Overseas Action Learning in Libon, Philippines.
The world in the fast-evolving 21st century has grown more complex, in many forms and across many fields. At the same time, economies in Asia and around the world are struggling to maintain their growth and development. In parallel to these developments, cultural sensitivity and the motivational management of people has become a vital component of business activity. The task of modern senior management is now more complex, challenging and multi-faceted.
To help meet these challenges, the 7th Senior Management Programme (SMP) was designed and developed to provide government and business leaders the opportunity to step back from their day-to-day responsibilities, and embark on a journey of intellectual and personal renewal to improve their performance as leaders in their respective organisations. The four-week flagship programme was jointly organised with the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, New York.
A very accomplished and diverse group of 27 senior executives from six different countries and territories that include Australia, Botswana, China, Hong Kong, Nigeria and Singapore were brought together between 4 and 29 June for the 2012 SMP. The programme is anchored in the premise that the individual leader has the potential to exercise positive influence in guiding organisations. As such the programme emphasises enhancing participants’ awareness of their strengths and weaknesses as leaders when interacting with others. And in addition to understanding one’s leadership style and approach, it is also important to accurately assess the context and environment in which a leader operates. This is why the programme is equally focused on organisational dynamics and understanding the global forces affecting organisations and the world today. Coupled with the expertise of trainers and leadership experts, the varied experience of fellow participants helped to deliver highly interactive and innovative training modules.
One of the SMP participants, Godfrey Mudanga, CEO of Water Utilities Corporation of Botswana, had this to say about the programme, “SMP has given me so much insight into organisational transformational and government policy formulation that I cannot wait to go back and implement them.”
As part of the SMP, participants also took part in the Integrative Management Exercise an innovative overseas learning component based on experiential leadership development. For SMP 2012, the group travelled to Libon, Albay, Philippines for one week to work on a project to strengthen the core local governance processes, with special emphasis in the area of child welfare and services. Participants rated this intensive reach-out experience as among the highlights of SMP, catalysing both learning and friendships while creating lasting value for the partner communities.