Leadership for Creative Businesses

Location: Aberystwyth University
Date: Session 4 -25 & 26 February 2011
Time: 16:00
Cost: 800 (for four full sessions)

A series of four seminars which have been developed by Aberystwyth University with the support of SA+ and Public Services Management Wales, which will enable managers at the top of their profession to develop new skills and remain creative in one of the most difficult times for the media industries.

Places available by invitation only.

Leadership for Creative Businesses is a leadership development programme uniquely designed for senior executives in Broadcasting, Film and Video, Gaming and Software to enhance leadership skills, approaches and strategies to deliver organisational success in the present technologically complex and rapidly changing economic environment.

The programme, set over four workshop sessions with a final ‘mop-up’ day, is designed to place participants in an environment of knowledge, skills, context, content and theory that can be applied to their own organisations.

Focusing on personal and professional development, this leadership programme challenges individuals to critically consider their own approaches to leadership and leading others, drawing on their own and peer experiences to further develop knowledge, skills and behaviours that will enable leaders in the field of broadcasting, media and culture to be instrumental in driving the transformational changes needed to maintain and increase creativity and innovation within their work force, and to position Wales at the forefront of creativity.

By the end of this programme delegates will be able to:

* Apply leadership theory and practical application, through a blended learning approach, to their working environment;
* Understand and adapt their own personal leadership style, recognise success to date, why it worked, what they individually contributed, and assess their skills and capabilities as a leader;
* Empower individuals and teams to embrace culture change thus enhancing the delivery experience across all levels of the organisation, and for all stakeholders of the organisation;
* To lead, embedding organisational values and encouraging and supporting innovation;
* To understand and continuously assess their own leadership capability, actively seeking to enhance their success as a leader.

Session One: facilitated by Philippa Davies.  (October 2010)

Round Table Dinner Guest: The Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones AM

Philippa Davies MSc is a work and web psychologist, with exceptionally diverse experience of the creative industries, including digital technology, publishing, and broadcasting. She has advised two Prime and several cabinet ministers ( UK and Welsh Assembly) on the what and how of campaigning and is currently coaching UK Olympics Coaches on communicating under pressure. She does not consider herself to be an expert on leadership – but as an associate of the Leadership and Enterprise team in Cardiff Business School, she has piles of ideas on how to survive and thrive in the creative industries.

Her workshop, entitled 7 Spill The Beans Case Histories... (names withheld to protect the guilty) is based on her experiences as a work psychologist in NBC Universal, the BBC, Channel 4, JohnLewis.com and the Science Museum, Philippa will take us through short case histories followed by highly participative investigation of relevance to your own businesses.

Session 2: facilitated by Emmanuel Gobillot.  (November 2010)

Round Table Dinner Guest: Maggie Brown of The Guardian

Emmanuel Gobillot started his career in financial services, observing the organisations he worked for he would always come back to one stark conclusion: there must be a better way to lead and engage an organisation’s creativity, passion and drive: there must be a better way to relate to customers.

Emmanuel joined some of the world’s leading researchers and practitioners, as a consultant at Hay Group he was Head of Consumer Sector Consulting, before becoming Director of Leadership Services. Following the global success of his first book ‘The Connected Leader’ Emmanuel created Emmanuel Gobillot Limited to devote time to his writing and speaking engagements whilst continuing his research and consultancy work.

Emmanuel’s session will focus on connected leadership and how it can bridge the divide between the formal organisation, its rituals, processes, structures and goals and the real organisation which embodies the social networks and human asset base underpinning service delivery, and how developing connectivity across delivery is vital for the production of high quality services based upon the engagement of all stakeholders.

Session Three: Nick Jankel Round Table.  (January 2011 tbc)

Dinner Guest: Professor Ian Hargreaves.

Creating Breakthrough Innovations Together - Collaborative Leadership and Disruptive Innovation. This module introduces the participants to the theory of Disruptive and Open Innovation. Participants will explore how org culture and leadership impacts on innovation and how to use cutting-edge approaches to innovate bigger, better ideas faster. They will explore how to approach ‘wicked issues’ affecting the industry (such as IP protection or illegal downloading).

Participants will look at innovation qualities in order to evaluate when they have been successful and unsuccessful and why and what is required to innovate successfully and with lasting consequences.

By the end of this workshop participants will:

- Describe and interpret the term ‘innovation’ and various types of innovation
- Understand basics of design-thinking, open innovation and disruptive innovation
- Gauge the kind of innovation culture their organisation embodies, and areas where it could be improved
- Developed new distinctions and competencies in collaborative working
- Complete critical thinking activities and use peer inquiry to identify and analyse strategic challenges/innovations and how to deliver them;
- As a leader consider how to create an innovative culture.

Session Four : Geoff Mead

Dr Geoff Mead has combined a thirty-year career as a public service professional with a passionate interest in education and development. He was Director of the national Police Accelerated Promotion Course from 1988-92, a Visiting Fellow at the Office for Public Management 1994-97, Head of Organisation and Management Development for the Hertfordshire Constabulary 1995-97, and Head of Business Development for National Police Training 1997-2002.

As a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice since October 2003, he has taught and supervised mature PhD students on the CARPP8 cohort and played an active role in the life of the centre, running open workshops, representing CARPP at the 2004 EGOS conference, and as a member of the steering group for the 2004 CARPP conference. He taught the leadership module of the 2006 Bath Executive MBA in Athens and is working with CARPP colleagues to build a collaborative relationship with RCLA, New York University.

He now works as a freelance educator and organisational consultant whilst continuing to develop his interests as a writer and storyteller. The theme of his PhD, which he completed at CARPP in 2002, is realising a scholarship of living inquiry – bringing lived experience into the realms of conscious inquiry, research and scholarship.

His current interests include experimenting with artistic and creative forms of representation to enliven research writing, working – particularly though not exclusively with men to extend and enrich the way we enact our masculinity in the world, and exploring the role of storytelling in leadership, sense-making and community-building in organisations.

Publications include articles on these and other themes in FBI Management Leadership Quarterly (1988), Public Money and Management (1990), Management Education and Development (1990), Local Government Chronicle (1994), Policing Today (1995), Achilles Heel (1996), Self and Society