I attended an interesting and though provoking seminar this week on Leadership in the Public Sector in Scotland.  It was hosted at the Scottish executive by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council).  There were some excellent speakers and I was particularly influenced by Prof. Keith Grint and his input on “tame and wicked problems” and his typology of problems, power and authority model.

“the demands of collaborative leadership and partnership working in the face of wicked problems requires, leaders, universities business schools and consultants to work together…”

There was also reference to “the ten most important moonshots” (Hamel, 2009)  on the journey from Management 1.0 to Management 2.0  during Graeme Martin’s presentation , which included;

“Redefine the work of leaders so that they are not seen as grand visionaries, all –seeing decision makers and disciplinarians but architects and facilitators of employee collaboration”

“fully embed the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems”

Reconstruct management’s philosophical foundations to be adaptable, innovative, inspiring and socially responsible, as well as operationally excellent”

All very relevant to the Public Sector

You can see the rest of the content at the ESRC site .

The first cohort of Transformational Leadership has started and completed the first two stages with another under way. This is an exciting new programme and I am enjoying being part of this new development for business group and unit managers within the authority. It uses a variety of experiential and outdoor learning activities linked with action based learning sets to allow EL management ( @ 120 Managers in 8 cohorts) to explore not only the necessary transactional skills for management but the behavioural actions and qualities for leadership. Linked to a behavioural qualities framework (The East Lothian Way) delegates will have an opportunity to challenge and develop their own leadership.

The course ( ½ day Launch meet, 2 day residential and 4 action learning sets – Challenge and Change) content and structure and delivery style has always difficult to set. We considered many different styles of learning when looking at the design milieu and the honest and open feedback from the course delegates so far will help us continue to shape and ensure we hit the target. The main influences in design has been the work carried out by people within the region involved in the challenge for change working groups as a result of the recent management conferences.

These last few days after the first residential we (facilitators and staff – a mix of internal i.e. ELC, private (Forum Interactive) and voluntary sector ( VDEL./MOBEX) have been reflecting on the course delivery and how we can continue to improve the content, pace, structure, learning transfer and impact. Future feedback (it carries forward six months after the delegates attend the residential) will keep coming in and we are keen to add and develop creative and exciting evaluation techniques to match a unique and challenging programme.

I intend to post more information on the process as the programme progresses and runs through to 2010.

This awesome picture posted by an old University Colleague who is exploring new cave systems in China inspired this post and title on filling the gaps.

This week I attended the active outdoors network in East Lothian. It was great to see the excellent presentation by Juliet Robertson. It really highlighted the excellent work with early years children that Juliet has witnessed and been involved in.

As well as showing us some inspiring examples of practice it highlighted again the benefits for all of us not just early years of spending time in green space.

It’s always great to talk with others who are passionate about the use of the outdoors but we can often be guilty of selling something to each other that we are all really sold on. So the question is how do we make sure we don’t just become a talking shop? Possible answers might be;

• Identify the gaps in provision in EL
• Decide on a clear strategy targets
• Form action focused work groups to deal with them i.e. a funding focus group, curriculum, etc
• Identify key “change people” & Invite them
• Examine National examples of good practice - How did they achieve it?
• Identify barriers and let AFWG’s work towards developing solutions.
• Develop partnerships (internal & external) to deliver

In a way forming Working groups not unlike those created from the Challenge for Change conferences that have been successfully tackling Leadership, customer service, Employee Reviews etc.

We should also not forget to  take time to celebrate the good work already going on !!

I was reading Ollie Bray’s blog this afternoon. Fantastic news for Ollie with his new secondment which as he points out will allow time to have some accelerated learning and prepare him for his goal of headship Ollie I’m sure will be missed around East Lothian.

Speaking of secondment I also had to clear my desk pack up  as from last week I have moved on from the Outdoor Education Service in East Lothian for a short Secondment (until 2010) within the region with the Corporate Health Safety and Development Team (possibly soon to be known as Organisational Learning?).

As an Employee Development Advisor I will be completing continuing work working with the team to promote and work on the Transformational Leadership Programme within East Lothian, working on an employee engagement project, The East Lothian Way and also the next Challenge for Change manager’s conference in October/November.

This is an exciting opportunity to further develop the use of Experiential and Outdoor Learning within the field of Management Development and its use in the East Lothian learning arena. Something I have always been passionate about.  I appreciate that using experiential learning is nothing new, it’s used widely by various agencies within EL, however these projects are exiting and perhaps ambitious because what will make them different is the focus is on behavioural qualities as opposed to technical process and task based skills. The Transformational Leadership Project has also connections with the wider development of East Lothian by linking Leadership behaviour and links it with the EL core priorities and the Single Outcome Agreement. This link will be  important as time and time again in Public Sector studies there is evidence that Leadership is not always driving innovation and performance, it often happens despite it. It’s not that I see it as that in East Lothian in fact my contact with leaders managers and staff within EL has been very positive – there is clearly a lot of talent in this area. That is why the project  (like the First Steps to Leadership Educational based programme) is mainly staffed and developed within the authority, as it will allow managers from different work environments to come together and enhance their own leadership learning.

Exciting times indeed. In this excellent opportunity for personal growth (east Lothian …a space to grow ), but I will miss the involvement with young people in EL working in the outdoor environment.

Last year I atteneded the East Lothian Active Outdoor Event at Carberry Tower. Helen Bruce from ELC has been in touch with those who attended and showed interest in setting up a network and notes;

Following the very successful Active Outdoors event which was held last October there was considerable interest in keeping the momentum going by setting up an Active Outdoors Network.

It was suggested the purpose of this network would be to : 
·  promote ways of being active in the outdoors in East Lothian 
·  promote the health message to providers of outdoor physical activity 
·  increase  the interchange of ideas and issues between groups 
· provide opportunities for networking and influencing 
· develop training opportunities where appropriate

There wll also be a talk by Juliet Robertson on “early Years and the outdoors ” at the first forum meeting on the 1st April. Juliet has made comments on this blog in the past so I am looking forward to hearing her presentation. 

This network is just another example of how East Lothian values it’s outdoor learning opportunities and the benefits they bring to the wider community.

The image above is from a friend who runs the Social Networking Company and they highlight just how imporant and emphasise the power of networks;

Did You Know There are 24 Types of Real World Social Network?
Social networks can be hierarchies, formal networks, informal, operational, strategic, or personal. These networks can also be internal to companies or external. And of course they can be real world or online. 

Life is not simple
An individual’s social networks are often nested, interconnect and overlap with other networks. Understanding these varied social networks and managing them unlocks huge hidden value in organisations.

It’s who you know…Important social networks within companies and across communities are often informal and unrecognised, yet they are often MORE important than official titles and structures - After all, it’s who you know (& who you trust) that drives performance - not just what you know.

If you check out the site don’t forget to check out the Frank Water link - an excellent example of social enterprise benefiting the wider, and in this case international community.

This week I set up a course information file in the East Lothian Council LearnNet e-learning system. It uses open Moodle open-source software. Once course delegates are registered they can access all the course information (and other learnNet course information), post discussions, and ask questions of the tutor.

For the Blokarting Local Award I included items such as the course syllabus, wind and weather web links and tide information so delegates can plan their fuure use - but it has capacity for much more. It’s first time I have used it but we hope to use it for posting all our CPD course information to East Lothian employees. It could become a huge asset. You need to be registered on a course to use however there is a screen shot below for a preview. Thanks to Stuart Hiles for helping us set it up. 

Alex Cargill popped into the office this week raving about D3O. It’s an intelligent material that although comfortable acts like armour when it suffers impact - check out this news clip and more info,videos, applications and pics at D30.

I gotta get one of those hats for skiing!

These could be amazingl useful for outdoor learning saftey and a whole lot more.

Last week I attended a D of E expedition Assessor Accreditation Course in Edinburgh.  There certainly has been a few changes within the scheme and how assessing will be carried out, and the role of assessor and supervisor is much clearer. The expedition now has 20 conditions that have to be met for groups to pass this stage of the award.

Much of the course was spent debating the relevance and practicalities of these elements. There were a few confusing messages (i.e. the award pushing for whole year groups to enter into the award and not allowing inevetable sausage factory exped techniques to occur as a result of capacity issues within a school?!) as this mass production of the award may make it difficult for certain schools to satisfy the 20 requirements.

I feel there has to be more flexibility in the delivery and assesing of expeditions but appreciate the Awards Office wants to promote certain standards. It may however result in schools turning to more student centered awards rather than this D of E outcome based syllabus.

Imagine how bad you would feel if a  fantastic group of enthusiastic teenagers were failed due to an over zealous assessor because they had not met one condition of the exped? There new found valuable enthusisaim for the outdoors severely dented! As commented at the course I feel we should always do our best as assessors and supervisors to ensure and facilitate a pass!

Thanks Alastair for recent link to the Guardian Science Blog. The article dispells the myth on heat loss (40-45%) from your head! Apparently the myth origins lie in a a flawed US army manual from an unvalidated experiment . The article that corrects the myth notes;

The face, head and chest are more sensitive to changes in temperature than the rest of the body, making it feel as if covering them up does more to prevent heat loss. In fact, covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other. If the experiment had been performed with people wearing only swimming trunks, they would have lost no more than 10% of their body heat through their heads, the scientists add.

Interesting as I have blindly followed that original figure of 40- 45% especially when teaching First Aid etc.

Learning all the time…

The article provides more info on the original experiment and also looks at some myths with regards to childrens behaviour and sugar!

Fantastic work at Innerwick grounds last Friday by the Landscape & Countryside Team meant further progress for the grounds for awareness plan for Innerwick Outdoor CentreGrounds. This has built on the amazing work already achieved by VDEL and  the CSV Innerwick make a difference volunteer day.

The team did some work as part of a training day based at  the centre. This included a new hazel fence, bird boxes, bat boxes, bird feeders and more planting. This further adds to connecting the centre to the immediate outdoor environment and continues to encourage bio diversity at the centre.

The good work continues and now the full recycling and compost facilities are present we hope to go forward with our Eco-Centre Award once we can sort out or energy problem. A turn it off campaign is helping but aging heaters continue to challenge us.