BUS603: Managing People

Revans had devised the equation that in times of change learning needs to be equal to or greater than the rate of change.

I knew from my own experiences as a leader in complex political environments the importance and value of taking time out for reflection to create and to innovate: to find new ways around old problems. I also knew from my executive coaching practice that the pressures which require leaders to both capitalize on the potential and possibility held in the future, whilst also delivering on the day to day was requiring me and them to learn new post‐conventional leadership capacities and capabilities to work effectively with the unknown. I was aware these new capacities, while they may be natural, can also be counter‐intuitive and are not traditionally taught. I was also aware that conventional linear thinking, the accumulation of pure technical knowledge, theories or tools and yesterday's logic were no longer enough. For me, that learning to lead this way was necessarily a radical inner journey into every deepening self‐awareness and consciousness to perceive, sense and create anew. I therefore turned to the literature to study what was already available.

As I noted in my research, Schon - building and developing on the work of others like Dewey, Lewin and Piaget - had "highlighted the value of reflection and reflective learning practices to professional learning and development". In my research, I noted "that reflection could help professionals move beyond early technical competence to learn how to navigate the humanness, messiness, ambiguity and complexity of actual practice with clarity, courage and compassion". As Schon wrote:

"In the varied topography of professional practice there is a high hard ground overlooking the swamp. On the high ground manageable problems lend themselves to solution through the application of research‐based theory & technique. The irony of this situation is that the problems of the high ground tend to be relatively unimportant to individuals and to society at large, however great their technical interest may be, while in the swamp lie the problems of greatest human concern. The practitioner must choose. Shall he/she remain on the high ground where he/she can solve relatively unimportant problems according to prevailing standards or rigor or shall he descend into the swamp of important problems and non‐rigorous inquiry?"

Despite this pedigree, it still seemed that reflection was primarily confined to technical or clinical practice, for example, the legal, health, educational or therapeutic professions and much less in the leadership domain.