|
LEARNING LEADERS
Spotlight: This month we shine the light on…
BOB DICK
– an occasional academic, consultant in private practice and someone who enjoys life.
Brief description of your role:
I have been an academic, full time for almost 30 years and part time or casual for the last six years. I have also been doing change consulting work since 1974.
1. Why did you become a learning and development professional?
I see myself more as a change person although learning and development has been a large part of that. I got into the change business because I kept being offered jobs that were too interesting to turn down.
2. What do you enjoy most about your role?
Making a difference — and working with people who make a difference. Also, the growth of my own learning.
3. What do you find most challenging?
Working at the margins of my ability — I find this both challenging and exciting. This is when I do my best work. I work with the ever present knowledge that my next step may take me out of my depth.
4. What do you do to be recognised as a valued business partner?
As far as I can, I try to be true to myself and to be honest with the people that I am working with. Because I am external to the organisations that I work with, I can afford to say the things that need to be said and that othersmight find difficult or risky to say.
5. What is the best advice that you would give to someone new to this line of work?
People are different, so I don’t think there is a strategy that works for everyone. However, I can talk about what has worked for me.
I work with colleagues who are different to me and whom I respect. I take on assignments that are challenging.
I have been lucky to have exceptional mentors. I look for opportunities to co-consult with others. I make a practice of always setting enough reflection time to learn from my experiences. And when I am wrong I try to be honest with myself and others.
6. What's the best advice that's been given to you that has helped you in your career?
The best advice was more in the form of a question. One of my mentors was a director of a theatre who asked me to direct a production. It did not work well and I was seriously wondering if play production was right for me.
After reflecting with my mentor on what went well and what didn’t, she asked as she walked out the door...
“What are you going to do for your next production?”
7. What's the best career related book that you've ever read?
The book that has had the most influence on my practice is ‘Theory in Practice’ by Chris Argyris and Don Schön.
8. What’s the best training event that you’ve ever attended?
A training event for conflict resolution professionals. What made it special was the presence of Adam Curle. At the time he was an 80-something year old Quaker who travelled the world sorting out conflicts in the world’s trouble spots. He radiated such warm and compassion without judging people that it was a pleasure to be in his company.
9. Who do you think is a highly inspirational learning professional and have you ever met this person?
This is hard to choose. I have been fortunate to work with many highly skilled change people - like Fred Emery, Dexter Dunphy, Hollis Peter and Ed Schein. And I attended a workshop by Don Schön. These are quietly and modestly inspirational people who happen to be very good at what they do.
Although I have not met Chris Argyris I am impressed by the quality and breadth of his theories and processes.
10. What else would you like to share with our readers?
Action research - I find it enormously useful as a philosophy and as a set of concepts and processes. Yet it is very simple – you plan before you act, you act with intention, you notice what happens, you learn from it, and then you apply the learning within the next cycle. And that can be moment by moment, day by day or even year by year.
See previous interviews with Learning Leaders
|
