The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

The room was bursting with undergraduates. In fact, had Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter walked in then the Record Breaking nature of what was about to happen would have been plain for all to see. Simulations involving over 60 people in one open session are rare beasts. Yet thanks to a chance conversation with Dr Tassos Patokos of the University of Hertfordshire Business School we, and his sixty students, were about to indulge ourselves exactly that. My mind went back to the chat Dr Patokos and I had over a glass of wine at a conference three months earlier. We had moved on from the euro-crisis and had started finding a more stable common ground, discussing how simulations can inject energy and creativity into learning. An expert in Game Theory, Dr Patokos was eager to see how such events played out, and how they might offer learning opportunities in which his undergraduate students could experience a different perspective on their work topics. We agreed to set somet...

It's been many years since I completed my MBA, so I am thrilled to have been selected as this weeks " Alumnus of the Week " at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. My graduation with what was then called the Executive MBA (with distinction no less) marked a turning point in my career and, in a way that my more recent MSc in People and Organaisational Development has also done, inspired me on to new and better things. I value the academic strength of my CV. Academic work at Master's level requires a degree of critical evaluation and self understanding that has allowed me to contextualise the world around me in a much more enlightened way and has enabled me to influence and shape the way I work and prioritise what is important for me and the organisations with which I work. Choosing to study the MBA back in the late 1990's gave me the courage to step outside the world of finance. I remember when I was selecting a course of study it came down to c...