Member Profile
This month our first member to be profiled is Clare Forrest.
What is your role?
Chief cook and bottle washer. I ‘run’ a small
training and management consultancy, Structured Learning Ltd, and
have done so for about (cough, can it be true, surely I’m
still 15?) 25 years now. By ‘run’, I mean try to find
work for our small pool of hand-picked (and rather excellent associates)
and for me.
Training design is something of a passion and I like to continually
revamp the programmes we offer to keep from going stale. I must
do something right as we’ve managed to keep going, successfully,
for so long. I love what I do.
What are the main challenges you face in
your role?
Finding the elusive balance between running the business and
my home life. Both are important to me now, though I confess to
sometimes - oftentimes - having got this wrong. Currently, I'm
very happy with the way things are and feel privileged to have
a role
that's so fulfilling and an equally great home life.
How have you used Trainers' Library in
your role as a trainer?
Mostly I use Trainers' Library® for ideas when I'm stuck on design
I find it really helpful to trawl through a related subject area.
The library always seems to act as a great 'unblocker' and help
me to find just the right way to present a concept differently.
What's your favourite Trainers' Library
module?
The one which I've tweaked most often is the Leadership Identikit
- I've added to and adapted this in many ways, and the basic premise
is an extremely sound one which I have used at virtually every
management level.
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What's
the most memorable incident you've ever witnessed within a training
scenario?
Not a good memory this one, but honest: Many years ago, my business partner Glenna
and I wrote a full course on Handling Aggression, targeted at the Public Sector.
It was pretty ground- breaking for its day and we won a lot of business because
of this.
On one open course we
ran, we had a range of delegates from the Public Sector, including
one Health and Safety trainer. He was the most obnoxious and obstreperous
delegate and was actually very damaging to and for the rest of
the delegates.
Given the nature of the
programme we were running, it certainly added to our challenge!
At the first break we offered him the opportunity of ‘change’ or ‘leave’ – not
quite as baldly as this of course. He took the latter option –the first
and only time, I’ve ever had to ask someone to do this. I still believe
it was the right thing to do and it taught me, very clearly, that sometimes
as trainers we have to consider the health of the group over the health of
an individual. Tricky decision though.
Five
things you like:
1. My husband Andy – he makes me laugh and looks after me when I come home
knackered from travel and training. He’s a wonderful man and I love him
very much.
2. I’ve recently – two years in August – discovered cycling
and last year completed the Trans Pennine Trail - all 241 miles of it. I’m
a member of a cycle club, cycle most days and recently sold my car. Nowadays
I cycle everywhere locally, use public transport when I need to – it’s
very good in Manchester – and hire a car for the cross-country journeys
where public transport isn’t really an option. It’s been a very liberating
experience.
3. Our cats – Doosrah and Pehla. Siblings, jet black and always great fun
to play and be with.
4. Gin! (with tonic, but no ice)
5. The Internet – a whole world in a box.
Five things you don't like:
1. Going to bed late – I’m a morning person and can’t think
or act after about 10.30 at night.
2. Personalised number plates – why do this?
3. Bandwagons – seen too many of them.
4. Supermarkets – given up using them and don’t miss them at all.
5. Making lists like this.
Many thanks to Clare for sending that in. You can see Clare at the Trainers'
Library® Conference in Harrogate in October where she'll be sharing her expertise
in business
writing.
Last
Month's Logic Puzzles
Answers
The answers to last month's teasers are below:
1- Add IV, turned upside down, below VI and you get XI.
2- They'll come together 12 minutes after they set off.
3- They drove 8 miles.
4- As the ratio is 6:4:3 the girls receive 6,4 and 3 thirteenths
of the apples. They therefore get 78, 52 and 39 apples.
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