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ANNEX FIVE: CASE STUDY 4: SENIOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT ACROSS SECTORS USING ACTION LEARNING
Action learning sets have been used to provide facilitated support to senior managers drawn from different segments of the public sector - local authorities, housing associations, health agencies and charities. These agencies are often working in partnerships together, but typically rarely have a chance to explore each other's worlds, to surface hidden assumptions and explore possible misinterpretations.
The group met six times over an eight month period. Amongst the group there were issues of promotion, redundancy, internecine board politics, severe budget cuts, and rapid organisational expansion - all the usual issues of public sector service delivery and management. Together the group explored:
- The pressure that a difficult voluntary board exerts on a chief executive of a small organisation
- The effective influencing strategies needed by a senior manager with a board of elected members
- The differences in power bases and working cultures
- The imperceptible development of a leadership style influenced by context and decision type
- How the culture of organizations affects working relationships
- The use and abuse of power.
One participant was struggling with her reluctant voluntary management board, and wanted them to approve a merger with a larger organisation. The other participants did not give her advice, but asked her questions about her working relationship with the chair, what developmental feedback she has had, how she has been managed, auditing regimes, processes and procedures, and the balance between action and lobbying. She was left with different questions from the one she started with. These emerged as the rest of the group listened attentively, noticing for themselves where the disparities in their situations might or might not be helpful.
In an action learning set, each participant has the opportunity to stop and think, and to reflect out loud about their organisational issues; this becomes increasingly focussed as the group grows in respect for each other. The intelligent questions that arise from other participants aid each of the set members to clarify their own thinking and develop new perspectives. The effect is that action is taken on new and creative solutions back at work. This approach is in stark contrast to formal meetings which seem to endlessly discuss problems and issues and strive for quick resolution. In an action learning set people have time to grapple with the complexity of partnership working - gaining an understanding of each other's professional practices, and the culture that emanates from these.
Through these processes, participants begin to value their taken-for-granted work cultures: for some it was the well-developed and very sound procedures and information gathering systems that allow for robust decision making. For another, it was effective managerial supervision which gives a solid understanding of his own skill base, and a third valued their extensive
opportunities for networking. These insights helped to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of their part of the sector and to build new strategies for effective organisational action and partnership working, making a positive difference to the leadership of organisations.
For more information: contact Jackie Draper. jackie.draper@dsl.pipex.com
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