Hello!

My name is Juliane Nier and I am Programme Manager at LEAD International for LEAD Europe. The week before last saw the completion of the this year's (Cohort 16) LEAD Europe London Module. The Associates wrote blogs over the course of the week and I would like to share an exceptional entry here on this website:

Friday 15 July  — Thank You!

Brought to you by the My Car (Mark Yulia Carolina Alan Rolf)  Blog Team.

Warning: some of the more outlandish things said below are not true.  If in doubt contact the My Car Blog Team.

Urgent: if you don’t have time to read everything do look at two things:

1)      Do the Doodle — we (Cohort plus Melina, Julianne and Edward) want to get together for a night of beer and boogie-woogie in Brussels before or after the course so let us know what day suits

2) Check out “Stuff to do” below as this is stuff you should do before Brussels!

So What happened?

Fuzzy Rabbits

A stressful start to the day with many fuzzy heads from the ale and wine the night before.  Eyes were as wide as the empty stomachs of those who missed breakfast with the realisation that we were making a presentation ‘to outsiders’ at 10.30!  In true Darwininan group dynamics those who were most hung-over and late for breakfast were selected to present.  A cohortee was overheard saying: “What! Me present!  No Way! . . . [protracted pause] . . . Present what?”

Team Coke was smart enough to avoid the morning mayhem by making a video presentation which has apparently now gone viral among Coke and London 2012 staff.

Asif and the ‘working lunch’

Thursday’s blog team inspired us with a video blog of the previous day featuring Asif and his take on the U process including a step-by-step how to build a model from the leftovers of your dinner.  (Its rumoured that the video has gone viral among UN staff. “This is a whole new side to Asif that I didn’t know”, said Ban Ki Moon in UN News on Saturday.)

Shock and Awe — Pecha Kutcha shows us the depth and genius of our cohort mates

Where have the Ghandis gone?

Mathias took us through his career with some slick geographical graphics and into his thoughts on leadership.  Organisations are full of Ghandi’s who can do good but the leadership is usually made up of Hitlers.  Does power corrupt the Ghandis or does the system favour the Hitlers?   A great presentation — “perfect flow” said Nadejda, ‘inspiring’  said Carolina.

Globetrotting in Stiletto s

Xenya — our ‘environmentalist in stilettos’ – gave us an insight into her globetrotting career and her African-Australian-Russian-Swiss family and her ambitions to link fashion and sustainable development.  Xenya showed us some striking images the most memorable was probably the Massai woman in designer sunglasses who would pay more for the shades than she would earn in a whole year.  “We need to improve our dress sense” says Xenya if we are going to really make an impact among certain audiences.  (The My Car Blog team is constructing a dress-sense improvement monitoring system for unveiling in Brussels.)

Dancing Queen

After telling us about some of the more challenging aspects of Russia like ‘bears walking on the streets’ Yulia bust into dance to rapturous applause.  All without losing her place in the Petcha Kutcha.  Yulia energised the room as she took us through her life journey and passions for meditation dance and a Moscow garden.   The business sector in Russia better watch out as Yulia is clearly focussing her energy on them.  And we need to get ready for Brussels where Yulia is taking us dancing!

Challenged!

Katie from Hackney council and a representative from ODA joined us and Katherine from Coca-Cola skyped in.  A slick but humble introduction by Jono and Lisa  set the scene. Team Coke played their presentation  and Biba and Rolf took us through a recommendations on community engagement and ensuring benefits to the local community post-games.

Feedback from the challenge hosts was very positive they said that our suggestions were “not naive” and hit on many of the issues that they were already considering.  Katie and the ODA guy were especially interested in Leo’s ideas and experience in using music to integrate communities and strengthen the social fabric.  Alan bowled us over with his rapid and sure response to . . . . from Coke’s questions how would you spend £25,000.

The Lion in our mist

Leo gave us a powerful presentation on his life and work.  His courage in working in city outskirts including the favelas of Rio — which many people are too afraid to enter – is truly admirable.  His career journey is one of passion moving from Telefonica to the field of sustainable development.

A holistic life

Carla gave us a witty and intriguing story of her life.  Her calm and smooth presentation held many  surprises such as Carla’s background in holistic medicine, meditation , business,  and coaching.

Leading Polish Business

Ola wins the prize for modesty.  Her presentation took us through the high-level work she has been doing in Poland with Price Waterhouse Cooper on sustainable business.  Her work on sustainable business for 2050 is exciting and inspiring. Ola is clearly involved in a very strategic area of change in Poland and has a lot to teach us.  She will be in high demand in Brussels!

Mother of Leaders

Elena gave us an insight to her career from engineer to talent management in the super tanker that is British Petroleum.  Elena’s determination and energy came through very strongly and when she said she likes to lead ‘like a mother’ it was clear that she can providing strong but caring leadership.

Brainstorming projects

We started to firm up ideas for our LAP projects.  Groups on business, vision and social inclusion brainstormed on what could be done over the duration of the course.  Ideas are firming up around new models of business, business education, creating a vision for sustainable development and many other ideas.

The Lead Network

Lead Fellows Jennifer Otoadese and Paula Haddock took us through how they have used the Lead network giving us ideas and advice for our own engagement.  This gave us a critical piece of the puzzle regarding our future participation in Lead.

Stuff to do

Edward took us through a short but important session on “stuff to do” post- London (that also means before you get to Brussels for the rule benders out there):

• Personal development plan (do the exercises, share them with Edward if you like and share your self-assessment with your Learning Trio)
• Ning your Book Review – you should put it under “Resources”  (reviews should look at why you chose the book, what it’s about and what you learned)
• Send in LAP proposal by 29 July and put it in the relevant Ning Room.  You should also try and find a coach or mentor who you can provide feedback on the project from time to time.
• Watch Edward’s Presentation on leadership and give him some feedback as it’s the first time did something like this.
• And be ready to receive a system thinking task and preparation for negotiation simulation in Brussels – you will be given a role (e.g. Prime Minister of Germany) and will need to do some research to be able to fulfil it properly.

Feedback

Unfortunately some of us missed the feedback session which was an emotional but wonderful experience.  We each wrote something positive about each of the other Cohort members.  The act of writing about each person gave time for reflection about what we really appreciate about each other.  It was very emotional reading what colleagues had written – they reinforced some ideas we had about ourselves but didn’t dare believe and showed us aspects of ourselves that we had never even thought about.  The experience brought us closer to each other — “you could feel friendship crystallising in your heart” said one male cohort member who prefers to remain anonymous.

THANK YOU!

But by far the most moving moment of the week was presenting flowers to Edward, Juliane and Milena.  We have all been inspired, exhausted and emotionally charged by the week.  The creativity and hard work behind making it happen was very clear.  So Edward, Juliane and Milena on behalf of us all (and once again): A BIG THANK YOU!  And see you in Brussels!

To stay in the LEAD mood whilst waiting for the Brussels module, please enjoy these quotes from London:

Finally, some inspiring quotes on leadership and sustainability from established leaders:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”
John Quincy Adams

“You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself”
Nelson Mandella

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I hope you enjoyed this fantastic blog, it really captured the feel of the day!

This entry was just one of many. To read the other blog entries, please click here.

Until next time,

Juliane