Adrift in the snow on the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS)
Credit: ‘Way home’ by contemporary German artist Katja Lang
“Future Leaders Scheme is building a diverse, robust pipeline to senior roles. You’re part of the high potential, talented civil servants who can get there.”
The Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) is one of the UK Civil Service’s Accelerated Development Schemes, aimed at high-potential grade 6 and 7 civil servants. You can read my previous reflections on the scheme here:
Looking for balance on the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS)
Hello dear reader,
This was not the plan.
The plan was to write a blog post on the future of the Future Leaders Scheme, about how we could change the scheme to be more joyful. I would draw from my experiences and interweave those stories with thoughts about the broadest, holistic view of the context of learning. But it turns out, I do not have the wherewithal for that piece. At least not right now — my mind feels resistant to anything requiring real clarity or concision.
So I’ve ended up writing from an emotional place instead.
The narration of this story represents my journey through the scheme’s landscape and the scars it has left upon me. These scars are reminders of what I’ve seen, done, and learned. They are forever a part of my body’s memory. It is not something I should ever attempt to forget. And it is here that I explore the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘system,’ and the tensions between the two. After all, it is the system in which the self resides.
So, here goes.