{"id":332,"date":"2012-08-12T09:23:44","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T09:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/?p=332"},"modified":"2021-06-09T09:24:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T09:24:25","slug":"london-and-learning-legacies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/08\/12\/london-and-learning-legacies\/","title":{"rendered":"London and Learning Legacies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost 25 years ago I stood in torrential rain and watched one of the most evocative concerts I have witnessed. It was Jean Michel Jarre\u2019s spectacular \u2018Destination Docklands\u2019<\/a>. Originally planned as one concert, it eventually became two concerts (due to Council objections) and they took place on a Saturday and Sunday in October 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience stood and sat on what was derelict land \u2013 land that is now one of the Olympic venues, the ExCeL  Arena, which hosted the boxing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to the present day. Last month, the new Olympic Stadium \u2013 also in East London \u2013 held  the most spectacular event since Jarre\u2019s oncert; the Olympic Opening Ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were significant similarities between the two. The Opening Ceremony told the story of a rural Britain instigating the Industrial Revolution on behalf of the world, followed by post-war immigration and then celebrating social welfare, British music and its current multi-cultural make up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jarre\u2019s concert was divided into four sections, the first of which was devoted to the Industrial Revolution. Part Two was London in the Swinging Sixties (when Jarre was joined on stage by Hank Marvin), the third section was the forthcoming digital Nineties, and the final section was \u2018The Emigrant\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, the differences in the environments were striking. The Olympic Stadium is set in beautifully landscaped gardens, with fantastic public transport and a huge, bright shopping centre close to its entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my way to and from the Jarre concert, I can remember being uncomfortable for the majority of the time, and very uncomfortable on a couple of occasions. East London was not a welcoming place in the late Eighties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was still the London described by The Clash in \u201cLondon Calling\u201d<\/a> and The Jam\u2019s \u201cDown in the Tube Station at Midnight\u201d<\/a> \u2013 \u201c \u2026Whispers in the shadows \u2013 gruff blazing voices, hating, waiting \u2026\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing changed in London as a result of the Jarre concert. Lots has changed, and lots more will change, as a result of the Olympics. Only time will tell what the legacy will be, but there are firm plans and noble intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons for the difference? In the case of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the aforementioned plan, infrastructure, investment and community involvement. Reasonably obvious, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move the context to organisational development. I was recently asked to submit a proposal for a number of sessions to help an organisation\u2019s managers navigate it successfully through a period of significant change \u2013 spookily enough, in south east London. My tender included a number of additional offerings at no additional charge \u2013 for managers requiring them, a number of Action Learning Sets, email and phone consultation on real situations faced by the managers, and a number of one to one coaching sessions if desired. I offered these because I know that for development to work, people need the opportunity to build on their learning, discuss real problems and opportunities, and seek assistance with specific scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks after submitting my submission, they rang me. The discussion was mainly around whether there would be any cost difference if they didn\u2019t use the additional free offerings. I said there wouldn\u2019t be. The person\u2019s final comment was, \u201cYou see, we only want some training sessions\u201d. My alarm bells rang. Perhaps they were just wanting to tick a box? Our relationship didn\u2019t develop any further. And I was reminded once again of those two spectacular concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For effective development to take place, it needs to be supported by the organisation, there needs to be a plan as to how it will be implemented and then how it will be supported post-implementation. It doesn\u2019t matter how good the intervention is if this support isn\u2019t here. Lasting change \u2013 that\u2019s what development should be all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost 25 years ago I stood in torrential rain and watched one of the most evocative concerts I have witnessed. It was Jean Michel Jarre\u2019s spectacular \u2018Destination Docklands\u2019. Originally planned as one concert, it eventually became two concerts (due to Council objections) and they took place on a Saturday and Sunday in October 1988. The audience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,8,12,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}