Lead your organisation to innovate, adapt and thrive in a fast-paced and complex world. Hear from Clive Singleton, Leadership for a Complex World participant, on his experience of the programme.

Please introduce yourself, telling us what motivated you to apply for the Leadership for a Complex World programme.

My name is Clive Singleton, and for me in the catering industry, the last few years have taught me that this world is in fact very complex. The way food trends are changing, it's just a real mix up of so many different things. The title of this programme alone made me feel like this is the right one for me. 

What would you define as leadership for a complex world?

That's much easier to answer now I am halfway the programme! It's very much about working with people rather than above them. And I try to not use the world 'I' or 'me' or even 'manager'. I have learnt that it is about being part of the same team. 

What do you hope to learn from this programme?

Confidence in the things I do is number one. I hope to be a true leader and I think I've already captured a few golden nuggets of learning which I am already implementing in my work. 

Are you enjoying networking with your cohort?

Very much so! It's always a challenge opening up in the first session when we don't know each other. But that's very quickly moved on because we're openly talking about similar situations in the classroom.

Why would you encourage others to do this programme?

For others to join this network, they would be grasping an opportunity to meet with others, to experience what others are going through, as well as obviously all the teaching and learning. 

The programme gives such a wide variety of learning. You've got to trust in the process of what the programme is about; it's joining up as you go through. I'm very much looking forward to getting to the end so I can really reflect on all of the skills and knowledge I have learnt and how it all fits together. 

So you feel what you're learning on the programme right now is able to be transferred straightaway to your workplace?

Definitely. I had a chat with one of my head chefs just this morning and he was asking about one of the models we are exploring in the classroom which I'd mentioned to him. Ironically, once I started explaining it more, he wanted to know more and more. There's others that want to join the programme from what I have shared with them! They'd like to understand how we have moved into a more challenging world.

To explore this programme further and to see whether you would like to become a leader in a complex world, please see our programme page here.