Thank you for everyone’ encouragement with regards to my original post! I am truly happy to know that my thoughts were thought-provoking and resonated with people. I also hope that the video was a good reminder for all of us, as TSL, to “stay above the line”. It is more difficult in practice than in theory. As mentioned in the video, our brains are programmed to perceive “threat”, especially in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambitious (VUCA) world (Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt, 2016). We will need to intentionally take ourselves to be “above the line” if we want to be effective in leading others.
As I read some of the responses to my original post, I would like to emphasize how “creating a culture of learning is the key” in terms of TSL in health care. I completely agree with Pierre’s response, where burnt-out staff members are not likely to benefit from additional learning. When health care workers are working through overtime and missed meal breaks, how do we expect them to take on even more learning? My point is the culture of learning will need to be implemented throughout the entire organization and I would even boldly say it should start at the top, senior leadership level. For example, I recently participated in a leadership pilot workshop that is currently offered at my workplace. The workshop was focused on “creating a curious mindset”, which is part of a larger change management strategy. At the end of the workshop, there was a list of suggested actions or activities for us to implement back at our offices and departments. As I am striving to be a TSL, I am engaged and have the best intentions to implement these actions and activities back at my office. However, as soon as I return back to the office, I was immediately thrown back to the reality of the work that was waiting for me. There was simply no time for me to consider how to best implement my learning at my workplace. Soon the desire went away as well.
In the same way, I can see many of the senior leadership team also have the best of intentions to engage staff members and to encourage their growth. In fact, the “Lean strategy” as mentioned in Wafa’s response was implemented and taught to many of the managers at the organization that I work for. However, with the mandates of higher levels of government and ministry, there is no time to consider anything else. When I mention “creating a culture of learning”, it does not mean delivering some courses for others to acquire more knowledge, I am referring to learning to make changes that would lead to the transformation of the organization. In my example above, it was great that I had the opportunity to attend a workshop, but I had no time to further implement what I have learned. What if my manager learned to recognize the importance of my learning and allow me to prioritize my tasks so I have more time to implement what I have learned instead? What if the CEO of my organization learned to value learning as a priority and decide to cut back certain less important projects to create more time for Directors and Managers to mentor other potential leaders? The TSL creates a culture of learning starts by listening to the needs of others, as mentioned in Kamal’s response, and creating an environment that allows change to take place.
References:
Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: Strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing