Leadership and Management Programmes

To enable you to make the most of the skills development workshop, it is important for you to complete this pre-work in advance:

Prepare:

• Either to be in the event, or out of it. You will have a series of practice exercises, which will culminate in a trio exercise in the second half of the afternoon. If you leave part-way through the event, it impacts on your learning, the learning of your trio, and the group overall. If you cannot commit to the whole day, let us know at earliest opportunity.

Reflect:

• On an issue you can discuss with a listening partner, for them to practice their skills when you do the exercises, and this will be reciprocated when you practice. Bring an issue that is real and matters to you for this to be an authentic exchange, but not the type of issue that you would take into your Adaptive Learning Set. You do not have the same amount of time in the exercises as you do in your Set. If the issue is too big, you will not get past the context  and your partner will not be able to leave you in a place to go back on with your day. So, take responsibility for what you will share and keep it succinct to get to the nub of the issue.

Watch:

Developing Emotional Intelligence (3 minutes 42 seconds) by MindToolsVideos.

Levels of Listening (8 minutes 25 seconds) by Otto Sharmer, the author responsible for Theory U and the U process, which is used in our Adaptive Learning Sets.

Review:

• Leading for the Future : listening
• Leading for the Future : core skill of questioning

Note:

• Your Group letter to complete evaluation at the end of this event. You can find your Group letter on your Group Teams channel, or if you are not sure, you can ask your Group facilitators.

Reflect on:

An issue you can discuss with a listening partner, for them to practice their skills when you work in breakout rooms, and this will be reciprocated when you practice. Bring an issue that is real and matters to you, for this to be an authentic exchange, but not your biggest issue because there will not be time for your partner to unpack all of that with you and leave you in a place to go back on with your day, as you would coming out of your Adaptive Learning Sets. Take responsibility for what you will share and won’t share. 

If it is your preference to take notes on the slide pack, and to see the full agenda in advance, you can download the slides from the Resources section below in preparation for the Skills development workshop. This is optional and not a requirement.

In the skills development workshop, we practised core skills for the adaptive learning sets to be effective - which included emotional intelligence, suspending judgement, empathic and generative listening and open and curious questioning. We reflected that these skills are core to being able to lead adaptive change and being an effective leader.

Emotional Intelligence - To discover more, read:

Daniel Goleman's quote: ‘Emotional intelligence refers to a different way of being smart. EI is a key to high performance, particularly for outstanding   leadership. It’s not your IQ, but rather it’s how you manage yourself and your relationships with others’ 

Emotional Intelligence.pdf by CapitalNurse, who are jointly sponsored by Health Education England, NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Powerful questions

To discover more, read The Art of Powerful Questions: Catalyzing Insight, Innovation and Action by Eric Vogt, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, 2003, provided on the SPARC BC website (The Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia).

Collaborative dialogue

For ‘an easy-to-use method for creating a living network of collaborative dialogue around questions that matter in service to real work’, which is rooted in conversational leadership, see A Quick Reference Guide to Hosting World Cafe from The World Café Community Foundation, 2015.  

Go to Module 2