BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 84
Intervention and Leadership
‘When raising the heat, particularly with your own people, how would you
know that you are doing damage (and not just unsettling people) and what are
the risks, ethical, or otherwise of generating heat or disturbance?”
This is an ambiguous and open-ended question that is likely to be interpreted
differently by many people and where participants’ willingness and skills to
contribute will vary and where the stakes for failing or succeeding will vary
widely. As such it provides a perfect metaphor for the challenges facing leaders
in real world situations.
The exercise runs for an hour followed by a de-brief on how leadership was
exercised and what forms of intervention were used and with what effect.
This proves to be a difficult and at times, bewildering experience for many
participants.
The framework is a resource to guide learning and
experimentation in the seminar room, building skills and capacity for future
leadership action.
Participants are asked to use the framework as a learning tool to assist them
participate in workshop exercises, which have the purpose of building their
leadership capacity. They are encouraged to think more closely about what
they observe (see and hear) and how they understand (interpret) their
observations given the purpose of the group; and to use these observations and
interpretations to assist the group be successful (however that is defined). In
other words, each participant is encouraged to exercise leadership, whether
structured games, simulations and examination of back at work challenges. The question had previously
been raised as to whether one could afford to risk the potential damage of “raising the heat”..
Copyright Vantage Point Consulting Pty Ltd 2010
Not to be reproduced without the author’s permission
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