Developing leadership capacity and capabilities is a core requirement in many organisations. Working with the Scottish Government’s Project Lift team, we were commissioned to develop a leadership development programme for senior HR leaders in health and social care in NHS Scotland.
In line with the Project Lift ethos, the School focused on the development of leadership capacity and capabilities at self, team and system levels. The programme was built in partnership with the client with academic content (state of the art), guests speakers (best practice) and live collaborative work (into practice) provided opportunities to test out ideas and concepts and to work with new colleagues. The programme and collaborative work was supported by live sessions, open clinics and project mentors from within the organisation.
Designed initially for in-person delivery, the programme moved to wholly online in response to changing needs from the cohort during the Covid-19 pandemic response. The programme was able to support the HR participants through a particularly challenging period in a positive way.
The programme led to the development a new Talent Management and Succession Planning Programme with one of the participants for NHS Lothian. This blends academic insights and guest speaker perspectives with experiential learning opportunities at work and is now in its third year.
