LDC 2014 Fellow Bryan Chapple

I’ve had a great start to the Fellowship, beginning with the flights to Toronto, which were all on time, and a painless transit through LA. Here in Toronto, I’m based at the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI), which is an independent think tank at the University of Toronto’s graduate school, focussed on growth and development. It’s linked to the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity. Both do work across a broad range of areas. See their websites for more detail: Martin Prosperity Institute and Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity.

I heard Leerom Segal and Rehaf Harfoush speak at the university a couple of evenings ago. They are two of the authors of ‘The decoded company: know your talent better than you know your customers’. I’m yet to do more than dip into the book, but the key idea they talked about is better use of data to measure staff performance.

We've just finished the Leading Strategically course at CCL. As Janine mentioned in one of her blogs, parts of it are a blur. Most of us talked in the final session about how we've plenty to reflect on and put into practice. I feel lucky that I still have another couple of weeks of my Fellowship, including another leadership course in Toronto, which will give me space to do that reflection. I also have a growing collection of books (with more recommended for purchase) to read. And, like Janine, our material is also available on line.

After my course finished on Friday in Colorado I spent a chunk of Saturday walking up a canyon near where I was staying. I saw my first partially frozen waterfall and also a viper on the trail.

I am now in Colorado Springs for a week. I'm taking the ‘Leading Strategically’ course run by the Center for Creative Leadership. There are 20 of us from around the world on the course ? mostly from business, with a few not-for-profit organisations and a couple from government. And, as you get talking with people, you realise that many of the challenges faced by people are similar ? even though the organisations might look very different.

I finished my meetings in Ottawa and trained back ? finishing the Moretti book en route. There's still plenty of snow and ice around on the ground in Ottawa, and I saw lots of frozen fields and partially frozen waterways from the train.

We've just finished day two of the integrative thinking and strategic change course. It's very different from the first course I did in several ways. First, there have been no self-assessments or 360 degree feedback exercises, so it is less 'reflective' on our own styles. Second, a lot of the participants are local and head back to home (and often their day job) at the end of our day of study ? so there is less of a sense of us all being taken out of our environments. And the third big difference is that there are many more public sector people on the course ? mainly from the local provincial government. Still, a few from around the world, though ? including Africa this time.

After five weeks, the Fellowship is about to end and it will be back to Wellington, the family and work. And I'm looking forward to all three of those ? even the Wellington wind will be okay after experiencing the tail end of winter here.