Leadership Development Days

Introduction

The Cultural Leadership Programme offers a varied bespoke approach to leadership development including work based and intensive leadership development opportunities, networks, mentoring, coaching and online resources.  This person-centred approach impacts one individual at a time, to achieve the critical mass needed to nurture world class, dynamic and diverse leaders for the 21st Century and create a culture of strong leadership for the cultural and creative industries.

Mark Wright, Director of People Create Limited describes how delivering an intensive leadership development opportunity with the Cultural Leadership Programme has provided a surprising catalyst for reflection on his own leadership thinking and practice.

Leadership Development Days

“People Create Limited is my creative, learning design company and we specialise in developing innovative solutions for our clients around issues of leadership development, culture, performance and relationships.

In 2007 we were asked by the Cultural Leadership Programme to design and deliver a new programme of Leadership Development Days that would provide a challenging and creative introduction to the concept of leadership.  Such was the success and popularity of this original series that we were subsequently offered the opportunity to extend and expand this programme to encompass a much broader remit. This second series is where my own learning really began.” 

The catalyst

“Over the years, I have worked with quite a few disabled people in various organisations, and probably many more with hidden disabilities too.  I didn’t consider myself to be an expert in disability issues when we took on this new project, and I still don’t; my expertise lies in leadership development.  When the Cultural Leadership Programme asked us to widen our remit and recruit as many disabled people as possible into our new programme we approached it as sensitively and openly as we knew how.  I think we did a good job and we learned a lot along the way.

After one particular session in London, two disabled participants, Jo Verrent and Sarah Pickthall came to talk with me. They run their own consultancy practices specialising in issues of disability, access and inclusion, and coaching.

A few weeks later I received an e-mail from Sarah, inviting me to be part of a tender she was developing with Jo towards a leadership development programme specifically for disabled people working in the cultural sector.  This became known as Sync 100 and is, again, a Cultural Leadership Programme supported initiative.”

The impact

“It soon became clear to me that working on Sync 100 and latterly Sync 20, was going to be one of the most interesting and daunting projects I have ever undertaken.  In developing this initiative I am continually being asked to re-assess all of my learning practice and leadership theory through a whole new set of filters.

The experience of working with Jo and Sarah has had a fundamental impact on the way I now think about designing and delivering all my work.  This isn’t about creating “disabled-specific” work; it is simply about creating best practice learning.  This is something that is clearly of benefit to all my clients, not just those who happen to be disabled.”

New opportunities

“As we got to know each other better, it became clear that Jo was beginning to feel somewhat constrained by the “disabled specialist” label that she had created for herself.  It was also very clear to me that she had tremendous facilitation skills and insight, shaped to some degree by her deafness, which would add huge value in the more corporate world that I usually work in. As a consequence, Jo and I are now beginning to work together to design and deliver new, innovative and accessible learning in a much broader arena.  I can also see where Sarah’s coaching expertise, which has proven to be such an important part of the Sync experience, has absolute relevance in the mainstream public and private sectors.

And so, this is an evolving story of intertwining relationships; built on a foundation of respect and diversity which is a perhaps unanticipated, but wholly positive, outcome of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s work to date.” 

Mark Wright was interviewed by Stephanie Haughton-Campbell, Independent Creative Consultant