academi wales learning journals...• have courage in recognising failure – often the most useful...

LEARNING JOURNAL

Third Edition

The Learning Journal is published by Academi Wales

For more information about Academi Wales email [email protected]

www.gov.wales/academiwales

© Crown copyright 2019 WG36913 Digital ISBN 978 1 78964 902 4 Print ISBN 978 1 78964 901 7

Mae’r ddogfen yma hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg. This document is also available in Welsh.

CONTENTS

MYSELFAbout Myself Identifying Personal ValuesWheel of Life Personal Change ChecklistUsing Poetry for reflectionFreefall WritingLearning StylesPersonal BrandingPersonal Development Plan

101317192124293436

MY FUTURELife Mapping Summit Syndrome Your CVSelf-Marketing

102107109114

Further Reading 162

MY WORKThe ABCDEsJohari WindowThe 5 WhysCause and Effect AnalysisChecklist for Effective Decision Making

6068697174

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Welcome to your Learning Journal

This Learning Journal is designed to help you capture the many things you learn during the course of your working life. It is a tool to use to reflect on issues both momentous and everyday to help you do your job better. Without reflection many of the things we learn can be lost and as a result we are destined to repeat our mistakes.

As Ron Klug described it:

“a journal is also a tool for self-discovery, an aid to concentration, a mirror for the soul, a place to generate and capture ideas, a safety valve for the emotions … and a good friend and confidant.”

Ron Klug ‘How to keep a spiritual journal: a guide to journal keeping for inner growth

and personal discovery’ (2002)

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What is a Learning Journal?

A Learning Journal is a personal log or record of your own learning and skills development. It should help you to plan, achieve, record, reflect on, and evidence your own learning, and does not need to be a formal or academic piece of work. Rather, it should be structured and recorded in a way that is useful to you. It could contain details of problems you have encountered and solved (or not solved), examples of occasions when you have tested or practised a new skill, and details of your own formal and informal learning.

Similar to a diary, it records experiences and events over a period of time. However, to make this experience worthwhile, it requires conscious reflection and commentary. It is not just a record of what you have done, but captures what you have tried, critically reflected on and learnt. A Learning Journal contains a record of your experiences, thoughts, feelings and reflections, and most importantly your conclusions about how what you have learnt is relevant to you and how you will use, refine and further develop the new knowledge or skill in the future.

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Why should I use a Learning Journal?

When kept with frequent and fairly regular entries over months or years, the Journal becomes a growing picture of your understanding of your practical and professional development, and the way your learning unfolds. It can be a problem-solving tool or a source of new ideas. Recording concerns and questions allows you to come back and address them with new perspectives and insights.

A Learning Journal will help you to become more aware of your emotional and cognitive processes, of how you personally learn best. Once you have started to use a Learning Journal, you should find it a valuable and useful tool to help you to plan, structure and reflect on your learning.

Reflecting on your learning and on your work can:

• Improve your understanding of what you do and how you do it: helping you identify strengths and weaknesses as well as your preferences, values, biases and emotional reactions

• Help you become a reflective practitioner

• Facilitate integration of theory and practice

• Provide an opportunity to enhance your performance, helping improve your confidence and effectiveness

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How to use this Learning Journal?

Here are some key principles to keeping a Learning Journal:

• Be honest with yourself

• Be disciplined – use it regularly even if you feel you haven’t been engaged in learning

• Have courage in recognising failure – often the most useful lessons come through failure

• Acknowledge your learning as a personal journey

• See your Learning Journal as a tool

• for self-enquiry and critical challenge

• for learning how to manage the ‘self-talk’ in your head

• to unleash your capacity to its full potential

After every new experience use a Journal entry to think about what the experience was, your thoughts and feelings about it, how well (or not so well) it went, what you learned and what you will do differently next time.

Be honest with yourself and ask yourself questions such as:

• What have I achieved?

• What progress have I made?

• Have I put any theory into practice?

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• How has what I have been doing led me to become more skilful?

• How has what I have been doing led me to become more knowledgeable?

• How can I use this to plan for the future?

• What am I going to do differently, now/tomorrow/ next week?

• In what ways will things be different when I have applied my new learning?

• How can I use this to plan further learning?

Self-reflection can help people change

In addition to immediate reflection, you may also find it very rewarding to look back at your entry and ask yourself these questions again with the perspective of days, weeks or months. These periods of reflection can help you understand how you have, for example, managed to use what you once saw as a negative experience, to develop further and improve your practice. Kolb’s learning cycle demonstrates how we use reflective observation to change our behaviour and maximise the learning from any experience.

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Initially it may seem difficult to critically reflect on your own learning, but you will find that it becomes easier with time and practice. The Journal offers a selection of tools to help you find the ways of reflecting and making sense of learning which work for you. You may also wish to add your own tools and methods. We wish you every success on this lifelong journey.

ConcreteExperience

(doing / having an experience)

ActiveExperimentation(planning / trying out

what you have learned)

ReflectiveObservation

(reviewing / reflectingon the experience)

AbstractConceptualisation

(concluding / learningfrom the experience)

Kolb’s learning cycle

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The Leading in the Welsh Public Service leadership behaviours framework forms the basis of the leadership development activity designed and developed by Academi Wales for senior leaders and those aspiring to a senior leadership role.

Leading in the Welsh Public Service – a leadership behaviours framework for senior leaders

E F F I C I E N TE F F E C T I V E

E X E M P L A R Y

For more information visit the Academi Wales website www.gov.wales/academiwales

As you use this journal it may be helpful to use this framework to identify your current behavioural strengths and areas for development.

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MYSELF

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About Myself

In order to get started on your reflection, you may like to begin by focusing inwards. It may help to try to answer some of these questions.

How would I describe myself? (Use metaphors, images or expressions)

What do I believe about myself?

What do I like about myself?

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Which of my behaviours would I change to become more effective?

What do I worry about?

How will I address these concerns?

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What do I want to achieve?

What strengths do I have which will help me learn and develop?

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Identifying Personal Values

Values are traits or qualities that are considered worthwhile, they represent your highest priorities and deeply held driving forces. When you are part of any organisation, you bring your deeply held values and beliefs to the organisation. There they co-mingle with those of the other members to create an organisation or family culture.

Value statements are grounded in values and define how people want to behave with each other in an organisation, institution, company or family. They are statements about how the organisation will value customers, suppliers, and the internal community. Value statements describe actions which are the living enactment of the fundamental values held by most individuals within the organisation.

The Welsh Public Service Values guide how we work, change culture and share the way we behave. It may be useful to reflect here on how these align to your own personal values and how you demonstrate both in your behaviour.

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Public service values: the beliefs we hold

Well-being delivery principles: how we will work

Working for the Long Term: To safeguard the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, requires real long-term integration and collaboration addressing the well-being of people and communities, economic prosperity and the health of the natural environment.

Long term: The importance of balancing short-term needs with the need to safeguard the ability to also meet long-term needs.

Prevention: How acting to prevent problems occurring or getting worse may help public bodies meet their objectives.

Integration: Considering how the public body’s well-being objectives may impact upon each of the well-being goals, on their other objectives, or on the objectives of other public bodies.

Collaboration: Acting in collaboration with any other person (or different parts of the body itself) that could help the body to meet its well-being objectives.

Involvement: The importance of involving people with an interest in achieving the well-being goals, and ensuring that those people reflect the diversity of the area which the body serves.

Always Growing and Improving: We will be at our best for citizens and each other by choosing positive attitudes and behaviours, embracing learning and development and sharing ideas on ways to improve and deliver public services.

Working Together: Where everyone involved in the delivery of public services, values others contributions, shares common principles and collaborates for the benefit of the people of Wales, within and across organisational boundaries and sectors.

Treating Everyone with Respect: Recognising, valuing and respecting the diversity of the people of Wales is central to seeing people as individuals and doing the right thing, at the right time and in the right place for citizens and each other.

Putting Citizens First: Our organisations need to be focussed on the needs of the people of Wales. This requires us to genuinely involve people in decision making which impacts them and their communities.

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Ambition Competency Individuality

Equality Integrity Service

Responsibility Accuracy Respect

Dedication Diversity Improvement

Enjoyment/fun Loyalty Credibility

Honesty Innovativeness Teamwork

Excellence Accountability Empowerment

Quality Efficiency Dignity

Collaboration Flexibility Empathy

Accomplishment Courage Wisdom

Independence Security Challenge

Influence Learning Compassion

Friendliness Discipline/order Generosity

Persistency Optimism Dependability

Examples of Values:

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Identifying and Establishing Your Values

Your values are made up of everything that has happened to you in your life and include influences from:

• Parents • Friends and peers

• Family • Education

• Religious affiliation • Reading

Effective people recognise these environmental influences and identify and develop a clear, concise, and meaningful set of values/beliefs, and priorities. Once defined, values impact every aspect of your life.

• You demonstrate and model your values in your personal and work behaviours, decision making, contribution, and interpersonal interaction

• You use your values to make decisions about priorities in your daily work and home life

• Your goals and life purpose are grounded in your values

Choose the values that are most important to you and the values you believe define your character. Then live them visibly every day at work and at home. Living your values is one of the most powerful tools available to you to help you be the person you want to be, to help you accomplish your goals and dreams, and to help you lead and influence others. Don’t waste your best opportunity.

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Wheel Of Life

The eight sections of the Wheel of Life represent balance. Regarding the centre of the wheel as 0 and the outer edge as 10, rank your level of satisfaction with each life area by drawing a straight or curved line to create a new outer edge. The new perimeter represents your Wheel of Life. How bumpy would the ride be if this were a real wheel? Pick each area from your Wheel of Life that you would like to make changes in:

Physical Environment

Career

Significant Other/Romance

Friends and Family

Fun and Recreation

Money

Personal Growth

Health

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Questions: Answers:

Which area is the issue?

Which area is lacking or has something missing?

Which area would you like to change?

What is preventing this from happening?

What is your goal?

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Personal Change checklist

Use this check-list to guide you when thinking about making personal change:

1 Your environment (home, personal, business) – the ongoing issues you haven’t managed yet?

2 Why haven’t you managed them until now?

3 How you would recognise when it was time to do something about those issues – what you would see, hear or feel?

4 How do you decide what aspects of the situation need to be changed?

5 What aspects of the situation do you want to stay the same?

6 The differences between 4 and 5?

7 How will you decide who you need to bring into the ‘change’ conversation to have buy in?

8 How will you bring them into the decisions you need to make?

9 How will you know they are supportive of the change issues and how will you know if they are not supportive?

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10 How will you manage the situation if they believe they will be harmed by the change?

11 How you and your decision partners define all the aspects that need to be managed?

12 Which elements of the situation need to be moved first?

13 Which need to be moved second?

14 How will you handle differences of opinion?

15 How will you monitor your process?

16 How will your decision partners help you in monitoring the process?

17 How will you know if or when you are going off course and need additional support?

18 What will success look like?

19 How can you be sure the problem will remain solved?

20 What follow up and follow through look like?

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Using poetry to reflect and process our experiences at work

To process information and reflect upon our experiences during the course of work provides an invaluable opportunity to understand the meaning and significance of things. This can help us acquire personal insight and wisdom, to make the right decision when we are required to respond and learn from our experiences and one another.

Writing poetry is often a deeply reflective process that we imagine requires considerable verbal and creative dexterity to do well. However, this is not always true. Some of the poetry we might personally relate to and most admire is because of its simplicity and openness. In these circumstances poetry can be a vehicle for creating personal insight, and self awareness.

Haiku and Englyn are two recognised models of poetry composition that can provide the framework for developing reflective practice and processing human experiences. The former, Haiku, is a way of writing poetry developed in the 16th century in Japan. It is composed of three lines using a combination of five, seven and five syllables.

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For example:

The heart of the team Beats louder under pressure A call to action

To make decisionsI need many other truths To know what is right

Alternatively, Englyn is a four lined verse used within Welsh poetry. It is slightly more complicated using thirty syllables in four lines in a combination of ten, six, seven and seven. Traditionally the sixth syllable of line one announces the rhyme, the last syllable of the succeeding three lines rhyme with it.

For example:

To solve the problem, they worked together Searching for what to sayWithin the space of a day They discovered a new way

The solution is hard to discoverWhen reason we discard In favour of self-regard Our endeavour becomes marred

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To practice poetry writing using one of these techniques, begin with an issue that is important to you. This may be a situation at work, an incident that has recently happened or even a recollection of a conversation. Then try formulating your words carefully to describe the issue using clear and simplistic language. Construct each observation or comment as a single sentence to convey what you feel or understand about the situation; be slightly adventurous and enigmatic if you want to expose something about the incident which has meaning for you but which on the surface would not be obvious to others. Then try taking your lines and abbreviating your message so that it almost appears in note form. Finally, focus upon re-constructing your poem using one of the techniques outlined previously.

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Freefall writing

Freefall writing is a technique that the Canadian author W.O. Mitchell used to get to the heart of the writing. Writing without a parachute or stream of consciousness, as Freefall is also known, is ideally done using pen and paper rather than on the computer. The theory behind it relates to the difference between the two sides to our brains. The left is the side that wants things in logical order, straight lines and without fuzziness; the right side is the poetic side that longs for beauty, wants to wander through a field of poppies and enjoys finger-painting. In Free-fall writing we use the intuitive right side. By writing as fast as your hand can travel, you circumvent the bossy left side and so write with your heart. You’re not concerned about grammar or if it’s “good” or not.

With Freefall, there is no goal or destination. You start without a beginning and do not have to end anywhere in particular. Just jot down the first thought that pops into your mind, followed by the next and then the next and then the next…write quickly, without stopping to edit or revise. When you Freefall, you follow your stream of consciousness as it meanders through your mind. You write without censoring yourself, until you reach what feels like an end. Or not.

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The ultimate goal is to see what comes up. Often, after Freefalling for a while, and feeling as if you’re producing absolute gibberish, you will discover some bit of writing – a few words, a phrase, a sentence – worth exploring. Write it again, and again, and each time strip away anything that’s not really real or true, and see where it takes you.

Experience Freefall. Use a separate sheet of paper and just start writing! Try two five-minute Freefalls. Take a short break between each one. If you find it hard to start, begin to write about where you are right now. Write in the first or third person; describe how you are mentally, physically, spiritually. Begin and don’t stop writing for five minutes. If you find yourself stopping, keep the pen moving on the page. Use arrows or squiggles or whatever marks keep your hand moving until you tap back into the stream of consciousness and are off and writing again. One exercise to help you practice Free-fall writing is writing extended metaphors. Start with a person – your parent, sibling, friend, enemy, child – and compare them to something else – a building, animal, plant, toy, food, article of clothing. What are you waiting for? Stop reading and Freefall.

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Freefall writing

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Freefall writing

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Freefall writing

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Learning Styles

Finding your preferred way of learning:

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford have identified four main learning style preferences. By thinking about your preferred style, you can try and apply this to learning new things. If you’re able to use your natural style, you’re likely to find learning much easier and quicker. Activists:

• Like to be involved in new experiences

• Are open minded and enthusiastic about new ideas but get bored with implementation

• Enjoy doing things and tend to act first and consider the implications afterwards

• Like working with others but tend to hog the limelight

Activists learn best when:

• Involved in new experiences, problems and opportunities

• Working with others in business games, team tasks, role-playing

• Thrown in the deep end with a difficult task

• Chairing meetings and leading discussions

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Activists learn less when:

• Listening to lectures or long explanations

• Reading, writing or thinking on their own

• Absorbing and understanding data

• Follow precise instructions to the letter

Reflectors:

• Like to stand back and look at a situation from different perspectives

• Like to collect data and think about it carefully before coming to any conclusions

• Enjoy observing others and will listen to their views before offering their own

Reflectors learn best when:

• Observing individuals or groups at work

• They have the opportunity to review what has happened and think about what they have learned

• Doing tasks without tight deadlines

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Reflectors learn less when:

• Acting as leader or role-playing in front of others

• Doing things with no time to prepare

• Thrown in at the deep end

• Rushed or worried by deadlines

Theorists:

• Adapt and integrate observations into complex and logically sound theories

• Think problems through in a step-by-step way

• Tend to be perfectionists who like to fit things into a rational scheme

• Tend to be detached and analytical rather than subjective or emotive in their thinking

Theorists learn best when:

• They are put in complex situations where they have to use their skills and knowledge

• They are in structured situations with clear purpose

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• They are offered interesting ideas or concepts even though they are not immediately relevant

• They have the chance to question and probe ideas behind things

Theorists learn less when:

• They have to participate in situations which emphasise emotion and feelings

• The activity is unstructured or briefing is poor

• They have to do things without knowing the principles or concepts involved

• They feel they’re out of tune with the other participants e.g. with people of very different learning styles

Pragmatists:

• Are keen to try things out

• Want concepts that can be applied to their job

• Tend to be impatient with lengthy discussions

• Are practical and down to earth

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Pragmatists learn best when:

• There is an obvious link between the topic and job

• They have the chance to try out techniques with feedback e.g. role-playing

• They are shown techniques with obvious advantages e.g. saving time

• They are shown a model they can copy e.g. a film or a respected boss

Pragmatists learn less when:

• There is no obvious or immediate benefit that they can recognise

• There is no practice or guidelines on how to do it

• There is no apparent pay back to the learning e.g. shorter meetings

• The event or learning is ‘all theory’

Most of us have elements of more than one learning style. Think about your strongest style and your weakest style to identify how you learn.

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Personal Branding

“Personal branding is about consciously managing perceptions people have of you in order to create a powerful and authentic first impression.”

Developed from Personal Branding by Debbie Smith, Health Service Journal, October 2008

A personal brand is your unique portrait. It is how people see you, what you project to others, what they think of you and what shapes their ideas and expectations of you. It is how you communicate your core values.

When building your personal brand, consider the following:

Internal

• Gain insight into who you really are – have confidence in your attributes and values

• Bring meaning – your personal brand must stand for something that is true to you – it will be something you believe in and that is based on your vision and the values you hold

• Self-recognition – learn to understand how you look, how you sound and how you behave

External

• Be distinctive – start identifying what makes you different and build your brand around your unique selling points

• Stay visible – let people know you exist by not hiding away

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• Refine your abilities – develop your skills in how to engage, motivate, listen, give direction, influence and articulate what you and your organisation stands for – your core values

• Consolidate – maintain the reputation of your organisation and effectively manage key relationships

Take some time to explore your ‘Value Base’ (see above) – list what is important to you. Then consider how you think you impact on others. Use this information to prepare a short Branding statement that crystallises your values and beliefs in the space below.

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Personal Development Planning

Personal development planning (PDP) means creating opportunities to think through, in a structured way, questions such as:

• What do I really want to achieve from life?

• What kind of person do I want to be?

• Am I clear about my personal goals and ambitions?

• Am I making the right decisions to get me where I really want to be?

• Am I in charge of my life or just hoping it all will work out somehow?

It has been recognised that students need structured opportunities to think about, and plan towards, their future. The exact content really depends on you. How much of your time do you want to give now to planning your future?

A process of personal development

Development planning can be a very personal process. PDP works best when you:

Think deeply and in structured ways about your life and ambitions. What does success mean to you personally?

• Have the right information to make good choices

• Have people you can trust to share your reflections

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• Have opportunities to experiment and test yourself in new areas so that you have a better understanding of your abilities and limits

• Have opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills to achieve your ambitions

Benefits of PDP to professional life:

• Clear ideas about the kind of life and work you want

• Greater confidence in the choices you make

• Greater confidence in the skills, qualities and attributes you bring to the career of your choice

• In a better position to compete for jobs

• Better able to discuss your skills, personal qualities and competences with employers

• Better problem-solving and planning skills

• Developing the positive attitudes and approaches associated with a successful professional life

Many employers now expect employees to understand their own performance – and to know how to adapt to meet times of increased workload, stressful situations or conditions of change. You should show personal commitment to your continuing professional development. Knowing how to learn, and how you learn best, will be invaluable in the work place.

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Benefits of PDP to personal life:

• A better understanding of yourself and how you ‘tick’

• Being in a better position to make appropriate choices to meet your aspirations

• Greater awareness of your needs and how to meet them

• Greater awareness of the unique contribution you can make

• Developing a positive, forward-looking approach

Find out more…

For further advice and helpful tools to develop yourself, please visit our website at www.gov.wales/academiwales

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Date: Place:

What happened? Describe the incident/learning experience

How well did it go, and how do I feel about it?

What have I learned?

How will I use this learning in future?

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MY WORK

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The ABCDEs

ABCDE, a system for altering perceptions, attitudes and behaviour, was pioneered by Dr Albert Ellis, internationally recognised as the father of Rational Emotive Behaviour Theory and Therapy. It is based on the theory that you can modify and change your feelings by means of logical and deductive reasoning instead of allowing your feelings to get the better of you.

The basis is that an activating event, A, appears to lead directly to a consequence, C. However, this leaves out a crucial step, the beliefs, B, or self-talk, that lead to the consequence. The lesson is that if A leads to B to C, then we can change the consequences by identifying and defusing B, the often self-defeating beliefs, and replace them with different, more adaptive and realistic beliefs.

Beliefs are shorthand for the silent self-talk we engage in throughout the day: the ‘I hope it’s not going to rain today’ when we go out into a winter morning; the ‘I hope the light stays green’ as we come up to traffic lights.

Some of the more negative self-talk may be caused by “dated tapes”, the automatic replay of statements made to you when you were a child. Often these take the form of “Can’t you ever get anything right?” or “You’ll never achieve anything.”

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Identifying these dated tapes can defuse their power. Being able to tune in to this inner voice, the belief system responsible for our feelings and behaviour, is vital to the completion of the ABCDE chart.

Some people are turned off by written exercises, and if they listen to the “silent talk”, they report hearing phrases like “I hate writing things down… this is too much like homework… it’s too hard… it takes too long.” We improve our performance at a sport or hobby through practice: applying our learning. The ABCDE approach is the same: step by step exercises that will facilitate self-awareness and strengthen those skills that enhance emotional intelligence and amplify your abilities to be more successful in your professional and personal life.

First, you will need to draw a table of five columns. Then think of a difficult or upsetting situation you experienced over the past week. In the C (consequences) column, write down what your unpleasant feelings were, and what behaviours accompanied them. We’ll work through the five columns of the table, using an example scenario.

Helen has been working as a general manager in a busy hospital trust for about four years. She takes her job very seriously and to demonstrate how committed and able she is she often volunteers for projects that are personally challenging and stretch her skills and knowledge.

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Occasionally she is anxious that these projects are beyond her capabilities but she is determined to get on.

Her line manager Susan is very pleased with her performance. She doesn’t often say this but believes she communicates her regard and confidence in Helen’s ability by trusting her with high profile and difficult projects.

On this occasion Helen has been working flat out to deliver a piece of work on improving patient outcomes through public engagement. She is nervous that her recommendations may not be what the trust is looking for. Having submitted her final report for her line manager’s consideration, she has noticed that Susan has stopped speaking to her and other members of staff. Helen is anxious and concerned that her work has not been well received.

In this case Ellis would call Susan’s failure to acknowledge Helen’s work as the activating event (A) and Helen’s reaction as the consequence (C). (A) would seem to lead directly to (C). However this is to overlook the belief (B). These were the unsubstantiated or self-talk that actually caused Helen’s response.

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The key aspect is to capture your Bs, the almost imperceptible, easily overlooked self-talk triggered by the event.

The next task is to actively debate, dispute and discard (D) all these maladaptive, self-defeating beliefs. Ask the following key questions and write the answers in column D, as Helen has.

• Where’s the proof? List the objective and verifiable evidence that supports each belief

• Are there alternative, more logical explanations to explain the actuating event?

• If someone asked me for advice about this scenario, what might I say that might alter his or her perspective?

• How would someone whose opinion I respect respond if I told him/her I had this belief?

• Have I been in this situation before, held a similar belief, and found out it was wrong?

• If so, did I learn anything from that outcome, and can I apply that knowledge to this situation?

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Finally, in column E, write down the effects of filling in column D; how debating, disputing and discarding have shifted your understanding and beliefs about the activating event and consequently your feelings and behaviours.

The power of this approach is that defusing illogical, maladaptive beliefs allows more rational and adaptive beliefs to emerge, and shifts your Cs to more effective, adaptive feelings and behaviours.

Helen’s new self-talk was “No wonder I’m anxious and unsure. Who says she must come back as soon as I give her my report? I know we have a good relationship and she would speak to me if she had a problem. I’m going to have a quick chat with her to make sure everything is ok.”

(When Helen took the initiative and spoke to Susan she discovered that Susan had been so busy she hadn’t had time to look at the report. However, at first glance, it was up to the usual standard she expected from Helen)

Look at Helen’s completed table across and use the template for your own example:

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Johari Window

Using a Johari window to reflect upon the way you are understood and viewed by others is a useful technique to identify and define your personal brand.

At its simplest level, the window provides insight into what

you know about yourself and which others are also aware of, what you know that others don’t, what others know about you of which you are unaware, (sometimes we think of these as the managerial or leadership blind spot) and finally the things that you are unaware of yourself that others are unable to see.

Describe yourself in Box A and C – the rationale for completing this is that the more aware you become of your own and other people’s perceptions the more opportunity exists for diminishing the size and content of Box D.

Arena

A

C

B

D

Blind Spot

Facade Unknown

Known to others

Not Known to others

Known to Self Not Known to Self

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The 5 Whys:

The ‘5 Why’s’ approach can be a quick and effective way to consider an issue or opportunity that may change the culture of your organisation.

The “5-Whys” approach, made popular in the 1970s by Toyota, is an analysis method used to dig below the outward symptoms of a problem in order to find its real root cause.The answer to one question will often lead them to ask another ‘Why…?’ until the underlying cause becomes clear.

Example: I want to rebrand our organisation

Why?• Rebranding will help us to think about the way we do

things differently

Why will rebranding help you to think differently?• Because we will be expected to change with the

rebranding

Why do you need to change?• Because the way we do things is outdated and we need

to work in a more up to date way

Why has your way of working become outdated?• Because the expectations of our customers have changed

and we no longer meet their needs adequately

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Why are you not meeting customers needs?• Because our focus is on process, not people

Why is your focus on process, not people? … why? … why? … why?

Come up with your own example: what is happening…

Why is it happening?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

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Cause and Effect Analysis:

You can use Cause and Effect Analysis (known as Fishbone or Ishikawa) to identify root causes of problems by systematically organising your knowledge and understanding all of the contributing factors. It’s a simple way of visually recording possible causes and their relationship to the problem (effect).

It will:

• Help break down a seemingly large problem into smaller elements

• Help individuals and groups generate ideas

• Provide a way of recording ideas

• Reveal hidden relationships between causes and effects

• Help identify the root of a problem

• Highlight important relationships for investigations

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When do you use It?

When you need to:

• Identify possible data requirements

• Identify possible causes

• Develop objectives for solutions

• Narrow down causes

How do you use it?

• Use large diagrams

• Don’t overload them

• Encourage everyone to take part

• Define the problem early

• Examine relationships between causes

• Name the problem in terms of its effect

• Do not look for someone to blame

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Checklist for effective decision making

This checklist is designed to support you in making decisions. It contains a number of sequential questions for you to ask yourself each time you make a decision. You may wish to rehearse the answer to each question mentally or to record your responses on the checklist.

If your response to any of the questions is no, then you are advised to take any necessary action to achieve an affirmative answer.

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No: Question Yes or No Answer

1Am I clear why I am making this decision?

2Do I have enough relevant information to make an effective decision?

3Have I been able to test this decision in a safe environment before making it?

4

Have I consulted everybody I need to, to make sure that wherever possible this decision takes into account other interests and is fair?

5Have I thought through all the good and bad consequences of making this decision?

6

Have I identified what action I intend to take to mitigate its effects if this is the wrong decision?

7Have I informed everybody who needs to know that I have made this decision?

8Am I prepared to accept the responsibility for making this decision?

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Find out more…


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MY FUTURE

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Life mapping

Innumerable books and films compare life to a journey, usually by road but sometimes by rail or sea. We often focus on the faraway goal where everything we want will be waiting for us. But how realistic is this? Picture yourself on your own journey, and take some time to think about how you’re doing just at this moment. How satisfied are you with all your achievements, at work, play and in relationships?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that once humans have the basics for survival, we seek to satisfy successively higher needs which are in a strict hierarchy.

morality,creativity,

spontaneity,problem solving,lack of prejudice,

acceptance of facts

self-esteem,confidence, achievement,

respect of others, respect by others

friendship, family, sexual intimacy

security of body, of employment, of resources,of morality, of the family, of health, of property

breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Self-actualisation

Esteem

Love/Belonging

Safety

Physiological

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The four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. While deficiency needs must be met, growth needs are the need for personal growth.

To help you chart your way to self-actualisation, you can use a life map. This can help you as you try to achieve a healthy balance between the activities that make up your life. How long do you spend in work compared to home, and do you ever manage to fit in time for yourself at all? What is the quality of the time you spend once you get to your destination? Draw out your own map, which will include all the places you go to: time with your children, time on your own, time at the shopping centre or even at the local pub. What goals do you want to achieve in each place, and how much time or effort are you prepared to expend to achieve them?

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Life map

Work Leisure

Fitness

Children

Socialising

Voluntary work

Solitary timePlanning

time

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We all have goals: they may be specific, such as losing half a stone, or be more nebulous, such as getting to the top, or meeting the perfect partner. Many people make New Year’s resolutions: not many of us keep them.

To set goals that are attainable, make them action-oriented, not results-oriented. Results-oriented goals, focus on the end result we want – a size zero figure, or the body of an athlete – but they’re too far away for us to focus on. We need to concentrate on the journey, not the destination. The action-oriented goal would be, for example, to use the stairs not the lift. This gives a number of chances every day to make change happen and you won’t feel the urge to give up if you use the lift because you’re late for a meeting. You can just learn from the experience and carry on. Picturing the end result can motivate you sometimes, but if it’s all you do you won’t buckle down to the individual steps needed to get there.

Self-actualisation, in its simplest terms, is doing what you love. If you really love what you do, you’re very lucky, and you will perform well all the time because work is a pleasure. Work isn’t everything though, and real self-actualisation means striking a balance in all you do. Far-sighted employers want people who are well rounded, who have personal interests and emotional stability.

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The most successful and happy people are those in tune with the things that excite them, who have areas of interest they pursue with enthusiasm. To start your self-actualisation journey, identify what activities you want to spend your time on and with whom. Then work out how you’re going to slot them into your life.

These exercises should help you:

• Make a list of the areas on your life map. How satisfied are you with the time you spend in each of them: with family, friends, work, alone? Rate your satisfaction on a scale of one to ten for each

• Which of these areas would you most like to improve?

• What do you like best and least about being in each of these areas?

• What are your long-term goals for each? What are your short-term goals? What actions can you do to help you achieve them?

• Are there any new areas you’d like to explore? How could you start, and which area will you take time from to spend in this new one?

For each area (work, family, friends, time alone) write down two actions you can do to improve your time there. Give yourself a deadline to revisit the list, work out how you succeed, and what may have stopped you succeeding.

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Summit Syndrome

What happens when you reach the pinnacle of success? Is the view always rosy?Harvard Business Review published an article called “Crisis in the Summit” by Parsons and Pascale. The article talked about the characteristics of what is referred to as Summit Syndrome. Summit Syndrome is described as “a period of disorientation that can afflict top performers once they master a challenging job” and “takes an immense toll on your organisation – in eroded productivity and defections of talented but troubled employees”. Parsons and Pascale’s message is that by recognising the symptoms and dealing with this when it arises, high performers’ careers could be further developed to reach the highest level of performance and engagement.

Parsons and Pascale offer some guidelines to help combat Summit Syndrome:

ApproachingAfter just conquering a challenging job, you are musing about what is the next challenge for you. Some duties may suddenly feel tedious and though your performance could remain high, you could be easily distracted from matters at hand.

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PlateauingYou are seemingly at the top of your game, but you may feel increasingly disorientated. You may be wondering what your next career move is, losing focus and embracing distractions. Your performance might be starting to decay.

DescendingThere is something wrong. You could be sabotaging your career and health, for example, conflicting with colleagues, or overindulging in alcohol or food. You could be making a radical career change for unclear reasons, or due to your self-sabotaging behaviours, might even be a candidate for demotion.

Taking pre-emptive action• Revisit your “winning formula” (the success formula that

worked earlier in your career may be less useful as you tackle the next level, and may need adapting to fit the current role)

• Reaffirm your fundamental aspirations

• Look at opportunities to re-cast your role to align with these aspirations

• Develop competencies needed for the next level (creating a plan to strengthen the skills required for your re-cast role)

For the original work see: ‘Crisis at the Summit’ Parsons and Pascale, Harvard Business Review (April 2007)

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Your CV

Remember that your CV is your personal advertisement – it says who you are and what you are looking for. Its purpose is not to get you the job, but to get you an interview or a meeting.

Your CV should give key information about your experience, skills and achievements and it needs to be brief! As it will be put through a first sift – which may only be 15-20 seconds, it has to make the ‘YES’ pile within that time. So it has to reflect your true worth and a feeling that you are the right candidate, but only contain relevant and important information so that you are invited for an interview.

If you want to move into a new field of work, don’t assume a recruiter will understand how your skills can be transferred – you need to spell this out for them.

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What should it be like?:

Here are some very basic things to think about. Consider what its like to be reading many of these and sifting them into a look further or not this time pile – you would be looking for something:

• Business-like

• On good quality paper

• Well prepared with no mistakes

• Kept to two pages (three at most)

• Succinct

• Easy to scan/read

• Not ‘crammed in’

And there is little point in over-elaborating with presentation styles – ie covers, binders, photographs etc. CVs are often photocopied, so presentation style can be lost on your interviewer.

If you keep copies of variations of your standard CV, then, when you are selected for interview, you will know exactly what the interviewers have in front of them.

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Here are some very basic suggestions to prompt you:

Do:

• Use positive factual statements, not opinions – yours or others

• Include information about you – your character and personality, attitude, motivations, work style, with superiors, subordinates, peers, third parties etc

• Include skills, qualifications and experience

• Present your CV in a style and format that reflects your seniority (it helps to compare your profile with the job advertisement)

• An overview of your career history with dates and no gaps

• The claims about who you are and what you can do must be backed up with evidence

• Sell yourself on the first sheet. Start with a profile of who you are, plus your key achievements, followed by a career history in brief

• Try to say something interesting about your academic history – relate it to an employer’s needs rather than listing the syllabus

• Be specific about your qualities – try to express achievements in terms of awards, money, time or percentages

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Don’t:

• Provide huge amounts of detail about jobs you did over 10 years ago

• List interests that:• Don’t say something positive about your character• Have no relevance to the job• You can’t talk inspiringly about for hours

• Include anything that puts you down and don’t try irony or humour

• Put anything on the front that will have a negative impact

• Put down anything that looks incomplete or misleading, eg mentioning a degree with no detail of study area or result

• Use abbreviations or jargon

• Do not put reference to your age in your CV

• Include your salary – deal with this in a covering letter or at interview

• Put in any non-essential personal information

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• Give the names and addresses of referees – its always best to brief your referees carefully about who they will be talking to and give them some detail about the potential job, so wait until you have an interview to do this

• Say why you left previous jobs

• Provide copies of references or certificates unless you are specifically asked to at the CV stage

• Give information about qualifications that have become out of date or irrelevant through other qualifications or study you have undertaken

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Self-marketing (see also Personal Branding)

Your message:

In your self-development journey you will be conveying a message for a variety of reasons, e.g:

• Communicate your availability to decision-makers

• Engage with development opportunities

• Be selected for project work

• Obtain an interview

Consider how important it is that your message is clear, concise and memorable, and the different ways you convey it:

• When you are networking

• In letters, memos and e-mails you send

• During telephone conversations

• During meetings and interviews

• In your application form and/or your CV

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You might want to consider what sets you ahead of others by looking at your current role and how your skills could be used:

• What is the main activity or service you provide to your own or another organisation, e.g. problem solving, contributing new ideas, coaching?

• How does this activity match the needs of the organisation?

• How can you improve, update and communicate what you have to offer?

Presentation statements:

When networking, seeking development opportunities or preparing for interviews, having brief, upbeat responses ready for typical questions avoids getting bogged down in difficult details and focuses the listener on the positive. You could prepare short statements using your own words to cover key issues such as the ones overleaf.

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When you are looking for a development opportunity, you might consider preparing in advance:

Your profile:

• A brief summary of who you are

• What you do

• Your skills and experience

Be prepared with this statement at any time (very often this is required when at introductory meetings in a variety of settings), bringing in the positive traits and achievements to help build a positive image.

Your unique selling point:

Why you might be the most suitable for the opportunity or why the opportunity is the most suitable for you. If you are not sure why you are the right person or why the opportunity is right for you, it will be difficult to persuade anyone else.

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Distilled wisdom

Use this page as a source of renewal and inspiration, by summarising here the key messages you have extracted from your reflections throughout the log. Capturing all your key learning points in one place will give you a resource to return to whenever you feel the need.

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Ideas bank

Most of us have or pick up really good ideas, which we can’t use immediately. Use this page as a bank to store ideas, and return to it when you’re next searching for inspiration.

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Quotes store

When you find a quote which really resonates with you, that you may want to use in the future to inspire, involve or even impress others, keep it here in your quote bank.

“Learning without thought is labour lost; Thought without learning is perilous.”

Confucius

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Further Reading

Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough, Eldar Shafir (4 September 2014) Penguin

Disciplined Collaboration Paperback, (26 May 2016) Emmanuel Gobillot (Author), (Urbane Publications)

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, (March 2009) Richard H Thaler & Cass R Sunstein (Authors)

Primary Greatness: The 12 Levers of Success, Stephen R. Covey (2015) Simon & Schuster UK

Leadershift: Reinventing Leadership for the Age of Mass Collaboration Gobillot, E (2011) Kogan Page Publishers

Follow the Leader: The One Thing Great Leaders have that Great Followers want, Gobillot, E (2013) Kogan Page Publishers

The 31 Practices: Release the Power of your Organization VALUES every day, Williams, Alan & Whybrow, Alison (2013) LID Publishing

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence paperback with featured article “What Makes a Leader? “, Goleman, D [2015]

Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room Weinberger, David (2014)

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Choosing Not to Choose, Cass Sunstein (2015) OUP USA

Enabling Collaboration: Achieving Success through Strategic Alliances and Partnerships, Echavarria, Martin (2015) Lid Publishing

Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results, Hansen, Morten T (2009) Harvard Business School Press

Developing Resilient Organisations: How to Create an Adaptive, High-Performance and Engaged Organization, Strycharczyk, Doug (2014) Kogan Page

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen R. Covey (2013), Rosetta Books

The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Stephen R. Covey (2006), Simon & Schuster UK

Markings, Dan Hammarskjold, (1973), Faber & Faber

The Society of Timid Soles: Or, How to be Brave, Polly Morland, (2014), Profile Books

The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help you Achieve Success , Confidence and Happiness , Peters, Steve Prof, (2012) Vermillion

Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being: The practical guide to using positive psychology to make you happier and healthier, Seligman, Martin (2011), Free Press

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Positive Psychology, Baumgardner, Steve, R and Crothers, Marie K (2010), Pearson: USA

The Hubris Syndrome: Bush, Blair and the Intoxication of Power. 2nd Edition, Owen, D (2012) York: Methuen

Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research, West, M.A., (2012), Oxford Blackwell

Reimagining the Future Public Service Workforce, Editors: Dickinson, H., Needham, C., Mangan, C., Sullivan, H. (eBook), https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9789811314797 Singapore: Springer, [2019] ©2019

The Connected Leader: Creating Agile Organizations for People Performance and Profit, Emmanuel Gobillot Kogan Page (2016)

Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends, Tim Sanders Crown Business (2003)

This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters, Drew Dudley Hachette Books (2018)

Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan, Francesca Gino Harvard Business Review Press (2013)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Paperback, Stephen R Covey Simon and Schuster (1999)

Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life, Francesca Gino Macmillan (2018)

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Leadership Step by Step: Be the Person Others Follow, Joshua Spodek McGraw-Hill Education (2017)

Purposeful: Are You a Manager … or a Movement Starter?, Jennifer Dulski Virgin Books 2019

Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change, Beth Comstock Currency (2018)

The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture, Scott Belsky Portfolio (2018)

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, Kim Scott St. Martin’s Press (2017)

Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That Is Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World, Erica Keswin McGraw-Hill Education, 2018

Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First, Ram Charan, Dominic Baron and Denis Carey Harvard Business Review (2018)

What Are Your Blind Spots? Conquering the 5 Misconceptions that Hold Leaders Back, Jim Haudan, Rich Berens McGraw-Hill Education (2018)

The Hubris Syndrome: Bush, Blair and the Intoxication of Power, 2nd Edition, Owen D York: Methuen (2012)

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academi wales learning journals...• have courage in recognising failure – often the most useful...

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