Life Long Learning Project

Leadership and Management - LEO FOLLOW UP

Background

This one day course was developed partly as a result of feedback from the LEO participants and partly from a feeling the facilitators had about skills being 'lost' after LEO.

Essentially the day revolves around two parts of the 'problem solving model 'used on the third day in the LEO programme.
Creative thinking tools are introduced to help participants expand the options section of the problem solving model. Then critical thinking tools are used to explore the analysis section.
The new models are mainly from Edward de Bono's work and Root cause analysis investigations from the patient safety agency.

Structure of the day

The day starts with asking for 'best hopes', gaining an insight into their expectations. The majority wanted refreshing, renewed motivation, reminders and to hear about other delegates success with the action plans etc

The first page of the workbook provides reminders of the models in LEO. This served as the reminder and refresher. Success and best practice examples then came from pair and group work
The rest of the morning is spent on the creative thinking tools, usually managing to look at three or four models.

After lunch the analysis tools were explored. Group work again proved to bring out past experience and emphasised the need to remind ourselves of the LEO concept.

A lot of staff went away with renewed enthusiasm for their work. Some used the problem solving time on their own work issues, so they were able to go back to work armed with an action plan.

A section at the back of the LEO follow up work book covers negotiation and influencing skills this was included because the first LEO follow up group requested this in their expectation section. It is now used ad hoc if the group require it. The skills are covered only in theory due to time constraints.

One group decided to form an action learning group, who continue to meet regularly .They use a structured model for problem solving in a solution focused way. Currently they are externally facilitated by one of the LLL team .It is envisaged that this will be self supporting after May.

Recommendations

That LEO participants are booked for a LEO follow up 7 months after their last LEO day. Possibly grouped geographically. To potentially encourage the development of action learning sets.
Prior to a LEO I feel that the manager should attend a two hour session .This would enable the facilitator to brief them on LEO if they are not familiar with the programme and then encourage them to book dates with the new LEO person following the course to support them in their action planning.
The structure of the follow up course could possibly build in action learning models.
Written action plans gained from each participant and an evaluation form send three months on the record achievements
Introduce a new evaluation form for the follow up and even the LEO programme to capture action plan details. This would in some way measure the impact and success of both programmes.

Don't just take our word for it!!

THIS IS WHAT THEY SAID

What I got out of the day

Sharing anecdotes and ideas
Opportunity to reflect
Working together on problem solving tools
Recapping on how to deal with killer phrases
Revising the material
Enjoyed the range of activities
Forming an action learning group
The session was geared to the groups needs

As well as re visiting the models in LEO we look at new models.

This is what they liked

Barrier analysis
Problem solving
Proficiency scales
Creative thinking ideas
Problem analysis
Emphasis on the positive

So then we asked them to tell us

What I'm taking back to the work place:

Approaches to team work
Appraisals
Consistently articulating my expectation
Encourage reflection
Set time for negotiation
Assertive once I know my goals and agenda
Looking at options when faced with a problem
Analysing with different options
Reminding myself about what I have learned, getting on and using it
Confidence to continue what we started on the LEO course.