Excerpt from an independent research report on the benefits of
Common Purpose programmes for individuals
By John Perry, Judge Business School, University of
Cambridge, 2009
The project analysed the effectiveness of the Common Purpose
established leaders course as a diversity training solution.
Key Findings:
Participants and employers are reporting noticeable changes in a
number of areas considered important for leaders.
There is strong evidence the programme is delivering on all of
its core objectives and is performing well as a leadership course,
making a significant positive impact on most of its participants
and more broadly.
Benefits of Common Purpose
David Bell, Common Purpose UK trustee, talking about the biggest
benefit Common Purpose has given him.
Evidence suggests participants have a variety of backgrounds,
opinions, experiences and motivations and that their make-up
generally reflects that of the city more broadly.
There is good representation of participants from public,
private, and not-for-profit organisations, who fulfill a wide range
of roles and work in a diverse range of sectors and types of
organisation in accordance with the course objectives.
The overall programme structure affords participants some
responsibility for their programme content and provides a
variety of experiences and environments, which is consistent with
the objectives.
The variety of formats, learning methods presenters and course
components caters for different learning styles among participants
demonstrating the principles of inclusion for different adult
learners.
By facilitating more personal interaction between disparate
people and developing key listening and awareness skills,
the programme appears to be successfully reducing personal
prejudices and potentially limiting their impact.
The programmes approaches to learning groups have
demonstrated that diversity can be utilised to find new ways for
solving old or difficult problems.
The programme has given a number of participants the
confidence to actively participate in broad senior management
discussion where previously they would not have done so.
More than half the participants in the focus groups have
continued to meet with their learning groups beyond the course, to
explore different challenges. Participants went on to provide
examples of suggestions that had come from those groups that have
been implemented and have resolved workplace issues.
Participants have provided a wide variety of examples of new
challenges they felt empowered to undertake as a result of the
course. Many of these are impacting not only themselves but also
their organisations and the community generally.
