FAQ

Cohort Sponsors are like executive sponsors of a project and care about the positive outcome of the programme.

The sponsor engages in a process of active inquiry into the learning processes, and the outcomes of the cohort’s development activities - driving deeper or more helpful questioning, scenario testing and feedback.  They may equally at times work to establish support that might relate to organisational matters, such as clarifying constraints, enabling opportunity, or providing access to information or wider groups.  A sponsor is a learner. We have three sponsors currently confirmed for the first cohorts of the programme including our Provost, Registrar and DVC (Research).

Although not mandatory this is a priority area for the University and attendance is encouraged. With a broad range of experience and previous training provision amongst our leadership you may feel your previous training and experience negates the need for this particular aspect of the programme (Please see further FAQ).

Instead, we would ask you to act as a mentor within our community of leaders, whilst continuing to benefit from the ongoing opportunities found as part of the ‘Leadership Academy’. We are doing something new here which is as much about building a leadership community as it is about taking the space and tools to be able to reflect on our personal practice, whatever stage we are at and would therefore encourage as many leaders as possible to take up this exciting opportunity as something valuable rather than mandatory.

As an Institution grounded in the importance of lifelong learning, we have curated opportunities for most levels of leadership experience. The Leadership Academy brings together previous delegates of the Leadership Difference programme to further build an inter-disciplinary leadership collective and develop deeper understanding and practice in the areas of responsible, authentic, inclusive, and compassionate leadership through optional:

• External expert speaker sessions – including sector experts and international partners
• Resource Hub housing carefully selected online resources from critical friends of the Academy
• Online support community for flash updates, peer engagement and recorded speaker sessions
• Access to development tools such as 360 reviews, profiling or 1:1 Coaching
• Leadership Retreats: Dedicated time out for personal reflection, development, action planning and networking.
• Virtual Leadership Network: Connecting leaders internally and across the sector. Co-coaching for ongoing peer-support (development provided).

Delegates of the Leadership Difference Programme will automatically gain access to the Academy on completion of the programme. Anyone who has undertaken equivalent leadership and management development may enrol in the Academy: click here if you would like to register your interest.

Programme evaluation will use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure programme impact. Flexibility features heavily in our approach in responding to feedback to enhance and adapt programme content.An Annual Programme Review (termly in the first year) with key stakeholders (including PVCs and other critical friends) will be utilised to ensure the aims, intended learning outcomes, syllabus, assessment and resourcing are fit for purpose with a view to planning and making short-term, medium-term and/or long-term developments. We will review feedback from participants, External Evaluation, as well as other available feedback and evaluation data, utilising the University’s new ‘Culture Index’ when available. Utilising strategies based on Kirkpatrick’s model for measuring programme impact, the Programme Team will report to the Wellbeing Inclusion and Culture (WIC) Committee on progress made across the following levels: 

• Level 1: Participant Experience, Engagement andQuality - Measures participant satisfaction to be used to support any enhancements to the development approach and content of future sessions.
• Level 2: Learning and New Thinking - Demonstrates the effectiveness of the learning achieved at an individual level.
• Level 3: Shifts in Behaviour - Observations from learners/key stakeholders, line manager and employees about the transfer of change perceived through feedback before/during/after
• Level 4: Outcome Metrics - Measured impact at the organisational level. Level 4 metrics will likely include employee engagement scores / cultural index.

Feedback from previous pilots found that the development was most useful when utilising a long and thin approach to develop a strong cohort feel and to spread out sessions to avoid overwhelm. The programme has been designed to run over several months, not as an intense period of regular workshops but to simply allows delegates to learn new things over a longer period by dipping into different learning topics that will be running over that time.

During this time the core sessions will include:

• 1 x 3 hour on-boarding
• 2 x full day workshops
• 3 x 1 hour action learning sets and
• 1 x 90 minute review session.

Beyond these core sessions there will be some pre-work and the choice of up to 3 optional topical webinars.

All content so far has been the product of many different people and will continue to grow and change with feedback from delegates, the Faculty & PS Senior Leadership Teams and from specific Design Advisory Groups. The programme benefits from being a lot more collaboratively developed than any previous programme. Beyond what we lay out in our ‘Approach to Evaluation FAQ’ we would encourage you to provide any feedback to peopledevelopment@exeter.ac.uk