Intensive Learning

Investing a significant amount of ‘time out’ to work on one’s leadership development is a means to driving organisational change, improving organisational performance and contributing to the sector’s competitiveness, and an important part of CLP provision has been the successful introduction of a range of Intensive Learning programmes.  Some of these have been wholly provided for by the CLP, while others which were developed in partnership with sector programme partners, including the Clore Leadership Programme, Clore Short Courses, Integrated Leadership and Advanced Leadership in the Creative Industries.

The content of this essay is structured in four parts and the common theme among these programmes has been that through taking this ‘time out’ to undertake intensive leadership development, participants have been able to explore and define their own strategic and tactical ‘next steps’, helping them to adapt to change as individuals, and also to contribute to strengthening the sector more widely.

Part One looks at Lessons in Intensity, showing how engaging in intensive learning has been a change for good for nearly all participants of these the programmes, particularly in relation to: creative release (the innovation); making things better (the impact); and ‘self’ (the investigation and the influence).

In Part Two, ‘Intensive Learning is the Punctuation in our Individual Stories of Development’, the author talks about some key expressive and poignant responses to Lessons in Intensity, focusing on the creation of narrative and individual stories and building a culture of "enhanced self-efficacy".

Part Three looks at the idea of ‘Leadership in 4-D: Difficulty, Dissonance, Diversity and Drama’, and suggests that dealing with Difficulty, accepting Dissonance, and opening up to Diversity stimulates the most effective ways to expand the individual story, the Drama.

Finally, Part Four, ‘Leadership is a Practice’, looks specifically at the long-lasting effects that CLP have had, in the contribution to the rise and importance of excellence in leadership.