Global Leadership Initiative
Windsor meeting July 8-10 2007
BTOR
As per SMO of July 5 2007, Samuel Otoo, Moira Hart-Poliquin, and Cia Sjetnan (all WBIGP) attended a meeting on the establishment of a Global Leadership Initiative in Windsor, UK from July 8 to 10 2007. Below is a summary of the proceedings and main conclusions from this meeting.
Background:
Following consultations after Capacity Day 2007 on the establishment of a Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) to generate support – globally - for leadership development interventions, a second meeting of the core group for the Initiative (GLI) took place in Windsor, UK, from July 8 to 10 2007.
Organisations represented at this meeting were UNDP, DfID, CIDA, the Windsor Leadership Trust, and the World Bank (PRMPS and WBIGP) – see participant list attached. The main objective of the meeting was to agree on an initial work programme for the group, including identifying roles and responsibilities of the different agencies. This activity is seen as a part of a broader agenda yet to be elaborated, for a program of activities at the global level, which would include piloting, networking and advocacy aimed at validating and systematizing leadership development as an explicit intervention in its own right.
The process involved discussions and reflections around key elements of leadership development, the leadership development work undertaken to date by different international and national organisations, and on concrete steps in order to further this agenda globally, including how to position the broader Initiative, and an initial joint activity.
Process:
Initial discussions led by John Adair, focused on definitions of leadership and attributes and qualities of leaders, including what characterises leadership and leadership development. Change in the environment (political, social and economic) was identified as the imperative that makes leadership necessary, thus posing the challenge for leaders to harness and direct responses to that imperative that will serve the public good. Based on the existing body of knowledge around leadership and leadership development, three levels of leadership were identified:
1. team leadership;
2. operational/organisational leadership; and
3. strategic leadership.
Considerable effort has been put into understanding, analysing, and developing the team leadership level, to the point where this aspect can now be considered relatively developed. The operational/organisational leadership level, however, is less well understood, while the strategic level is the least developed, understood and analysed.
Within the strategic leadership level, seven roles/functions of leadership were identified:
1. develop a direction, vision and values;
2. engage in strategic thinking and planning;
3. make things happen – effectiveness;
4. relate the whole to the parts;
5. form key partnerships and alliances;
6. release corporate energy of the organisation/institution; and
7. create ownership of the challenge to grow local leaders for the future.
The potential space for leadership development being close to unlimited (supporting/strengthening political, existing, emerging, youth, and women leaders… institutions, organisations, individuals…), the group acknowledged the need for limiting the scope and space of its work – particularly in the short tem. In order to do so, the group identified a number of possible entry points for leadership development, including the following:
- post-conflict countries;
- new states;
- new governments;
- decentralisation;
- reform initiatives; and
- youth.
The main comparative advantages of the group were identified as:
- Participation of multilateral and bilateral development agencies, allowing for coverage of political as well as strategic/organisational challenges in developing and transitional countries. Further, the UN/UNDP brings an in-country presence throughout the world, with a unique role in post-conflict and fragile states contexts;
- Access to and convening power of leaders at different levels and in different contexts of the participating organisations;
- Mandate for capacity development in support of development outcomes
Agreements:
Based on the above described discussions, participants agreed that the work of the group would focus on examining and strengthening the organisational/operational and the strategic levels of leadership. Further, it was decided that existing political leaders – and the nexus between the political and operational (bureaucrats) leadership levels – would be the focus of the group’s work in the first instance.
In the short term, the group will therefore produce a series of case studies of past and current leadership development activities that fall under the definition and entry points described above. These case reviews will examine explicit and implicit leadership development activities undertaken by different international and national organisations, analysing and capturing strategic lessons from case experiences around the world. They will provide the following information:
a) Identification and motivation of leadership development activities – why and how did the leadership development activity take place;
b) Characteristics of the leadership development activity (approaches, tools, techniques, frameworks for monitoring and evaluation…); and
c) Results/impact from the intervention – both in terms of capacity development and in terms of contributing to higher order development objectives.
In terms of positioning the agenda for a leadership initiative globally, a shared view emerged, that there was merit in capitalizing on existing streams of policy dialogue and action currently undertaken on the global arena, such as the OECD/DAC Managing for Development Results, FRACAS. At the same time, the initiative will complement existing activities undertaken under the Governance and Anti-corruption agenda.
Next Steps:
DfID will draft a short concept note that will capture the spirit of the discussions around the framework and the space for future joint work. This is to be completed and shared with the group by July 21, with the aim of obtaining feedback the following week.
The modalities for the case reviews are to be developed jointly and involve the preparation and joint review of a series of case studies to draw lessons for diagnosing, planning and assessing leadership development in different contexts.
A videoconference is scheduled for August 21, in which the concept note will be discussed and potential country cases proposed together with a framework for the case studies. The actual operational aspects, roles and responsibilities for the delivery of these cases will also be discussed at the August videoconference, along with next steps to identifying further work program elements for the group.
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