Life Lessons in Africa - Part 2
Posted on 04 July 2012 by James McLuckie and tagged as
leadership development, africa matters
Welcome to part 2 of my series of
blogs about my recent trip to Kenya, as part of the Africa Matters
leadership development programme. You can find out all about this
fantastic initiative by having a read of part 1.
I had a post-trip coffee with one of the programme's
facilitators and main champions, Shona Mitchell of
PeopleMatters. I had to
confess to Shona that in my excitement about visiting Africa for
the first time, meeting my fellow delegates and the prospect of
going on all of those bush treks and drives, I had almost forgotten
that, at the heart of the programme, was a five-day workshop.
It also struck me that this was my first experience in quite
some time of a formal, face-to-face learning intervention. Most of
my learning these days is garnered via social and informal
measures, so it was very interesting for me to observe the
sessions, not only as a delegate but as a learning and development
professional looking at the practices of others in the field.
(Apologies in advance ... this blog is less about life lessons, and
more about L&D ones!)
A Formidable Undertaking
Make no mistake; this was a challenging programme to put
together. It had to cater to the needs of a diverse range
of leaders, and I am not just referring to the differences between
the Kenyan and Scottish factions. Even within our
nationalities, there was an extremely wide range of practices,
skills, behaviours, job roles, levels of experience and
personalities.
The environment the programme was conducted within provided
another testing element. Very few of the 15 delegates had met
before, and here we were in a situation where we had to both work
and live together. Of course, many people have experienced a
residential training course, but not many of these are held in such
a remote setting, almost entirely without electronic communication
methods. There was was no hiding behind your mobile phone here.
Additionally, the formal programmes may have began at 08:30 and
finished at 17:00 each day, but there was little downtime from each
other. A delegate you had to provide challenging feedback to during
the day, could be sitting across from you later at the dinner
table.
It's to the great credit, then, of the facilitators (full
roll-call below) that they managed to put together a programme that
felt cohesive, universally purposeful, and kept us engaged (no mean
feat when there is the pull of the gorgeous Kenyan landscape right
outside).
So, What Made it Work Well?
Rather than detailing the entire programme (and probably
stepping on some intellectual property toes) I want to talk about
the elements that I think worked well, in the hope that they will
be adopted by other L&D professionals in their own efforts.
- A clear, involving structure that worked towards a
defined outcome. This seems like a rather obvious positive
to be spouting on about, but it's amazing how many experiences of
muddled sessions I have racked up, where the "focus" was provided
by outlining an initial list of dry as dust "learning" outcomes on
a PowerPoint. ("This is what you WILL learn" … zzzzzzzz.) On this
programme, there were four clear, relevant themes and the exercises
and discussions were mapped to these:
- integrity, trust and collaboration
- leadership through impact, inspiration and influence
- giving people a voice
- valuing contribution
On the fifth day of the programme we
knew we had to work together in groups to deliver a series of
workshops to community representatives (see previous blog for an
explanation of their roles) that needed to outline what we had
learned, why it was important, and how it could be implemented.
This really helped to centre our efforts and gave them a genuine
sense of purpose.
- A novel approach to getting to know each
other. We've all experienced (and probably used) the
standard 'go around the room and say a few words' way of
encouraging groups of delegates to know more about each other. The
approach here was rather different - speed dating. Each morning, we
picked three people to talk to, and we had a few minutes to tell
each other about ourselves. It was frenzied, but it was fun. Not
only was it an energising way to kick off the day, it allowed us to
personalise our introductions to the people we were talking
to.
- An initial exercise that genuinely flagged up the
issues we would explore. One of the core themes of the
programme was collaboration, and the first exercise we did was one
that explored this in more detail. However, this purpose wasn't
shared with us. As we were in teams and the headline task was to
generate profit, the competitive spirit of yours truly completely
got the better of him. Oh, how I wanted to take down the other
teams! Slightly embarrassing when the eventual rationale was
relayed to us, post-exercise, but the core points were made with
impact, and resulted in some fantastic conversations.
- 'Play that back to me'. Ged Welch, making his
facilitation debut on the programme and doing a fine job, regularly
asked us a simple question: "Can someone play back what I've just
said to you"? We've all used checking questions, but I had never
seen anyone ask for information to be relayed back in a delegate's
own words (quite incredible, when I think about it). It was
fascinating to discover how different people interpreted the same
words or instructions in so many varying ways. It was a great,
simple technique that not only helped provide clarity, but provoked
its own interesting discussions.
- Exploiting the power of stories. The exercises
used throughout the programme were some of the most engaging and
compelling that I have taken part in. (Although, at one point, I
was forced to do that dreadful 'fall back into the arms of your
team mates' thing that I had always managed to avoid, but knew it
would catch up with me one day!) Part of the credit of this has to
do with the delegates, and the way they threw themselves into them.
However, the facilitators genuinely seemed to understand what
worked for a given situation situation. This was most apparent by
their use of stories as a way of getting points across. The most
rewarding exercise we did was to create our own personal story that
illustrated a matter fundamental to leadership. Not only did this
give us a chance to highlight what was important to us, it gave us
a lovely insight into each other and helped the group bond even
more.
- Time to reflect. We in L&D know that
reflection is a powerful learning tool. However, how many of us
actively take the time to encourage it? Reflection time was
integral to this programme. Delegates were regularly encouraged to
spend ten minutes, by themselves and then in groups, to take stock
and think about what was important to us. The pace of the programme
was quick and the environment was intense at times, so these
moments of quiet reflection were invaluable. (An interesting
cultural side note here is that when we were given the change to
choose our own reflection point, the Kenyans all stayed in the
shade, while us sun-starved Scots took any opportunity going to fry
ourselves in the sun!)
- Feedback sessions led by delegates. As regular
as the reflective moments, were feedback sessions. Considerable
time was given after each exercise to really discuss what had
happened, what the events meant for the programme themes, and what
the lessons learned were. The guide-not-tell approach of the
facilitators really worked here. The group were given space to find
their own conclusions and answers to what had happened, rather than
being told this is what they should have learned. These feedback
sessions were certainly spirited at times, but they were always
relevant and never dull.
The Closing Credits
I would like to publicly thank the facilitators for putting
together one of the most powerful learning experiences it has been
my great privilege to be a part of. Even without the Kenyan
setting, the actual programme itself was a fantastically well put
together series of events, run by individuals who care about the
learning and development of others. So take a bow Shona Mitchell, Ged
Welch, Peter Russian, Ken Hames and David Parkinson.
The third and final part of this
blog will reflect upon some of my own personal lessons learned.
I'll post this before I set off on my next work jaunt - to Mexico.
(It's a hard life, indeed!)