Spiritual Gym ALP

1. Spiritual Gym ALP Vania, Pauline, Jeannie, James, Jacki, Christine, Audrey, Andrea

2. Overview of presentation • Project results • Team learning • Individual learning • Contextual blocks and levers • Recommendations

3. Results ALP Project Brief: • To develop an effective system for empowering, supervising and managing students, role holders, and leaders in the context of a spiritual gym (in which we gain from giving and grow from serving)

4. Results we created • Survey of AoCL participants • To identify themes relating to what has worked and what hasn’t worked in the past • Completed – findings reported later

5. Results we created • Creation of June MTL weekend Opportunity to • Explore what contributes to the experience of gaining while giving and growing from serving • Explore what an effective system of empowering supervising and managing team members might look like in practice • Practise creative leadership

6. Results we created • Recommended framework for future

7. MTL Weekend RESULT: • To co-create with others the experience of a Spiritual Gymnasium focused on and around the June MTL weekend • to enrol and empower a dynamic team from across the UK • to experience tangible/significant personal growth and leadership development whilst serving and empowering participants to have an awakening, uplifting and life transforming opportunity.

8. MTL Weekend • What we created • A transformational training environment for all involved • A weekend with intentionality and without drama • What we learned: • When people are being truly and deeply empowered, then managing and supervising becomes relatively easy!

9. Growth, learning and progress as a team

10. Growth, learning and progress as a team What we started with... • Mutual respect • Creative sparking and generating ideas • Rich mix of styles and strengths

11. Growth, learning and progress as a team What we developed... • Focus on higher purposes as means of grounding • Being inclusive by honouring individual contributions & limits • Strong working partnership • Deepening of trust • Shared leadership, playing to our strengths , taking our turn • Practical application of models in practice

12. Growth, learning and progress as a team Where we missed... • Some lack of clarity about commitments • Holding individuals to account • Continuous holding of responsibility between meetings • Time limitations • Renegotiating when we were off target • Collaboration with other groups

13. Individual growth learning and development

14. Contextual blocks and levers Survey findings Team experience

15. Survey findings BLOCKS Blocks experienced : • The behaviour of other leaders (80%) • This includes trainers, TSs and other people in positions of influence • Dramatic behaviour (60%) • Refusing to explore people’s suggestions for future directions (20%) • Lack of support (40%)

16. Survey findings BLOCKS Blocks to increased contribution: • Lack of time (56%) • Lack of business like approach within the MTL organisation (44%)

17. Team Experience BLOCKS • TS appointed 6 weeks before • Unsupportive experience for TS • Leadership support not in place at outset • Creating documents from scratch

18. Other BLOCKS • Ad hoc decisions about leadership and other roles • No transparency • No clear development pathways • No consistency of leadership support • Learning not consistently passed on from one cycle to next

19. Survey findings LEVERS • Main reasons for serving on teams or in roles: • opportunity for personal growth (75%) • opportunity for partnership and connection with others (58%) • opportunity to pass on this valuable material (58%) • Main factors contributing to valuable experiences: • opportunity to stretch or try out something new (50%) • strong support (42%) • Opportunity to be seen and acknowledged by others (42%) • share a common vision or focus with others (33%) • Create fantastic results (33%)

20. Team experience LEVERS • Highly committed individuals • Powerful MTL processes • Eg empowerment conversations, RIVAS, baseball for teams • Culture of support

21. Team experience LEVERS • Team training days • to empower team to co-create • develop context of gaining through giving and growing through service • Team agreements • Context of impeccability

22. Recommendations for future

23. Recommendations Action learning cycle (ALC) for trainings • there is a continuous cycle of learning from training to training, • transparent process of allocating roles • TS manual (and other relevant manuals) to be live documents

24. Recommendations Develop a new role of Empowerment Manager • Develops focus on empowerment at all levels • Supports leaders in the organisation • Is the ‘empowerment voice' in SC/Ops meetings. • Supports the Action Learning Cycle of trainings, liaising with and supporting the Leadership Support Team • Oversees the updating of manuals to incorporate relevant learnings from previous cycle

25. Recommendations • Development of core Leadership Support Team(s) • Training days for Leadership Support Team • Development pathways for new leaders including • mentoring, coaching • training for ‘TS’s in waiting’ • documentation to support

26. Supporting resources • Create leadership support manual • Update all TS and ATS manuals • to include a job description of what is required in the role prior to and after the course • Create an attractive Next Steps / Development Pathways document and webpage – including FAQ for teams • Evaluation forms as a routine part of being on team

27. Follow up • Report all findings and recommendations in writing by end of July • Create July training • Provide support for leadership of September training and November training in Manchester • Apply learnings to Mastery teams