Well, at the final session tomorrow we have no less than 90 Charities represented!! We have got a fascinating session set up for the afternoon. 

What a fun way to go out on this contract!! 

As someone who has been aware of the Mindgap journey/supported me on it, I thought I would just quickly update you on where I'm at with work and the transition from WM Housing (3 months ago now!) to Mindgap and beyond. It's been an incredible journey over the last 3 months - stepping out from a well paid/solid job into....well little guaranteed really! 

Through Mindgap, I was very 'blessed' (the only word that fits really) to immediately secure a big contact 2 weeks after I left WM Housing. This work saw me delivering training in the Marches region to about 70 Charity leaders. Dream job! That contract paid for my 1st 2 months of work. Brilliant!

Now for the news.......As part of prepping for my Mindgap role, I undertook a qualification at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Group training and, on the course, was made aware of a job there. The job was leading their Workforce Development Department: Management and leadership training and loads more. It's the commercial bit of the organisation so they want the post to grow it big to generate income for the Charity.​

Well, I went for the job and yesterday was told I was successful!!. Start in August.

I was/am loving the freedom of the Mindgap business but when this offer came in with salary, car and all - it was hard not to look at it . The more I have prepared for the role the more I am so excited about it. All I wanted to do in Mindgap but lots more - and local!

Mindgap still exists (in concept) and I would love to talk to you about what I could do for you - as long as it doesn't clash with the new role. All I know is I have had the privilege of transitioning out of one career/sector and now into one that I have dreamed of for some time: Training and leadership and management development. Great!

So that's all I know for now. Thank you so much for your support over the last few months. It's meant a lot. 

Regards

Dave

Tomorrow is the final wrap session for the Building Better Opportunities training I have been delivering in the Marches region. It's been quite a commitment to have been thrown into the deep end doing this training with about 70 leaders across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Herefordshire.

Tomorrow is the final day and it is potential lead organisations who are attending along with the Lottery and representatives from the Local Enterprise Partnership. 

This work has given a great start to Mindgap and given me two solid months of work far earlier than expected. No complaints here!

Thursday this week sees me start delivering associate training at Hereford and Worcester Group Training too where I will be delivering a session on 'moving into leadership'. 

At last I've got round to starting to pull together some of the courses that we can offer at Mindgap. These are our bespoke courses to compliment the ILM courses we can offer through Space2Think.

Although we have set out some of what our offer is here we find courses work so much better when we can find out your needs and tailor the course to your organisation particular dynamic

So, go on, talk to us!

Some great stakeholder mapping work by @BBOMarches leaders in Telford and Wrekin today. Multi layered complex picture of stakeholders when seeing things through the lens of a potential consortium. 

The team mapped out stakeholders now (against the stakeholder onion!) as they are lmown, part known and as yet unknown and then transferred onto a 'power and interest' grid - setting out where they want them to be and intentionally seeing them move. 

Could we help you do this at your business? Give us a shout!

I'm a 1/3 of the way through some really exciting training that I'm running on behalf of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership. The training is taking the form of 10 sessions held across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Participants are mainly leaders of Charities and Private Sectors with some Local Authority colleagues too.

There is some fascinating issues emerging about how some of these leaders are working flat out to respond to some of the massive impacts on their sector. There's been a number of Community Interest Companies there which has been interesting to see the perspective they bring too.

The focus of the training is to get the voluntary and private sector working on how they might be able to form a consortia to be able to access European and Lottery funding through the Building Better Opportunities fund.

On top of all of that, it's a great opportunity to  build relationships with about 70 Charities in the region!

As part of the 'investing phase' then, I'm on my first day of the EDI Pearsons Award in Education and Training (formerly PTLLS) at Hereford & Worcester Group Training today. This course is a strong teaching qualification and will give me a good qualification for structuring plus the skills for the delivering & teaching.

Modules in the course include:

• Identify your own role, responsibilities and boundaries of role in relation to teaching
• Understand appropriate teaching and learning approaches within a specialist area
• Demonstrate your session planning skills
• Understand how to deliver inclusive sessions that motivate learners
• Compare the strengths and limitations of teaching and learning approaches
• Identify types and methods of assessment and their purpose in education and training
• Maintain a safe and supportive learning environment
• Understand and analyse the need for accurate record keeping and procedures
• Summarise key acts of legislation, regulatory requirements and codes of practice relating to your own role and area of responsibility
• Evaluate your own teaching practice and identify areas for future development

Having only left WM Housing last week, it was great to join the (award winning) Innovation Central team at the stunning Priest House Hotel (see below) in Leicester this week for a 2 day 'development centre'. We were working with the leadership team of EMH Homes, a housing association based in the East Midlands. 

Teams were set tasks around engagement, commercialism, strategic thinking, culture etc and then were assessed as they delivered tasks, A 360 degree 'wrap around' analysis will then be delivered as part of their feedback.

Thursday was then spent in Stoke being trained to deliver 360's myself. Please contact me if I can enable delivering these to you and your teams with Innovation Central.

Well the website  and other social media sites are set up and running now but I'm not going to start 'proper blogging' (a technical term!) until post April when I finish work at WM Housing. In the mean time, I'd thought you'd like a peak at my branding etc

And the PR material arrived in the post this morning!:

Mindgap social media is here: