Laurie O’Donnell

Our Chief Executive, Bernard McLeary pointed me towards an interesting article from The Economist magazine – ‘What works in education: the lessons according to McKinsey’
[Full text of report from McKinsey]
It’s well worth a read. The findings are that the countries doing well by international standards (PISA) – Finland, Canada, Singapore, South Korea – all do […]

After the sessions offering my ‘top tips’ on leadership to LTS staff (see previous post) I was asked some questions. I have tried to capture these with an outline of the answers I gave.
Can you learn to be a leader or is something you are born with?
Great question. I take a situational (and adaptive) view […]

I am pleased to see another new area of the LTS Online Service going live with the launch of Scotland’s Culture.
This new body of resources around Scotland’s Culture provides a small but select collection of classroom resources to support, among other things, the celebration of St Andrew’s Day. Other resources include some information on […]

I was asked to speak to a group of LTS staff this week on the subject of leadership and identify some ‘top tips’ for aspiring leaders. Here is a adaptation of what I came up with as a starter for discussion:

Be a lifelong learner - as soon as you think you know all the answers […]

Finished the Alvin and Heidi Toffler book Revolutionary Wealth last week - been meaning to read it for more than a year. Building on much of the ground prepared in their previous works Future Shock and Third Wave [First Wave was agricultural revolution, Second Wave industrial revolution and Third Wave is the knowledge revolution] these […]

It’s a lovely autumn morning here in Dundee and I have one of those rare days without any meetings in my diary. A day to catch-up with tasks, clear some clutter (paper and email), have a walk round the office to speak to colleagues and even have the luxury of blogging from the office rather […]