The Leadership Studio : Learning Together About Public Leadership

Tools

Simpson, Barbara and Buchan, Linda (2018) The Leadership Studio : Learning Together About Public Leadership. Scottish Universities Insight Institute, Glasgow. (https://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/Theme...)

[thumbnail of Simpson-Buchan-SUII-2018-The-Leadership-Studio-Learning-Together-About-Public-Leadership]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Simpson-Buchan-SUII-2018-The-Leadership-Studio-Learning-Together-About-Public-Leadership.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 logo
Download (62MB)| Preview

Abstract

It is one of the great truisms of our times that the world we live in is becoming ever more complex and contested. As obvious as this may seem, it nevertheless raises difficult questions about how best to negotiate a pathway into the future, how to sustainably manage increasingly stretched resources, and how to develop the qualities of leadership needed to bring about transformation in today’s organisations. Nowhere are these questions more pressing than in the public sector, which is constantly confronted with ‘wicked’ problems that resist permanent resolution such as the social consequences of poverty and homelessness, and health and social care systems that are no longer fit for purpose. Over the past few years, a number of research and practice initiatives have begun to chip away at these questions. For instance, the Local Vision project, the Leadership Centre and the King’s Fund have all explored aspects of systems leadership in the provision of health and social care services in England, while the Staff College has taken a similar approach to public sector leadership for children’s services. Following another thread, Needham & Mangan have investigated the skills and attributes that will be needed in the future by public servants working in England. And in Scotland, the Ingage team in the Scottish Government has successfully developed the Pioneering Leadership Development Programme, which offers intensive facilitation to support communities in accomplishing improved outcomes. This report is the product of a collaborative research project involving the University of Strathclyde and the Glasgow School of Art. It sets out to extend these recent trends in public leadership research by introducing the idea of the Leadership Studio as a site for developing collaborative public leadership. The project specifically asks what types of intervention are more likely to be effective in developing readiness and capacity for collaborative leadership in the context of the wicked problems that characterise complex public issues. The project was initially motivated by a call from Scotland’s First Minister for more effective collaboration across public sector agencies. This imperative that has subsequently been taken up by the Scottish Leaders Forum. Funding for this project was awarded by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) as part of a broader themed inquiry into ‘Learning from other places’. Responding to this theme, the research design explicitly draws in expertise from diverse national and international locations. Using a studio pedagogy which emphasises the co-production of hands-on learning-by-making in real lived contexts, the project seeks to address the challenges of working productively across disciplinary and professional boundaries.

ORCID iDs

Simpson, Barbara ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7771-0092 and Buchan, Linda;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)