In June 2015 Dr Adarves-Yorno visited Kenya to deliver training in person.  The initial scope of the training in Kenya was to consist of training the 6 senior managers that were on the UK course, supporting the building of a change agent network and helping one prison to start implementation of their change programme.  However, immediately following successful delivery of the first training session in Kenya the itinerary was changed in order to deliver more training across several prisons.

The focus became not simply on delivering authentic leadership training to the senior managers but on helping all those in the prison to be involved in the training, be more authentic and find the leadership and change capacity within themselves.

Her final training itinerary consisted of eight group sessions involving 180 people.

Overview of rationale for the training

During the training in London in April 2015, the six senior leaders commented on a number of challenges at different levels (institutional, organisational, group related, infrastructure and personal). While there are limitations on what can be done at the external level to overcome those challenges there are two areas in which training could help. First, understanding and developing a mindful and resilient internal infrastructure, which is a component of authentic leadership. Second, learning about and managing the social infrastructure that is related to social identity processes of influence.

The change agency training offered in Embercombe comprised the following two components: personal development in the remit of authentic leadership and participatory change and social influence under the remit of social identity. Underlying this training were principles of mindfulness. That is, as part of authentic leadership we were offering mindfulness techniques but also key components of the facilitation were rooted in principles such as self-disclosure, full acceptance of what is, non-judgement and compassion. As emotions tend to rule our minds and can prove a challenge for mindfulness training we also dedicated a session specifically to deal with emotions.

This rationale of training change agents by combining their personal development (mindfulness and authentic leadership) with understanding about social identity processes underlies the overall training framework. Nonetheless, the training offered in situ in June adjusted to the needs and requirements of the situation and the people involved in the training. In some instances like in Naivasha in June 2015 a first step focused on repairing the personal infrastructure. The delivery of the training was underpinned by social identity principles; creating a sense of ‘us’, eroding the separation of ‘me’ and ‘them’ and developing common norms.