Change the way
your organisation
views learning
25 ways to
build champions and
inspire a passion for learning

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E: caroline@connectingdots.co.uk
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Copyright © Connecting the Dots Ltd 2014
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
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authors except by a reviewer who may quote passages
for the purpose of their review.
Contents
01: Make a decision
02: Teach everyone the numbers
03: Live the values
04: Give seeds
05: Ask and give opportunities
06: Get an advocate
07: Get out there
08: Visit
09: Team teach
10: Start a wiki
11: Youtube it
12: Have lunch with someone new
13: Learning on the loo
14: Spot the difference
15: Email it
16: Share
17: Attend less meetings
18: Give to charity
19: Say thank you
20: Do something every day
21: Become a doctor
22: Shave 10%
23: Go online
24: Make the most of role models
25: Enjoy a coffee

Introduction
You can do more than you think with the little
time you have available. In our Learning
Entrepreneur™ model one of our four
dimensions is DELIVER. This is the ability to
deliver learning solutions that create a buzz and
excitement that can’t be ignored.
Be a superhero, today

Make a
decision
Decide first that you want to
make a difference.
In any moment of decision,
the best thing you can do is the
right thing, the next best thing
is the wrong thing, and the worst
thing you can do is nothing.
Write it down, tattoo it on your mind. If you don’t
you will find yourself reeling from one thing to
the next. This moment of decision shapes your
future. It helps you prioritise, organise and shape
the offering you will provide. It ensures that you
think first about your customer and their
outcome and then about the best way to do it.
To remind you about the 7 habits of highly
effective people take a look at this great succinct
video by Calibrain
Theodore Roose velt
01

02
Teach everyone
the numbers
Make it your mission to get everyone
to learn the figures.
Staff who understand the numbers are more
engaged and committed to financial success.
Arm them with this information and they are
better equipped to make decisions that support
profitability.
Use as a simple, effective
and fun way to get staff talking about relevant
statistics that they can influence.
02

03
Live the values
Values are no good as a plaque
on the wall.
You need to be a role model and live
them every day in all that you do. Take
the values and discuss with your team
how you need to act and make
decisions based on these. Challenge
others about whether they are living up
to them. In every piece of learning make
sure that you breathe life into these
abstract words to help them come to
life.
For more ideas try 12 activities to drive
team engagement
Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.
Ghandi
03

04
Give seeds
Seeds are the starter, often of
something quite remarkable.
So often we spoon feed and try to give
everyone everything they will need but
that builds an unrealistic dependency,
that we simple cannot maintain in
today’s busy, information rich world.
See yourself as a gardener providing the
nourishment to help them grow for
themselves.
Take a look here for our guiding
principles for learning.
04

Ask and give
opportunities
Get people’s
competitive juices
flowing
Set up a competition wiki/ email address/
noticeboard/ twitter # … anything that will
work in your organisation and get staff to
submit the most important thing to know
about…..anything.
This not only gets people to contribute but
also encourages collaboration and
learning, fast! For more ideas go here
05

06
Get an advocate
Make the most charismatic
leader a noisy advocate for
learning
Find out who is currently an advocate
for learning and get them shouting on
your behalf. Encourage them to share
their learning loves with people around
the organisation. In doing so get your
supporters motivated!
Don’t worry,
find someone who could be that person
and ask them what you can do to give
them the confidence and desire to stand
up and support you. Start negotiating!
For more on engaging stakeholders go
here. 06

07
Get out there
Don’t hide your light under a bushel,
get out there and shout about the
immense difference learning makes.
Too many of us sit back and wait for people to
come. That is no longer an option in L&D. If you
want willing, interested partners in learning get
out there and start shouting. Share success
stories, stats, photos, twitter feeds… anything
that sends a positive message about learning.
Use every media available to get a message out
there that learning rocks! For more on corporate
communications for L&D check this out
This is my Wonder
Woman: Sonia -
she is simply an
amazing role
model for all who
know her .. Love
ya honey!
07

08
Visit
Spend time with someone in a
different department.
You can learn so much just by observing.
Not only do you uncover their secrets of
success by chatting but also seeing how
other people tackle day to day work can
give great insight too. In addition you are
also guaranteed to walk away having
learnt more about the importance of their
department in the organisation achieving
its success. Take a look here for 10 must
ask questions when job shadowing.
All visitors and
drivers must
report to
08

09
Team teach
Challenge all teams to create a 15 min
session of learning for their
colleagues.
You could use this to encourage peer support in
large departments, even giving out a challenge hat
with ideas/ topics in it for them to create a session
on or you could use it to cross-share ideas by
getting different departments to share what they
can do for you and what support they need from
you.
Go here for more ideas for building engagement
and developing business acumen.
09

10
Start a wiki
Start directory of useful things
you wished you’d known when
you started in the organisation.
Open this up to the whole organisation to
add their ideas and hints for new starters
and build a community of support.
Take a look here for guidance on successful
onboarding
10

11
Youtube it
Encourage YouTube style ‘how to’
video’s or guest speaker tele-conferences
to be created & shared
by staff to help their colleagues.
Find a place on the intranet, a standalone PC in
the training department on a private cloud
platform so that together you can all learn.
Just type in free video hosting and see the array
of options available to you. Or take a look here
for how to make teleconferences sing.
11

12
Have lunch with
someone new
Find out from HR who’s new
and book to have lunch with
them for a friendly lunch chat.
You never know where this might lead,
you don’t know how influential they and
you will learn loads about what’s going
on their world which will help you share
how you can support them (and others)
going forward. Take a look here for more
ideas about supporting new starters.
Lunch with Margaret
12

13
Learning on the
loo
Use Loo’s, Stairs and Lifts to
publish cheat sheets, did you
know’s & time saving tips – Invite
entries from everyone.
People love seeing their ideas up there for
others. It gives them a sense of pride and
encourages contribution. Each month ask for
tips on different subjects that can cross over
all departments.
You can always start with an inspirational
quote and a question to get people started.
Maybe even a different one for every door!
Take a look here for more ideas about
developing a learning culture.
13

14
Spot the
difference
Encourage staff to spot the difference
in something relevant.
Help them identify what’s poor/ ok and great
about a particular way of doing things and ask
them how they can translate this into their world.
e.g. for customer service staff ask them to visit
some shops or other offices – what do they spot
as a difference in standards – it could be a sales
person, a receptionist or a security guard.. what
did they love that they can translate into their
job? What did they realise they should ditch? For
more ideas go here
14

15
Email it
Put learning hints on your email
signatures.
Change these weekly to encourage people to
read them. You can use quotes/ tips/ business
messages to get people thinking.
For more ideas check this out.
15

Be generous of time, resources and your connections.
Spot opportunities to help and support others through this generosity. Make it a
point of doing something positive like this at least 3 times a week for others. Your
reputation will grow; you will increase your resources and contacts through this
spirit of kindness and get to know more about what is going on in the business. To
help you recognise others, we have a set of 3 cards you can use to show your
appreciation - want a set? Just email us with your address and we’ll post to you.
16
Share
16

17
Attend less
meetings
How much time do you waste in
meetings?
Look at these statistics and then consider are
you really managing your time well?
If you think this is a problem in your organisation
why not get our Quick wins session on
successfully managing meetings so you can
help educate the organisation and get more out
of every minute people spend in meetings.
9 out of 10 people daydream in meetings.
60% of meeting attendees take notes to ap-pear
as if they are listening.
63% of the time, typical meetings do not
have prepared agendas.
It takes less than eight seconds for an idea,
suggestion, or proposal to be criticized.
Executives average 23 hours per week in
meetings where 7.8 hours of the 23 are un-necessary
and poorly run, which is 2.3
months per year wasted.
49% of participants considered unfocused
meetings & projects as the biggest work-place
time waster and the primary reason
for unproductive workdays.
17

18
Give to charity
Hold a charity competition on
Learning.
Do for charity in which you train a
few people and they pass on the learning. Get
people to sponsor you and publicise the results.
Or why not run our Quick wins session on
Managing Change and get sponsorship for a
local charity on everyone that goes through it.
You could even invite charity organisations in to
learn with you so you are sharing not only your
money but your knowledge too.
18

19
Say thank you
Thank everyone for their enquiry.
Remember you are a service to the
organisation so lead by example.
Every contact you have with someone should
have a thank you in there somewhere to show
your appreciation that they have taken time to
come to you. Take a look here for a reminder of
other ways to be a great role model.
19

20
Do something
everyday to…
… to make someone think, stretch,
challenge, grow, connect, smile…..
the list can go on and on.
Make it your personal mission to get at least
one person a day to develop and feel great
through something that you do. It could be as
small as a note of recognition though to a full on
coaching conversation.
Have a look here for ideas to open up thinking
out of the comfort zone.
20

21
Be a doctor
Hold a Learning clinic
Set out a clinic stall at lunchtime,
put fliers on the tables and
encourage people to come and
talk to you about their learning.
Discuss their strengths and
development needs, get them to
prioritise one thing and discuss
symptoms.
For more ideas contact us and
we’ll be happy to chat it through
with you.
21

22
Shave 10%
Seek out ways of cutting training
time by 10%.
Seek out efficiencies in everything you do. 10%
on a day course is 45 minutes – that means
that learners have time to go back to their desk,
set up a meeting, chat to their manager about
what they have learnt, clear their messages so
they can get stuck on the following morning
raring to go rather than worrying about what is
left over.
10% on a hour is just over 5 minutes. 5 minutes
is enough time to take an action, make
someone smile, ask a question, plan.
And whilst we are on the subject, what could
you achieve if you had 10% more time?
Challenge yourself and see what you can
achieve. More ideas can be found in here
22

23
Go online
Post stuff regularly online.
Increase your reputation by having a voice,
prepared to comment. Build your authority by
posing relevant questions and challenges and
openly sharing ideas. Do this both within and
outside of the organisation. For more ideas look
here.
It really is child’s play.
23

24
Find role
models I’d rather
Find a great role model in each
department.
Spend time with them to find out what makes
them tick. Use this to inform you conversations
and provision of learning so that others can
benefit from the great stuff and great people
already in the organisation.
Use these simple guidelines to help you get the
most out of these conversations.
be a role
model than
a super model
24

25
Make the most
of the coffee
machine
Grabbing a coffee only can be
a missed opportunity.
I know you’re busy but taking that time
to say ‘hello’ and ask what people are
up to is a great way to develop
relationships. Remember everyone in
the organisation is a stakeholder and
potential champion for learning so chat
away and explore how you can help.
G d morning
25

Thank you
For so many things….
● Thank you for taking the time to read this and maybe doing
some more digging on the links to our site and elsewhere
● Thank you for being open to our ides
● Thank you for daring to make the difference
● And most of all thank you for being you.
Go out there and be an L&D superhero - enjoy the ride!
Hugs
Caroline & Una
And remember if you like any
of our stuff please share it
with other L&D stars.
The Home of the Learning Entrepreneur
www.connectingdots.co.uk
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