This morning I gave a short welcoming address to a seminar of the EESC’s middle management on the theme of ‘ethical challenges for Heads of Unit’. Our human resources directorate is doing a great job in providing support for all colleagues, including those in management. This seminar was an example of their active support, the aim being to inform colleagues about the legal and administrative frameworks within which they must work (both rights and obligations) but also what support is at hand to help them in facing up to HR challenges. Indeed, a lot of the seminar was given over to working group discussions of case studies and I think a lot of the participants found the examples they worked on to be familiar. In her initial presentation the trainer, Katri Auvinen (Finnish), introduced us to a new technique, ‘pecha kucha’, designed both to facilitate the rapid imparting of information and to limit the potential for dreary powerpoint presentations. Curiosity piqued, I looked it up on the internet and was amused to discover that there are such things as ‘pecha kucha evenings’. The principle is simple: you talk to twenty slides, each slide showing for twenty seconds. Of course, it would not be appropriate to all situations but as the trainer showed it can clearly be an effective technique.
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