The Charity Learning Consortium: Leadership development at Shelter

JANE Meggison-Hill explains why and how she’s launched a new digital-led leadership development offering at Shelter

The housing and homelessness charity Shelter previously had a traditional, face-to-face leadership development programme, but only about 24 people a year went through it. The charity was looking for a more accessible, inclusive and cost-effective way to develop its leaders. A pioneering new self-led approach, with digital content at its heart, was the answer. 

Research

Jane Meggison-Hill, Learning & Organisational Development Business Partner at Shelter, started by carrying out research, to find out what kind of leadership was needed. A thorough, collaborative process was carried out over almost a year, which included running surveys and focus groups and speaking to staff at all levels. This resulted in a definition of what good leadership looks like at Shelter, with 10 defined leadership habits. 

The research flagged up some specific issues that needed to be addressed, chiefly leadership inconsistency. But it also revealed some leadership strengths, such as support and empowerment. Having identified the key gaps, Jane had a clear idea of the leadership habits to focus efforts on first.

Blended approach

Jane started to create a self-led leadership framework based on the three Es: 

1 – Educate (formal learning)

eLearning

Microlearning

Workshops & webinars

2 – Experience (learning on the job)

Videos & podcasts

Exercises & practice

How to guides

3 – Exposure (learning with others)

Cohort learning

Group work

Mentoring & coaching

Digital delivery, using good quality, engaging content, is at the centre of this continuous learning approach, with resources accessed via the learning management system (LMS) provided by the Charity Learning Consortium. 

Ultimately, each leadership habit will have its own clearly labelled category and pathway on the LMS. Within each category, there will be a wide variety of digital content, such as microlearning, TED Talks and other curated resources, alongside off-the-shelf eLearning from the Consortium. Some bespoke videos, created in partnership with the Consortium, are also available.

Digital learning will be supported with opportunities to practise and collaborate with others, for example through group coaching, webinars, discussion groups and facilitated workshops. 

Launch

Called The LEAD Framework, the programme was launched in March 2022. Initially, it focused on the core habits: leading self; empowering performance, prioritising coaching and building trusting relationships.

Eight launch sessions ran over several months, with most of Shelter’s approx 300 leaders attending and giving enthusiastic feedback.

Push to pull

Jane’s greatest challenge has been turning initial enthusiasm from busy leaders into a commitment. Content may be prescribed for some groups – such as first-time managers – and priority topics – such as anti-racism. But generally, leaders are being asked to take ownership of their own development plan and choose their learning journey. The suggested commitment is three hours per month.

This innovative move from ‘push’ to ‘pull’ learning – from a traditional leadership development programme to flexible, self-directed, continuous learning – doesn’t happen overnight.

Learning collectives

To meet this challenge, Jane has explored cohort learning, bringing together a pilot group of 12 learners as a collective. The pilot focused on three key topics and participants met over three months, completing digital learning and then coming together to talk about it. 

Learners worked through a mix of facilitated activities, designed to help them embed one of Shelter’s Leadership Habits. This received very positive feedback and Jane is currently planning on rolling out the approach more widely. 

Feedback from the cohort learning pilot:

‘The most useful part of the experience has been the structure. The discussions help embed the learning – if I just went through the learning on my own I’m sure I would get less benefit.’

Jane’s focus is now on increasing the opportunities for people to come together and do more social learning in cohorts. She explains:

“We want to help people become more self-led in their learning. And when they go through one of the cohorts together that itself builds a learning habit, as well as helping them to engage with the content and make changes off the back of it. You can’t just flick a switch and have 300 engaged line managers overnight. It’s going to take time. But little by little, we’re getting there.”

Jane Meggison-Hill is the Learning & Organisational Development Business Partner at Shelter. Shelter has been a member of the Charity Learning Consortium since 2006. The charity uses the learning management system, eLearning suite and specific coaching resources that the Consortium provides. The charity won the Charity Learning Award 2022 for L&D Team of the Year.