Mathias, Anna, Kate and seven other student project leaders started their learning journey on the first coaching weekend of the PLP in Schaffhausen (CH).

The start of a learning journey...

Learning how to become a team leader is the main challenge the oikos Project Leadership Programme is addressing. Ten Project Leaders from the oikos network took up this challenge on the first coaching meeting from 28-30 March. They took home new ideas how to creatively shape their projects, motivate their team and create commitment for the tasks at hand:

 

Creativity: Matthias opened his mind

Matthias Hermjakob, oikos Friedrichshafen, wants to answer the IKEA project question “What would it take to make IKEA sustainable within twenty years?”. He got inspiring feedback during the coaching weekend:

 

”I am now more aware of taking into account completely different perspectives and ideas on my project”.

 

The Project Leaders and oikos alumni reflected on the presentation of each team leader in a feedback session. They analyzed the projects’ challenges and came up with solutions:

 

“The group discussions on my project helped me to evaluate my ideas and question my assumptions. I got ideas I might never have gotten when just asking a single person for advice. It is most important to broaden the pool of ideas by asking and debating with others.”

 

Motivation: Anna gets people on board

Anna Ritschel, oikos Bayreuth, faces the challenge to coordinate and motivate her big team writing a sustainability report for their university. She realized how clear goals and expectations within the group play a major role in leading the project:

 

“I learned how important teambuilding is and how effective it can be. Our team building activities on Friday made me more aware of the personality of the others and gave me an idea on how to communicate best with them.”

 

Anna will now conduct a team workshop at home to learn about her teams’ expectations. She will also rethink the structure within her team.

 

Commitment: Kate will set clear goals and tasks together with her team

Kate Negacz, oikos Warsaw, organises a series of workshops on sustainability. The ‘Rent a Coach’ session helped her to develop a roadmap:

 

”I know that back home I will use the 100% commitment methodology to find out who will contribute what until when to our project. We will also define which topics to work on according to our strength and interests".

 

After a workshop on leadership facilitated by Lars Stein, Kate expressed a wish to ‘learn by doing’, and to integrate small simulation games or active reflections in their workshops at home. This includes the ‘100% commitment methodology’ and the ‘open forum’ experienced by the participants.

 

The learning journey continues…

To apply the weekends' experiences and working methods back home, the Project Leaders will now develop and conduct a workshop with their local teams. They will also integrate the feedback into their project proposals and programme outlines.

Within their project, they will proceed from the general concept to the realization of concrete tasks: Marketing, fundraising, speaker invitation... In the next coaching session from 18-20 July, they will thus meet experts in these fields to answer their questions.

 

To learn more about the oikos Project Leadership Programme see the project information online or contact Nina Hug.

 
NH, 3.4.2008