Developing collaboration between HEIs: Leadership in Action non residential pilot course

Leadership in Action non residential pilot course (London)
London School of Economics and Political Science, 15, 16, 17 December 2010

To increase collaboration between institutions the London Hub ran Leadership in Action in December 2010. Coaches from various HEIs across London facilitated activities. Working in close collaboration with the Vitae central team the London Hub were involved with both the design and piloting of the non residential version of this highly successful programme.

Quality of output and who benefited:
Thirty six participants attended the Leadership in Action pilot, facilitated by the director and six coaches. A great deal of interest in this course was generated (over 150 applications sent out), necessitating a waiting list to be put in place.

Vitae's leadership
Leadership in Action:

• show-cases how collaborations between HEIs can be developed
• illustrates the quality of Vitae resources
• provides sustainability using train the trainer events

Impact on the audience:
Participants now consider themselves potential leaders as Leadership in Action helped demystify leadership and empowered researchers by giving them the unique opportunity to ‘have a go' at leading. They have set up a Facebook page and have organised social events.

Quotes from participants:

"Very enlightening course - considered things I previously had not done.
I learned a lot about myself and my interaction with others.
I developed support links which will likely continue afterwards.
The team exercises were enjoyable but taxing enough to demonstrate the point"

"I really liked the course approach of doing stuff rather than just listening. I really liked the group tasks, and how we were assigned which task we were going to lead on. The feedback I had after leading my task was exceptional and I have a very good idea now of what I do well and what I need to work on. The insight sessions were useful as well."

"I liked the whole course - so well done - most courses I have been to fall short in some (or most) aspects."

Collaboration:
This pilot event was a great opportunity to show-case how collaborations between HEIs can be developed. It was great to see the level of commitment from the coaches even after the event. Indeed, coaches on the programme met two months after the event to review and discuss what went well and what adjustments could be made to run an even better version of the event next time.

Sustainability:
This is a cost effective sustainable model of delivery and after the debriefing review for the Leadership event Vitae are developing new material suitable for a non residential course.

Leadership in Action has generated so much interest that within our network, people are volunteering to host Leadership in Action courses next year.

Other collaborative Hub activities

Vitae London Hub