A programme for managers with teams of any size, in the public, private or charity sector

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Free Level 7 Manager Development Programme

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Written by John Berry & Sue Berry on 18th March 2018. Revised 2nd December 2023.

7 min read

Four fists over jarIn early 2018 we launched our free level 7 Manager Development Programme. In all around 200 managers have participated in the series of webinars and workshops.

We've recorded all webinars and the links to those are now given below. Access is free and without need to register.

Possibly the very best bit of the Programme was the small group workshops, run face to face and online. We've taken the discussion idea and now offer one-to-one or one-to-few management mentoring and round-table discussions.

Why not start by working through the Programme online? Then contact us to set up your own mentoring or round-table workshop activity for you and your colleagues.

The Programme

Around 80% of UK managers are untrained in people-management. Just think about the improvement in firms if it were the other way. Just think about the improvement in employee job satisfaction, organisational effectiveness, profit and reduced manager stress that such a shift would give! As you read this, you can probably think of managers in your own firm who don’t have the skills and knowledge to effectively manage people. They need to engage with this programme.

Level 7 Training

All managers need to use management science - and not just replicate out-of-context 'best practice' or implement the suggestions of untrained gurus. Levels 5 and 6 teach 'best practice' and 'how to...'. Level 7 teaches you to think and to challenge. Managers need to manage at Level 7. You shouldn't put up with less.

Let TimelessTime train you at NQF/EQF Level 7. We offer a rolling programme covering three central disciplines - hiring, managing and developing people. The whole programme is at Level 7. It's designed for managers who want the Level 7 knowledge and skills without the onerous assessment that comes from university-based or ILM/CMI courses. It focusses only on managing people - but it covers the whole topic.

And it's provided COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE.

Format

The programme comprises three topics delivered as six 30-minute webinars. The Programme, when delivered first, included one two-hour workshop per topic.

You can dip in and out of the webinars as your time allows. There's no need to attend all webinars. And the whole course is delivered online. We now offer manager mentoring and small-group workshops in place of the original workshops.

All the webinars are available to 'listen again'. You can access them here in any order - though we'd recommend taking them in order.

The original advantage of attending the post-trimester workshop was the ability to listen and ask questions. Contact us now to set up your very own manager mentoring or small-group round table.

What will you learn?

Valid, tangible and immediately applicable information and methods to enable you to excel in managing, developing and hiring your people.

What’s the webinar style?

Six short presentations with a simultaneous online question and answer session per topic. There are three topics.

What's the small-group workshop style?

A group of like-minded managers sharing the issues, encouraged and enabled by some mini-presentations. Delivered either online and face-to-face, to match participant needs.

Programme

Managing people

No manager has time to learn management by gathering experience over the years. All need an instant theoretical understanding on which to build knowledge and skill from subsequent experience. These webinars aim to touch all the areas of management science that managers will need when managing their people.

The webinars below refer to the trimester workbook. You can download the Managing People workbook here.

Webinar 1: Establishing the manager-employee relationship

Webinar 2: Winning staff commitment, motivation and job-engagement

Webinar 3: Fostering innovation and changing culture

Webinar 4: Setting reward: practicalities of pay and benefits

Webinar 5: Motivation and setting objectives to drive performance

Webinar 6: Summarising - a concise leadership model for managing day-to-day

Developing/growing people

The business case for growing your people is persuasive. It’s mostly cheaper than recruiting new staff with new skills and there is the ancillary benefit of heightened commitment from all. These webinars aim to hit all the main points of people-development science.

You can download the workbook for Developing/growing people here.

Webinar 1: Basic concepts of human development and simple ideas of making improvement

Webinar 2: Making the business case for investment in people

Webinar 3: Understanding what makes many people ‘developable’ (and others not)

Webinar 4: Setting out the processes of development, talent management and succession

Webinar 5: Planning and implementing organisational up-skilling

Webinar 6: Determining the right developmental tool for each person and goal

Recruiting/selecting people

Getting the right people in to a firm is fundamental. No manager has time to learn recruitment and selection by experience alone. In these webinars, we provide an evidence-based approach that tasks the manager to first define what sort of person they need. The subsequent teaching here shows how to recruit to that definition.

You can download the Recruiting/selecting people workbook here.

Webinar 1: A new approach for a new recruitment and selection age

Webinar 2: Setting foundations: Designing the right jobs

Webinar 3: Developing the decision criteria: Specifying the ideal candidate

Webinar 4: Expanding the search: Finding the best candidates

Webinar 5: Designing decision tools: Making sure you select the best

Webinar 6: Closing the deal: Making sure the best join

Who is the programme for?

The programme is for any manager in any organisation anywhere. It's for any manager managing teams of any size in the public, private or charity sectors.

Programme history

We're management consultants. We'd been running workshops for clients since 2010 covering pretty much the same content as now offered in this programme. Our marketing was traditional, with web site, email campaigns and networking. But we constantly lamented that the marketing of our consulting services would be a lot easier if managers knew the science behind management. Our sales would progress more fluidly if the client manager understood what we were talking about.

Then one day, following a stint lecturing people-management at the University of Sussex on the Management MSc, the programme was born. The idea was simple. We'd provide the background free. We'd educate managers. After all, that was what our other marketing vehicles like our web site and email campaigns did. The programme would just concentrate the knowledge. So, our training activities would become our marketing.

BYPM Third EdThe programme sits alongside our recent book titled Because Your People Matter:a playbook for managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders, ISBN 978-1803813554 available from Foyles, Waterstones and Amazon. Also available internationally via Barnes & Noble.

About the presenters

John Berry

John is an alumnus of Loughborough University, University of East London, the Open University, the Open University Business School and Birkbeck, University of London, in engineering, management and organisational psychology. He has run technology and engineering companies and led R&D activities in SMEs and multi-nationals for over 30 years. He has been instrumental in driving corporate and public policy across technology and engineering for firms and governments worldwide. In a global career, John has led teams in 32 countries. He is a Chartered Manager and a Chartered Engineer.

More recently, as a mentor and consultant, John has helped several hundred managers achieve business change through mentoring and by delivering organisational development projects.

John is a guest lecturer at the University of Sussex on the Management MSc and is a STEM Ambassador.

For more see John's LinkedIn profile.

Sue Berry

For over 30 years Sue has led the human resource function in several firms, heading up and driving organisational improvement and change across chemicals, aerospace, education and charities sectors in four continents. She has been instrumental in shaping relationships between people and organisations in pursuit of growth and prosperity for all. Sue is an alumna of Newcastle University, De Montfort University and the Open University in education, human resource management and psychology & economics. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and has Qualified Teacher Status.

Over the past seven years Sue has supported several hundred SME managers, delivering HR support and change projects.

Until recently, Sue was Chair of Governors at Newick School (and remains an Associate Governor) and she mentors students at the University of Sussex.

For more see Sue's LinkedIn profile.

And then what?

You can then go on to be mentored by one of our consultants or you can participate with others from your firm in a small group round table workshop on any of the topics. Just call us to discuss.