In brief - ever tried drawing a diagram of how you fit into your work environment?
Going on the Cultural Leadership Programme “Leadership Development Day” made me suddenly all excited about doing more in that vein.
So today I finally put the finishing touches to my Clore Leadership Programme application.
I’ve been talking to Mark Ball (Fierce! / Creative Republic) about his experiences on it and it sounds pretty mind-blowing so I’ve decided to pitch myself even though it looks like I’m right at the bottom of the age bracket they usually accept.
It’s basically a 1 year or 2 year development programme for people working in the creative/cultural sector who want to expand their leadership skills. There’s residential development weeks, shadowing opportunities of people you respect, going and working somewhere else in the world for three months at a time to get some interesting perspective, personal development work, media training (with Newsnight presenters? Seriously?) and the chance to connect with a bunch of similarly-inclined and interesting people.
I think I need a bit of a kick up the pants, so I’ve followed Mark’s recommendation and entered myself.
A Crystal Maze of an application process
This has to be the longest and most complicated non-funding-application application form I’ve ever filled in. It actually took me about three weeks!
The deadline is in…. about 21 minutes… and I’m happy to say I’ve got something in early for once.
Shame today couldn’t be said to be as organised. At the last minute I realised that their fancy ‘online application’ had just one tiny part that required a nomination form from the person nominating me to actually sign their name on a piece of paper and get that piece of paper delivered to Clore.
Whoops! Missed that.
Expensive last minute trip to London and an Anneka Rice/crystal-maze style rush around the West End and I got it in on time. Phew.
They asked for simple. Hmm…
The interesting part of this blog post, though - as part of application I was asked to submit an ‘organisation chart’. Huh?
So here we go - this is my best shot at trying to explain the overlaid and cross-connecting world in which I work. I know I have missed a lot out of this diagram - things that are missing are generally in the rest of the application.
My Personal Organisation Chart PDF
This was actually bizarrely helpful in making me understand the various things that I’m up to. Quite clearly I still have far too much going on. Another thing I notice, I removed nearly all of the names from this, but Pete’s and John’s remain - does this mean that I think they aren’t ‘roles’ but are actually the things that make their things work? I guess so, unconsciously.
I have until April to see if I get an interview. So in classic film language:
- What do we do now?
- We wait.
But while we’re waiting - ever thought about drawing your own one of these up?