What are learning points?
Learning points share what people have learned from their experience in regeneration - from people working or talking together, or from research into issues and evaluation of what is happening. Learning points can help people and organisations to improve their practice through identifying what works and what doesn't.
The views described in learning points do not mean that the Scottish Centre for Regeneration (SCR) or the Scottish Government necessarily support them.
What is this learning point about?
This learning point looks at the Tomorrows Leaders 2009 programme, which was designed and delivered on behalf of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) and the Scottish Centre for Regeneration, by Peoplematters (Europe) Ltd.
The programme was designed to develop effective leadership skills and ensure a better understanding of how a broad range of partner organisations operate in Glasgow. The programme was unique due to the mix of participants, the cross- cutting nature of the subject matter and the development of a partnership approach across the city.
What are the main issues?
The programme was developed to respond to a number of inter-related issues including the need :
- to help people to move out of their 'silos', enhance the links between city-wide organisations and bring benefits for participants, their employers and Community Planning
- to improve partnership working across Glasgow as a whole
- to take an integrated approach to the delivery of services at local level in order to make progress against the five strategic themes for Community Planning in Glasgow as a healthy, learning, working, safe and vibrant city
- for authentic leadership at all levels of Community Planning; and
- to inspire tomorrow's community leaders to develop their own individual, practical and sustainable approach to leadership, enabling them to welcome and deal confidently with their biggest challenges and help them to become role models for the future
What do we know already?
The board of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership recognised the need to enhance leadership capability and partnership working within Community Planning in Glasgow and felt that the best way to do this would be to develop a leadership programme which would tap into the wealth of leadership experience in Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland. The 2009 programme was a further evolution of the highly successful pilot programme in 2008.
What have we learned?
The 2009 programme confirmed the initial hypothesis that bringing people together from a wide range of organisations and communities can produce very positive results in terms of individual learning and its application within sponsoring organisations and communities, with subsequent benefits being achieved at local level and across the city.
A mix of participants
A total of 13 people commenced the 2009 programme. The participants came from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience, including:
- Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
- Glasgow City Council
- South West Community Health and Care Partnership
- Glasgow South West Local Regeneration Agency
- Glasgow Housing Association
- Culture and Sport Glasgow
- Govan and Craigton Community Reference Group (CRG) and Kinning Park Community Council.
The programme ran for eight months from May 2009, finishing with a 'graduation' ceremony for all successful participants in Glasgow City Chambers in December 2009.
Comprehensive and tailored programme
Participants gained a wide range of knowledge and skills, not only from the core programme content and materials, but also from the five 'theme days', guest visitors and from each other. The diverse mix of participants, representing different levels of experience and seniority, sectors and backgrounds, provided a unique learning environment. Topics covered included:
- understanding personality and its effect on leadership
- working with groups and individuals and adjusting leadership style to meet their needs
- leading people through change
- developing personal power and influence
- understanding the relationship between the five strategic community planning themes for Glasgow
- using the Scottish Centre for Regeneration's Learning in Regeneration skills pack to analyse learning needs and understand how people learn
- applying learning from the programme at an individual level and through joint project working and partnering.
Individual coaching
Following feedback and evaluation of the initial pilot programme, the 2009 programme also included a series of individual coaching sessions for each participant. Each individual benefited from up to three one-to-one sessions with the programme facilitator during the lifetime of the course. Where appropriate, the participant's line manager was also involved in these discussions. These sessions provided an opportunity for reflection on the learning and contemplation of how participants might apply what they have learned within their work or community setting.
Practical projects
Another key aspect of the programme was the potential for project working and networking between participants, with a number of participants acknowledging that the programme had caused them to interact with ten or more people who they would probably not have met otherwise. This enabled them to get answers, advice, support and new perspectives on specific issues through looking at them from different standpoints, and in some cases to set up formal or informal partnering arrangements to move specific actions forward.
Examples of projects and actions initiated during the programme included:
- developing and delivering an initiative to target support for vulnerable customers in Glasgow, which will be launched in 2010
- ideas to support the development of the Commonwealth Games 2014 Community Legacy Programme
- developing an improved communication model for Glasgow, ideas from which have been fed into the development of the new five year Community Plan for Glasgow
- the appointment and development of local 'Community Advocates'
- support in developing a communication strategy for a new project initiated to support first time claimants to Housing and Council Tax Benefit
- joint team days between organisations in the South West of Glasgow
Detailed evaluation
All participants reported that they could see real changes within themselves, their teams and communities. Their comments included the following:
- "the knowledge and leadership skills gained on Tomorrows Leaders 2009 has given me both the confidence and inspiration to help shape and deliver integrated and improved services to the communities of Glasgow by partnership working."
- "a real sense of the bigger picture on Community Planning, recognising the challenges faced by other agencies and individuals on the course and a sense that things can be changed, that there are mechanisms and approaches available and that you can influence things and take action."
- "I have been genuinely inspired by the course. It has enabled me to step into a community leadership role with more confidence and has changed the way that I view management in my working life, too. I have been lucky to meet so many new people, make contacts and develop friendships."
- "it has made me realise that management and leadership has a 'cause and effect' element - the way you as the leader deal with a situation impacts on the outcome. I have tried to blend a lot of what has been delivered into how I go about my work."
Final evaluation of the programme showed that:
- 95.8% of the participants were applying the learning in their workplaces or communities
- 100% of participants reported a 'good' or 'excellent' understanding of the five strategic themes for Glasgow and the context for community planning in the city (up from 50% at the beginning of the programme)
- a number of partnering opportunities emerged during the programme with tangible impacts emerging through joint working between participants
- all participants were committed to act as a resource for the future, for example in spreading lessons learned from the programme and acting as role models and mentors, and also as advisors to community planning.
What next?
Following the success of both the 2008 pilot programme and Tomorrow's Leaders 2009, the local authority and other community planners remain committed to the programme.
The Glasgow Community Planning Partnership has also established the Tomorrow's Leaders Network, which brings together both current and previous programme participants. The aim of the network is to continue the learning of participants, as well as to enhance community planning, regeneration and partnership working by developing a forum to share knowledge, ideas and experience, and identifying opportunities for collaboration for community benefit. The network will aim to bring members together at least twice a year.
The network will link where appropriate with other learning networks, including the Scottish Government's regeneration learning networks. In the fullness of time, it is anticipated that the Tomorrow's Leaders Network will link with a wider range of networks to share learning and ideas across Scotland, the UK and beyond.
Further information
For more details on the Tomorrow's Leaders programme or the Tomorrow's Leaders Network contact:
Stephen Sprott
Glasgow Community Planning Partnership
Corporate Services
Glasgow City Council
Room 84
40 Cochrane Street
GLASGOW
G1 1JT
Tel: 0141 287 0064
Email: Stephen.sprott@glasgow.gov.uk
Scottish Centre for Regeneration
This learning point is published by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration. The Centre is part of the Housing and Regeneration Directorate of Scottish Government. We help to achieve Scottish Government's Purpose, Targets and National Outcomes through supporting our public, private and voluntary sector delivery partners to become more effective at:
- regenerating communities and tackling poverty
- developing more successful town centres and high streets
- creating and managing mixed and sustainable communities
- making housing more energy efficient
- managing housing more efficiently and effectively
We do this through:
- coordinating learning networks which bring people together to identify the challenges they face in delivering regeneration and to support them to tackle these through organising events, networking and capacity building programmes
- identifying and sharing learning through undertaking research, developing capacity building tools and highlighting lessons learned and good practice
- developing partnerships with key players in the regeneration sector to ensure that our activities meet their needs and support their work.
Scottish Centre for Regeneration
Scottish Government
Highlander House
58 Waterloo Street
Glasgow
G2 7DA
Tel: 0141 271 3736
E-mail: contactscr@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
www.partnersinregeneration.com
The views expressed in learning points are those of participants at various events and are not necessarily shared by their employers, the Scottish Centre for Regeneration or the Scottish Government.