The Practice in Leadership Workshop
The workshop, entitled Practice in Leadership: developing leadership capacity through group process – an immersive workshop ran on 28th and 29th June 2007 at the Novotel, Sydney Olympic Park. The workshop occurred across two days (essentially one and a half days of work with the major socialising and networking activity on the evening of Day 1). Sixty-two people attended the workshop, drawn from ten research-intensive universities in Australia.
This workshop was an active, immersive dissemination activity for the ANU’s Institutional Leadership Project, funded by the Carrick Institute. The design concerned putting participants through a rapid process cycle of community of practice development and an exploration of distributed leadership in this context. This was an intense process of engagement with most of the learning and capacity development situated within the community of practice.
The workshop was characterised by a strong, positive vibe of constructive engagement. Workshop participants did work within their communities of practice, sit with the uncertainty of an open process, engage in deepening conversations, actively listened and also dealt with the tensions and differences that are the reality of working collaboratively with others. What people highly valued was the rarely afforded opportunity to work with a group of people intensively and the freedom to range over many issues over a substantial time frame.
Participants commented on the:- the diversity of groups/experiences;
- the differences in facilitation styles and group process;
- the differences in orientation to task, process, outcome and conversation imperatives;
- the varied reactions to the community of practice experience (for some that it felt artificial/manufactured, others felt that they had participated in a community of practice);
- the significance of being with people who ‘care’ and ‘share’ concerns and values around teaching and learning; and
- high energy environment.
The majority of respondents identified a range of impacts from the workshop that included confidence, empowerment, enthusiasm, and networking. Participants did take away ideas, energy and shifts in consciousness about communities of practice and leadership.
Communities...
The workshop successfully engaged participants with the possibilities that communities of practice might offer within an academic context. Many people saw communities of practice as a valuable way to influence and bring about change, and appreciated the possibilities inherent in the power of the group. Other attributes they valued about communities of practice were their supportive nature, and to sustain sharing of experiences, ideas, practices, goals, purpose and values. Participants felt that communities of practice can harness the interests, experience, expertise, strengths, motivation, skills and knowledge of the individuals within the group. People were attracted to communities of practice as less structured, voluntary forums for exchange, and saw them as a good base for communication, enthusiasm, engagement, and offering the strengths of flexibility and adaptiveness. They were aware that they facilitated learning through observing and listening rather than being instructed.
Leadership...
Participants in the Practice in Leadership Workshop were intrigued and interested in the possibilities of distributed leadership for peer-engagement, for driving change management agendas such as assessment or curriculum reviews, but also at a more fundamental level for fostering a sense of collegial endeavour and as a means of having those deeper conversations that advance practice and innovation in teaching and learning. The evaluation data from the workshop indicates in the main a shift in consciousness in the sense of self as leader among participants. A day and a half afforded the opportunity to build awareness of necessary relational skills for community-oriented meaning making but not for the sustained engagement necessary for capability building. Participants indicated that they saw communities of practice as being vehicles for hybrid forms of leadership, which is attractive as a way of overcoming the lack of flexibility in traditional university management and leadership roles and structures.
Participants saw that communities of practice, as a bottom-up approach, have the potential to broaden the base of leadership in the academy and to effectively use and include the skills and abilities of staff irrespective of seniority or position in a higher education context. Significantly in this group learning context leadership is a meaning-making process.
Generally people commented that the event was professional, well run and enjoyable and that they appreciated the collaboration between institutions. Participants found it an interesting way to distribute what ANU had learnt from its Teaching and Learning Communities: Institutional Leadership Project.
Workshop Evaluation Commentary in PDF Form.
