A creation story of leadership development

Background: This article focuses on key reflection and learning by team members of a project that evaluated the development of leadership skills in senior staff from a rural local health district in New South Wales, Australia. The project evaluated the outcomes of learning and teaching strategies used in the delivery of the Effective Leadership Program, together with the impact that empowerment had on enabling individuals to flourish in their growth and development as leaders. Aims: This article aims to demonstrate how the creative research methodology empowered participants to be active in the evaluation process while challenging them through innovation. Conclusions: Through creative approaches to evaluation of the Effective Leadership Program, it became evident that participants gained heightened awareness and appreciation of their own leadership skills and knowledge. In addition, critical creativity was shown to facilitate healthcare practitioners' readiness for and receptiveness to change and challenging processes, bringing a more critical approach to decisions. Relevance to practice development: Creativity forms a key component of practice development and can stimulate new thought and action in individuals to work in person-centred ways. The processes outlined in the project used practice development methods to facilitate learning in participants at a deep level.