Post on 10-Jan-2016
description
Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in
collaboration, learning and leadership
Dr. Brian S. McIntosh, Senior Lecturer and Education Program Manager
Dr. André Taylor, Leadership Specialist
Climate and water availability change
IPCC (2007) Synthesis Report
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Global demographics to 2050
UN (2010), World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision Population Database
2050 – 6.3bn
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Access to adequate water & sanitation
WHO & UNICEF (2010), Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Urbanisation and ecological degradation
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Developing T-shaped water professionals
Global food production challenges
FAO (2010), Where do the
hungry live?
Developing T-shaped water professionals
ChangeDeveloping T-shaped water professionals
Professional skills profiles
From Uhlenbrook and de Jong (2012)
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Investing in education to invest in adaptivity
Formal education can provide a process for building the capacity of water sector professionals to:
• recognize the need for innovation;• develop innovative ways of changing which avoid
creating problems elsewhere, and to;• stimulate and drive processes of change.
But what should formal education programs for building such capacities look like? What skills and knowledge should they focus on and how should they be delivered?
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Innovation management
Innovation Continuum
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Incremental Radical
Simple Management of innovation Complex
Nature of innovation processRoutine Unstructured
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Learning
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Collaboration
• Innovation processes are becoming more ‘open’, as a consequence of collaboration across organizational boundaries
• Promoting and enabling collaboration between personnel within organisations and between organisations is a key part of developing new opportunities and solving problems
• Effective collaboration, characterized by the creation of shared understandings of purpose, values and activity which yields benefits to the group as well as to individuals, is essential to group effectiveness
• Effective, as opposed to functional, collaboration tends to lead to more radical, status quo challenging action
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Ingredient: Leadership
• At the heart of many successful projects in the water sector
• Water contexts offer unprecedented levels of (rapid) change, high levels of uncertainty, instability and complexity, problems with long timeframes and multiple stakeholders
• Major change management processes require skilled leaders
Developing T-shaped water professionals
EpistemeSystems of knowledge (know why)
TechneArt or craftKnowledge (know how)
PhronesisKnowledge that helps us act wisely in particular situations
Guides the use of the other kinds of knowledge – whether they are used well from an ethical point of view
The most important form of knowledge for Aristotle
PraxisPractical,thoughtfuldoing
From Aristotle
Modern science emphasisesthese
We need to emphasise these more if we are to live more sustainably
Ingredient: Ethics, values & context
Developing T-shaped water professionals
T-Shaped Water Professionals
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept
T-shaped skills profile component
Masters of Integrated Water Management
Water Leadership Program
Understanding Covered Minor coverage
Organising Covered Minor coverage
Influencing Minor coverage Covered
Collaboration Covered Covered
Ethics, values & context Covered Covered
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped conceptT-shaped skills profile component
Masters of Integrated Water Management Water Leadership Program
Understanding Natural science (e.g. hydrology, water quality, aquatic ecosystem function and health, sustainability, climate science, urban climatology, dryland agriculture)
Social science (e.g. water governance, water policy, water law, environmental economics, development theory, sustainability, behavior change, gender, participation and collaboration)
Applied science (e.g. social impact assessment, environmental impact assessment, IWRM, sustainable livelihoods, participatory rural appraisal, decision-making techniques, urban metabolism, life cycle assessment, urban agriculture, conceptual modelling)
Engineering (e.g. water treatment, sustainability, low cost water and sanitation systems, water supply system design, mass balance modeling, rainwater and stormwater harvesting, water sensitive urban design, water / energy / nutrient recycling and recovery)
Systems thinking Methods to build
leadership capacity over one’s career
Theories and models of leadership
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept
T-shaped skills profile component
Masters of Integrated Water Management
Water Leadership Program
Organising Project proposal development Project management Team working Survey and interview design,
execution and data management
Self-leadership Team development and leadership Time management Leadership development planning Individual leadership development
project planning and management
Influencing Team leadership Presentation skills Conceptual modelling
Water leadership models – project champion, enabling leader, team leader
Models and theories from the academic leadership literature
Social networking Communication skills Planning influence attempts including
choice of tactics Fostering innovation and creativity
within teams Individual leadership development
project
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Applying the T-shaped concept
T-shaped skills profile component
Masters of Integrated Water Management
Water Leadership Program
Collaboration Stakeholder engagement and participation
Conflict management Team leadership Team roles
Distributed / shared leadership Team leadership Mentor-mentee relationships Social networking Communication skills Active listening
Ethics and values Personal values clarification Reflective practice Equity Ethical project management
Personal values clarification Values and building credibility Authentic and ethical leadership
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation
Challenges in broadening education – ensuring that:
• Each discipline or functional area of knowledge can be learned to Masters level from essentially no, or only high school level knowledge beforehand, and;
• Opportunities are provided to participants to take part control of the learning agenda so that they are able to focus on content of most relevance to their own professional goals and context, and are also more motivated to learn
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation
Learning philosophy:
• Standard classroom didactic teaching is at best only ever partially successful as an approach to catalyzing learning
• Alternative approaches to learning emphasise:
– Peer-to-peer interactions, dialogue, problem orientation, real-life or immersive education, and critical pedagogy
– Application of the 70:20:10 rule - 70% of learning and development occurs as a consequence of doing, 20% as a consequence of receiving feedback and 10% from formal instruction
Developing T-shaped water professionals
Reflections on implementation
Strategies for responding to the challenges:
• High quality printed and online resources enables ‘flipping’• Emphasis is given to conceptualization, skills and problem-
solving rather than the acquisition of factual knowledge • Use of real-world, problem-based learning as a device to
promote active, integrative learning across disciplines• Immersive, problem-focused field trips • Developing praxis (conscious, reflective action to transform
the world) – head, heart and hands• Ability to command significant 1-to-1 time from academics
Developing T-shaped water professionals
www.watercentre.org
+61 (0)7 3014 0225
b.mcintosh@watercentre.org
Developing T-shaped water professionals