Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
A Reflectively Experiential Approach to Leadership Development
(Image by Author, source)
Introduction
In January this year, I was part of the facilitation team on the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) course in North Sydney. It is a week-long experiential leadership program, aimed at empowering the next generation of leaders to achieve great things.
The program is designed around a reflectively experiential approach to leadership, employing the abstraction of ‘ERLA’ to assist the participants through their journey. ERLA is an abbreviation for: Experience, Reflection, Learning, Action. This concept is continually reinforced throughout the course of the week.
It is also steeped in academia, particularly in its liken to David Kolb’s work (1984), which conceptualises learning as a four-phase continuous cycle: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation (Figure 1). This learning process, in other forms, has been referred to the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ model, or the ‘Experience-Reflection-Conceptualise-Test’ model.
(Kolb 1984)
The ERLA concept is continually recycled for participants throughout the RYLA experience, and the week itself also acts as a standalone experience for future reflection and development.
Two of the key objectives of RYLA are:
- To empower and equip the next generations of leaders to be the best version of themselves that they can be; and
- To provide a challenging, engaging, and safe environment for participants to try, test, apply and enable their own learning and development.
Many researchers have attempted to synthesise the intricacies and nuances of leadership (eg: Avolio et al. 2009; Busse 2014; Jackson & Parry 2011; Northouse 2015). However, the resulting array of theories & conceptualisations are quite frankly diverse, convoluted, and in some instances inconsistent (as discussed by Alveeson & Spicer 2012). What the discourse does agree on is the fact that leadership is inherently difficult and complex. Yet it is the capstone that is necessary in any successful business, and it is the fuel behind a highly effective and productive team.
The environment created by RYLA, particularly resulting from the ERLA methodology, is one which can facilitate this learning for each individual, and can create a successful and beneficial leadership learning experience.
Experience
The Experience aspect of the ERLA cycle is in line with the Concrete Experience phase of Kolb’s model. Each day of RYLA has a particular activity in which the participants have an opportunity to apply their learning. While these activities can be quite varied in their objectives and methods, they all require active participation and engagement between RYLArians. The activities interweave real-life scenarios (for example, a Model United Nations type of negotiations), and also fictitious scenarios (for example, doing the Spiders Web activity). This provides an environment for the participants to continually challenge themselves and to experience different aspects of leadership.
Expanding on Kolb’s (1984) work, Freed et al. (2010) discuss the benefits of having a practical approach to leadership learning, while addressing both leader development and leadership development. Freed et al. articulate how practical leadership experiences allow “the opportunity for individual development of ‘competency’ in a variety of leadership areas, rather than focus on a pre-determined set of classroom requirements” (p. 30).
Freed et al.’s comments are congruent with Van Velsor et al.’s (2010) assessment that while leaders learn primarily through their experiences, not all experiences are equally developmental. Van Velsor and Co. also discuss that any learning experience (for example a training program, a leadership course, a university assessment, a personal relationship) can be richer and more developmental when it incorporates three key elements alongside three core contexts. Figure 2 shows how these three elements (assessment, challenge, and support) contribute to enhanced developmental experiences, while the three contexts (variety of experiences, leader development, ability to learn) encapsulate the leadership development process.
(Van Velsor et al. 2010)
Therefore, having experience and practical activities is a vital aspect of the overall RYLA opportunity, for it allows individuals an opportunity to learn and develop their own leadership competencies.
Reflection
Reflection (the Reflective Observation phase) is a key aspect of the RYLA experience. Participants engage daily (sometimes twice a day) in scheduled reflection sessions with 4 to 5 of their fellow RYLArians, and a Facilitator. These sessions allow participants to discuss what they have experienced, listen to the experiences of their teammates, and to verbalise what they have done (or will do) differently. It’s also an opportunity for individuals to link their experience on-RYLA with their past experiences before-RYLA, and to form an idea for how to apply these skills after-RYLA.
Participants are continually drawing cognitive interrelationships between their experiences on the RYLA week and the ‘real world’, outside of RYLA. Some feedback received from the participants after RYLA’s conclusion indicates that this reflective engagement was an incredibly beneficial aspects of the experience, and is what enabled them to ‘tie’ everything together. As a result, individuals are able to take so much more learning and development from their RYLA experience, as a direct result of reflection.
Many specific definitions of reflection have been developed in academia (eg: Dewey 1933; Schön 1983; Kolb 1984; Boud et al. 1985; Mezirow 2000; Yorks & Marsick 2000). While there is some discussion around the lack of clarity and consensus of what constitutes ‘reflection’ (Procee 2006), there are some consistent tenets between the discourse.
For example, O’Neil (1999) identified four key types of reflectors (as shown in Figure 3): the tacit reflector (incidental reflection), the scientific reflector (content reflection), the experimental reflector (content and process reflection), and the critical reflector (content, process, and premise reflection).
(O’Neil 1999)
However, regardless of the type of reflection occurring, the benefits of reflection are clear. As discussed by Rausch (2007) “reflection allowed these participants to move beyond descriptive accounts and to analyse, interrelate, and synthesize their various experiences in relation to their learning” (p. 103). Resultantly, the reflective aspects of leadership development have become a pivot aspect of the RYLA journey, and one which has added an undefinable amount of benefit for so many past participants.
Learning
The Learning aspect of RYLA (the Abstract Conceptualisation phase) is an incredibly dynamic and versatile aspect for each participant, because it is an entirely individual process which everyone does differently. Throughout the RYLA week, individuals have and opportunity to test and check themselves in the scheduled daily activities, which enables them to continually experiment and learn for themselves. Furthermore, the reflection sessions is also an opportunity for individuals to discuss their actions with their piers, and to learn about themselves from the actions of their teammates, which is also an enabler for deeper learning throughout the week.
RYLA is truly jam-packed with learning opportunities, ripe for any participant to learn from any aspect of the week.
Kolb (1984) discusses the Abstract Conceptualisation phase as a pivotal aspect of the learning cycle, for it is when an individual is able to figuratively grasp the concept, and begin to comprehend its nuances. Richards (2018) shows that the Abstract Conceptualisation phase does not need to be fully completed for an individual to move to the next phase in the learning cycle (Active Experimentation), for in fact comprehension and conceptualisation may continue to be formed over many phases of experimentation. Conversely, Jarvis (1987) points out the role of ‘prior knowledge’ in learning (which is notably absent from Kolb’s original model), and how learning is able to occur in an open-ended ‘ecosystem’ of continual experiences, observations, lessons, and experiments.
It is based on this premise that RYLA is able to provide such varied and prolific learning opportunities for participants, as it is an enabler for individuals to perceive learning in their own terms, and comprehend the nuances in their own manner.
Action
The Action phase (Active Experimentation) is core to the entire process, and there are countless opportunities provided to participants throughout the week to implement their learning, test their understanding, try their skills, and expand their comfort zone. For example, the activities and the reflections conducted on the Monday of RYLA allows the participants to experiment and try new things on the Tuesday’s activities. Then, after further reflection, the Wednesday’s activities provide another opportunity for further experimentation and implementation.
Furthermore, if considered as a whole, the entire RYLA week itself is a learning opportunity which individuals are able to bring back to their everyday life, and implement new actions and try new skills and techniques outside of RYLA. This continuous cycle of learning repeats itself indefinitely, and allows individuals to grow and evolve throughout their RYLA journey.
Active Experimentation is appearing as the final phase in Kolb’s (1984) model; but it need not be. Richards (2018) discusses that in its wider usage, Kolb’s cycle can be viewed as having different starting points and trajectories, particularly as knowledge is formed through the different assimilative/accommodative and convergent/divergent quadrants (refer to Figure 4).
(Richards 2018)
Richards takes this even further by discussing that learning is a linked and continually interactive cycle of ‘actions’ (and thus also ‘reflective practice’). This can be perceived as spontaneous events, planned interventions, or specific constructions of meaning.
The conceptual formation of knowledge can manifest differently in various cycles of the feedback loop:
- Either as an alternation between the initial trial-and-error experimentation and subsequent repetition/reinforcement, or
- In an intentional ‘opening up’ vs. ‘closing down’ of an individuals desire to learn, resulting from either a positive or negative self-fulfilling prophecy (the expected result of a given, expected situation).
Experimentation is a vital aspect of RYLA, and is one which is offered to participants many times, over many days, and in many different forms. The level of engagement and experimentation from participants is an entirely personal choice, and their journey through the RYLA experience can be discussed and unpacked throughout subsequent reflection sessions, thus making the experience so much more impactful.
Conclusion
As demonstrated, the RYLA program uses the ERLA acronym ‘Experience, Reflection, Learning, Action’ for facilitating learning, growth and empowerment of its participants. ERLA is also grounded in academia. It is based primarily on Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle of ‘Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation, Active Experimentation’.
The comprehension and experimentation aspects of this methodology can be perceived as both a singular isolated learning event, and as an ecosystem of continual experiences/lessons, which forms the larger reflectively experiential journey for the RYLA participants. The reflection sessions that are conducted throughout the RYLA week are a vital key in the entire journey, for it allows individuals to verbalise their thoughts and experiences, both for their personal benefit and for the benefit of their fellow RYLArians.
Most importantly, the continual activities throughout the week provide many opportunities for the participants to experiment in their own way. There are opportunities to take leadership roles, or supportive roles, or even consoling/mentoring/outgoing/accommodating/asserting roles. RYLA facilitates all these opportunities for participants. As a result, the RYLA program is able to provide a positive and beneficial impact to all those who participate, and continues to make a substantially beneficial impact to our society.
Moreover, Alveeson and Spicer (2012) provide a critical performative approach to leadership, which recognises that leadership is contextual, and achieves better performance when seen as an infrequent, temporal, situation-specific, and dynamic process, rather than a permanent state in the leader-follower relationship.
Anyone who wishes to become a leader cannot learn it from reading academic discourse alone, nor can the skills be learnt overnight. Leadership is something that is learnt, developed, tested, grown, critiqued, reflected upon, built upon, and continues to evolve over time, over many years of application.
Cramp (2016) suggests that an international study visit will greatly grow ones’ leadership experience, while Dalglish & Evans (2007) suggests that one should first begin with attaining qualifications and experience before embarking on a leadership development journey, and even Jackson & Parry (2011) indicates that one does not stop learning leadership, for any and all leadership experience can add to the successfulness of a persons’ leadership.
As a practitioner of leadership, the burden of responsibility lies on the individual to develop their own views of what leadership means to them, and how that applies to their own lives. RYLA provides an ideal environment for this learning, and a catalyst for ongoing learning, as facilitated by ERLA, complemented by reflection, and enhanced by peers.
References
Alveeson & Spicer 2012, ‘Critical leadership studies: The case for critical performativity’, Human Relations, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 367–90.
Avolio, Walumbwa & Weber 2009, ‘Leadership: Current theories, research and future directions’, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 60, pp. 421–49.
Boud, Keogh & Walker 1985, Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning, Kogan Page, London.
Busse 2014, ‘Comprehensive leadership review: Literature, theories and research’, Advances in Management, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 52–66.
Cramp 2016, ‘Enhancing school leadership through an international study visit’, Professional Development in Education, pp. 1–14, ISSN: 1941–5257.
Dalglish & Evans 2007, ‘Julie Hammer’, Leadership in the Australian Context, 1st edn., Tilde University Press, Prahran, VIC, Australia.
Dewey 1933, How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process, D. C. Health, Boston
Freed, Covrig & Baumgartner 2010, ‘Learning while leading: the Andrews University leadership program’, The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 27–56, ProQuest Central database, ISSN: 19333978.
Jackson, B & Parry K 2011, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership, 2nd edn., Sage, London.
Jarvis 1987, Adult Learning in the Social Context, Croom Helm, London, England.
Kolb 1984, Experimental learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Mezirow 2000, Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress, Wiley, New York.
Northouse 2015, Leadership: Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, California.
O’Neil 1999, The Role of the Learning Advisor in Action Learning, Doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations (AAT 9939533).
Procee 2006, ‘Reflection in education: A Kantian epistemology’, Educational Theory, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 237–53.
Rausch 2007, Demonstrating Experiential Learning at the Graduate Level Using Portfolio Development and Reflection, Doctoral dissertation, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI, retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations (AAT 3289968).
Richards 2018, ‘Human lifecycle development and the experiential learning foundations of an integrated lifelong education framework’, Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 250–71.
Schön 1983, The Reflective Practitioner, Basic Books, New York.
Van Velsor, McCauley & Ruderman 2010, The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development, Wiley Imprint, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Yorks, & Marsick 2000, ‘Organizational learning and transformation’, in J. Mezirow & Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress, pp. 253–81, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
(Image by AYA Images under license to Author, on ShutterStock)
