Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Back to Case studies“It is not about trying to produce cookie cutter leaders, operating in a certain style. Oasis is useful at valuing what we have got already and working with that rather than trying to contort to fit into some preconceived idea of what a leader looks like.”
Rob Bell, Head of Social Justice Programme
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Rob Bell is Head of the Social Justice Programme for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, an independent grant-making organisation with UK programmes in the Arts, Education and Social Justice.
He took part in a nine month leadership programme with Oasis and afterwards continued his development through Oasis one-to-one Executive Development.
At the time Rob was on secondment from the Department for Education and Skills, running a programme at the Carnegie UK Trust to change policy making on young people. This was coming to an end and he wanted to explore firstly from a professional standpoint how to ensure it would have a long-term legacy, and secondly, from a personal standpoint, his own future direction.
How to achieve influence without authority?
Short-term traditional leadership courses that Rob had taken part in previously had only had a short-term impact before fading away. His appetite for more led him to the Leadership, Life and Learning programme at Oasis.
He said: “I sensed that there were things in the way I was managing and leading that were not just tactical specific changes I needed to make, they were more profound. That cut across all areas of my life and led to me to looking for something different.”
With an interest in exploring how to achieve influence without formal authority, Rob was also what he describes as an “interested sceptic”.
Although he found working through the challenges of LLL enjoyable and thought-provoking, it was quite late on before he fully understood that the programme required engagement with his own internal processes and gave the opportunity to address deep-rooted issues with the way he worked.
He said: “I think my self-awareness changed, I think I have a more structured, helpful sense of what type of leader I am, where my predispositions lie and the sort of things I do in certain circumstances.”
Visible and appreciated development
The one-to-one Executive Development has helped Rob become a better manager, working through complex situations. Feedback from others has shown the development has been visible and appreciated.
The common framework shared with another member of his team who has also taken part in the LLL programme has transformed their working relationship, giving them a different language for talking through issues and a new strategic approach to pieces of work.
“It has not been a typical experience in that the programme does not really have a beginning, middle or end, it is an ongoing challenge, so I feel that I am in a community of practice and learning,” said Rob.