest at the opening on 09.11.2011 at the Premier Palace Hotel in Kiev, was one of the leading American business consultants – David T. Riveness.

During the event, which was very successful, we presented for the first time in Ukraine one of the most effective business management simulations by the Canadian company Eagle’s Flight.In the seminar session, David T. Riveness explained why Engaging Learning Methods are so popular and successful in business and management trainings worldwide and answered all questions about their benefits and their application in the corporate environment.The event was attended by over 60 Ukrainian managers from over 30 leading companies and financial institutions.

IN YOUR HANDS also has offices in Serbia and Macedonia.