Institute for Collaborative Working
Collaborative Leadership Programme
Our Approach to Developing Collaboration and Collaborative Leadership
Our approach to developing Collaborative Leadership capability is strongly rooted in the principles of peer group and experiential learning being learner not teacher centred; an approach we have used for over thirty years.
Much of Leadership Development today is still based in the academic pedagogical model where learners are âtaughtâ in courses by academics, experts or consultants who have considerable theoretical knowledge but little practical experience. This approach does little to change and develop the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours needed for effective collaboration and collaborative working to flourish.
The alternate âlearnerâ approach we favour is based the research and work of the American adult educator Malcolm Knowles between the 1950s and 1980s with him becoming best known for his âandragogicalâ learner approach. Knowlesâ research learnt that adults recall and apply around:
- 10% of what they read;
- 20% of what they hear;
- 50% of what they see;
- 70% of what they discuss; and
- 80% of what they experience.
With this learning in mind Knowles concluding that adults learn best when:
- They understand why something is important to know or do;
- They have freedom to learn in their own way;Â
- Learning is experiential;
- The time is right for them to learn; and
- The process is positive and encouraging.
Knowles was a major influence in the development of learning theory but more significantly his work encouraged the development of âpeerâ and âexperientialâ learning that âoffers people the opportunity to learn through and from each other.â Learning is thus a two-way reciprocal mutually beneficial process built around the sharing of knowledge, ideas, and experiences through facilitated face-to-face learning activities such as case studies, tasks, group work, action learning and reviews where feedback and open discussion are key features.
With modern tools such as Slido it is possible to now add to this approach through the immediate collecting and collecting of how learners are thinking and what views they may be holding that adds to the richness and quality of discussions and learning.
Our focus is upon facilitating short programmes based in helping people to develop âhowâ to collaborate more effectively with others and to lead collaborative initiatives/projects. We believe that the skills and behaviours required to effectively lead collaboratively are also the skills and behaviours required of all the people involved; for us âfollowershipâ is just as important as âleadershipâ. Indeed, from our experience highly effective followers can be, and often are, more important to the success of a collaboration than poor to average leaders.
To become an effective âfollowerâ and/or âleaderâ our development courses focus on âlearnersâ gaining personal, team and organisational insights on:
- Their Beliefs, Attitudes and Mindset (8 Attitudes with 80 beliefs);
- Feedback on their Collaborative Behaviour (12 Competences with 60 behaviours);
- Their Values;
- The type and level of Trust;
- The impact of Interference Factors on Performance and thus Effective Collaboration;
- Understanding and reducing Non-Value-Adding Activities (NVA);
- Making and managing Time to Collaborate.
We also use AI in our programmes and help encourage the learners to help them manage and analyse the important personal data gathered as well as that gathered collectively through Slido and the other tools and instruments we use.
We advocate separating Day 1 and Day 2 of this Leadership Programme with a 4-6 weeks gap. This allows people to reflect and begin to work on what they have learnt from Day 1 and for the gathering of the 360-Feedback data for Day 2.
Day 1
Click to open example data gathered from Day 1
Click to open example course materials
Day 2
Click to open example data gathered from Day 2
Click to open example course materials
