The last few days of parliament activity have been fascinating to watch on live TV in the House of Commons. To see what actually takes place in the process of finding a way through the quagmire that has become Brexit I have found really interesting.

There have been many passionate speeches and one that I felt truly showed a sense of leadership came from Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley.

In her emotional speech, she said she was 'enraged' with Theresa May's 'lack of bravery'. She made it quite clear that she wouldn't sit back and take the misrepresentation from the PM any longer when faced with the potential of a no-deal.

"I will not sit and listen to her crow about employment going up, when where I live employment is falling and hunger is rising."

Regardless of your political views, I think you will relate to someone acting as a leader when they:

• Challenge the process.
• Develop a sense of urgency.
• Model the way.
• Encourage others to speak up.
• Are honest about wanting...

According to the Metro, our Civil Service is looking at the possible imposition of martial law after a no-deal Brexit!

If you listen to the live debate in parliament and the special committee discussions live on YouTube it's worrying to think that chaos will erupt after March 29th with such diverse views across all parties and a no-deal still on the table.

Senior intelligence officials, warn there may be violence in the event of ‘no-deal’ or a second referendum. 

This is obviously worrying for everyone and has implications for every employer. True, these predictions are based on a no deal scenario but there are still implications for ANY deal.

Will these issues overflow into the workplace? London’s Met police were advising extra security for shops to guard against no-deal panic buying.

Perhaps predicting riots moving from streets to the workplace is a stretch but all leaders must be prepared for a negative impact if there is a no-deal.

...

Honestly, does anyone really know what's going on with Brexit? Or what the outcomes are going to be? Talk about uncertainty!

Whatever the deal, whatever the outcomes, change is coming and in times of change and uncertainty is when true leaders step forward to do their part.

This post should resonate with you if you lead a team, a small business or a large organisation employing thousands. What should you be doing to help your 'people' prepare for change and to steady the unease that most of your employees will be feeling?

Read on and let's explore some ideas and then some actions you can take now.

Do Not Wait for the Deal to Act

Waiting to know what the deal will be, only delays action. Some actions and plans have to wait. You need to know what's on the table, what's agreed and how this impacts you. But other actions can be taken and in particular to those that relate to how your employees are feeling about the uncertainty of their jobs, their futures both in the...

If you think everything is going to remain calm and settled at work come March 29th and that it's going to be business as usual, then think again. Chaos could be just around the corner.

And it may not just be about stock delays, Euro exchange rates, EU citizen employment rights and so on. You may face stresses, strains and breakdowns in your teams with tensions rising as the impact of Brexit becomes a reality in personal lives.

I'm not over dramatising things. My comments are echoed by what the government is preparing for.

According to reports in two Sunday newspapers, British officials have revived Cold War emergency plans to relocate the royal family should there be riots in London if Britain suffers a disruptive departure from the European Union next month.

“These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the Cold War, but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit,” the Sunday Times said, quoting an...

One of the key roles we play in teaching students in any subject is to ensure we engage them throughout our courses AND that we have ways to assess what they have learned. Using interactive elements allows us to achieve both.

When you publish your online course using Kajabi or similar platforms that allow embeds in your posts and pages, you can use interactive elements from a library of Open Source resources available at H5P.org. The content from H5P allows you to create rich and engaging content to your courses for free.

I've summarised them below and later in the post I'll explain how to add them to your own course or website.

Summary of Interactive Course Assets

If you want to see any of these in action then please go to the H5P.org website, here is the link.

Remember that you should only choose to use an asset and add it to your course if it is going to add value either in improving the overall student experience or it helps achieve a learning objective. In other words,...

Warning!

Warning!

This is a recommendation from a raving fan so I'm biased. 

I’m here to share with you an amazing opportunity that is too good NOT to share. If you are a consultant, coach, trainer or subject expert then this should be of interest to you.

Over the past three years, my business partner and I have transformed the way we do business by shifting almost everything we do serving clients from a traditional classroom, face to face service, to one that is now online. We’ve almost completely stopped delivering our face to face workshops and training courses and shifted them online, except for special situations and when we believe it's the only way to achieve the learning objectives of learners. 

At the same time we also changed the way we market our business, manage our leads and sales pipelines. We've been able to rationalise our website hosting service, email software, surveys and online course building software so that we could bring...

I recently wrote a post about Brexit and how it demands that as businesses we look at every opportunity to minimise the risks and to maximise the opportunities that Brexit will bring. And that's regardless of how we leave, when we leave or as some hope for if we leave. Catch up on that post by reading it here.

The post advocates engaging your employees in becoming more commercially aware so that together as a business you can become:

• More competitive
• More agile
• More responsive
• More able to spot opportunities
• More able to respond to opportunities
• More able to cope with change
• Financially stronger

In the post, I stated that there has never been a better time to harness your employees' commitment to change.

In today's new post, I'm exploring that fact in more detail.

I'm going to explain why now is a golden opportunity to have your employees get fully behind the changes you need to make because of Brexit or any other political, economic, social or technological challenges...

Regardless of your personal political viewpoint and whether you are a "remainer" or a "leaver" when it comes to the EU, as a business leader you face the biggest challenge of your career, especially in the advent of a no-deal. Whether we remain or leave, your teams face uncertainty.

Your iceberg is melting, your landscape is changing and your teams need inspiring leadership like never before. Unlike the one or two economic crisis you will have navigated through previously, this time the route ahead is uncharted.

No one has been here before.

Ever!

The best minds in the economy, trade and commerce don't have the answers on how to move forward with plans that guarantee success. The EU can not give you advice and neither can our own political system.

Your teams face huge uncertainty and right now your role as a business leader is to give them back some certainty, give them the confidence that together, as one team you will be able to take this...

Communication is the key to all successful relationships whether in the family, community, at work or with customers.

Telling employees they need to communicate should be a no-brainer. They either do it or they don't.  But the simplest of things often trip us up and then the team needs a little reminder about improving the communication between their colleagues or customers.

This simple activity is designed to help improve communication awareness and can be used in several situations during training courses, team meetings, breakout sessions, and workshops.

The original idea for this activity comes from Teampedia.

Objectives

• To be the first team to correctly reproduce the "email".
• To open up discussions around communication and collaboration.

Group Size

• Medium to large.
• Minimum of 5 people.

Materials

Table, Paper, Pens or Markers, Simple Images

Set Up

On a table, place as many pieces of paper with a pen as you have teams. Have pre-made simple images or "emails" made...

I know of a great place to eat that does the most amazing steak and ale pies, The Weighbridge Inn situated in the beautiful Cotswolds between Nailsworth and Avening. They've been serving these pies for over 40 years.

It’s a quintessentially English country pub, ‘old fashioned’ in its style and ambiance with roaring log fires to welcome you in the winter. Muddy boots, dogs and children are all welcome.

The Inn is renowned in the area for its wonderful 2-in-1 pies (half steak and mushroom, half cauliflower cheese). Created over forty years ago, this unique dish remains a firm favourite for all of its customers. The recipe has never been made public and to this day remains a closely guarded secret passed from landlord to landlord. If you ever travel close by, I recommend you call in and try them for yourself. Yum, you will not be disappointed!

These pies have become their ‘signature’ dish. They make them so well that they have been able to draw in...