This year has seen a record demand for Postgraduate Study Scholarships with significant increases in Victoria, WA&NT, Queensland and South Australia. A record 310 high quality applications were received as compared with 220 last year.
I am very privileged to sit on one of these selection panels and to meet some of these bright young leaders. I really like this work and selecting one from so many of such calibre is a really daunting task. I come away from the panels feeling inspired and rejuvenated. The power of Life and Energy!! As someone said, they are right there, connected with Soul to Role.
As you may know The Working Journey, of which I am a partner, has been involved in the identification and development of talent for many decades. We use a predictive method based on the work of Dr Elliott Jaques and Gillian Stamp. This method has evolved over almost half a century.
It is based on the premise that an individual's ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty emerges at different, but predictable rates for individuals and for a person to be effective they need to also have knowledge, skills, experience and certain other factors like valuing the work hat this ability changes. This raw cognitive power can be identified and its future change predicted.
Thus potential can be identified, and specifically so can high potential.
And that is what scholarships like Monash, Fulbright and Rhodes are about, identifying individuals who can bring gifts to humanity and to assist them to actualise this potential.
The criteria that the panel looks at is:
- academic excellence (an aside - which is why we need to have scholarships in developing regions that just identify the raw cognitive capability of incumbents where they do not come from privileged countries),
- demonstrated leadership qualities and the big one,
- future benefits might such a person they bring...
It is this last factor that is so important, and it is not just Australia, but can we identify candidates who may bring gifts to humanity in its broadest sense? Are we talking to individuals who ,may create new knowledge, new and innovative ways that can shape society? Can we identify them?
I would think we can.... and in the next blog I will outline how leadership impacts soceity in increasingly complexity of outcomes...
Andrew Olivier
