An enthusiastic group of staff gathered for a development session about the U.Lab leadership course.

Described as a “highly experiential course”, the U.Lab approach to leadership outlines how to achieve transformational change through development of “a new consciousness and a new collective leadership capacity to meet challenges in a more conscious, intentional and strategic way”.

It is based on Theory U, which introduces consciousness into management, proposing that the quality of the results we create is a function of the quality of awareness, attention or consciousness that the participants in the system operate from.

Senior health promotion officer for health inequalities Carol Chamberlain, who helped organise the NHS Lanarkshire event at the Newmains NCT Centre, said: “It was a very valuable learning experience for the staff who attended.

“The Scottish Government has heavily endorsed U.Lab and we were delighted have one of their officials, Keira Oliver, co-delivering the session.

“The U.Lab approach to leading change is practised by business, government and civil society leaders around the world.

“It was developed in the US at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and has been adapted for a Scottish audience through U.Lab in Scotland, and is being offered nationally.

“The taster session allowed staff to get a flavour of what will be involved in the course, which is online. It usually runs for six to eight weeks and is free. To participate fully takes 5-7 hours a week. For those who want to explore the material but have limited time, a 3-5 hour per week option is available.

“During the six weeks, participants look at today’s environmental, social and spiritual-cultural challenges and explore why it is that our societies collectively create results that, individually, nobody wants.

“Participants are invited into a learning environment that is more personal, practical, relational, mindful, collective and transformative than they may have experienced in other online courses.”