Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in collaboration, learning and leadership Dr. Brian S. McIntosh,

Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in

collaboration, learning and leadership

Dr. Brian S. McIntosh, Senior Lecturer and Education Program Manager

Dr. André Taylor, Leadership Specialist

Climate and water availability change

IPCC (2007) Synthesis Report

Developing T-shaped water professionals

Global demographics to 2050

UN (2010), World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision Population Database

2050 – 6.3bn


Access to adequate water & sanitation

WHO & UNICEF (2010), Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water


Urbanisation and ecological degradation

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Global food production challenges

FAO (2010), Where do the

hungry live?


ChangeDeveloping T-shaped water professionals

Professional skills profiles

From Uhlenbrook and de Jong (2012)


Investing in education to invest in adaptivity

Formal education can provide a process for building the capacity of water sector professionals to:

• recognize the need for innovation;• develop innovative ways of changing which avoid

creating problems elsewhere, and to;• stimulate and drive processes of change.

But what should formal education programs for building such capacities look like? What skills and knowledge should they focus on and how should they be delivered?


Ingredient: Innovation management

Innovation Continuum

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Incremental Radical

Simple Management of innovation Complex

Nature of innovation processRoutine Unstructured


Ingredient: Learning


Ingredient: Collaboration

• Innovation processes are becoming more ‘open’, as a consequence of collaboration across organizational boundaries

• Promoting and enabling collaboration between personnel within organisations and between organisations is a key part of developing new opportunities and solving problems

• Effective collaboration, characterized by the creation of shared understandings of purpose, values and activity which yields benefits to the group as well as to individuals, is essential to group effectiveness

• Effective, as opposed to functional, collaboration tends to lead to more radical, status quo challenging action


Ingredient: Leadership

• At the heart of many successful projects in the water sector

• Water contexts offer unprecedented levels of (rapid) change, high levels of uncertainty, instability and complexity, problems with long timeframes and multiple stakeholders

• Major change management processes require skilled leaders


EpistemeSystems of knowledge (know why)

TechneArt or craftKnowledge (know how)

PhronesisKnowledge that helps us act wisely in particular situations

Guides the use of the other kinds of knowledge – whether they are used well from an ethical point of view

The most important form of knowledge for Aristotle

PraxisPractical,thoughtfuldoing

From Aristotle

Modern science emphasisesthese

We need to emphasise these more if we are to live more sustainably

Ingredient: Ethics, values & context


T-Shaped Water Professionals


Applying the T-shaped concept

T-shaped skills profile component

Masters of Integrated Water Management

Water Leadership Program

Understanding Covered Minor coverage

Organising Covered Minor coverage

Influencing Minor coverage Covered

Collaboration Covered Covered

Ethics, values & context Covered Covered


Applying the T-shaped conceptT-shaped skills profile component

Masters of Integrated Water Management Water Leadership Program

Understanding Natural science (e.g. hydrology, water quality, aquatic ecosystem function and health, sustainability, climate science, urban climatology, dryland agriculture)

Social science (e.g. water governance, water policy, water law, environmental economics, development theory, sustainability, behavior change, gender, participation and collaboration)

Applied science (e.g. social impact assessment, environmental impact assessment, IWRM, sustainable livelihoods, participatory rural appraisal, decision-making techniques, urban metabolism, life cycle assessment, urban agriculture, conceptual modelling)

Engineering (e.g. water treatment, sustainability, low cost water and sanitation systems, water supply system design, mass balance modeling, rainwater and stormwater harvesting, water sensitive urban design, water / energy / nutrient recycling and recovery)

Systems thinking Methods to build

leadership capacity over one’s career

Theories and models of leadership






Organising Project proposal development Project management Team working Survey and interview design,

execution and data management

Self-leadership Team development and leadership Time management Leadership development planning Individual leadership development

project planning and management

Influencing Team leadership Presentation skills Conceptual modelling

Water leadership models – project champion, enabling leader, team leader

Models and theories from the academic leadership literature

Social networking Communication skills Planning influence attempts including

choice of tactics Fostering innovation and creativity

within teams Individual leadership development

project






Collaboration Stakeholder engagement and participation

Conflict management Team leadership Team roles

Distributed / shared leadership Team leadership Mentor-mentee relationships Social networking Communication skills Active listening

Ethics and values Personal values clarification Reflective practice Equity Ethical project management

Personal values clarification Values and building credibility Authentic and ethical leadership


Reflections on implementation

Challenges in broadening education – ensuring that:

• Each discipline or functional area of knowledge can be learned to Masters level from essentially no, or only high school level knowledge beforehand, and;

• Opportunities are provided to participants to take part control of the learning agenda so that they are able to focus on content of most relevance to their own professional goals and context, and are also more motivated to learn



Learning philosophy:

• Standard classroom didactic teaching is at best only ever partially successful as an approach to catalyzing learning

• Alternative approaches to learning emphasise:

– Peer-to-peer interactions, dialogue, problem orientation, real-life or immersive education, and critical pedagogy

– Application of the 70:20:10 rule - 70% of learning and development occurs as a consequence of doing, 20% as a consequence of receiving feedback and 10% from formal instruction



Strategies for responding to the challenges:

• High quality printed and online resources enables ‘flipping’• Emphasis is given to conceptualization, skills and problem-

solving rather than the acquisition of factual knowledge • Use of real-world, problem-based learning as a device to

promote active, integrative learning across disciplines• Immersive, problem-focused field trips • Developing praxis (conscious, reflective action to transform

the world) – head, heart and hands• Ability to command significant 1-to-1 time from academics


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Developing T-shaped water professionals: Reflections on a framework for building capacity in collaboration, learning and leadership Dr. Brian S. McIntosh,