Emergenetics with East Devon’s Senior Leadership Team

East Devon District Council (EDDC) members had agreed a Motion in summer 2023 which including, amongst other things, supporting the Council’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) development. This was at a time of significant change for the council, with the longstanding chief executive retiring.

EDDC had engaged with the LGA as part of identifying potential options to support SLT’s development and the Emergenetics pilot was mentioned. This was of interest as it would provide an opportunity for SLT to learn more about their thinking and behaviour styles as a team but also as individuals which would support future development. At that point we were also in the process of recruiting a new permanent Chief Executive, following a period of the Directors acting as Interim CEOs, and it was evident that further organisational change would follow so having an opportunity for SLT to consider their thinking/behaviour styles and how that might also impact on their approach to change was also attractive. 

All attendees reported an increased understanding in their individual thinking and behaviour styles as well as greater appreciation of the wider team and how, as individuals, they may need to adapt their style to support team cohesion. This was already a strong team with positive working relationships, but the exercise helped to build on that and also allowed attendees to consider their attitudes and approaches to change and what was required of them, as senior leaders, to support and challenge the wider organisation as we embarked on a further period of change.

No further work is currently taking place to develop SLT as we are now in the process of confirming new directorate structural changes as a result of the appointment of the new Chief Executive, which was an internal appointment and therefore interim acting up arrangements are also being finalised. Once the permanent revised arrangements are in place (likely to be autumn 2024) further work will commence with SLT to develop individual and team development plans, informed by the outcomes of the Emergenetics exercise.

As we are in a period of significant change, we did question whether now was the right time to undertake the Emergenetics exercise, but feedback has generally been positive and, as mentioned above, the learning and outcomes will be used later this year.

Contact: Jo Fellows, Corporate Lead – Human Resources
Email: [email protected]