Nebel Crowhurst has had a tremendous few years, winning a top award and moving from one exciting role in to another. Nebel is speaking at ACE in a few weeks on the things she has been up to and we caught up with Nebel to find out how her CIPD qualifications with DPG have played a part.
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Hi Nebel, it’s great to see you and thanks for your time today. It’s only a few weeks from ACE and it’s fantastic to see you taking the stage, can you give us a brief over view of what you’re talking about?
Nebel
I will be sharing River Island’s transformational performance management journey. We made a bold decision to move away from the traditional appraisal process back in 2015 which has proven to have a positive impact on performance within our organisation. Over the last two years we have had some great successes as well as some learnings which is what I plan to share during my session at ACE. You can get a sneak preview by listening to this CIPD podcast: https://www.cipd.co.uk/podcasts/coaching-culture
DPG
That sounds really interesting and builds on your success over the last few years. Your team in your last role won a coveted ‘Learning & Development Team of the Year’ award. What are the sorts of things that make a high performing Learning & Development team?
Nebel
Successful L&D teams need to be fully engaged commercially in the business, it’s no good simply designing programmes which look good on paper but don’t fit within the organisational context. Getting the mix right between introducing new learning innovations AND landing them well by working as a business enabler is key. At the time in which my team were privileged enough to be recognised as the L&D Team of the Year we had worked hard to introduce and implement the 70:20:10 learning framework with great success which was able to be demonstrated through bottom line impact to the business. High performing L&D teams not only need to be progressive and creative to inspire a learning culture but they must also be commercial savvy business influencers.
DPG
There is plenty of food for thought there for other L&D teams to think about. It’s great to see you leading the profession and being a role model for other L&D professionals. You have done two L&D qualifications with DPG - level 5 and level 7. How do you think these qualifications have helped you develop and how have they contributed to your career success?
Nebel
For me, learning alongside working was the best way to feel that I could apply my learning immediately in the work that I do as well as seeing an impact. I am a massive advocate of apprenticeships and workplace learning, not least because I knew in my teens that university and formal education wasn’t for me, so being able to get to a point in my career in which I felt I knew I was on the right path and then being able to underpin my commercial experience with a formal qualification was a win-win. The blend of DPGs expert tutors in both the workshop environment as well as on-line complemented by an intuitive and informative learning portal gave me the support and flexibility I needed to allow me to study alongside progressing my career and leading a busy L&D team. An additional benefit is the amazing network I have built though studying alongside other passionate and like-minded people, the connections I built while studying have continued to develop over the past few years with regular networking get togethers. Achieving my level 5 and 7 CIPD in HRD through DPG has no doubt elevated my career by giving me the breadth of knowledge I needed to take on bigger and more challenging roles.
DPG
That’s great thanks and it’s wonderful to hear how our qualifications have helped you in your career to date. It sounds like the hard work has paid off? What would you say to anyone who is thinking about a CIPD qualification with DPG?
Nebel
Don’t let anything get in your way, it’s all too easy to say… “I am too busy” … “I can’t fit it in” … “I’m not very academic” if you want to do it, go for it! There are of course points in which it is hard work, but if you are someone that feels passionately about having a successful career in L&D the hard work will absolutely be worth it.
DPG
That’s great advice Nebel, thanks for your time today and we’ll be rooting for you at ACE. I’m sure your talk with go down a storm!
If you’re attending ACE and want to attend Nebels’ session you can find the detail here
From Annual Appraisals to Continuous Performance Management
For more information on the CIPD programmes Nebel mentions, click the below links
Level 3 Learning & Development Practice
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