Paul Matthews

Author, executive, consultant and learning expert on a mission to help organisations develop through informal learning

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A brilliant L&D expert speaker who always gets great feedback. We asked Paul to step in for a keynote speaker who had to pull out at the last minute. Paul had less than 24 hours to prepare but was able to produce a great presentation that attracted a large audience. The delegates were very happy!

Tracy Shah, Director

Venture Marketing Group Limited

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Why you should book Paul Matthews for your next event

As a speaker, Paul’s key skill is in making ideas come alive with stories, ensuring audiences not only understand, but also have practical tools to implement and action change.
Paul is an expert in reducing complex theory down into straight forward concepts that anyone can use to achieve better results for their business or organisation

Non-binding request for Paul Matthews

Change the status quo with the keynotes of the top L&D thought leader

Keynote speaker Paul Matthews is Speaker, Author and Consultant who specializes in learning transfer, performance improvement, capability and informal learning. With experience in a range of industries from travel to engineering, holding senior positions in sales, service and operations. Paul is the perfect addition to an event to help your organization to unlock the power of informal learning and learning in the workplace.

Paul Matthews expertise in workplace learning takes him to conferences and corporate events across the world. He covers a wide variety of learning-based topics, but in particular informal learning, learning transfer, performance consultancy and how Learning and Development can help businesses achieve their targets.

From his experience and knowledge, Paul has authored ‘Informal Learning at Work: How to Boost Performance in Tough Times’ and ‘Capability at Work: How to Solve the Performance in Tough Times’. His latest book ‘Learning Transfer at Work: How to Ensure Training >> Performance’ is proving to be another must read. He works directly with organisations such as Santander, GSK and Google as well as many public sector organisations in the UK.

Paul also shares his experience modernising training in the care sector. More specifically, his work with NHS Trust in the UK adopting a digital platform for their healthcare workers’ qualification and professional development.

Originally from New Zealand, his practical approach typifies the Kiwi can-do attitude and focus on workable solutions. Paul’s last corporate role was as a Director for a NASDAQ quoted IT Company. He set up his own leadership and management consultancy firm People Alchemy Ltd in 1999 in the UK, and now develops online performance support and learning platforms.

Customer Reviews

Tracy Shah, Director Venture Marketing Group Limited

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your session last week and to compliment you on your excellent facilitation. It demonstrated what I have sometimes thought but found hard to articulate – it is the space between words that actually creates meaning – not the ‘absolute’ meaning of a word. Letting us roam freely and then having the dexterity to bring back some focus was truly admirable. Difficult concept to sell of course – most business managers would roll their eyes, but in fact would all benefit from just such musing, from time to time.

Karen Maxwell - Leadership & OD Consultant KMC Ltd

His message has clarity. Paul takes a very no-nonsense approach and explains complex ideas with ease. His talks inspire and invigorate the audience, encouraging L&D towards accuracy, transparency and true collaboration.

Samina Anwar Head of Learning & Development Programmes

I saw Paul speak tonight and he was superb. He clearly knows his stuff inside out and I would recommend him unreservedly based on my personal experience of how he delivers his knowledge.

Rory Murray - Delivery, Operations & Strategy Specialist (EMEA) National Grid

Keynotes

Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Smarter tech, same mistakes: Why learning still fails at the point of work

AI may be transforming the tools we use, but the core challenge in workplace learning hasn’t shifted an inch: learning only matters if it changes what people do. This keynote exposes the long-ignored elephant in the L&D room, learning transfer, and why decades of platforms, dashboards, and now AI haven’t solved it.

Paul cuts through the hype to explore what truly drives behaviour change at the point of work. He shows how technology can either strengthen this process or quietly sabotage it by outsourcing the thinking learners must do for themselves. The session offers a clear wake-up call: if organizational learning isn’t changing behaviour, it isn’t useful learning. And if technology isn’t supporting new habits in the workflow, it’s part of the problem.

This topic can be delivered as a traditional keynote or an interactive session.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

NHS digital transformation – implementing ePortfolios

We expect our nurses and healthcare workers to be trained, assessed, and qualified when we, or our families, need their services.

This presents a unique challenge for the NHS to track the required competencies to ensure staff are compliant, and to train and do observational assessments where required to achieve compliance. The obvious answer is a digital solution, but this needs to be implemented alongside stakeholder involvement and the right kind of comms for buy-in.

Paul’s keynote talks through the lessons learned from rolling out an ePortfolio system with several NHS Trusts in the UK, and the benefits of getting not just the software platform right, but also the implementation.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Learning Transfer and Workflow Learning

For all the great work we do in the classroom, research shows that only a small amount of the information delivered gets used effectively back in the workplace. That's a problem!

In this keynote, Paul shares how to put a ‘wrapper’ around your classroom event so the event itself is more effective, and the learning is transferred back to the workplace and ‘operationalised’. This is how to make sure your training stays alive after the classroom, and generates the benefits you, and your sponsor, are looking for.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Performance Consultancy

Learning & Development can save money by understanding the role of performance consultancy and making sure they don’t make the common mistake of confusing it with learning consultancy. Performance consultancy acts as a filter to stop the common practice of L&D working on learning programmes that are unlikely to solve the original business problem.

In this interesting keynote, speaker Paul Matthews shares how to make sure that L&D is working on (and spending money on) the right stuff, not just whatever someone asks for. To sum it up; do less, save money, and get better results!

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

The Brand of Learning and Development

What do the people in your organisation say about L&D when you are not in the room? What they say is your brand, your reputation, and it has a huge impact on how effective you can be, and how easy it is to get budget.

Paul shares a progressive approach to L&D that will change your brand into a trusted business partner as well as the relationship between your ‘brand’ and 70:20:10.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Informal learning

We think we know how important informal learning is; that learning we get through experience, observation, collaboration and social exchanges. But do we? Most L&D professionals still don’t pay anywhere near enough attention to the huge amount of learning that happens while people are doing their jobs – in the workflow.

We know about informal learning, but few organisations leverage its power. Luckily, Paul has the tools and strategies you need to implement informal learning. This keynote is perfect for executives, leaders and managers.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

L&D strategy

There are three things missing from most L&D strategies. Paul calls them the elephants in the room, ignored, but potentially dangerous. They are: Performance Consultancy, Informal Learning, and Learning Transfer.

In this keynote, Paul explains how they tend to act together as well as practical ways to start dealing with them. Oh, and of course he reveals the fourth sneaky elephant!

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Onboarding

The first few days and weeks of a new employee’s relationship with their employer are critical for setting things up for a happy future for both parties. There are several stages to the process and each stage needs to be handled well to engage the new employee and satisfy their needs at each stage.

In this keynote, the audience will learn the secrets to great onboarding - the kind that truly makes a difference to someone! This keynote is ideal for leaders, HR and onboarding teams.

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Keynote by Paul Matthews:

Learning workflow solutions to achieve sustainable behaviour change

Why do we invest in developing people? We want them to change the way they do their jobs in order to achieve business goals. To deliver the required behaviour change, we MUST use a learning workflow solution.

In this keynote, Paul shares the recipe for effective and sustained behaviour change and the concept of a learning workflow. He then explains how to design and implement them and, most importantly, how to measure behavioural results.

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