Conference Agenda

As the world faces increasingly complex and interconnected challenges and problems, we need leaders who can confidently lead their organisations, teams, and communities through periods of turbulence and change. As the level of public service expenditure becomes increasingly tighter and as resources available become more rationalised (including those who work in and for public service agencies), the place and role of purposeful, aligned and engaging public service leadership becomes even more of an imperative. We suggest that public service leaders need to be highly attuned to their environment and their people, and first and foremost, themselves, their personal values, orientations, and behaviours. We suggest that organisations and communities will be hampered in terms of their development and futures if their leaders merely follow prescriptive, rule bound, limited, and limiting management practices. We suggest that for leadership that makes an impact on positive change and development in organisations and/communities, leaders need to cultivate a highly attuned level of self-awareness and self-consciousness which is a prerequisite to learning, which itself is a cornerstone to leadership effectiveness.

We strongly advocate the concept of the ‘learning leader’ and ‘engaged followership’. Further, we suggest that leaders who can ‘genuinely learn’ and ‘learn genuinely’ can grow and develop much needed capabilities, orientations, and aptitudes, all of which enable leaders to not only survive challenging times but to become more confident and capable in navigating their organisations, followers, and communities forward through uncertain and rapidly changing contexts.

Building on the work of learning theorists like Argyris and Schön (1978), Kolb (1984), Revans (1980), Pedler (2012), and others, we have developed, in the context of leadership development, a learning framework that reconceptualises concepts of learning and change and offers two revised models (one of learning and one of change). We would suggest that these serve as powerful and tested frameworks for enabling leaders to reimagine their purpose, role, and practice.

We are seeking to move beyond a presentation of the frameworks and analysis of the approach at a theoretical level only. As such, we propose to run a practical workshop that aims to introduce participants to the concept of a Learning Leader and its relevance to contemporary public service organisations and/community leadership and share with participants two diagnostic frameworks and tools to help them reflect on their understanding of their own leadership practice and capacity and capability to lead others through periods of change and crises. These tools and frameworks have been tried and tested and very well received as part of leadership programmes for a variety of organisations and groups including the Ethiopian public service, university Course Leaders, and mentees on the London Higher mentorship programme.

This workshop would be of relevance to senior leaders in public service organisations who are interested in developing a deeper understanding of their leadership contribution to their organisations and to the wider community. We would particularly welcome those who value reflective based learning as a tool for self-insight and development.

Practical Implications

Each participant will be given the results of a diagnostic questionnaire which they can use as the basis to identifying leadership behaviours for leading their organisations, teams and/or communities.

Originality/Value

We believe this approach is innovative, both conceptually and as a ‘tool’ that can be applied in practice.