Start leading by team making
Leadership Core Program 2020 3Q4Q
The Leadership Core Program of AY2020 (5 classes in total) was held between 24/Oct to 9/Jan.
・Group of course: Leadership, Followership, and Consensus Building
・Course： TAL.W502/TAL.W503 Fundamental Group Work for Leadership I/II<F>
・Program：Leadership core program (5 classes)
・Class dates： 24/OCT, 1/NOV, 21/NOV, 19/DEC, 9/JAN
・Venue: S422, South Building 4, Ookayama Campus
Overview
During the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2020, a 5-day Leadership Core Program was carried out with over 10 participants inside or outside ToTAL. Several activities such as Lifeline exercise, idea generation and brainstorming and risk taking was conducted, along with two mind-blowing workshops facilitated by our two facilitators, brainstorming workshop by Marcello Gecchele and discussion of difficult topics – “let’s talk about taboos” workshop by Shahriar Kabir Saki. In the last three sessions, our participants gave their fantastic presentation on self-introduction with various styles.
Leadership Exploration
As a future-to-be leader, what is the most important and vital skill that you want to develop? This was one of the main topics we have worked on throughout our program. For starters, by reviewing what good/bad leaders in the past have in common, helped us all build a vague image about what kind of leader we like to be, what is our strong point and what we should work hard. Furthermore, standing on this growing platform, what we expect from ToTAL, what we need to aim for, individually, helped us draw a clear path starting from our “image”. Up until this point, the explorations were all done by individuals, however, the half of the LEAD is hidden in your TEAM! If you have your team, it means you’re half way there.
Followed by my personal favorite assignment – consensus building by group, to pick out seven elements of leadership development and establish the priority ranking. As the course proceeds, we can finally find the goal to our path, finding the balance between leadership development and consensus building within the team.
A fun fact, this assignment was the same task when the founders of ToTAL have faced before opening ToTAL, it was the seed of ToTAL, or we can say the “core” of this whole program. The seamless connection between faculty and students, from small to big, from individual to whole ToTAL community were the fact that make us feel excited and motivated about this program so much.
Consensus building and the art of conversation
When we were discussing about what bad leaders have in common, the most notorious problem was self-centered and bad listener. Another main topic of our program is based on this particular problem, which is consensus building. A team is always better than a person, especially when you are a leader of a team, you should be able to see the big picture, you should be able to accept different opinions, and you should be able to create a balanced and neutral environment. Consensus making is not compromising, you can still withhold your own point of view while opening your mind to others.
Making a team means gathering people, plural people means there will be conversations. Conversations can be an invisible hand, it can either shake another hand or slap faces. On the fourth session of the program, we discussed 4 fields of conversation and 5 types of group decisions. During this discussion, we were introduced by the term “U theory”. A “U theory” suggests shifting from a personal, individual-centered approach to a collective, group-centered one in order to move towards a more sustainable, healthy life, to help us understand the importance of active listening and generative dialogue. The combination of built consensus and positive conversation vibe in the team will help us have a grasp on the core concept between leadership and team.
Facilitators and participants’ voice
Working as a supporter in this program truly expended my view on ToTAL. For the first time, I am standing behind the participants instead of being one of them, I felt the connection between students and the lecturer. I understood the connection between each game, brainstorming-activities, workshops, etc. Leadership Core Program is a kind a course that lead you step by step from discovering your leadership to building a tailored leadership developing plan.
At last, special thanks to our 2 ToTAL members working as facilitators, Marcello Gecchele and Shahriar Kabir Saki, and let’s hear what facilitators and students have to say about the program.
Participating for a second time in the Leadership Core Program was an amazing opportunity, as we were able to hold the meetings in person and engage with the other students directly. I can’t stress enough how important it is to meet in person, as group work always feels very robotic when conducted over the internet.
My experience as a facilitator was incredibly positive, the teaching environment was very relaxed and we were given a lot of freedom in designing our workshops. For my workshop, I focused on two aspects: encourage students to not discard ideas that might seem crazy and learn how to take criticism in a constructive manner. It was the first time for me to host a workshop, but I believe that, despite a few hiccups, I was able to convey my message while keeping the activities fun. I want to thank the teaching staff for allowing me to host my workshop and thank the students for their attention and feedback.
For me, the Leadership Core Program of Fall 2020 was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas I’m passionate about and learn what it takes to be an effective facilitator. As a ToTAL student myself, I can confidently say that the ToTAL programs are some of the best and most challenging learning experiences I have had till now, and without a doubt, this time it offered me plenty of opportunities to learn as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed designing and presenting my ideas during the 2 workshops and I received very helpful, critical feedback from the participants to make each of them better in future. I was really happy to see the energy and enthusiasm my ToTAL colleagues showed during the workshop presentations and group discussions, and I truly appreciated their honest responses, insightful dialogues, and frank critiques. I had participated in the Core Program of Spring 2019, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much the program contents have evolved and improved just in this short period of time. Innovative ways to check-in and check-out, hands on activities on idea development and brainstorming, KPT reflection – all of these were a lot of fun and educational at the same time. I have learned something new at every single step, on every single day of this program and I wish all the best to everyone, the ToTAL teaching team and the participants.
I loved the activities that we were able to learn more about each other. For me they gave me a sense of community which I have not felt for a considerable amount of time. It is too bad I missed half the workshops but I thought the workshops created by students were excellent. They were engaging and impactful and I am looking forward to more of such activities within ToTAL. I want to thank everyone for their excitement and kindness, this class has given me a lot of motivation.
毎回学ぶことがあり、大変有意義な時間でした。他の人のライフラインを聞くことで、みんなそれぞれの場所で努力しているんだと気づけました。円を使った絵のアクティビティでは、自分の中にあるバイアスに気付くことができました。
意見を話すときに、もっと論理的に話せたらと思うので、今後それを向上したいと思います。
Most impressed activity was discussion on what is in need for leadership with group. I was the only person who didn’t experience study abroad in the group. Other member asserted “Understanding to other country’s culture etc.” is most in need. It was perspective I haven’t had (I thought another one is most, this is second). The opinions come from experience of life in other country. In this class, I can feel not only diversity but also similarity, I think. Thanks for every member in class!!
Despite from the masks on everyone’s face, there was smile underneath. We had a tough year, and the situation is not getting better. All we can do now is be careful, be brave, and be prepared.
(Maierwufu Mirzat (Maru), ToTAL student, TA for Leadership Core Program)
Additional notes from instructors
This was the 4th occasion of “Leadership core program” series by Prof. Kamura and Matsuzaki.
This series of workshops is assumed to be taken by the students who just joined ToTAL. It is designed so that the participants can get the sense of ToTAL community as well as their own mission, and acquire thinking tools to learn effectively from various group work experiences including ToTAL’s more advanced workshops and their research works.
For every semester we keep re-designing the contents and delivery of the workshops based on the feedback from students.
Based on the two-years of designing and conducting ToTAL courses, we have drafted a list “elements of leadership developments”. It was created by reviewing common themes covered in ToTAL courses, which are continuously updated every year.
■10 elements of leadership development:
A. To know yourself
B. To build and care your well-being
C. Personal management and execution skills (Responsibility, identifying problems, setting goals, making plans)
D. Sense of one’s own mission, spirit to achieve it
E. Communication skills (Presentation, feedback)
F. Communication skills (Good listening, Asking helpful questions)
G. Team and project management skills
H. Logical thinking skills, problem solving skills
I. Intuitive thinking (incl. ideas and techniques in the Arts)
J. Broad social and cultural insights
This is still a tentative list. We will keep asking students’ input about what they would like to learn in ToTAL and update the list as a guideline for developing valuable learning opportunities for students.
(Yuri Matsuzaki, Adjunct associate professor, ToTAL)
