The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2015

40 JULY-AUGUST 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL There will be relatively little use of face-to-face classroom teaching at the Academy. Making Time for Learning One of our greatest challenges, both in reality and in terms of people’s perceptions, is helping employees make time for learning. Your readers don’t need to be reminded how the world we work in grows more complex, fast-paced and, indeed, threatening as each year goes by. But I hope by making sure what the Academy does is of the highest quality, and by allowing people to discover just how their performance can improve when they make use of that, that they will consider the time required for learning an essential investment in their own future and that of our organization. We will also, where appropriate, be hard-wiring some Acad- emy learning into our evolving promotion model. Successful completion of the Foundation level, for example, will become essential at one particular step up the ladder. And for entry to our senior management structure, colleagues will have to have reached Practitioner level in a number of faculties. There are other challenges, too, not least ensuring that our curriculum and materials keep pace with that new complexity and the new environment. Among other things, that means trying to stay up with the curve on new media (do follow us on Twitter at @UKDipAcademy, by the way) and big data; or on resilience—I have had really useful discussions recently with colleagues at FSI on that. At the same time, we need to ensure we keep today’s diplo- mats equipped with the knowledge and skills which have always been essential to our work, from understanding a country (or institution) and its language and culture, to the unchanging fundamentals of influencing and negotiating. One final thought: Our countries work together to extraordi- nary effect around the world, and our diplomats are often at the heart of that. I hope the birth of the Diplomatic Academy gives us a new way, working with FSI, to add a new element to that collaboration—learning together, so we can work together even more effectively. I look forward to it. n