Mapping people for the common good

The following article was written for the Pennsylvanian Rural Leadership Programs publication RULEings Mapping Leadership edition. 18 authors and 10 photographers and one artists were asked to give their interpretation of "Mapping Leadership"

 

As a geographer, the word ‘mapping’ conjures up images of landscape and the physical characteristics of places. As an ocean lover and boat owner, maps (or charts) demystify features below the waves and bring life to what otherwise might seem to be a flat surface. As a student of people through my role as a Program Director, ‘mapping’ elicits two further interpretations. Firstly, it provides a window into understanding the uniqueness of an individual and, secondly, it describes the reality of what we strive to achieve through program design, the creation of a learning environment and associated pathways for personal growth.

For participants of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, the inner work of leadership development requires exploration of who you are and what you stand for. This journey of exploration begins with an outdoor, experiential session in the remote North West region of Australia known as the Kimberley. The spectacular and vast landscape, combined with the presence of the traditional owners and their strong connection to country, provides a fertile environment for understanding self and your relationships with others.

Through a range of carefully crafted activities and the close bonds created in small teams, the scene is set to explore normal human behaviour, including the discovery of hidden personalities. By exposing ‘in and out of character’ behaviours as a consequence of opportunities provided through hands-on tasks, feedback mirrored by colleagues and deep, personal reflection, the impact of the Kimberley is life changing for many. As Oliver Holmes once said, “a moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience”.

Too many people lead lives of quiet desperation because they do not know who they are or where they are going. As directors of leadership programs it is our business to aid the growth of individuals by helping them to understand their own personality maps, then, through these maps, enabling them to make choices as to what route they will take with their unique life, as well as their lives with others.

The Kimberley experience delivers real data generated through the interaction of people with different personalities, people operating with different maps about how they perceive the world and how they make decisions. When you are being tested by a challenging landscape and your task focus is outward, the map you seek is assumed to be physical (paper), where in fact the one you need is located internally - your personality map.- and it is this that helps you read and understand human behaviour. Carl Jung believed that people were capable of directing their own personality development and of recognising and benefiting from both positive and negative life experiences, so do I.

Two months after the Kimberley, participants arrive in Adelaide (South Australia) and the cartography process continues. The purpose is to enable them to draw their own maps in sufficient detail so that they appreciate their own gifts and understand how best to apply and develop the richness of their personality.

The first stage is to revisit and effectively debrief the Kimberley data base through reflection. This is done using the Emotional Intelligence framework to increase self awareness and self management. By working in small groups, and then as one group, a profile of “what makes a leader?” emerges and individuals can identify the competencies they have, as well as those things they need to add to their personal map. Techniques for interpreting their own EI maps are learnt, including the skill of “emotional judo” to manage relationships. Emotional Judo is a strategy to manage your own brain, while also re-engaging the rational brain of an upset colleague or customer.

The second stage is for participants to undertake the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to gain insights into the role of personality in influencing human behaviour. Having gained this level of awareness about themselves and their cohort, the Kimberley is then dredged for examples of where teams were dysfunctional. Using the MBTI Lens and Quadrant techniques, these incidents are mapped to discover why dysfunction occurred and how group dynamics can be improved in the future.

When Captain James Cook mapped Australia his focus was on the outline of the continent, the interior took a large number of explorers and many years to fill in the detail. When we embark on leadership development with a new group we already know their outline from selection processes, our challenge is to help them complete their internal maps so they can lead others to places they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.