- Research project
- – Western Pacific
By Dr Andre Taylor
On the 13th of October 2020, 43 IWC alumni who had completed the IWC Water Leadership Program (WLP) over the last 10 years participated in an online, half day workshop. The workshop provided an environment for alumni to reconnect with each other, reflect on the extent to which they are still managing their development as leaders, share valuable leadership resources, and plan what innovative activities they would like to tackle in the future. The workshop also included an interactive session on coaching skills for leaders which was led by IWC leadership coach, Wouter Lincklaen Arriens.
Commenting on the success of the workshop, Dr André Taylor, the IWC’s Leadership Specialist, reflected that, “the workshop was tremendous. Originally we had planned to run this event as a face-to-face workshop in Melbourne, but we had to move it online. In retrospect, that adaptation was a ‘blessing in disguise’ as it enabled us to engage a broader audience to discuss the nature of future alumni activities. We now have a clear direction for these activities.”
Highlights from the workshop included:
· Using a live poll exercise to explore the leadership development activities that alumni are using after completing the WLP. For example, it was terrific to see that 79% of workshop participants “frequently” or “often” take opportunities to help others to build their leadership capacity (e.g. they mentor others).
· The opportunity to share a wide variety of leadership-related resources (e.g. pod casts, books, communities of practice, videos) that alumni have discovered since completing the WLP.
· The opportunity to provide alumni with access to up-to-date WLP resources (i.e. a set of 27 one-page summaries of key concepts are currently used in the program).
· Planning future activities. For example, feedback from participants indicated strong support for routinely running half day, interactive, online workshops every six months to help alumni to continue to grow as water leaders.
