Community Leadership Training
Last week I hosted a Skype call with 4 wonderful people. All were participants in the Community Leadership Training program hosted and funded by the City of Port Phillip. My role was to co-design the training with Julian Donlen (Sustainability Project Officer) and then facilitate the sessions.
I also have a wiki-website in place here that explores the questions in the podcasts in more detail. The wiki is also a space where other people can contribute their ideas about community leadership programs like this one. The content will be drawn into a report by myself and submitted to Julian at the City of Port Phillip by the end of July 2010.
Two separate programs ran with around 20 people in each. The first in Feb/March 2009 and the second in October. Here’s a blurb from the City of Port Phillip’s website:
“Community Leadership Training is about increasing the confidence and skills of people to make contributions to their own community. It’s about being more effective in leading projects by working smarter. It is also FUN, interactive and applies to community, personal and professional life.”
This podcast invited participants to discuss and reflect on the training and engage them in a few questions – listed in each of the links below. The people involved were Emma Joughin, Chloe Farmer, David Robinson and Julian Donlen. The first part allows for some introductions and a discussion about ‘the need’ for these types of programs. The second part looks ‘what difference do this make?’ (for individual participants and community). The third part explores ‘where to next’ for the program in the City of Port Phillip.
Participants also shared their most memorable moment … but my Skype recorder failed me and we didn’t capture it. See the summary provided by participants below the podcast links.
Part 1 – Introductions and What is the NEED for these types of leadership training programs? – 15 mins
Most memorable moment#1
I think that the visualisation exercise we did on the first day is something that I will always think back to. I channel into that moment every now and again to re-remind me of what my vision and goal was (is). It was such a simple exercise, and even seems obvious now. “Visualise your goal” of course visualisation is a useful tool but at the time, the way we were guided through the process and the way my vision developed and then was linked and related to where I was at that moment was incredibly profound. It made the dream seem ever so much more possible, it made it really come into feasible reality. I remember my tummy flipping a little thinking “whoa! I could really do this”
Then that was reinforced by the letter exercise, it took a little longer than 3 months but by 6 months everything in the letter had come into being in some form or another. Funnily enough, the final achievement in the letter I wrote was getting a job in the sustainability industry and that happened the day before Earth Hour. The following day I went along to the eco centre for the Earth Hour gathering and with the friends I had made at the course we made a toast to my achievement and I stood with my glass of wine on the very spot in the garden that I had stood on and visualised on that first day. Awesome.
Most memorable moment#2
It is hard to pick one, as the training was made up of many inspirational moments, but one I found pivotal in my learning was the part on accepting & blocking offers.
This was an invitation to a new perspective, an opportunity for self reflection and to see how accepting & blocking offers is at play every moment and becomes a part of ones habitual reactions. I became more aware of my own accepting & blocking behaviour and when others do so. Ultimately it helped me see what was holding me back, or moving me forward, or how I may benefit from accepting an offer that I may not ordinarily take. Exercises like this are so useful because with awareness comes freedom, empowerment to create change and alter how you navigate through life.
Most memorable moment#3
My memorable moment(s) were:
· Food!,
· camaraderie (as David said),
· the reaction to the exercise of handing out A+ certificates, and
· a comment by one participant who had been recently visiting family in Europe who said that the course made her feel for the first time like she was home in Australia – this summed up an open and emotional response that was a highlight of being a participant.
Most memorable moment#4
There was no one “memorable moment” for me. However what stands out in my mind is the comradie, and unity of purpose, that built up amongst the participants.
Another thing the course did was that we all made a public commitment to undertake our project.
Everything we heard, or practiced, was then linked in our minds to how it would be used in achieving our goal
Preworkshop Devotions & Singing in Zambia #1 
Podcast – Reactions (in Taiwan) to the China Facilitation Conference
