A colleague asked the question about how we can reach out to trainers more widely and spread the word on Leadership. Many educators gave some really good suggestions but I thought to myself, how could we check the validity of this information. So, I set up a survey to try and decipher what people actually use or do as opposed to what we think they use or do (the perception vs reality game). This should then be able to guide us on how we can reach educators more widely throughout the UK. The results are now in. There have been an incredible 211 responses.
My own interpretation of the results…
- One of the reasons why I did it was because people keep banging on about twitter. Yet if you look at the results less than 20% of the educator population use twitter (Q1), which is only 5% more than the number of people who use Google+ or LinkedIn (Q2).
- What is interesting is that 50% are on facebook and almost 60% for YouTube. (Q2).
- Now, I am not saying we hook people in through Facebook or YouTube but rather through multiple sites that all feed into one another (i.e. a combination of Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter).
- I don’t know why I put in question3. I suppose it’s because in the old days not many did refer to their email regularly. But clearly now most do (so we can now be sure our perception is real).
- I put in Q4 because someone always suggests putting things on the Bradford VTS website. I know the Bradford website is used a lot – but isn’t it mainly by trainees for MRCGP stuff? However, the results say that the Bradford website is used frequently by a greater audience than solely trainees and is the place where many people would first go to look for a resource. Of course – I’m delighted by this.
- Q5 is specifically about where one would look for leadership resources. Some interesting stuff here that I hadn’t heard of. Helen Frankenbergs 5 day leadership and management course. North East Leadership Academy. David Pendleton’s book on leadership. Business Balls. Stuff on gp-training.net. Wales Deanery. KSS website (are they still called KSS?). Edward Jenner academy. Steve Blades. RCGP eLFH. Shackleton’s way by Margo Morrell (presume this is about the expedition). Pete Nightingale from Lancaster. And not surprisingly, Amar Rughani’s team.
- Q6 is just a survey of thoughts on how we might reach trainers.
I think one of the points I wanted to get across is that just because there is relatively new technology (like twitter) doesn’t necessarily mean we should go out and put all our attention on it. But I am NOT saying not to use it either. What I am saying is to examine your aim and see whether it is fit for purpose first before jumping onto the bandwagon. And to remember to re-examine the horizon for what else is already out there that may be even better in terms of achieving your aim.
Now here’s another great link closely related to this subject: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34506590
Happy reading and I hope this is interesting for some of you.
Ramesh