A Business review provides essential data for strategic decision-making. By regularly assessing performance metrics within your RTO, you can identify areas of strength and weakness, enabling informed decisions on resource allocation, expansion, diversification, or any necessary course corrections. Running an RTO business can be challenging, and it can be easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations without taking a step back to assess your business performance. However, regularly reviewing your business is essential to ensuring its long-term success.  Running any business is a complex process, let alone brining extra compliance needs into the mix. The ongoing process requires ongoing attention and evaluation. Regularly reviewing your business performance can help you to identify areas of strength, as well as areas that may need improvement. I’ve seen too many RTOs who don’t take a step back to look at their business from a different view. So I’ve put togther some points on the importance of conducting regular business reviews. 1. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: Conducting a business review allows you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. his could include areas such as sales growth, customer satisfaction, or employee engagement. Understanding your strengths can help you to build upon them and continue to grow your business. You can capitalise on areas of strength and address areas of weakness. By identifying weaknesses, you can develop strategies to improve your business performance and remain competitive in your industry. 2. Highlight Areas for Improvement: Conducting a business review can also help you to identify areas of your business that need improvement. This could include areas such as low sales, high employee turnover, or ineffective marketing strategies. Identifying these areas can help you to take action to improve your business and ensure its long-term success. It also could highlight areas your clients or industry need.  3. Make Informed Decisions: A business review provides you with data and insights that can help you make informed decisions. By analysing market trends and staying up-to-date on industry developments, you can adapt your business strategy to remain competitive and meet the evolving needs of your customers. Strategic decisions can be made about the direction of your business. 4. Stay Competitive: Regularly reviewing your business performance can help you to stay competitive in your industry. By staying up-to-date on industry trends and customer needs, you can ensure that your business is offering the products and services that your customers want. 5. Monitor Progress: My final reason for conducting regular reviews is monitor your progress over time. By setting benchmarks and tracking your progress towards achieving your goals, you can ensure that your business is moving in the right direction. Conducting a regular business review is essential to the long-term success of your business. By identifying strengths and weaknesses, making informed decisions, monitoring progress, and staying ahead of the competition, you can ensure that your business remains competitive and profitable. So, take the time to regularly assess your business performance and make adjustments as needed to keep your business thriving. Get your Business Checklist   Ready to elevate your business to new heights? Take the first step towards success by using our comprehensive Business Checklist. Streamline your operations, identify growth opportunities, and ensure sustained success. Download the checklist now to embark on a journey of strategic planning and operational excellence.   Your business’s future starts with a single click – act now! Click here

Creating a vibrant and supportive culture within a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) is about fostering learning and staff contentment and also about building the foundation for business success. A positive culture cultivates an environment where employees thrive. This results in the satisfaction and dedication they bring to their roles. As this satisfaction permeates every aspect of the RTO, it directly translates into improved student experiences and outcomes. This ripple effect extends to market demand, driving up the appeal of your courses and ultimately boosting profitability. When the culture within an RTO turns sour, the consequences can also be far-reaching yet this time they are detrimental. A negative culture breeds discontent among staff, leading to decreased morale, motivation, and productivity. This, in turn, adversely affects the quality of education and support provided to students. As dissatisfaction spreads, it tarnishes the reputation of the RTO, leading to a decline in enrolment and revenue. It’s not a good look or feel. So often though I feel it when I walk in the door to undertake training, an audit or assist with compliance. The toxic culture may also foster conflicts, resistance to change, and high staff turnover, exacerbating the RTO’s challenges and jeopardizing its sustainability and relevance in the competitive training arena. Therefore, recognising and addressing signs of a deteriorating culture within an RTO is crucial to prevent further damage and facilitate a turnaround toward a more positive and constructive environment. Where does the RTO CEO start? Even when an RTO has a documented framework detailing the mission, vision, and goals, underneath lies an elusive entity – the ‘unwritten’ culture. This intangible aspect is the deeply entrenched beliefs regarding the rationale behind operational actions. I often describe it to clients as the golden spiders web thread. The thread so fine that no one can see it, yet they can feel it; when it’s there, and when it’s broken.   When you suspect the culture is broken, start small. Don’t try to change the world. Spend the first 6 months building relationships and getting to know the truths of the workplace. Being heavy handed is not going to achieve anything more than further resignations. Start by asking critical questions: How do we define our organisational culture currently? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What cultural shifts are necessary to remain competitive? Which systems, structures, processes, and behaviours require adjustment to drive desired cultural change? How can culture changes facilitate specific organisational goals?     A positive RTO culture is characterised by an environment that fosters trust, collaboration, and innovation. It cultivates a thriving workplace where individuals can reach their full potential, driving organisational success and sustainability. How can other RTO leaders assist? Firstly, leaders must have a clear understanding of the type of culture they aim to cultivate within the RTO. Whether it’s fostering innovation, prioritising collaboration, or promoting diversity and inclusion, having a well-defined vision of the desired culture is essential. Once the desired culture is identified, leaders must embody the values they advocate for. They serve as role models for employees and students alike, setting the tone for acceptable behaviours and attitudes within the organisation. Consistency between values and actual behaviours is crucial for building trust and credibility. In their interactions with both employees and students, leaders must exhibit open and positive behaviours that allows empathy, and fairness. Open communication fosters trust and ensures that everyone is well-informed and aligned with the organisational goals and objectives. To foster a conscious organisational culture within your RTO, consider the following principles: Lead by Example: Demonstrate honesty, accountability, and transparency in your actions and interactions, setting the standard for others to follow. Cultivate a Culture of Care: Value individuals’ contributions and treat them with dignity and respect, fostering a sense of belonging and mutual support. Foster Loyalty: Recognise and appreciate employees’ efforts, ensuring fairness and equity in all dealings. Embrace Equality: Treat all members of the organisation fairly and impartially, regardless of their position or rank. Embrace a culture of accountability, allow mistakes to serve as learnings and a catalyst for positive change. As a leader, this also involves owning up to mistakes and openly sharing the subsequent personal growth. This approach is incremental, yet very effective. Employee engagement Achieving 100% employee engagement requires a deliberate approach. Initiate open dialogues to understand employees’ needs and aspirations. Develop an organisational culture aligned with these needs, offering opportunities for growth, recognition, and well-being. Encourage collaboration and teamwork among staff members by creating opportunities for open communication, idea sharing, and mutual support. Celebrate team achievements to foster camaraderie and a sense of collective accomplishment. Acknowledge and reward employees for their contributions and achievements to boost morale, motivation, and engagement. Celebrating successes and milestones through verbal praise, awards, or other forms of recognition reinforces a positive culture within the RTO. While benefits such as educational opportunities and remote work options contribute to engagement, it’s crucial to embed engagement practices throughout the employee lifecycle, from on-boarding to off-boarding. Support the whole workforce by create a culture where existing leaders provide guidance in setting boundaries and mentoring the next generation of leaders. This nurturing environment, where such mentorship is an implicit expectation, is vital for the organisation’s growth and development. The most significant mistake is to overlook the importance of defining organisational values or assume that they are self-evident. Articulating and reinforcing organisational values are crucial for shaping a positive culture aligned with the RTO’s mission, fostering employee engagement, and driving organisational success. In summary, the significance of culture within an RTO cannot be overstated. It serves as the foundation upon which all aspects of the organisation thrive, from employee engagement and student satisfaction to market competitiveness and financial success. By implementing these strategies, RTOs can create a positive culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, ultimately enhancing the learning experience for students and the overall success of the organisation. Therefore, investing time and resources in cultivating a positive culture is not just beneficial but essential for the long-term prosperity of

Helping other people to learn is a challenge we continually face in RTO’s. During your TAE training you would (well should) have learned many theories and ideas around getting the message across.  There is an art form in helping people to learn. Yet not many of us are taught to do it in a way that relates to the person you are teaching. Pooja Agarwal the co-author of a book called Powerful Teaching says there are three stages to learning. The three stages of the learning process are encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is when we get information in and absorb knowledge, almost like a sponge. Storage is where we hope that once we encode information, our knowledge sticks around. Retrieval is when we reach back and bring something we previously learned into mind. We tend to think that most learning occurs during the encoding stage, but a wealth of research demonstrates that learning is strengthened during retrieval. We tend to focus too much on getting information into peoples’ heads (encoding) and not enough on getting it out (retrieval). Encoding means inputting information into our heads via a podcast, reading a book, or face to face training course. Retrieval Retrieval is the end process where we pull information out of our brain. You might be thinking, of this is the formative assessment part.  It isn’t. I am referring to the learning process, and how the person can recall that information at any given stage after they have been in the training. Retrieval in this context is actually about the learning process. We are wanting to know if the student learned something and did it stick. What Pooja says is we learn when we retrieve. I totally get this as I know that I learn most when I teach others, or tell a story about what I’ve learned. Pooja says the act of retrieving helps us to put the information into the future. She says “We learn when we use stuff.” The act of practice makes it more permanent. Key ways to get it to stick are: Get curious. This is what I love about this process is the fact of using coaching skills in the role of training. For me this being curious. Asking questions. This is when we consult our memory and consider what we know. As a trainer your role is to ask questions of your students so that they recall the information, share it and then they are more likely to remember it. Practicing retrieval has shown to boost learning by pulling information out of students’ heads (e.g., quizzes and flashcards), rather than cramming information into students heads (e.g., lectures). I know from my own facilitation of qualifications is the best reviews of my sessions is when I’ve really asked them to think about what has been said. Whilst initially people resist, in the end they love it, and really get value from the training. Brain Dumps. Pause your lesson, lecture, or activity. Ask students to write down everything they can remember. Continue with the learning activity.   Ask – get them talking in pairs or individually – tell me what you remember from this conversation? Get them to write a brain dump – What are the key things that you remember from this project that are deliverable? Write 3 points that stood out for you from the information so far. When we read books sometimes we highlight, write notes. What pays off in the long term, is to close the book and write down the top 3 points you’ve just read. You might feel this takes time, but you will benefit from this time of retrieving information so much more. Retrieval practice is a learning strategy, not an assessment strategy. Consider ways to incorporate retrieval practices into your training delivery. Conversations and sharing stories are a form of retrieval. As a trainer or coach you want others to do the work. You ask the questions, they unlock their own potential by responding with what they have learned. This way you’re helping them to learn, rather than teaching them. Short term learning doesn’t help us to learn that for the long term. As a leader you want to embrace long term learning. An example is cramming for exams. Cramming works, but only in the short-term. Spacing For things that really matter in our business consider ways to have a long-term retention, incorporating spacing is very effective. Spacing boosts learning, and is based on research. This rather than cramming information into a three hour lecture, try giving information over three one hour lessons over a period of time. Incorporate retrieval opportunities into the time frames. In a meeting ask someone to recall what they have done, or learned. Silence is a measure of success. Allowing the silence, allows the thinking to take place. This brings the neural connections and they are increasing their capacity. As an introvert this is a common practice, we need the time to process the information in our brain. So often people are uncomfortable with silence, and they jump in before we’ve had time to process. When we have silence, it gives us the right to measure out our answer. Metacognition Metacognition is thinking about our own learning. The awareness of our own learning. When someone is comfortable with their own metacognition, they ask for feedback and then become aware of what they know and don’t know. Let people be uncomfortable and find out if they know or not. This allows you to become more aware of your own learning. As a leader you can help raise their (the student) awareness of whether they have it or not. You can do this by being curious. Encourage an environment of people retrieving and making mistakes and be comfortable in making the mistakes. Ask questions that have no right or wrong answer to encourage your learners to realise they will not be told off or get it wrong. For example what is your least favourite