The noughties saw a seismic shift in executive education. We at Ashridge realised we were attracting a growing network of public service managers, who were looking to the business school for fresh thinking, advice and support and valued the opportunity to learn and share best practice in global leadership and management.
They wanted customised learning, which showed understanding of their world and would help address their performance needs. But increasingly, they wanted much more and began asking us questions: What does Ashridge think about the direction of public services? What is the Ashridge perspective on public leadership? Is there a forum where we can debate live issues on delivering world class public services and help turn theory into practice?
We launched our prize essay competition as one way of responding, offering an intellectually stimulating outlet for public servants to express themselves, wherever they worked, at whatever level and, if they did it well, to receive some recognition.
For its part, Ashridge wanted to hear from those working where the rubber hits the road, so we could build this thinking into research and create more relevant programme designs with fresh and stimulating learning processes.
A key idea is to offer the gift of hindsight – what do I know now that I wish I'd known then ...?
An inspiration for programmes
This became a core research theme. We asked successful leaders for their advice on what worked for them and used this research to build an innovative learning process, a leadership journey set firmly in a realistic scenario - an inspiration for programmes we now deliver for clients as diverse as the Foreign Office, the National Trust and local authorities. The essay question this year reprised this theme and produced powerful insights of value to any public servant.
This year's winner
The competition has been genuinely inspiring and we are delighted today to announce this year's winner [LINK to the Friday lead piece by Sarah Mears], but we now want to find shorter, sharper ways to reach out to an even wider audience, for all those who have fresh and valuable ideas to offer and can explain them in ways that reflect the new world of blogs and twitters and vibrant online news media like Guardian Public.
We picture a year ahead, with its hopes and fears, pressure to perform, to do the day job and take on major change at the same time. A new format will allow more public servants time to share their good experiences, to give us a sense of what is going well and which are the best ideas to deliver better public services when budgets are very tight.
The aim is to do so in one short article, one column of a webpage, with the best contributions published.
So we plan a prize 'article' competition next year. There is always a premium on insightful thinking and good ideas that have genuinely practical application. To sustain themselves in the tough times that lie ahead, public servants will need encouragement to express their ideas, stay positive and gain recognition when they do it well.
Thirty years ago my working day as a trainee public sector manager started at 6am, shivering in the dark at the pithead and waiting in line to take my turn in the cage and be wound down 400 metres to catch a train to the coalface. There has been a lot of change in the public sector since then and I expect a lot more to come.
Mark Pegg is director of Ashridge and leads the Ashridge Public Leadership Centre
