#WorkingOutLoud Social Leadership and Community Research: Compassion

Just sharing some very early stage #WorkingOutLoud, as i complete the first of a series of four ‘gatherings’ in the NHS in Scotland. The sessions explore people’s experiences of ‘community’, their perceptions of ‘leadership’, and their ‘stories of dissent’. Through the design, i’ve tried to generate some data that can build with each cohort, and perhaps inform some more rigorous and in depth work next year. Today i just wanted to share some very early stage analysis, using simple word clouds, outlining ‘the word that defines leadership for you’.

Sample size is 42, so really it does not take much to jump to first place, but nonetheless, ‘compassion’ is a notable inclusion. It sits, incidentally, alongside the words that people use to describe ‘what the most important thing is that they gain from their most important community‘. In this case, ‘support’ dominates.

So people gain ‘support’ from community, and look for ‘compassion’ in leaders. Aside from optimism, i’m unsure what to read into this as yet, but by the end of next week i will have over 200 responses, from four different regions, so perhaps some differences will emerge. Or maybe we will simply reinforce this result so far.