This shift follows leading organisations looking for new and creative ways to spark innovation. The Independent article specifically highlights LVMH as an example of a company igniting innovation through creativity, and we’ve all heard the tales of legend inthe land of Google where table tennis and dance classes are the going rate, and 3M teams think tank time to work on projects outside of their day-to-day jobs to trigger innovation. It’s safe to say that these attractive work cultures don’t do much to harm the recruitment pitch of these organisations to the brightest emerging talents, not to mention the impact on retention and morale.

Artistry in business will be a welcome change and the Independent article also highlights that new educational developments to reflect this will break away from a one-size-fits-all leadership develoment solution. MBAs that do ‘churn them and burn them’ have got to be a thing of the past – and it seems they are. One method of learning doesn’t necessarily suit everyone, and it is fantastic to see the education taking stock of that and responding.

There is no doubt a place for what we refer to at Common Purpose as the ‘mechanical’ knowledge of leadership. What we mean by this is that you need to understand different leadership models and theories, strategy, why leadership is vital, the various approaches and styles of leadership, and case studies of how management and leadership works in various situations and organisations. But there is nothing like experience to teach you – you personally, as an individual – how to lead. That’s why we use experiential learning methods.

Not until leaders – and that includes very established leaders as well as emerging ones – are thrown in the deep end, and confronted with a situation or environment that is unfamiliar, do they truly understand and confront their limitations and the barriers they have to working with others.

This is when they learn the valuable lesson that the complex change, stakeholder engagement and problem solving means working not just within the realm they’re comfortable with, but outside their immediate sphere of influence and specialism. When you’re in unfamiliar territory, suddenly those neat leadership models don’t apply so neatly.

Experiential learning at Common Purpose does place senior and established, emerging and young leaders into situations where they have to work with other people from various backgrounds, and in situations where they are completely out of their comfort zone.

We may send a group that consists of banking managers, policy directors and senior charity fundraisers to see what the leadership challenges are in a prison – for example. It is always rewarding to see people from very contrasted backgrounds emerge from that experience seeing parallels with what they do every day.

It’s great to see creativity being used to reveal the propensity for innovation. Enhancing this type of learning with the development of leaders so that they understand complex problems and can be effective in unfamiliar situations, work with and engage diverse stakeholders, and participate and recognise the impact of their decisions on civic society and the wider community should also be seen as a creative process for learning. You just can’t beat experience when it comes to learning how to lead.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

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Today is World AIDS Day, an awareness raising event stimulating global media coverage and opinions ranging from critical to hopeful.

Rather than asking what your opinion is on World AIDS Day or AIDS as a global issue, this post instead questions where you’re getting details on the story and in what ways they’re influencing your opinions.

Where do you get your news? And how much does your information source and the channels you use to access information say about the assumptions and foundations upon which you base your leadership decisions?

Today’s leadership practice is about widening your peripheral vision and looking at an issue with a fresh perspective.  As Albert Einstein said:  “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Try out the practice below, write a comment on this blog to share your reflections, thoughts and questions from your learning experience. You can also broaden your understanding by reading other people’s comments to see what they took from trying this practice.

Current Affairs

Choose a current news story you are interested in. Read about it from different media sources you wouldn’t normally refer to, for example an on-line journal or blog, an entertainment magazine, a different newspaper. Then:

• Write down the differences you you noticed in how this media source presented the story
• How did it affect, challenge, change or reinforce your point of view?

To lead you need to be able to take a different perspective, hear messages from different people and consider your judgement and actions as a result.

Understanding how current affairs can be seen from so many different angles, and how people have varying opinions on one issue, helps us see where our own bias lies.  This is the first step to learning to suspend judgement and become more curious, tolerant and understanding of others.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

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Why is it key to connect with other leaders?

• It’s not key to connect with other leaders, it’s key to connect with people who are not like you.
• You don’t necessarily need to connect with other leaders, but you need to learn from them.
• If you want to find leaders, find the ones who are doing well right now in the recession. They’re the leaders to watch.

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve received?

• Trust people. It’s not what happens when you’re present, but when you’re not that make a difference.
• There’s no one model that fits all – not one solution.
• Listen and observe before you act.
• I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to do my job
• None. I write down quotes, but then forget about them. I tend to watch what people do instead.

What are you most inspired by right now?

• The Recession. It’s the biggest opportunity we’ve had in 20 years to change and re-develop everything (industries, communication, education). People have hidden behind growth because it was easy.
• Different leadership backgrounds and diversity
• We can use business for social change. We’re moving away from grants and handouts and finding ways to solve things creatively.
• Holidays. Taking time away.

One of the questions we brought up that most people had a tough time answering was: Why should anyone be led by you?

If you’re interested in exploring this idea, a discussion centered around this question is already taking place on the Common Purpose LinkedIn group.

Finally, we had a flipchart up for people to share their key leadership reading. Below is a compilation of some of the books listed:

• The Tao of Leadership (John Heider)
• Tribes (Seth Godin)
• The Starfish and the Spider (Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom)
• The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
• Who moved my cheese? (Spencer Johnson)
• Beyond Authority (Julia Middleton)
• The courage to lead (R. Brian Stanfield)
• The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
• Here comes everybody (Clay Shirky)

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

Website - Twitter - More Posts

To explore this further, Personnel Today are running a series of interviews on their website with senior HR and training professionals who consider the case for a new type of talent management.  Click here to watch them.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

Website - Twitter - More Posts

This provides us more of an end game for our programme delivery. I feel it will enable us to state more clearly up-front what leadership development we are heading for. The recent book by Julia has allowed us to describe the attitudes a leader has to show, some of the attributes and beliefs of a strong leader but not to signpost clearly the piece about what abilities and behaviours they have. e.g. we know it is important to be aware that change can take time, sometimes be slower than we think, however the attibutes of a leader in this situation are patience and the behaviours are…… willing to listen, ability to see all sides of a situation etc.

These competencies will allow us to signpost upfront what participants are heading for. They may not get this on our programmes, but they could do multiple programmes.

Practically we need a written list with explanation, pointers to which elements of our programmes help a person to identify and then develop these.

Oliver Mack