Universal Improvement Skills

Universal Improvement Skills teaches participants about improvement for individuals, teams and organisations. It provides an integrated set of skills, tools and techniques that are universally applicable and transferable to a wide range of activities in the workplace. These skills can transform the way people work both on their own and in groups.

Participants learn both hard and soft skills. Methodologies, tools and techniques sit alongside how to involve people and how to run meetings in a participative and productive fashion. To explain 'why' as well as 'how', a brief introduction of the history and theory underpinning the ideas is provided at each stage.

Continually refined and developed based on real-life experience, Universal Improvement Skills has been running since 1994. Participants find that the application of these powerful but straightforward tools, techniques and methodologies has a dramatic effect on their projects, meetings, planning, day-to-day work and in the way they work with groups of people.

Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Brisbane October 2023		Universal Improvement Skills for Sydney Trains September 2023		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Melbourne June 2023		Universal Improvement Skills for Information Technology Branch March 2023

Duration and who should attend

This course is 3 days in duration and any of these people will benefit from it:
•	Senior, middle and junior managers
•	Project Leaders
•	People who lead teams in the workplace
•	People who need to improve their project management skills
•	People who delegate project work to others
•	People who run meetings
•	People who would like to be more structured in how they work
•	People who have lots of different things to juggle
•	Bright sparks who would benefit from a developmental opportunity

We also run this as a public course

Style and structure of the course

Universal Improvement Skills follows a tried-and-tested approach that is highly participative and practical.

Our training does not involve sitting around staring at a projector screen. Instead people get to think about and apply what they are learning to their own real-life scenarios including projects and meetings. There is ample opportunity to pick the brains of the people running the course. A ratio of two UIC Consultants to a maximum of 12 participants ensures that everyone gets a chance to have their say

Participants receive our comprehensive manual, The Complete Guide to Improvement. This contains easy to follow, step-by-step guidelines including everything covered on the course and a lot more.

Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Alsager March 2023		Universal Improvement Skills for Sydney Trains February-March 2023		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Brisbane October 2022		Universal Improvement Skills for Hobart Airport August 2022

What participants will learn

Organisational Improvement

•	A brief history of improvement in organisations and six Key Concepts that underpin the thinking and approach
•	How to convert strategy and good intentions into real change in the workplace

Projects

•	The UIMPROVE framework for setting up and running projects
•	Annual Project Planning How to identify all the projects that need to be carried out over the next 12 months and how to prioritise the resulting list either individually or with a team. How to set up a Project Steering Grid to monitor and steer the projects on an ongoing basis.
•	How to set up individual projects properly, consider inclusions, exclusions and interdependencies, and produce a clear Project Remit
•	Different roles in projects: Champion, Project Leader, Project Team Member, Key Player, Specialist, Facilitator
•	Tools and techniques for involving people in projects
•	How to run a Project Kick-Start This is an initial meeting that involves a wide range of people to increase understanding, alignment and commitment from those involved, and get the project off to the best possible start
•	A set of project methodologies that provide step-by-step guidance from the beginning to the end of any project: Planning, Improvement, Problem Solving, Major Project
•	How to take an individual project and break it down into its component parts, identifying timescales, actions and milestones

Tools and techniques

•	Tools for Planning and Organising Brainstorming, Clustering-by-Theme, Must-Should-Could, TPN Analysis, Chronological Clustering and Gantt Charts - participants learn how and when to use each of these
•	Techniques for Productive Meetings - straightforward but highly effective structural techniques that will increase participation, variety, productivity and enjoyment of any meeting

Processes and how to improve them

•	The principles of process improvement
•	How to use Improvement Methodology to improve a process
•	Analytical tools, in particular Deployment Flowcharting

Download

Click here for the Universal Improvement Skills Briefing Note.

Universal Improvement Skills for Annecto March-April 2022		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Melbourne March 2022		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Alsager March 2022		Universal Improvement Skills for Araluen February-March 2022

Universal Improvement Skills Public course December 2021		Universal Improvement Skills for Winton Shire Council October 2021		Universal Improvement Skills Public Course in Alsager October 2021		Universal Improvement Skills for Broadland Housing Group September 2021

Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Brisbane September 2021		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Maastricht June 2021		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Brisbane April 2021		Universal Improvement Skills for Araluen January 2020

Universal Improvement Skills for We are Aspire February 2019		Universal Improvement Skills for NHS Stockport December 2018		Universal Improvement Skills Public Course in Maastricht November 2018		Universal Improvement Skills for Transit Australia Group October 2018

Universal Improvement Skills for Thirteen September 2018		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Alsager June 2018		Universal Improvement Skills for South Yorkshire Housing Association, June 2018		Universal Improvement Skills for Abellio Greater Anglia April 2018

Universal Improvement Skills for One Manchester December 2017		Universal Improvement Skills Public course in Melbourne October 2017		Universal Improvement Skills for TransLink June 2017		Universal Improvement Skills for London Midland March 2017