DWP …
… works to build balance in leadership with EB Centre
Leaders in the DWP are responsible for many critically important programmes that impact citizens across the UK. For more than five years, they have been putting EB Centre principles into practice within their Leadership Development Programme.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the UK Government’s largest public service provider, responsible for welfare, Job Centres, pensions, and child support among other things. The activities of 90,000 staff are orchestrated by a team of around 10,000 within central Directorates.
More than five years ago, EB Centre began working with the DWP on their Leadership Development Programme to help their internal leadership trainers to facilitate sessions to encourage a more open and conversational leadership culture. Government departments like DWP are highly structured, with process-driven delivery cultures and set management hierarchies and expectations.
Since then, EB Centre has held development workshops with more than 50 senior managers and led group sessions with more than 250 others. The Qualities of Practice in leadership tools and ideas have since benefited hundreds of their own trainees across the organisation. The sessions are based on the principle of engendering balance between the relational or people aspects of leadership and the business and organisational aspects and are proven to evoke powerful personal learnings.
Kate Sturdy is Deputy Director, Corporate Support and Development at DWP. In late 2020 she became aware of a new aspect of the leadership development programme underway in the People Capability and Place Directorate. She was intrigued enough to volunteer for this while on a career break.
Kate’s current role in the Policy directorate spans capability building, recruitment matters, hybrid working policies and other business support for the group’s 1400 staff.
Initial scepticism gave way to curiosity
Kate and a group of colleagues participated in a trial session to learn about and experience the EB Centre concepts and methodologies. In advance of this, the first thing that they encountered were the Qualities of Practice cards, a deck of 52 cards which are used to help leaders map and unpack aspects of their personal leadership and understand how these change in different leadership situations. These are divided into two sets of qualities, displayed in purple and green, that span a range of leadership qualities from the more traditional, task-oriented, and business-driven to those which are more human, relational, and conversational.
Kate admits to initial scepticism at this apparent simplicity. She said: “I remember us discussing how we could even know if these were the right things to raise. And how we would explain this to our people, who tend to be very analytical and questioning.”
The fact that the cards were a physical boxed set was engaging: “There was something about the tangible quality of the deck. I’m very visual, so I liked that. When we did our advance tasks, I felt a bit like I was dealing a tarot and wondered what my cards would tell me.”
At the session, she began to understand more.
“Working with EB Centre was fascinating – they had deep experience with these conversations, and the way they unfolded how to use the cards was beguiling. They met questions with real openness and interest – plus total confidence in their product.”
The whole trial group was drawn in, she recalled. “We laughed about what a purple group we were – then realised that because we were interested in coaching, we were all likely to want to create time to think, listen, and reflect. That’s part of the coaching mindset!”
As she learned more about engendering balance in leadership with the aid of the cards, Kate realised something else. “I didn’t need to explain these ideas to anybody, because people would be experiencing it for themselves.”
Putting principles into practice
The programme started with the backing of the Director General of the People, Capability and Place group. It has since grown organically into groups including Policy, Change & Resilience, and Digital.
Within the Policy group, Kate has used the EB Centre tools to train around 8 cohorts of 12 people, while others in her community of practice have trained other cohorts and modules.
Of those she has directly trained, she observed:
“I have seen the impact it has made on people as we have encouraged them to think about how the concepts work within DWP and explored the difference between task-focused and relationship-focused leadership. People often notice that some of their capabilities can be a bit eclipsed in such a delivery-focused organisation.”
Trainees have fed back positively: “People find it incredibly beneficial to use Qualities of Practice and balanced thinking, and this approach has been hugely well received in all the encounters across our community of practice at DWP.”
The increasing adoption across different groups demonstrates growing Director-level support, as they endorse people in their teams to develop, run and take time to attend sessions. Kate continued: “The fact that the programme is getting traction across both policy and delivery parts of DWP shows people want and need to develop, and that these tools are proving effective.”
Although Kate responds to the physical card deck, the ideas they represent are equally powerful when delivered digitally. Due to the pandemic and distributed nature of DWP, Kate and her community of practice have delivered most sessions virtually. This did not diminish the impact. She realised “it was only when we went to the last EB Centre event in December 2021 that we were able to get together and do things with actual cards and physical materials.”
Engendering balance, enabling growth
Kate believes that trainees embrace the new ideas not just because they are useful in practice, but because they bring a fresh sense of personal development. She stated: “This approach allows for of creativity to emerge. At DWP a lot of creative potential doesn’t always get the space to operate. These exercises have opened a sense of creative exploration. People experience growth, because even in one hour you have used your brain in a different way. It is very enriching.”
Kate continued: “People also gain space to think about how and why they fit into the organisation. There is huge value in being able to take moments to elevate above the everyday doing of things and take a breath. It makes a colossal difference to their sense of capability. They feel that they are learning and growing.”
The positive impacts have been noted at every level, she said:
“Everybody appreciates permission to prioritise self-development or to work on developing as a group. My job share partner and I run sessions every two or three months for senior Policy leaders. I brought in a Qualities of Practice component, although I wasn’t sure how much could be done for 30 people in just 40 minutes. I needn’t have worried. It reinforced very clearly that they appreciated time together to think about their collective leadership. They came out with a clear set of 7 or so qualities they were showing and knowing what they wanted to emphasise or change.”
Personally transformative concepts
The impact of the EB Centre concepts have been profound for Kate. She said: “As you ask yourself which qualities you have been exhibiting, and those you are aware of, you ask yourself about what you would want to do – and why you haven’t. Whether they are being eclipsed by the culture of the organisation you work with, especially a dominant culture.”
In addition to working with the cards, she has found inspiration in the tree that is used to illustrate layers of reflective learning. This illustrates levels that lie below day-to-day surface observations about performance and behaviour, encouraging deeper reflections about personal patterns, habits, and experiences, and further in-depth reflections about culture, deep beliefs, and assumptions.
“How I worked with the cards was informed by considering the levels of engagement and understanding as illustrated by the tree. It has influenced how I feel about leadership, and given me new ways to express that,” Kate suggested.
She continued
“It has offered scope to broaden and explore my sense of curiosity. Behind our everyday shorthand, everyone holds a default set of beliefs and self-descriptors. Now I am less likely to jump to a superficial conclusion when someone describes themself. I not only listen but also look at everything about their demeanour.”
“I have better insight into what people qualities to think about, from a broad range that I could never have come up with myself – EB Centre has all the testing and research that give this real depth” she concluded.
Future programme development
The EB Centre’s ideas are still permeating the DWP as the Leadership Development Programme expands, exposing more and more leaders to the associated tools and self-learning opportunities.
Kate is convinced of the value to this and any other large organisation, saying:
“If you aren’t investing in your leaders then you aren’t being the best business you can be. Reflection, self-exploration and being open to different stimuli are important to grow and develop leadership thinking and behaviours.”
Kate has completed her first full year in her job share role. She will be using the EB Centre ideas to help her and her counterpart to work together even more effectively in 2023 and beyond. She confirmed that “It’s easy to slip into a set way of working and stop questioning things. We agreed to invest time in our own learning and development as a job share. A colleague will host a session using the Qualities of Practice cards, so we can explore where we are reinforcing each other’s strengths, eclipsing each other, or where the daily pressure is squeezing out qualities we would normally bring. In other words: we are seeking to engender balance in our shared role.”
“It’s easy to slip into a set way of working and stop questioning things. We agreed to invest time in our own learning and development as a job share.”
- Kate