An Evaluation of a Public Sector Leadership Development Programme:

Leadership in times of Austerity

Report for UFHRD: Research Honorarium Middlesex University

2012 – 2013/14

Dr Mary Hartog, Chris Rigby and Dr Doirean Wilson,

Middlesex University Business School

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Contents Page

Summary 3 - 4

Introduction and Background 5 - 7

Theoretical and Practice 8 - 10

Methodology 11 - 13

Findings and Discussion 14 - 37

Conclusions 38 - 41

Recommendations 42 - 43

References 44

Appendix 45 - 47

Figure 1 7

Figure 2 10

Figure 3 37

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Summary

The research project and context

The aim of this evaluation was to reflect and explore the experience and impact of a

leadership development programme for a group of managers from a London Borough,

Children and Young People’s Partnership. 48 managersparticipated in the programmein

three cohortsbetween June 2010 and May 2011.A further cohort took part in 2012. A total

of circa 60 managers have since graduated with a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and

Management. The programme was designed and delivered in a partnershipwith Hay Group

and Middlesex University. The context for this programme was organisational change

necessitated by austerity in public service finances. The leadership programme aimed to

help managers deal with change and develop their leadership effectiveness.

The research questions

The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of the Leadership Development

Programme. On the basis of feedback from UFHRDwenarrowed the focus of the research

from our original six questions to three core questions listed below, helping us to sharpen

our focus of enquiry around the leadership development programme and its evaluation.

What is the interplay between the context of the cuts, change and uncertainty in the

public sector and the programme?

How do participants talk about and reflect on their experience of the programme in

relation to their leadership skills and effectiveness?

What is the impact of the programme and its capacity to add value to the

organisation and the leadership of programme participants?

Findings

Austerity has shaped the context for learning and leadership development.

The experience of the programme has been positive for participants and in

particular, the role of the action learning sets have provided a safe space for

reflection and the containment of anxieties in the midst of turbulence and change.

The programme has added value to individual managers and their work teams, and

in particular, it has helped participants in crafting and clarifying what is important

about leadership to them in their work.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank UFHRD for awarding us a small grant which we have used to fund

this research project. It has been particularly helpful in paying for transcribing interviews

and bringing participants in the organisation together for focus group discussions. We would

like to thank our clientorganisation for supporting this project, especially the Workforce

Development Manager who has facilitated access to participants and the organisation. Last

but not least, we are especially grateful to the participants who have participated in this

research and who have shared their experience and stories with us.

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INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Between June 2010 and May 2011, 48 managers from a London Borough Children and

Young People’s Partnership took part, as three cohorts, in a leadership development

programme designed and delivered by Hay Group and Middlesex University. In 2012 a

further cohort took part, resulting in a total of circa 60 managers graduating with a

Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Management. This evaluation focuses on the

experience and impact of this programmefor the first three cohorts.

“The aim of this programme is to provide leaders and managers an opportunity to enhance

their core leadership and management skills and competencies, share best practice, develop

their ability to achieve effective performance from the children and young people’s

workforce and foster good working relationships for effective collaborative working. It is

hoped that this will help secure a competent, confident and strong team of leaders and

managers across the children’s services partnership, with the relevant skills and knowledge

to drive change and lead integrated services and practitioners from varied professional

backgrounds” ( Director of Children’s Service, 2010).

The organisational context for this programme has been challenging and remains so. This is

largely due to austerity measures reducing local government finances, resulting in budget

cuts both within the authority and to grant funding for voluntary sector project partners.

Austerity has led to the closure of some services, redundancies and organisational

restructuring and change. Additionally, significant change in the organisation has been at

the level of the senior team in the directorate. During the commissioning of this project

there was a change of director and deputy in the senior team. A number of senior

practitioners in the department also left. Later on, the senior team was joined by a new

head of Social Work.

In 2011/12, we worked with this newly established senior team to familiarise them with the

tools of the programme and to assist them in their development. All the members of this

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team have since left the authority or moved into other posts in the organisation. They were

replaced by new senior team in 2013.

In 2013 we were asked by the then head of social work, to provide follow up support to 16

of the graduates with responsibility for social work and family intervention work to further

facilitate their development and manage change. The follow up took the form of action

learning in small groups and one to one coaching. We are currently delivering the

leadership development programme for another 16 managers and a further 16 are due to

begin the programme shortly. We are now starting to work with the new senior team to

help the organisation move forward and embed the leadership development programme in

a broader HRD agenda. We are hopeful that lessons learned from this study will be carried

forward into this work.

Programme Design

The programme was designed with the following features: 360 Psychometric feedback of

individual leadership styles, a climate survey, a motives questionnaire and a series of

training and development workshops, delivered by Hay; Action learning sets and work

based assignments (including work based projects)were facilitated and supervised by

Middlesex University. We refer to this form of integrated learning based on an in-company

training and development programme, supported by academic provision as a ‘wrap around’

programme, leading to a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Management.

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Figure 1: Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Management Framework

Source: Hartog and Frame, in association with Rigby and Wilson (2013: Fig 29.1, pp.206)

The programme begins with a core three day workshop designed to help managers

understand the impact of their own behaviours and attitudes on others and help identify

ways of becoming more effective at work. The main focus here is to improve personal

effectiveness at work. The design of the programme aims to enable all participants to go on

a personal change journey through the provision of 360° feedback about their behaviours

from a selection of people in their team. It involves self assessment as well as other

people’s assessment and provides an opportunity to look at what has got to change and

how it will need to change to enable personal effectiveness.

As the diagram indicates the integrated design of the programme the action learning sets

underpin the workshop programme, with the action learning meetings spread across the life

of the programme and the three assignments linked to the three action learning

sets.Between four to sixparticipants were brought together in small peer groups to form

action learning sets.

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THEORY AND PRACTICE

How literature has informed the design and evaluation of this programme.

Following Revans (1983) we have utilised action learning to support the taught element in

the workshops, combining the benefits of ‘programme knowledge’ with ‘questioning

insight’, an important feature of the reflective process of inquiry that takes place in the

action learning set. The work based project serves as a vehicle for the development of the

individual participants in their leadership and management roles, giving them the

opportunity to apply and test out some of their knowledge and insights in their

practice.Building on Revans, Weinstein (1995) in her approach to action learning employs

theidea of ‘a journey of discovery and development’, in which the project serves to validate

the learning drawn from real work issues and challenges. We found this analogy useful to

share with the participants on the programme. We have coined our approach ‘Learning

from the real’ ibid, since our design for learning aimed to helpthe participants grapple with

the issues they brought to the learning sessions, addressing their individual and collective

leadership and management development needs, rather than the more traditional

classroom based teaching about leadership and management in the abstract.

Additionally we were informed by the approach to action learning of Vince and Martine

(1993) and Reynolds and Vince (2004), whose work highlights the organisation of reflection

as a collective endeavour, rather than solely the reflection of individuals. Moreover, their

approach supports a critical turn toward action learningutilising reflection to explore and

identifying the impact of power, politics and emotions on the practice of leadership and

management. This was helpful to some of our the action learning set conversations, as the

impact of austerity unleashed anger and emotional distress, our aim being to support and

help participants navigate the dilemmas and tensions they were experiencing in this volatile

political organisation environment.

With the participants we also shared Wenger’s (1998) theory of social learning and

communities of practice, particularly where team learning and collective responses to

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organisational change was needed. This seemed to us to be relevant to this work, since

social work is itself a distinct community of practice and how people become

professionalised in this area of work relies on the learning, meaning and identity that

emerges from this setting and what is taken for granted in this cultural milieu.

As part of our own journey of development and discovery, ourunderstanding of the public

sector context, through the work of Hoggett (2006), has been valuable. Hoggett reminds us

of the contested nature of public service and its purpose, where on the one hand, there is a

traditional ethos of public service and on the other, a tension created by the modernisation

agenda of economic efficiencies balanced against service and social justice. He cautions of

the danger of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’, highlighting the wicked and

intractable problems managers and leaders in public service face. This seems particularly

relevant to our study in the context of austerity. Picking up the theme of local government

as a contested space and the application and use of action learning in the public sector, the

work of Rigg and Richards (2006) has also helped us see how there is a contested weight of

expectations in the evaluation of action learning, in the extent to which it is regarded as a

performance or development activity, in other words, what carries more weight with the

various stakeholders, for example behaviour change or some other personal or leadership

development outcome.

One aspect of critical literature that has been insightful has been that of discourse theory as

applied to leadership development. Mabey (2012) in his review of leadership development

activity has served to broaden our understanding of this programme in how we now think

and talk about leadership developmentand the different expectations in respect of

itsdesign, purpose and evaluation.The four paradigm perspectives (which in their purest

form are incommensurable) enable us to see more clearly what the different elements of

the programme design are intended to do (or can contribute to). I will return to this in the

discussion of findings, as these perspectives may also provide a way of looking at what is

taking place in action learning sets.

Figure 2: Four Discourses of Leadership and Leadership Development

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Ford, Harding and Learmouth (2008) provide further insight and critique, using discourse

theory to critique leadership as a performative function that serves toshape the identity of

individuals and leadership itself. They regard the language of leadership as problematic and

point out that the very act of naming brings to life that which it describes. They remind us

thatleadership is itself a product of social construction that perpetuates the ‘great man

theory’ contributing to individual perceptions ofa heroic idealleadership of what leadership

should be, serving more as a fantasy than a reality, that can result in a form of psychic

anxiety in leaders and managers about their performance and identity as leaders as they are

pulled between the ideals of what leadership should look like and the wicked and

intractable problems of organisational reality. They argue that the uncritical design of many

leadership development programmesserve to reinforce and fuel this anxiety. Moreover,

they are critical of psychometric tools and caution us to be aware of their limitations,

arguing that they provide a narrow lens from which to reflect on, act and evaluate

leadership behaviours.

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Four Discourses of leader/ship & leadership development

(Mabey, 2012)

a prioriemergent

consensus

dissensus

Functionalist/ normative discourse

Interpretive Discourse

Dialogic Discourse

Critical Discourse

METHODOLOGY

Following the award of the honorarium from UFHRD and the feedback from the panel about

the scope of our research proposal we refined our focus of enquiry and methodology as

follows:

Aim:

To evaluate the impact of the Leadership Development Programme

Research Questions:

Q 1)What is the interplay between the context of cuts, change and uncertainty in the

public sector and the programme?

Q2) How do participants talk about and reflect on their experience of the

programme in relation to their leadership skills and effectiveness?

Q3)Whatis the impact of the programme and its capacity to add value to the

organisation and the leadership of participants?

The client undertook regular evaluation in the form of a feedback questionnaire distributed

to participants after each training workshop and action learning set meeting, enabling Hay

and Middlesex to make adjustments or improvements to sessions based on this feedback, as

the programme progressed. Additionally, the client collected periodic feedback at various

points during the programme to get an overview of participant reactions and perceived

value of the programme over a longer period. The overall impression and feedback given by

participants through the feedback given in response to the client questions suggested that

the programme had made for a positive experience. However, the programme was coloured

by the impact of the recession and the subsequent cuts imposed on local authority

expenditure and thus, we were keen to drill deeper, to understand more fully, the interplay

between the cuts and the programme and in particular, what value our contribution to the

programme made, specifically, the value of the action learning experience to the

participants.

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Research and evaluation in this project are linked. Whilst the research questions provide a

systematic framework of enquiry the overarching questions of evaluation help us reflect on

whether the programme has been a worthwhile intervention. In considering this we are

informed by Easterby- Smith’s (1994) model, the three functions of evaluation: ‘Prove,

Improve and Learn’, which ask the questions: 1) Has the programme delivered what it says it

is going to; 2)Where is there room for improvement;3) What is the learning from this

intervention. Our approach to evaluation is qualitative and developmental. To move

beyond the reactions of the questionnaire feedback sheets and to consider both individual

and organisational benefits from this programme over a longer time-span we have also

drawn on Hamblin’s (1974) model of‘Levels of Evaluation’ which builds on the immediacy of

feedback reactions from the training event to consider the impact on the individual their job

and the organisation.

Our methodological approach was qualitative using interviews and focus groups and

utilising thematic analysis. Additionally, we have further analysed our findings drawing on

discourse theory as applied to Leadership development (Mabey 2012). Applying discourse

theory has enabled us to think and talk more critically about leadership and leadership

development. Moreover, the multiple discourse perspectives have helped us reflect on the

design and evaluation of this intervention, and appreciate the tensions that stakeholder

expectations of this programme can be expected to deliver.

Research activity involved:

• One hour semi-structured interviews x 15

• One Focus group

• 2 interviewers

• Each interview was recorded then transcribed

• End of course evaluation questionnaires

• Reviewing participant assignments to assess impact of work based learning and

development during the programme.

• Informed consent obtained from participants

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The interview schedule was designed using the three areas of questions, which were also

used as a conversational guide in the focus group, and used later used in the process of

thematic analysis. Whilst the interviews and review of projects sampled have proved to be

useful methods for us in data gathering the focus groups have not added the same value.

However, scheduling the interviews proved challenging as staff were busy with key change

projects which expanded the time frame in which data was gathered. In hindsight, using the

same framework of questions as the interviews for the focus groups was not ideal,

compounded by the fact that one of the focus groups was scheduled on a day when

redundancy notices were handed out. This had an inevitable impact on participation and for

the conduct of that focus group as the discussion turned toward supporting

individualsrather than conducting an enquiry.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Summary of Findings

Question 1:

Exploring the interplay between the cuts and the programme our findings reveal how

redundancy and reorganisation has shaped the context for learning and leadership

development.

Emergent themes include:

Risk of Redundancy &How it Feels (1.1)

How People Reacted (1.2)

The Relationship Between Uncertainty and Anxiety (1.3)

Change, Loss and Consequences (1.4)

1.1 The Risk of Redundancy and How it Feels

The risk of redundancy and cuts affected staff both in the local authority and in partner

agencies. Particularly affected were youth services and non statutory children’s services,

including play groups and children’s centres that received funding through local government

grants. The first round of redundancies began with ‘at risk’ letters being sent to all staff in

the autumn of 2010. This coincided with the early part of the programme for cohort one,

creating a period of uncertainty before decisions were finally made about how the service

would be reorganised, which jobs would be lost and what and who would be left on the 31

March 2011.

With the exception of those working in core statutory social work teams, risk appeared to

be affecting everyone. The practice of issuing ‘at risk of redundancy’ letters to everyone

appeared to confirm this. This section draws out the sub themes under this heading.

Hopefulness and desperation

The data presents a picture of two sides to this experience of risk of redundancy, one where

there is a feeling of hopefulness and the other, one of desperation.

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Sponsorship and political support

Shaping the service was the vision of ‘early intervention’, a strategy for working

with‘troubled families’, known to the service and who can take up significant resources over

time. Early intervention is seen to be a cost effective way of saving monies in the long term

by intervening with these families early on to facilitate good parenting and prevent worst

case scenarios. The following quotations come from two managers whose teams were

involved with this work:

“So, over the period of the first six to nine months of the course, although it was

uncertain for my team, the situation was never as black as it was for others because

it was very high on the agenda for the director that putting in place a team of

people, practitioners working with families, was his vision for the future”.

“All of my team and myself were at risk of redundancy from early December...the

early intervention grant was coming to an end and we didn’t know the allocation” ...

“I think, I was relatively hopeful about my staff and their posts because I knew the

agenda had quite a high profile politically and locally, but there were no givens” ...”I

think all I could do was try and be hopeful without offering any promises because I

knew it would be about the local political agenda here and I knew that that is what

my team would be instrumental in operating...The MAGs was something our director

was very excited about”.

Dislocated and desperate

By contrast, another manager describes the experience between the moment of getting the

‘at risk’ letters and the point at which notification was given of having lost your job, as being

one of “dislocation”. She said:

“It felt as if we were on the edge of a precipice, just waiting to see what would

happen”; and she went on to say: “People’s lives were pulled apart. How would they

afford the mortgage? Would they get other jobs? How would they educate their

children? As well as looking for other jobsthey had to re-apply for their own jobs

and to fill in a million forms of application. It felt demeaning”. She described the

atmosphere as: “numb, desperate and grey”.

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A hierarchy of risk and cuts

Commenting on the political nature of the decisions one manger said “of course we would

never think there was a hierarchy or anything like that, but of course there was a hierarchy.

There was a definite hierarchy”. Confirming this view another manager said:

“the director was very, very keen that the CAF (Children & Families) and Early

Intervention, was the way the Children’s Services was moving”. However, the future

of Children’s Centres was not secure: “We knew there were Children’s Centres that

were going to be closing and they were young low paid staff and that was quite

difficult”. Referring to youth services she said “I work quite closely with colleagues in

the youth services and they were traumatically affected and it was hard to say

goodbye to people that we had worked with, specifically with staff who were

working with and supporting schools”.

On the programme the risk of redundancy was palpable

“Being on the course we were aware that some of those people wouldn’t have jobs

by the end of it. So, it (the risk of redundancy) was very much ‘there’ when I was

doing the course”.

Feelings about leadership

The context of risk and redundancy heightened feelings about how leadership was

experienced by both the managers themselves and their leadership relationship with their

teams. One manager described this as feeling she:

“Wasn’t being led very well”.

In the same vein another manager revealed that she had raised her need for leadership with

her manager:

“When I was doing the modules the staff felt comfortable but I didn’t from higher up

and I think that was my opportunity to say;“Well hang on a minute, it’s a two way

process here. You’ve got to give me something. You have to give me that leadership

and management as well. If I am not getting that, then how can I do it with my staff?

So, I was quite proud of myself”. The same manger had also expressed a desire to

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hear from her staff, and reflecting on a conversation she had with them said: “I am

not an ogre. I want to know how you are feeling, especially in this situation, please

talk to me”.

Caring and feeling cared for

Commenting on the need for reciprocity: to care and be cared for, this manager said:

“I am nothing without my team. Now, I can have an idea and think oh, I am

wonderful, I can go and do this but you can not do it without others. It is the mutual

‘I care, you care. If I look after you, will you look after me’? It has to be. You have to

fill up at the gas station. You have to be able to keep going and that is done by the

dynamic and keeping it healthy”.

Discussion

1.1. The Risk of Redundancy and how it feels

The risk of redundancy and its significant to the background of this leadership development

programme is supported by the evidence. The comments regarding those who felt and

experienced hopefulness and those who experience desperation would suggest that the

direction the organisation was taking in respect of early intervention and multi agency

teams was clear for some participants on the programme (clarity of vision from senior

leadership), whilst others felt much less clear about their future, with the most extreme

cases describing their feelings as being akin to being on the edge of a precipice. In the

context of organisational change there are winners and losers. Whilst government cuts

reduced the overall budget, political and strategic decisions about how to reorganise

services creating long term benefit for work with families through early intervention was the

way forward.

That the risk of redundancy was very much there during the programme certainly reflects

the climate that participants experienced and which we witnessed in our work with them.

That it is described as feeling palpableby one of the respondents conveys well the sense of

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uncertainty present in the organisation and alive to everyone whether they were to be

personally affected by redundancy or not.

Anger and loss provide an indication of the emotional climate that participants were

exposed to. The comments, not being well led and not being cared for, suggest that some

participants felt abandoned and left with adequate leadership during this process of change.

Linked to this one respondent uses the analogy of filling up at the gas station, which

indicates a need to address the capacity of individual leaders and managers to be resilient

and for senior leaders to provide support in building resiliency down the line.

1. 2. How People Reacted

That people reacted differently to the cuts and change taking place around them is perhaps

in itself not surprising. With winners and losers there are gains and losses and depending on

where you worked in the organisation or partnership, the experience could be very

different.

Business as usual

For some it was business as usual, as this manager describes:

“For me and my team it was business as usual, mainly, the usual turbulence, a few

posts that are hard to fill where you might have locums, and they change, but I had a

full team”.

Setting up new teams

Others were busy forming new teams and getting new projects up and running. Referring to

the distress of those around who were facing redundancy, one manager said:

“I had so much to do to be honest with you because I had to recruit this brand new

team... and write all the policies and procedures. I had to start this team from

scratch and I didn’t have time really to get bogged down in what was going on”.

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Concern for survival

For those at risk of redundancy their experience and preoccupation concerned survival

forthem-selves and for the service they were responsible for. As the following quotation

indicates, managers are pulled between their personal concerns and those for a service in

which they have invested a significant part of their professional lives and which may survive

in some shape or form, with or without them.

“So, it has been a nightmare year and the whole time you are thinking ‘will I have a

job’? You might have felt this yourselves (referring to the interviewers, who also

worked as tutors on the programme) ... I had to stop thinking about how this is

going to affect me and look at how it is going to affect the service and what does that

mean for the service and how are we going to fight to keep the services, regardless

of whether I am here or not, what is in the best interests of the service. It has been

so hard because you come back to yourself. Well you do, obviously, because you

think: ‘I’ve got a mortgage to pay, I‘ve got bills, what can I do to save my own job’?

So it has been a bit of a battle in- between what I can do for me and how I can

protect the service”.

Fighting for the service

Fighting for the service was a common response that came up in the action learning sets and

formed for a number of participants the topic and purpose of their practice project. (An

example is provided in a forthcoming book chapter, Hartog and Tomkins, 2014).

Being philosophical about finding another job

Being a qualified social worker provided some people witha greater sense of security that if

they were to be made redundant they had something tangible to fall back on.

“I’ve been through a lot of restructures in my years in local government and I’ve got

social work qualifications, so I felt, ’ well, if I lose my job, I will get some agency work

for a while and see what happen ... I think personally, I was quite philosophical and

tried not to let it get in my way”.

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Discussion

1. 2. How People Reacted

Even in times of change organisations business as usual continues to some degree. At least

for some this was the reality, even where it involved the setting up of new teams, such as

the multi agency teams (MAG’s). For these managers it was a matter of keeping their heads

down and getting on with the job. Others were concerned for survival. For some it was

keeping their own job, whilst for others, it was their service area or project, as well as

themselves that they were concerned to ensure survived the changes that were taking place

in the organisation. Thus, fighting for their part of the service became the primary concern

for some managers and leaders on the programme. For some qualified social workers the

prospect of losing their job was not necessarily a major cause for concern. Compared with

other staff they had more options, such as agency work. For others concern about how they

were going to pay their household bills and pay their mortgage was a major cause for

concern.

1.3. The Relationship BetweenUncertainty and Anxiety

Uncertainty about the cuts, whether funding would be found for projects, what the chances

of employment were for individual managers and their teams was significant. For some the

level of uncertainty fuelled deep personal anxieties that undermined their functioning and

performance in the workplace as the following quotation illustrates:

Will I be next?

Asked what was happening for her in the context of the cuts and being on the programme,

one manager described vividly how worried she was by the spectre of cuts and how it

played on her mind.

“I am not doing very well. My team isn’t doing well because where I though I was

spending time with them I am not spending time worrying about the impact that this

has had on me. Then of course worrying, ‘well, actually, if I am doing a really rubbish

job does that mean I am going to be cut next? ”... “It felt like the span of control of

the people I was managing was reducing. They were still employed; they were there

in the corporate centre, which made me feel like I wasn’t doing a very good job

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because they were being taken away and managed elsewhere. Of course, that was

happening across the organisation. It wasn’t about me and I see that now, but not at

the time”.

Empathy for others

Notwithstanding personal anxieties some felt able to show great empathy to others. One of

the voluntary sector managers spoke about her experience as though putting herself in the

shoes of her staff colleagues:

“I knew how I would feel. It made me think, well how would you feel in their

situation when you weren’t being told anything”...contrasting this feeling with her

own position of distress of not being able to participate in the interviews and

selection of her own staff because her own post was also subject to re-application

and appointment. “It was hard enough for me not being included in that interview

process and picking my staff and finding the right staff for the job”.

In this case was such that staff didn’t know, even if they were re-appointed, who they might

be working for or working with. What is striking here is that HR recruitment and selection

practices contribute to the levels of uncertainty and anxiety expressed, whilst following

procedures and processes designed to ensure equality and fairness yet failing to address the

feelings of staff already in distress.

Anxiety in the collective consciousness

In one interview a manager revealed how she doubted her own sanity in this period and

described anxiety as a product of the collective unconscious.

“I am not entirely sure that I was that sane during that period. I think you get caught

up, unless you are very careful, in the collective consciousness, the anxiety”.

Discussion

1.3. The Relationship between Uncertainty and Anxiety

The uncertainty of not knowing whether you were going to be made redundant fuelled

anxiety in individuals and the organisation, with some individuals wondering‘am I going to

be next’?In some cases, the re-organisation and moving of staff to other areas of the service

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compounded this anxiety. Some reported how they felt for others facing the prospect of

redundancy. The evidence suggests anxiety had permeated the collective consciousness of

the organisation and getting caught up in thisor some individuals had an impact on their

sense of security and well being.

1.4. Change, Loss and Consequences

The cuts invariably resulted in considerable change which affected people in different ways.

Inevitably in redundancy situations people lose their jobs. In this case, it was not solely that

individuals were leaving but that whole teams and distinct parts of the service were to

go.The following is a flavour of how some of the managers described and talked about loss.

Making People Redundant

“So, we did have to make a lot of people redundant. All of us went through a

restructure and we all had to reapply for our jobs, even the Children’s Centre staff.

So, it was obviously a very difficult time that we were going through”. This manager

told us: “When I first started the programme there was 20 of us, now there is nine”.

Losing relationships and professional contacts

A manager working in the voluntary sector said:

“Working with the teenage pregnancy strategy the whole SRE team just went. A lot

of the arts side here in the partnership also went. The youth workers were

decimated. The key people are there. I have good relationships with them and have

over many years, but there is this undercurrent of loss and if you don’t deal with that

loss, grief can be very destructive in many ways” ... I am saddened that I’ve lost

relationships that I had built up, which I have not been able to maintain either

because they just felt too tender or because I have not had the time and never

thought I would be in that situation. That you would know where people go, that you

would maintain contact and that continuity”.

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Workload and stress in the system

Even where the cuts did not directly fall there was evidence of stress in the system. One

manager whose team was not directly affected by the cuts recalled what it was like for him

and the team he worked in:

“I wasn’t affected by the redundancies or the cuts. It seemed to have bypassed my

team that I work in. We work in Safeguarding, so I guess that is deemed a high

priority area and the cuts didn’t touch it at all............In terms of what was going on

for me and my team at that time, I remember it being quite a hectic period. I think

we were going through a period of change, some staff were leaving so that made

things more pressurised in terms of workloads. It was a little bit of a stressful period

to start a training programme. That is how I remember it”.

Challenges for day to day working

On a practical note, a real challenge for day to day workingdescribed by managers was that

of staff turnover affecting continuity of work and as highlighted earlier, relationships:

“ You are dealing with that churn of people...you might have a group, people who

are part of a working team and then the next meeting down the line, say three

months later, they are not there. So, there is an immediate challenge for day to day

working”. Another reflected on the challenge of changing their place of work and

moving into a corporate environment from an old building based in the local area:

“So we moved to The Business Park ...... which was paperless and making huge use

of technology, in a way that all of us had not been used to before... people

complained about it, the building feeling anonymous and impersonal”.

Discussion

1.4. Change, Loss and Consequences

One might describe the sense of loss as systemic. It would colour the learning for many

participants on the leadership programme. Redundancies and re-organisation meant for a

number of the participants they had to reapply for their jobs. One of the consequences of

change was the loss of working relationships and professional contacts such as the example

of the teenage pregnancy services. The youth service was particularly hit hard by

23

redundancies, some would say even decimated. Perhaps not surprisingly, work loads

transferred to others during this period. Staff turnover, described as: the churn of people

had a knock on effect on teams such as, safeguarding, who were protected from

redundancy.

Summary of Findings Question 2:

How participants talked about and reflected on their experience of the programme in

relation to their leadership skills and effectiveness.

Emergent themes include:

That the 360° feedback on leadership styles along with the three core development

days on strategy and change had the greatest impact in participants learning about

leadership and their own leadership styles (2.1)

The role of the action learning sets provided a safe space for reflection and the

containment of anxieties in the midst of turbulence and change (2.2)

The assignments provided an opportunity to embed the learning in the work (2.3)

2.1. 360° Feedback and the Core Development Days

Feedback from managers about the usefulness of the 360° feedback has been extremely

positive, giving them the opportunity to learn about themselves.

Helpful – becoming more aware

“It helped me. The feedback from the staff was really helpful and very challenging to

start with. ....When we did that first questionnaire, which I gave to two senior staff

(one who was on the way out) was strange...... I couldn’t understand the

scores.........and that was interesting, because things I saw as totally insignificant

were obviously a big deal to them and it brought it home to me as well. I consider

myself to be a good people person, to be quite sensitive to the needs of others and

that brought home to me that I was missing out on a lot and not picking up on

things”. “One of the statements....was that I take things too personally. I thought

that was spot on. But I would never had said that about myself”.

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Powerful – changing behaviour and doing things differently

“I think the 360° feedback was very powerful and I did really learn and think about

doing things differently from that”.

Seeing things differently - a different perspective

“It was very interesting to see the feedback forms. I had this idea that I was a really

directive, stroppy old boss who set really strong targets, and actually, I think my

team think I’m a pussy cat.........that made me relax a little, and realise, maybe I

could ask them to do more”.

On the same note, another said:

“I always thought I was a good leader but it just made me think about how I was

holding them back”.

Finally, one manager described the 360 as akin to “having the staff input to the course”.

“It opened my eyes, it was like a descriptive noise, that helped me to think - if that is

what they are thinking, then this is what I need to do to move on”.

Discussion

2.1. 360° Feedback and the Core Development Days

For a number of participants the 360° feedback served to raise self awareness, reminding

participants of things they already knew but might choose not to reveal about themselves.

For others, it facilitated a change in behaviour, in other words, doing things differently and

for others, seeing things differently, resulting in new insights to their leadership style and

behaviours. It was described as powerful by participants, opening their eyes and helping to

point toward change that they needed to make in their own leadership behaviour.

2.2. The Role of the Action Learning Sets

Action learning sets comprise of small learning groups of circa 5 mangers who in this case

met on three occasions during the life of the programme, with a university tutor/ facilitator

to: explore the challenges of change and austerity that presented in their work, identify

personal and leadership development needs, and undertake a live work based or practice

project work in which they could stretch themselves, apply learning from the programme

25

and that would add value to themselves, their team and service are. For many of the

managers this was new learning experience. However, social work managers remarked on

the similarities between the action learning process and their experience of using reflective

practice and supervision in their work.

A new learning experience

For a number of participants this was new learning experience for them, one which took a

bit if getting used to. But once they were over this newness they found it to be a useful and

supportive learning process, as indicated by the following comments:

“I’ve never experienced anything like that before and I thought initially they were a

bit weird.If I can be perfectly honest, I have had the opportunity to speak so frankly

and openly. I found it a bit uncomfortable initially but that is because I wasn’t used

to talking in that way............and then by the end, I found them really, really, useful”.

Commenting on her first ALS another manager said:

“When I walked in, I thought, I don’t understand why I am here, what is going on?

Then when we all started opening up and talking, listening to the others and their

experience, what they were going through. ...........Just to have that voice, somebody

else saying to you, you are doing something right. You are good at this and maybe

you should think about it this way”.

An Emotional experience

For some participants the action learning experience was emotional in that they were able

to share feelings and anxieties about what was happening as result of the cuts and the

organisational changes. It is not unusual for action learning sets to provide a container for

distress and emotional feelings, or a space in which these feelings may be explored in the

context of the political organisational context in which change is taking place. Commenting

on this process one participant said:

“I think the learning sets were fantastic. It was a really useful way of internalising

and thinking about it (the cuts and changes) and how it was impacting on us. It was

a hugely emotional experience in many ways, but so valuable”.

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Another said:

“I think actually having that experience really helped me to deal with it (cuts)

because at the time, I was quite thrown and upset about it........I can see that later

on I actually got all the changes I asked for.........When I sat down with people in my

learning set they all had quite similar experiences and I think it was just hearing it

and getting reassurance ... it was part of the process and it was learning from that

and standing back and thinking about some of the forces that were at play”.

Space to think

Crucially, participants reported the significance of the action learning sets in providing them

with a space to think. One manager reflected on the benefit saying:

“If I had that conversation with someone on a daily basis, then maybe, I would be

able to think more strategically about what I am doing and why I am doing it”.

Another said:

“I think for me one of the most immediate impacts was that I would go away

thinking: I have just had that time to think!”.

Another expressed her frustration at not having such a space when the programme came to

an end:

“The most frustrating thing was coming away from the course and then not having

that time. The action learning groups we had were so invaluable just to have that

space, that thinking space...to sit, think and talk and reflect...consider what you are

doing............ and what you might be doing”.

One manager said:

“I thought the action learning sets were really good. It just gave a forum and a

space to discuss thoughts, some of which were quite personal experiences...I

thought that was useful because you don’t have time to do that in any other

capacity, and it gets you thinking as well”.

How the learning is organised

Whilst the process may appear at first, informal, the learning and more importantly, the

reflection is organised to facilitate learning. Building on the value of creating a space to

27

think, we asked, ‘what was it about the action learning process that she thought made it

work’? This manager said:

The structure

“ I think, one, it was the structure, even though it is an informal space, it was actually

structured, in that you are coming here and in this time we will explore what has

been happening...that little space to think and focus your mind,and then having

other people there that help you reflect”.

Another manager suggested thatthe action learning guided and helped focus on the

academic work (the assignments). More so, than what she called the therapeutic side:

A guide to the academic work

“I think in some ways the action learning sets probably helped guide the academic

side more than the therapeutic. There was a bit of that. I was expecting it to be

more therapeutic, sharing information but actually, it wasn’t. It was a bit more

focused in some ways which was fine. It wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting but

it was helpful”.

For another it was:

An opportunity to talk about how you feel about the work

“I found the action learning sets really useful..............................This is an opportunity

to talk about how you feel about the job, the work. Obviously, there has to be some

confidentiality, the feelings that it evokes. If you can do that and get that out of the

way, then you can do the rest of the work so much better, I think”.

One manager talked about how the conversation in the action learning set helped her think

about the need to move on:

“I was looking at workloads for my team and what that meant and if I could make

things easier..... What I came up with in the endwas I couldn’t really change much

but I probably needed to move on, which was where I was”.

Bonding

The sets also served to facilitate bonding and camaraderie, key to helping managers learn

from one-another and lead and manage in challenging and changing circumstances. For

some participants this bond extended beyond the course itself.

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One participant described the experience as follows:

“Action learning sets were enormously helpful in bonding. So, there was a great deal

of honesty and sharing of skills. In my particular set we had a loss of one person who

got another job, gone. So, I had that on the inside and I had my chair on the outside

losing her job and doing the same course, as well.......Just having the delight of not to

put a pretence on about the quagmire I think that we all found ourselves in and the

learning that went with it”.

Asked about the highlights of the learning experience the above manager went on to say:

“I have a special relationship with everyone who was in the set now. I am an

experienced manager, the others were more junior to me and I felt I had something

to offer both with the course context and outside of it”.

Discussion

2.2. The Role of the Action Learning Sets

Traditional action learningutilises a work based project as a vehicle to assist learning and

stretch the leaders’ ability to grapple with and manage their new roles (the task). There is a

danger however, that the action project may be overly valued as the end product, missing

the opportunity for deep learning that a balanced process of reflection can facilitate when

properly regard as a vehicle for learning. With effective facilitation, learning takes place in

the action learning set through a process of reflection and inquiry.The learning set as we

have seen can also provide a container for feelings about work and in this case, the

challengepresents buy change and austerity to the participants. As the evidence has

indicatedthe structure provided in our action learning sets has provided a valuable space to

think, a guide to academic work and a space wherefeelings can be explored without turning

into a pseudo therapy session. The action learning relationship requires both support and

challenge. This would seem to have enabled some strong bonds and relationships in the

workplace to develop, that have continued outside of the programme.

We experienced and witnessed whilst facilitating the action learning sets, an outpouring of

anger and loss which invariably coloured the learning experience for many participants. Our

response as facilitators was to support participants (as described above) giving them

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permission to talk about their experience in the learning set and write about it in the

context of their assignments.

Additionally, we drew on our knowledge of change theory to help participants better

understand the issues and change processes that were live for them at both a personal and

organisational level. The work of Ibarra, on career transitions and the work of Kubler- Ross,

on loss and bereavement, were some of the academic references /resource that we shared

on the programme. When we first began facilitating these action learning sets, we were

somewhat unprepared for the extent of the feelings that were expressed of loss and anger.

We were concerned for the participants that they should not become overwhelmed by the

distress these feelings evoked and neither did we want to find ourselves overwhelmed by

them and unable to facilitate the work. Recognizing this, we engaged a supervising coach to

facilitate our tutor team during the programme to help us work more effectively and to

learn together about how to facilitate action learning in this context.

2.3. The assignments provided an opportunity to embed the learning in the work

The programme required participants to undertake three work based assignments. The first

involved a review of learning, the second a stakeholder analysis and the third a work based

project. A typical example of how managers used and applied their learning from the

programme workshops was to take ideas back to their teams and incorporate them into

team building and development days. For some managers this kind of activity featured as a

basis for their assignments:

“I actually did a team day, where I included one of the modules within the team day

and got them to say what they felt they were (based on Belbin team roles), which

was brilliant because I could then understand them better and their thinking”.

Discussion

2.3. The assignments provided an opportunity to embed the learning in the work

The example of running a team day as illustrated above was a typical activity that

participant reported undertaking in the action learning sets, drawing on lessons they had

30

learned on the programme, such as team building. Indeed, team activity was used by

participating managers most successfully on the programme as a form of communication

management and as a means of supporting employees during the major organisational

change, restructuring and redundancy process.

Similarly, experimenting with using power and influence to mange up the hierarch,

particularly during the period of budget and resource allocation, was also an activity

reported in the learning sets and featured in assignments. Indeed, one example reported to

us in a set meeting and again during the interviews, was of a manager trying out her new

found negotiating skills with a union representative, reputed to be a difficult character. To

achieve his co-operation on a particular issue, she reported having courted him and getting

him to buy into a strategy outside of the formal meeting space, so that come the meeting,

he was with her as opposed to being against her.

Summary of Findings Question 3:

How participants judged the impact of the programme and its capacity to add value to the

organisation and their leadership. Emergent themes include:

Managers who participated in the programme reported an increased confidence in

their ability to lead and manage and moreover, less fearful of doing so as a result of

the programme

Linked to the above managers reported a greater ability to let go and delegate, and in

so doing, improve their work loads and WLB

Work based projects revealed both evidence of personal development for individuals

and in some cases specific leadership behaviour change. Additionally, some projects

provided evidence of benefit and added value to the teams led by participants on the

programme

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3.1. Increased Confidence in Leading and Managing People

Developing confidence and self belief is one of the personal outcomes that a number of

managers reported. It is an important outcome that is reported as adding value primarily to

the person but there is also a benefit to the organisation. It is perhaps an example of a soft

return on investment but one that makes a difference to how people feel about their ability

to lead and manage as a direct result of their experience of the programme. One manager

summed how the programme has made a difference to her as follows:

“I think it is about confidence and self belief. I think that underlines it all for me. I

know I can do it now, and I know how to do it, and probably, two years ago I would

not have said that, not at all. So, thank you”.

Benchmarking and discovering extra tools to use in one’s management repertoire

One manager described her increase in confidence stemming from now being able to

benchmark what she did previously and having a few extra strings to her bow:

“It is about giving you that confidence that you are doing the right thing and you are

doing it in the best way. Like most managers I’ve just got on and I’ve managed for

years and no- body has told me how to, I’ve just done it. It’s quite nice to know that

some of the things I was doing were OK but I now have a few extra ways of doing the

things now. I now have the confidence that I can have those difficult conversations.

I still don’t like them but I don’t lose a week’s sleep over them anymore. I’ve learned

to be very clear with people. I’ve learned that actually pussyfooting around and not

saying it, actually, doesn’t help at all”.

Shared terminology and recognising what you are doing

Developing this idea of benchmarking what you do compared to others one manager talked

about how their confidence was increased by learningnew terminology on the programme

and having a shared language that helps you recognise and name what you have being

doing:

“So, I think I have gained a little bit of confidence, whereas I might not have got that

had I not been able to compare and hear other people’s accounts, and to hear this is

a model that we use. I didn’t know what coaching was until I came to the training

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and I didn’t know I do it on a regular basis. I think my team scored me the highest in

that area..... The legacy is I’m a bit more confidant now... you can’t buy that”.

Addressing the problem

Another facet of increasing self confidence in people management was described by one

participant as learning how to use one’s role and authority:

“I wasn’t addressing the problem because I didn’t know how to because I lacked the

confidence. I didn’t know how to use a management role to do that. That was a big

thing. I was able to replace them with people I interviewed that i wanted to be

working with, people that I could trust to do the job”.

Seeing leadership in others

Noticing how others behave differently and with greater confidenceis another example of

how value has been added by the programme. Commenting on colleagues in her team who

also completed the programme, one manager said:

“I can see some changes in them in terms of them feeling much more confident as

leaders. They are senior in their role and I think they were able to build up better

relationships. Like I was saying, I’ve built up good relationships with the group, I did x

with, and they have done the same. I see interactions between them and my

management colleagues that are much more appropriate, so maybe people could

see that with me.”.

Discussion

3.1. Increased Confidence in Leading and Managing People

Confidence and self belief were overwhelmingly the most generic benefits reported by

participants that they gained from this programme. As we can see from the comments

made, this is about how participants feel. In that respect it is difficult to measure but it

should not be underestimated how important if not essential to leadership confidence and

self belief is. Critical leadership literature points tot the dark side of identity formation in

leadership developmentas we strive toward an idealistic or heroic style of leadership and

the often unrealistic expectations and pressures that can bring. Moreover, critical

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leadership theory points to the role of discourse theory and language bringing what it

describes, into being, and reminding us of the socially constructed nature of leadership. The

majority of participants on the programme had not previously benefited from leadership or

management training and development, even though, some had been in management and

leadership roles for some time. Whilst some had just got on with the job doing and doing

what they though best, and modelled others they saw as good leaders and managers, some

participants admitted to us that they had secretly felt they had been bluffing it for years.

Developing an identity as a leader and manager is part of a performative process of

leadership, which comes through naming and discussing what leadership is about, having a

shared language of leadership and management, and knowing and reflecting on, what our

experience tells us about a good boss and a bad boss, using management tools to

benchmark our work, and having specific tools and training in skills such as having difficult

conversations. These ingredients were all part of the programme.

3.2. Letting Go and Delegating

For some mangers their 360 feedback enabled them to appreciate that they needed to

change their behaviour. Letting go, delegating more and give their teams a degree of

autonomy was a common example that managers shared with us in respect of how the

programme had made a difference to them and the people they worked with.

One manger describes her learning around letting go and delegation as:

Not trying to do it all herself and monitoring her internal critic

“I am very aware of not trying to do it all myself. I’ve learned to be able to delegate

and to advise and support as opposed to thinking: ‘I will do it myself, or if you want

a good job doing, you’d better do it yourself’ so, it looking at what this person can do

not doing just how I want it done, which has created some magic, because when

someone knows that you are supporting them they feel encouraged and they will

blossom”.

Whilst another described her turn to delegation as:

Not needing to be in control of everything anymore

“I think generally it has made me more relaxed....I don’t need to be in control of

everything”.

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This manager went on to illustrate by examples how letting go and delegating helps to:

Getting the best out of your staff

“Management isn’t something that everybody instinctively knows how to do. I have

had some really awful managers in my time and I know how awful it is to be

managed by somebody who is very controlling, who micro manages and doesn’t get

the best out of their staff.”

Importantly, such behavioural change in managers can enable others to become more

engaged in the work. Another manager offered the following example:

“ Just this week one of my team did a brilliant piece of work with another colleague

where she developed a parent forum to obtain some user feedback............she got

on with it, she set the ground rules, she developed the questions................I

encouraged her and I listened to her planning and I looked at her plan. She ran with

it, and it was great”.

The same manager offered another example regarding the need to refresh a practitioners

group and letting go:

“When I first got here, I used to chair the group. My team were aware the format

was becoming a bit tired, it wasn’t very interactive. One of the staff suggested she

wanted to do a focus group to look at the terms of reference, to think about making

it more thematic and more interactive. I said ‘this is really positive but I am going to

step out.............I am happy to give you feedback but I am going to let you facilitate

the groups. They now take it in turns in their networks to facilitate these

groups........ I consciously made the decision to step back. I suppose I could have

taken it as critical of how I had previously run those groups but I could see they had a

point. I thought, no, this is good, this is breathing some life and developing

autonomy. I didn’t get upset about it. I was able to relate it to some of what I had

done on the course”

As described by another manager letting go anddelegating can help:

Freeing up time to do other things:

“It has added value to the organisation because I could then spend my time on other

things, which helps my manager, so that she’s got more time. I am now doing

35

practice assessing, which I have never done before, because I felt I had the time to

do something else now, other than just the work”.

Discussion

3.2. Letting Go and Delegating

The second most generic difference reported to us was the increased awareness of

participants, of the need to delegate more and how this helped get the best out of staff and

freed up time for those in more senior positions to get on with other work. In section 2.1,

of this report a respondent tells us that she has changed her perception of herself as a

leader and manger as a direct result of the 360° feedback, reporting, that she is now able to

ask her staff to do more work having previously been fearful of being seen too demanding.

Letting go and enabling autonomy in work is itself a behaviour motivator, if not source of

employee satisfaction. If the ability to manage staff performance has been improved by the

participation on this programme (as indicated by some participants in their assignments) the

ability to let go and delegate is more likely to take place when leaders and managers are

confident that standards are being met.

3.3. The value of Work Based Projects

Findings suggest that the programme has added value to individual managers and their

work teams but we are not been able to put a figure (Return on investment) on this ‘value

added’, we can only report on what that means in the context of participants work. A table

is provided in the appendix of a sample of work based assignment titles (see Appendix one).

Discussion

The Value of Work based Projects

We have 60 work based projects produced by participants on the programme. However

they vary in type and thus, a one size fits all assessment of their worth or valuecan not be

made. The initial plan was that projects be agreed and signed off by senior managers but in

the change process that unfolded in the organisation, this did not happen. We then agreed

with our partners and the client representative that participants could choose a project they

felt most fitting to their own circumstances. For many the live work based project involved

36

something concrete that they and or their team were working on in their service area. This

included responding to the agenda for change and austerity in some cases. For others, it

was a more personal project of their own leadership development journey, in other-words,

where the participant was the project. Using the discourse theory paradigms as applied to

leadership development and mapping a sample of project titles from the list against this

model, we can see more clearly what type of projects emerged (see Figure 3 below). Some

are traditional management projects, others reflect a journey of sense making - the before

and after stories of change , others reflect of a journey of leadership development and the

crafting of a personal leadership identity, and some are more critically challenging projects

that respond to the impact of austerity on their work.

Figure 3: Mapping of Participant Project Titles to Discourses of Leadership and Leadership

Development

Adding value through work based projects can be judged in a variety of ways in terms of

benefits to the individual, the team and the organisation.

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"Becoming a better manager and leader (34)"Dissensus

Consensus

A PrioriEmergent

CONCLUSIONS

This section addresses the research questions:

Q1) What is the interplay between the context of cuts, change and uncertainty in the

public sector and the programme?

Q2) How do participants talk about and reflect on their experience of the

programme in relation to their leadership skills and effectiveness?

Q3) What is the impact of the programme and its capacity to add value to the

organisation and the leadership of participants?

Austerity

In asking this research question we wanted to know to what extent austerity affected the

conduct of the leadership development programme. It was important for us to drill down

and examine this question with fresh eyes, to see whether it was as bad as we had thought.

We were after all, also affected by the tsunami of feelings that flowed into our learning

relationships with participants in the action learning sets.

Our findings confirmed that austerity has more than coloured the learning and development

of this leadership development programme. The risk of redundancy was palpable, it was

there in the either, and as the data reveals, it gave way to feelings of hopelessness,

dislocation and a sense of living on the edge of a precipice. The consequence of this was a

profound sense of anger and loss experienced by many participants. With some, identifying

that they were not well led or cared for by the very organisation whose remit was to care for

children and families. We have identified that people reacted in different ways. For the

survivors, it was business as usual, in so far as they had a job to be getting on with. For

those less fortunate, concerns expressed revealed the very human cost of austerity and

redundancies in the public sector. We found staff asking: ‘how will I pay my mortgage’? (A

question posed by a staff working in children’s centers and youth work, mainly women in

part time employment). This uncertainty and consequent anxiety permeated the

organisational zeitgeist, yet staff expressed genuine empathy for others, even when they

were not directly affected by the prospect of redundancy themselves. They still felt for

others. Like a storm, austerity has wrecked havoc with the service, and it has resulted in

38

many losses. Moreover, loss was systemic: the loss of jobs; Loss of funding in service areas,

with a significant reduction in funds for partners in the voluntary sector; Loss of

relationships and professional contacts, with some service areas hit harder than others.

Finally, for some participants, their personal resiliency was affected and professional

identities ruptured.

Experience

Participants have reported overwhelmingly a positive experience of the leadership

development programme. The three core days with the 360° psychometric feedback has

been significant in helping participants reflect on what leadership means to them, what

images and assumptions they carry with them about what effective leadership looks like,

giving them a context into which they can reflect on their personal feedback from their

team about what is working and what it is about their style of leadership that might benefit

from change. Not withstanding criticisms of psychometric tools as having a limited frame of

reference, the participants have reported that they have found this a powerful addition to

their repertoire to develop their own awareness and leadership practice.

Significantly, the action learning set experience has given participants both the space and

time to think. As indicated in one of the quotations, if managers had a space to think at

work and have critically reflective - robust conversations concerning the challenges and

dilemmas they face, they could be much more effective in their leadership roles. One

important feature of this action learning intervention was in the structure it provided it to

facilitate learning from the real. In other-words, the real work issues and challenges that

the participants were facing in their work, whilst they were on the programme. This

approach enabled learning to be embedded in the work and avoided the classic problem of

training interventions where learning has to be transferred to the work place at a later date.

Examples of work based learning included, team learning and using ones power and

influence.

Moreover, the action learning sets have been described as providing a safe space to learn,

one where feelings and emotions were permitted and used to support individual and

39

collective learning and reflection around the wicked problems that public sector mangers

increasingly have to face. As well as providing a container for these emotions, the evidence

suggests that the action learning set process has supported learners in making sense of their

experience, work on their own leadership identity projects, and clarify their professional

values and engage critically in their work as leaders.

Impact

The impact of the programme has added value, though the weight of expectations may

differ between stakeholders about what added value may mean. There is evidence to show

benefit both to individual participants and the organisation, will a number of particular

examples of learning being applied to team working during the life of the programme. For

individuals, we have identified increased self confidence to practice as leaders and

managers, including an increase in confidence in managing people. Letting go and

delegating offer both important outcomes for individuals but also their teams, enabling

work to be more effectively shared and staff given opportunities for development.

Significantly, we can see how important these seemingly small gains are fundamental to

forming one’s identity as a leader.

At the organisation level, there is also evidence of change, as staff, adjust their ways of

working to accommodate efficiency savings and structural change. But there is also

evidence of tensions for some staff as they grapple with the competing demands of

economic austerity and social justice in their work. Evidenced in some of the projects are

the hidden benefits of some of this work. For example, even where services were subject to

closure or radical change, the quality of care exercised by staff supporting clients and

colleagues and celebrating the work that had been achieved in the service over many years,

even when they were subject to redundancy themselves, speaks volumes about the

professionalism of staff in the children and families service. We are in no doubt about the

positive legacy this work has left in the community.

The findings show that the intervention of this leadership development programme has

added value to individual participants and the organisation. What has worked has been the

40

combination of the taught programme with feedback on leadership styles and climate, and

the action learning sets which have provided a safe space for learning and a structured

framework for work based leadership development projects. On a practical note we are

satisfied that the programme has enhanced the leadership and management capability of

the participants. Following the interviews and focus group activity we were asked to

provide an additional programme of action learning and coaching to all social care managers

who had participated in the programme and this activity will ran to December 2013. We are

currently working with the next two cohorts.

Learning:

Learning for individuals: In conclusionthis has been evidenced by the research findings, the

work projects and their successful graduation from the programme.

Learning for the organisation: whilst this is containedin the reportand recommendations, in

view of the findings concerning the interplay between austerity and the programme, it is

worth reminding the organisation of the necessity to support employees during change,

ensure that the climate is conducive to this and ensure effective communications

management, which participants have suggested were lacking at the outset of this

programme.

Learning for us: This evaluation has provided a learning opportunity for us. It has helped us

develop our understanding of undertaking research in and with a live group of managers in

an organisation. It has caused us to reflect on what we do, how we talk about leadership

development and how we design and work with leadership development interventions and

the evaluation of them. In particular, we have learned much more about working with

managers in the public sector than we previously knew and in particular, we have learned

about the dynamics of action learning in this setting in and

Areas for improvement are addressed in the recommendations to the organisation.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Engaging line management in supporting participants on the programme and in

particular their involvement at project proposal stage

Introducing the new senior team to the core elements of the programme and the

action learning process

Establish Show and tell events with the help of the Workforce Development manager

at the end of each programme, so that impact and the outcomes of work based

projects, as well as the development of individual participants can be recognised and

celebrated by the organisation

Work with the senior team to integrate the leadership development programme into

a wider organisation development agenda for leading and managing the ongoing

organisational change

Provide coaching for individuals and in some cases teams to help embed further

learning and deliver on change projects,on completion of the programme for 4-6

sessions, as required.

Dissemination of Findings

During the life cycle of this project we have engaged in the following:

Presentation at UFHRD workshop Portsmouth 2012

Presentation at HRD week Olympia 2012 in the Learning Arena

Book chapter: Hartog, M and Frame, P. with Rigby, C and Wilson, D. Chapter 29,

Learning From the Real, in Bilham, T. (Ed) For the Love of Learning, Palgrave

Macmillan 2013 (publication imminent)

Presentation at HR Director’s Forum (Middlesex University) 30 April 2014

Book chapter: Hartog, M and Tomkins, L. (2014) forthcoming, In Mabey, C and

Mayrhofer, W. (Eds) How can an ethic of care support the teaching and management

of change, Questions Business Schools Don’t Ask, Sage Publications

Hartog, M, Rigby, C and Wilson, D. (2014) Conference paper titled: Leadership

Development: Reflecting on the past – shaping the future, UFHRD, Edinburgh, UK

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Expenditure

We were awarded an honorarium of £2,000 and to date we have spent circa £1,500. Please

see finance report from RKTO office at Middlesex. As you will see the majority spend has

been on transcription of the interview data and we would propose to spend the remainder

on dissemination related activity.

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REFERENCES

Easterby- Smith, M. (1994) Evaluating Management Development, Training and Education,

2nd edn. Aldershot: Gower.

Ford, J. Harding, N and Learmouth, M (2008) Leadership As Identity, Palgrave Macmillan.

Hamblin, A. C. Evaluation and Control of Training, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.

Hartog, M. Frame, P. Rigby, C and Wilson, D (2013) Learning from the real, chapter 29, pages

204-211, In Bilham T(Ed) (2013), For the Love of learning: Innovations from Outstanding

University Teachers, Palgrave Teaching and Learning.

Hoggett, P. (2006) ‘Conflict ambivalence, and the contested purpose of public

organizations’. Human Relations, Volume 59(2):175-194.

Kubler-Ross, E. On Death and Dying, Tavistock: London. (1970).

Mabey, C. (2012) Leadership Development in Organizations: Multiple Discourses and

Diverse Practice, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol***(2012), British

Academy of Management and Blackwell Publishing

Revans, R. W. (1983) The ABC of Action Learning, Bromley, Chartwell- Bratt

Reynolds, M. and Vince R (2004), Organizing Reflection: An Introduction, In Reynolds and

Vince (Eds), (2006), Organizing Reflection, Ashgate, Hampshire, England.

Rigg, C and Richards, S. (Eds), (2006), Action Learning, Leadership and Organizational

Development, Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development, Routledge, Taylor

Francis Group, London and New York.

Vince, R and Martin, L. (1993) “Inside action learning: an exploration of the psychology and

politics of the action learning model”, Management Education and Development, 24 (3),

205-215.

Wenger, E (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge, U.K.

Weinstein, K (1995) Action Learning: A Journey of Discovery and Development, Harper

Collins, London

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Appendix - Participant Project Titles

Number Project Title

1 A work based learning project into the Development of an Early Intervention & Prevention Service of Family Support

2 Leading the team through change: How can we provide our service differently at a reduced cost?

3Reflective practice in Change Management: An analysis of my personal learning & development based on my experience of my professional practice, whilst planning and leading a commissioning project for NHS Barnet.

4 Action research – WBL: Reflections on the evolution of a NEETS project & self as leader

5Raising the educational achievements of vulnerable young people: a reflective look at my leadership- influencing & impacting the work of others

6 A WBL Project developing EI via transition at Finchley Youth Theatre

7 Prevention of Permanent Exclusion of Barnet Looked-after pupils using planned satellite L&Mgt

8 An Action Research project enabling the 331 Service to close in 2011

9 Understanding leadership Complexity in a time of unknown certainties (Restructuring Youth Support Service)

10WBL project: Review of effectiveness of the m-agency groups MAGS to see if they are achieving their objectives & reflections on my learning through this process

11 A WBL: Identifying a strategy to maintain team morale in an increasingly competitive environment (School Governor Services)

12Evaluation of the frames of reference I have developed over the years that have enhanced or blocked my learning: Discovering how to do things differently

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Number Project Title

13 A review of my journey and practice

14 An AL Project: Developing and ongoing 360 positive feedback system for the Family Intervention project (newly-formed) – requiring leadership at its centre

15 What are some of the emotional factors that affect my ability to work with small groups?

16A WB Project providing opportunity for reflection on my own personal development: The implementation of a Child in Need Services Personal Safety Guide

17 How can I trust a word I say? An exploration into personal crisis and professional conduct.

18 A WBL Project: To consolidate services into a single contact centre

19 A critical evaluation of the Occupational Health Service in an FE College

20 Intro of pre-pay debt cards in LBB

21 The deconstruction and reconstruction of my identity

22 A WBL project: Reflecting on lessons from the course and sharing with my team

23 Reviewing admin tasks to eliminate inefficiencies to the needs of the safeguarding division

24 Community Barnet: Exploring the complexities of being a PT manager managing a PT team

25 Making myself the project

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Number Project Title

26 Ultimate Change Leadership Project: A Test in Survival

27 A Review of my personal learning throughout the L&M Devt Programme: Exploring and Awareness behaviour change

28 Meeting organisational targets for assessment timescales and developing my use of directive and pacesetting leadership styles

29 Youth Service and Education Business Project: A reflection on leadership in context

30 How can I reorganise my team where some will lose their job and do so with minimum personal cost to me?

31 Piloting a new system of case review

32 A review of my role as a manager of the CW Development Team: developing my professional practice as a leader to enhance my team’s performance

33 My evolution as a leader: personal process essay

34 Becoming a better manager and leader

35 My new emerging leadership emblem (Leaving Care Team)

36 Restructure the team via climate and coaching and develop my EI

37 How can i develop and reinforce a positive outcome delivery within my team?

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