FAQs

Simply click on the Modules of your choice, click 'Add to basket', go to 'Checkout' and have your credit card ready.

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The whole CPS series and all individual Modules have been designed to capture the essence of relevant theory and practice in as short a time as possible. Each short Module is designed to be revisited though, as often as is necessary, to fully understand the lessons taught and to apply them correctly and effectively - it follows the simple principles of repetition and reinforcement as being the basis of effective learning. The video/slide presentation for each Module will take approximately 30 minutes.  The Exercises are of course optional but have been designed to play a very important role in translating the theory directly into your professional practice. Some of these exercises are tools and techniques that you will use many times and will often involve organising a meeting with colleagues or senior managers. 

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All Modules are extremely simple to use.  You can access them immediately on any online computer by going to your own, private 'My CPS Development Area'.  Then just follow the steps:-

1. Watch the video/slide presentation which covers the theory, tools and techniques in about 30 minutes.
2. If you want to read the slides in detail then click on the 'Notes pages' link and you can even print off hard copies.
3. Try out the Exercises, if you wish, and immediately apply some of the practical lessons learned.
4. Read any Model Answers supplied
5. Post any questions or discussion points on the Forum
6. 'Contact' us if you need any further help

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The CPS has been designed and produced at an extremely low cost to keep prices low enough to make the series as accessible as possible to the widest audience. The whole series of Modules can be purchased for much less (approximately 75% less) than the cost of attending a one-day, public workshop from Paul Kearns.

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Of course not - this is just the start of a long and continuous personal journey, a personal development programme that builds your professionalism and acts as a platform for any other experiences and knowledge you gain in your career.  These are lifelong lessons that do not have a limited shelf life - organisations are becoming more mature all the time, problems will always need to be solved - the issues change but the approach to dealing with them does not; although we should always be alert to the possibility that new tools and techniques may be just around the corner.

The completion of the Modules is not the end of the journey - the Forum is intended to play a key part in the continuing journey for as long as you find it useful.

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Yes - but initially each individual online transaction is limited to a maximum of £50 (including VAT).  The CPS is a complete 'Series' though and all of the Modules are designed to be part of a totally integrated system so there should be something for you in all of the Modules.

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Yes - but initially we are imposing a 3 month time limit which can be extended, free of charge, on request.

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No. Your purchase of each Module is solely for your own personal use.  If you would like to show the video presentation or any other part of the Module to a wider audience then please contact us, using the Contact form, for permission.

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No problem.  We are very confident this is unlikley to happen but if it does we would offer you a complete, no quibble, refund. We would welcome any feedback on why you felt the Module/s did not meet your needs though as all feedback is extremely important to us and is the means by which we continue to improve.

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Long term professional development. Attending a 1 or 2-day Masterclass or workshop might teach you many lessons but putting the ideas into practice and sharing your lessons and experiences (both good and bad) with other people in similar situations is absolutely crucial if learning is to be positively reinforced.  The Forum is designed to provide on-going development for all users of the CPS series.  It will also fulfil the need for a solid, knowledge base for professional, evidence-based practice. 

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Whether you have an HR strategy or not is not really the point. HR strategy is defined as aiming to get the maximum value out of all of your people and accepts that there is always room for improvement. So whatever strategy you currently have and however long it has been in place the search for greater value never ends.  The chances are there are opportunities awaiting you.

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The best people information is that which tells us the organisation is improving its performance in a sustainable way.  So, for example, how many people attended a training course tells us nothing about the impact that has had on the organisation's bottom line. Interestingly though, a better piece of people information would be - how many participants on the course had identified a business objective that their training was focused on? Finally, they could be asked what impact it had, and if it did not have any impact what could we all learn from that.  There should always be as close a connection as we can get between people information and organisational performance .

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There are many but the most obvious indicator would be the existence of an effective learning system - one that openly identified when mistakes were made and a systematic approach to finding out why and how to make sure they did not happen again. Double loop learning systems always ensure all possible causes are taken into account.

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It doesn't need to be. The cause of most problems is often simply that it is left until too late, when the training has already finished. The Kearns Baseline Evaluation Model™, which is a key part of the Evaluation & ROI Module, puts much more emphasis on being clear what your objectives, and evaluation measures are before you do any training. That way it is remarkably easy in practice.

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The implicit assumption here is that the purpose of evaluation is to prove that it is training that is making the difference. Evaluation does not try to prove anything. It simply increases the probability that training will be effective. It would be very difficult for any single function in a business to prove that it, alone, is getting results. Once you start building in evaluation into the design of your training you will not ask this question in future. The contribution of training that is designed around evaluation will be self-evident.

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Probably the best answer to this is contained in Module CPS1 - HR Strategy where the HR Maturity Scale positions the role of HR Business Partner (Consultant) at Stage 4 on a continuous scale.

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Yes. Organisation design is indeed a very complex subject and one that takes many years of experiencing different organisations to learn the most important insights and to spot the indicators of good design. What is taught here are some of the fundamental design principles, all of the key building blocks and how they should knit together.  Then it is down to you to share your experiences with others on the Forum - and being prepared to say what does and doesn't work and what evidence and indicators you are using to gauge success.

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If you complete the whole series very few, if any.  Obviously each discipline has its own specific tools just as different surgeons have diferent tools for operating on different parts of the body but the tools offered here are really the building blocks of 'people' or organisational problem identification, analysis, measurement and resolution.  You will find you can use them again and again in virtually any context and sector (private, public or third sector)

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