AJ Stirrup

The 2022 Nimble Awards were a cause for celebration for AJ Stirrup; their course ‘Your DISC Flow’ was the winner in the Course of the Year category, while Andrew Stirrup was also a finalist in the Professional of the Year category!

Delivering leadership coaching and cultural change programmes for businesses, AJ Stirrup are all about people and interactions, so moving from face-to-face training towards elearning might not have seemed like an obvious choice. But in finding a way to survive during the pandemic, the business can now thrive with new ways to reach its clients and help them to grow.

Meet AJ Stirrup

AJ Stirrup offer high performance business coaching and mentoring. They deliver organisational and behavioural change programmes that inspire teams to create the high performance culture they really want. They call it The Culture Factor. It’s about developing the right behaviours, mindsets and values for a business to succeed.

“I’m all about helping every individual team or organisation to be the best that they can be”
Andrew Stirrup

Andrew Stirrup is the founder and lead consultant of AJ Stirrup. He has built up great experience delivering face-to-face training with teams on how to improve their workplace culture, and to help employees understand themselves and work better with each other. Over the years he’s coached senior leaders and entire teams, encouraging them to self-reflect and to tweak their habits within a team to get to where they want to be. And it has worked; he’s enjoyed seeing teams get the results they want, and he loves meeting new people and helping them make positive changes through working on these projects.

Facing a challenge

Prior to March 2020 all of AJ Stirrup’s client engagements were carried out in person. Then along came Covid-19. Like so many businesses, Andrew was forced to find ways to continue to serve his clients during lockdowns. Elearning had never been a priority before, but it quickly became a serious option and a way for AJ Stirrup to ‘get to market’ differently.

AJ Stirrup had been working successfully with a group of senior leaders in one organisation using their traditional face-to-face sessions. The organisation asked for the training to be rolled out to include more of their managers, and then lockdowns began! AJ Stirrup wanted to find a way to continue with their commitment to the project, but they felt that a series of video calls alone wouldn’t quite offer the quality of learning they were looking for. The search was on to find a solution!

Can elearning work for coaching?

Developing an elearning offer wasn’t the first port of call. But as you might expect from someone who spends their working life coaching teams to deal with challenges, Andrew took the challenge head-on to come up with a solution that would give his client what they needed.

After using a free trial of Nimble Author, Andrew played around with putting the content he knows so well into the elearning format. He quickly began to realise its real potential, and went on to develop a leadership programme made of seven different course modules.

Your DISC Flow

The first element of the online programme covers the DISC model, a personal development tool designed to improve communication and build stronger relationships. It describes four styles of behaviour that individuals within a team might have; these are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. By learning more about your own behavioural preferences and the preferences of others, you can adapt to create stronger, more effective and trusting relationships both inside and outside your business.

With no previous experience of elearning Andrew got to work, creating an incredible 67 videos and associated resources to make the course. All he needed was a platform that would enable him to convert his content and expertise into a workable format that his clients would find easy to use.

This process led Andrew to review and reshape the best way to present his content; and helped him to identify new opportunities for how he could make it more accessible for more people – not just during lockdown but into the future!

The benefits of blended learning

Blended learning describes when learning occurs across different formats. It’s often used to describe when classroom sessions and online training are used together to deliver a course, but in reality there are a huge range of formats that can be combined; mentoring, short videos, elearning courses, coaching sessions… the list goes on!

The elearning course Your DISC Flow was created with the intention of always being delivered with coaching elements, whether face-to-face or video calls.

By including open questions as the learners progress though the course, users can reflect as they go and write responses in an open text box format. Then, using Nimble LMS, AJ Stirrup are able to see those written responses, and the next time they have a video call they can really personalise the learning and make sure it is highly relevant to the individuals and team.

Traditionally, when running all the training during extended face-to-face sessions, the learning of the theory and the self-reflection would all happen together – it can be challenging to remember and retain everything that is shared. By separating these out more, learners have time to digest the material. So that when they do get that face-to-face time, the coaching becomes targeted to their needs.

Another advantage of using elearning is that clients are able to go back and revisit the content time and again, as they apply their learning and implement changes. This makes it easier to ‘join the dots’ between what they learned and what they actually do in their day to day role.

This delivery model of elearning combined with coaching calls has been very successful. The judges of the 2022 Nimble Awards were very impressed with the design and delivery of the elearning course, saying:

“Content is well organised into topics with clear signposting throughout. Excellent use of intros and summaries with clearly stated and well-laid out learning objectives which are action-orientated and wholly relevant to the course. Great use of video and visual elements, interspersed with well-themed imagery. Impactful layouts and very easy to read. Well-pitched for the target audience – plenty of interactions to keep the audience engaged.”

Planning for the future

Well, now it’s up and running, was elearning really just a temporary fix for difficult times, or has some new potential been discovered?

The most important finding has been that it works! Feedback has been positive, with people reporting that they are working better together, feeling more engaged, and having a better mood within teams in the business that used the blended learning.

AJ Stirrup realised there are huge benefits to be had from the blended learning delivery model. The elearning elements make it much more flexible for timings; organisations don’t need to book out their team for a whole day of training, because they can access the learning in chunks of time where it fits around existing workloads, and Andrew can be virtually in two places at once, as the learning can be delivered across different organisations at the same time!

As the online learning is available for learners to look back on, they can revisit earlier material once their skills and knowledge have progressed, gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts.

There’s great efficiency too. Now that one course has been created, it’s simple to duplicate that course and tweak the content for different learners and clients. Through using the Nimble platform AJ Stirrup are now able to provide different versions of similar content for both senior learners and for managers, developing a common language and understanding throughout the business with slightly tailored content in each different version.

Andrew Stirrup is the founder and lead consultant of AJ Stirrup. He has built up great experience delivering face-to-face training with teams on how to improve their workplace culture, and to help employees understand themselves and work better with each other. Over the years he’s coached senior leaders and entire teams, encouraging them to self-reflect and to tweak their habits within a team to get to where they want to be. And it has worked; he’s enjoyed seeing teams get the results they want, and he loves meeting new people and helping them make positive changes through working on these projects.

Facing a challenge

Prior to March 2020 all of AJ Stirrup’s client engagements were carried out in person. Then along came Covid-19. Like so many businesses, Andrew was forced to find ways to continue to serve his clients during lockdowns. Elearning had never been a priority before, but it quickly became a serious option and a way for AJ Stirrup to ‘get to market’ differently.

AJ Stirrup had been working successfully with a group of senior leaders in one organisation using their traditional face-to-face sessions. The organisation asked for the training to be rolled out to include more of their managers, and then lockdowns began! AJ Stirrup wanted to find a way to continue with their commitment to the project, but they felt that a series of video calls alone wouldn’t quite offer the quality of learning they were looking for. The search was on to find a solution!

Can elearning work for coaching?

Developing an elearning offer wasn’t the first port of call. But as you might expect from someone who spends their working life coaching teams to deal with challenges, Andrew took the challenge head-on to come up with a solution that would give his client what they needed.

After using a free trial of Nimble Author, Andrew played around with putting the content he knows so well into the elearning format. He quickly began to realise its real potential, and went on to develop a leadership programme made of seven different course modules.

Your DISC Flow

The first element of the online programme covers the DISC model, a personal development tool designed to improve communication and build stronger relationships. It describes four styles of behaviour that individuals within a team might have; these are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. By learning more about your own behavioural preferences and the preferences of others, you can adapt to create stronger, more effective and trusting relationships both inside and outside your business.

With no previous experience of elearning Andrew got to work, creating an incredible 67 videos and associated resources to make the course. All he needed was a platform that would enable him to convert his content and expertise into a workable format that his clients would find easy to use.

This process led Andrew to review and reshape the best way to present his content; and helped him to identify new opportunities for how he could make it more accessible for more people – not just during lockdown but into the future!

The benefits of blended learning

Blended learning describes when learning occurs across different formats. It’s often used to describe when classroom sessions and online training are used together to deliver a course, but in reality there are a huge range of formats that can be combined; mentoring, short videos, elearning courses, coaching sessions… the list goes on!

The elearning course Your DISC Flow was created with the intention of always being delivered with coaching elements, whether face-to-face or video calls.

By including open questions as the learners progress though the course, users can reflect as they go and write responses in an open text box format. Then, using Nimble LMS, AJ Stirrup are able to see those written responses, and the next time they have a video call they can really personalise the learning and make sure it is highly relevant to the individuals and team.

Traditionally, when running all the training during extended face-to-face sessions, the learning of the theory and the self-reflection would all happen together – it can be challenging to remember and retain everything that is shared. By separating these out more, learners have time to digest the material. So that when they do get that face-to-face time, the coaching becomes targeted to their needs.

Another advantage of using elearning is that clients are able to go back and revisit the content time and again, as they apply their learning and implement changes. This makes it easier to ‘join the dots’ between what they learned and what they actually do in their day to day role.

This delivery model of elearning combined with coaching calls has been very successful. The judges of the 2022 Nimble Awards were very impressed with the design and delivery of the elearning course, saying:

“Content is well organised into topics with clear signposting throughout. Excellent use of intros and summaries with clearly stated and well-laid out learning objectives which are action-orientated and wholly relevant to the course. Great use of video and visual elements, interspersed with well-themed imagery. Impactful layouts and very easy to read. Well-pitched for the target audience – plenty of interactions to keep the audience engaged.”

Planning for the future

Well, now it’s up and running, was elearning really just a temporary fix for difficult times, or has some new potential been discovered?

The most important finding has been that it works! Feedback has been positive, with people reporting that they are working better together, feeling more engaged, and having a better mood within teams in the business that used the blended learning.

AJ Stirrup realised there are huge benefits to be had from the blended learning delivery model. The elearning elements make it much more flexible for timings; organisations don’t need to book out their team for a whole day of training, because they can access the learning in chunks of time where it fits around existing workloads, and Andrew can be virtually in two places at once, as the learning can be delivered across different organisations at the same time!

As the online learning is available for learners to look back on, they can revisit earlier material once their skills and knowledge have progressed, gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts.

There’s great efficiency too. Now that one course has been created, it’s simple to duplicate that course and tweak the content for different learners and clients. Through using the Nimble platform AJ Stirrup are now able to provide different versions of similar content for both senior learners and for managers, developing a common language and understanding throughout the business with slightly tailored content in each different version.

Andrew Stirrup is the founder and lead consultant of AJ Stirrup. He has built up great experience delivering face-to-face training with teams on how to improve their workplace culture, and to help employees understand themselves and work better with each other. Over the years he’s coached senior leaders and entire teams, encouraging them to self-reflect and to tweak their habits within a team to get to where they want to be. And it has worked; he’s enjoyed seeing teams get the results they want, and he loves meeting new people and helping them make positive changes through working on these projects.

Facing a challenge

Prior to March 2020 all of AJ Stirrup’s client engagements were carried out in person. Then along came Covid-19. Like so many businesses, Andrew was forced to find ways to continue to serve his clients during lockdowns. Elearning had never been a priority before, but it quickly became a serious option and a way for AJ Stirrup to ‘get to market’ differently.

AJ Stirrup had been working successfully with a group of senior leaders in one organisation using their traditional face-to-face sessions. The organisation asked for the training to be rolled out to include more of their managers, and then lockdowns began! AJ Stirrup wanted to find a way to continue with their commitment to the project, but they felt that a series of video calls alone wouldn’t quite offer the quality of learning they were looking for. The search was on to find a solution!

Can elearning work for coaching?

Developing an elearning offer wasn’t the first port of call. But as you might expect from someone who spends their working life coaching teams to deal with challenges, Andrew took the challenge head-on to come up with a solution that would give his client what they needed.

After using a free trial of Nimble Author, Andrew played around with putting the content he knows so well into the elearning format. He quickly began to realise its real potential, and went on to develop a leadership programme made of seven different course modules.

Your DISC Flow

The first element of the online programme covers the DISC model, a personal development tool designed to improve communication and build stronger relationships. It describes four styles of behaviour that individuals within a team might have; these are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. By learning more about your own behavioural preferences and the preferences of others, you can adapt to create stronger, more effective and trusting relationships both inside and outside your business.

With no previous experience of elearning Andrew got to work, creating an incredible 67 videos and associated resources to make the course. All he needed was a platform that would enable him to convert his content and expertise into a workable format that his clients would find easy to use.

This process led Andrew to review and reshape the best way to present his content; and helped him to identify new opportunities for how he could make it more accessible for more people – not just during lockdown but into the future!

The benefits of blended learning

Blended learning describes when learning occurs across different formats. It’s often used to describe when classroom sessions and online training are used together to deliver a course, but in reality there are a huge range of formats that can be combined; mentoring, short videos, elearning courses, coaching sessions… the list goes on!

The elearning course Your DISC Flow was created with the intention of always being delivered with coaching elements, whether face-to-face or video calls.

By including open questions as the learners progress though the course, users can reflect as they go and write responses in an open text box format. Then, using Nimble LMS, AJ Stirrup are able to see those written responses, and the next time they have a video call they can really personalise the learning and make sure it is highly relevant to the individuals and team.

Traditionally, when running all the training during extended face-to-face sessions, the learning of the theory and the self-reflection would all happen together – it can be challenging to remember and retain everything that is shared. By separating these out more, learners have time to digest the material. So that when they do get that face-to-face time, the coaching becomes targeted to their needs.

Another advantage of using elearning is that clients are able to go back and revisit the content time and again, as they apply their learning and implement changes. This makes it easier to ‘join the dots’ between what they learned and what they actually do in their day to day role.

This delivery model of elearning combined with coaching calls has been very successful. The judges of the 2022 Nimble Awards were very impressed with the design and delivery of the elearning course, saying:

“Content is well organised into topics with clear signposting throughout. Excellent use of intros and summaries with clearly stated and well-laid out learning objectives which are action-orientated and wholly relevant to the course. Great use of video and visual elements, interspersed with well-themed imagery. Impactful layouts and very easy to read. Well-pitched for the target audience – plenty of interactions to keep the audience engaged.”

Planning for the future

Well, now it’s up and running, was elearning really just a temporary fix for difficult times, or has some new potential been discovered?

The most important finding has been that it works! Feedback has been positive, with people reporting that they are working better together, feeling more engaged, and having a better mood within teams in the business that used the blended learning.

AJ Stirrup realised there are huge benefits to be had from the blended learning delivery model. The elearning elements make it much more flexible for timings; organisations don’t need to book out their team for a whole day of training, because they can access the learning in chunks of time where it fits around existing workloads, and Andrew can be virtually in two places at once, as the learning can be delivered across different organisations at the same time!

As the online learning is available for learners to look back on, they can revisit earlier material once their skills and knowledge have progressed, gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts.

There’s great efficiency too. Now that one course has been created, it’s simple to duplicate that course and tweak the content for different learners and clients. Through using the Nimble platform AJ Stirrup are now able to provide different versions of similar content for both senior learners and for managers, developing a common language and understanding throughout the business with slightly tailored content in each different version.