Leadership Summer School 2010

What LSS gave me...

2011-01-24T04:53:00.001-08:00

As I wrote in my previous post, I got inspired by Dan's drawings and really literally shocked by knowledge in RV's training about Presentation skills...

O.K. I admit, drawing is easier to implement than reset your brain to new level of presentation, but... I think that was just initial push and I started to roll quite well...

Trainings are more personalized, "little red square" is more red and sides are more equal with every training...

P.S. I love flip charts now, not just as a tool for recording ideas of the audience, but as core of the training ... I much rather use FC than ppt...

offtopic - more or less...

2011-01-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the strings, the blue and green and yellow and pink and red ones? At the LSS 2010, at the closing ceremony, one of our trainers, Wendelien, introduced us to a tradition she had got come across in Thailand: at social events, everyone always presents coloured strings to his beloved ones, to his friends, to people he likes, to show his appreciation. In fact, I do not know exactly. Every of the strings' colours has a meaning: blue is leadership, green is health, yellow is friendship, pink is... I think something like "You're cute" - didn't get any of those, luckily... or not? - and red is love - neither got such. Well, to be honest, I never really got if by presenting such a string you're saying "I wish you..." or "You are..." because the pink one rather fits with "You are... cute" and the green one for example rather fits with "I wish you... health". Or should it be "You're sooo healthy, man!"? Well, "I wish you to be cute... one day" wouldn't be that nice, would it? So, if someone knows better - Wendelien? - please enlighten me. Or rather, post a comment and enlighten all of us. Sharing is caring, Baby!

Oh, and the reason of this post: Yesterday, my strings tore. Strange feeling, to have my right arm blank now. Although before, I had never been carrying any jewellery, bracelets, or anything else on my arms. Now, somehow something's missing. Well...

Just had a short chat with my new flat mate, and let her know that she has been written about on the internet and will become famous. I had been planning to get up early and go to work early, today. It's 7:46am. Don't think that that will work out. Time to go to bed. Wish you all a nice day.

"Okay" is just not enough!

2011-01-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I got to know my new flat mate. Three days after she moved in, because we seem to not only live at different ends of the corridor, but also at different ends of the day. So I don't see her too often. But today I might, as I still want to finish some work and she will probably be getting up very soon. As in maths where straight lines are circles, the different ends of the day meet at some point ; )

Well, this is not what this post should be about. But the paragraph the title hints to is somehow connected to my new flat mate. As we met for the first time in the kitchen/dining and living room, I was just intending to prepare a phone call to the Dutch YiA NA to clear out some doubts we (the LSS 2011 CT) had on which action of the programme to apply on... - okay, irrelevant. I didn't, but instead started chatting with her - would have been impolite to ignore the new flat mate, wouldn't it? Well, so we chatted about what you chat about when meeting and chatting for the first time: about where she came from, what she was doing, the size of her shoes and the size of her bra... - quite small by the way; her shoes, of course. And we didn't talk about it. Neither about her bra. Just noticed the shoe thingy as I saw them standing in the hall way the other day. However, talking about the plans she had and what she was doing now, about how she liked her first days at school, etc., being a smartass as I am, I of course gave her some good advice I personally never had followed - maybe because no one gave me that advice and I had to learn from my mistakes. Well, she mentioned that the school was not exactly what she had expected, classes were not teaching her what she wanted and not the way she wanted it - so, as she seemed to know what she wanted, I told her to best figure out how to get it and then to go and get it. Simple and straight forward. But somehow I myself have just started acting this way recently. In fact a shame at my age. But then today, I remembered a horoscope a friend read to me yeeaaars ago. It stated that at the age of about 28 I would become more selfish, or at least more focused on myself. And strange enough, the day on which I decided to follow the path I am currently following, the day I set my mind to do things the way I am doing them now, a day in late summer 2010, was my 28th birthday.

Okay, next point. The dream she had had had not worked out. She had wanted to join the police and somehow they didn't want her to join them. So, as her mother was a social worker, she decided to follow in her footprints and become a social worker, too. And she mentioned that till now, after her year of initial obligatory internship, it was quite okay... Okay? Quite okay?! "Okay" is not enough! This was the moment when I realized that lately, I have gone beyond. Finally! To me, "okay" is not okay anymore. And I don't want to be satisfied with just "okay" anymore. I want 100%. Or better even a 120%. And I think this thought motivates me. : )

"Hello World!" - An initial transitional development review

2010-12-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

Ha! Yet another "Hello World!" message. It's the last day of 2010, even getting late on new year's eve and the year has already passed in quite some countries further east. I'm finally finding the time to contribute my first post to this lovely blog. And it's not only my first post to this blog, it's personally, my very first blog post at all. So, "Hello World!" : )

As, if I am not mistaken, this blog was created to share about the ongoings at the Leadership Summer School 2010 in Ljubljana and the development after, I decided to add my part as a participant of LSS 2010, and moreover as member of the new LSS 2011 coordination team (CT). At this moment I still cannot say where my contribution to this blog will be going, but my initial intention is to share a bit about my life related to the Leadership Summer School and the topic personal development. I guess I myself am probably far more excited about this than you reading it. Well, I will see where it moves and what it creates.

For the beginning, and because it's the right time, NYE, I'd like to start with a small personal review: How LSS 2010 went for me.

Jul 13, 2010, late Monday night/very early Tuesday morning I received a message to my e-mail inbox: Due to unexpected cancellations, there are places left at the Leadership Summer School 2010 Ljubljana. Starting Friday. First come, first served.
Description sounds cool. Immediate response to Luka, head of the OC: Want to join!
Wednesday afternoon, after sending another mail to the CT - time had been running and I hadn't received any reaction: Luka's reply: You're in! - Yeeha! : ) (and just checking my mails and seeing who else joined last minute... whoohoo!)
Hithchiking to Ljubljana on Friday, but reaching a bit late. Luka picks me from the service station on the highway. Great!
Saturday the LSS content programme starts. An entire week of high quality and high energy trainings at day, reflection groups in the evening, parties at night, a recreation day, an OST session, a TEDx-like event and regularly barely 3h of sleep a night. Awesome! And despite the variety of trainings I had already visited before - so I think I reviewed quite some topics - I believe to really have learned a lot. Extended knowledge on pretty much every topic and got to know new ones. Thank you, trainers! And the exchange and networking was just perfect. A world without the usual borders. And the probably best OC I have had so far. Top Shit! ; )
Great trip hitching back home, half way with Lara (from IAAS), and got to ride on a quadbike in the back of a van *g* (Yeah!)
Since then, quite somewhat has happened in the LSS world. Some of us participants have become trainers themselves, and I also advanced in this field. But to be honest, sadly, I have not managed to keep track of what has been going on in the lives of most of my fellow LSS 2010 participants. The reason is that also in my life a lot has happened, and, after bumming around for a while, I have become quite busy.
Concerning my professional life, still being a student, in October, I finally started on my Diploma thesis. In the end, finally something practical in my studies: I will be developing a position control for a light-weight robot arm, and, working on a prototype, I also have to deal with mechanical and electrical issues. I'm really enjoying this multifaceted work.
Therefore I moved to Stuttgart - a town I felt rather uncomfortable with before, but I'm starting to really like it.
And in December, I found myself a small job to support my living. And it promises to become really interesting - I will be evaluating 3D cameras : )
Concerning projects, after having been active in mainly local projects during the last years, I really wanted to finally get some experience in working on an international level. So I joined the TrainersPath project as member of the promotion team. I didn't want to overdo it at that time, as I was still expecting to have to dive a 120% into a diploma thesis shortly. However, this work has been finished, at least for my side, and I have gone another step further. In October, I joined the LSS 2011 coordination team. Being responsible for PR & Communications, next to my diploma thesis, this project has probably been most time-consuming during the last weeks. So far we have set up some working and communication structures, started the fundraising and have just freshly elected the organising committee: IFISO NL. They featured a great concept, that will once more take the LSS further in its development, and a challenging fundraising situation, so we're now out to conquer the world ; ). Big expectations. And our first face to face coordination team meeting in Naples right ahead. 6 days to go...
I also proceeded in my trainer carreer. I have got some awesome new mentors. The best I've ever had! And in October, I attended the AEGEE T4T İzmir, to learn how to help people learn : ) in the best way possible. Moreover I attended the AEGEE Human Ressources European School in Budapest, as assistant trainer, in November. Right after starting my Diploma thesis. Really glad my advisor let me go. That's the positive side of not being paid for your work. And in December, I held a training for the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) and their Interim meeting. And I'm excited about what more there is to come.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the current development. With my Diploma thesis and little job on the technical side, the LSS 2011 CT position for international projects, and the training activities I'm slightly overworked, and the small drop of bitterness is that I, at times, cannot keep my own promises, concerning work I promised to do. But this also forces me to become better organised and more efficient, and might, in the end, maybe even teach me some self-discipline. And I just love this. I love learning and developing. It feels just so great!

Well, this was quite somewhat to read. But I had to catch up with the last months. It's dawning by now, as I had interupted writing to celebrate NYE, at some point noticing that I wouldn't manage to finish before midnight, shutting down my computer and running off to reach a nice view point for the fireworks just on time. But it's not too late. At least the US east coast has not celebrated NYE yet. And also Alaska and some islands out there in the pacific ocean are still waiting : )

Let's see if I learned something on LSS

2010-10-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while when I last posted anything on this blog, but it's time to do it again.

My training days are starting soon and I'm loving every moment, even though it takes lots of time to prepare... Thanks to great trainers on LSS 2010 I'm full of motivation and ideas how to improve my trainings, how to make them more fun and as Herve would say; how to transmit little red square from my mind to mind of others.

Being inspired by Dan with his great drawings we all admired and following Herve's links on TrainersForum I found out how to make flip-charts more memorable and now I'm slowly implementing some tricks in future training materials... Soon my new room will get a make over with flip-charts hanging on all walls, so will be able to practice when I'll have time to spare...

At the moment I'm packing for 1st eeStec Trainer's Meeting in Banja Luka (Bosnia) and my mind is full of memories of LSS and can't wait to share my experience of LSS with other trainers.

Now I'm floating to my soft side so it's better to stop typing than to start being crybaby :D

Guys, girls... I miss u all... Hope to see you soon somewhere...

Blaž

Stage 5 of a team: Mourning

2010-07-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

Yes unfortunately it's over...

I'm still wakening up round 8am expecting breakfast in dining room and realizing that I'll have to make it on my own... There's also no great new friends to say "Good morning!" to and decide how good it will really be or let me rephrase, how great morning we will make for each other...

No mater how exhausted ware we, there was always hidden shot of energy somewhere deep inside each and every one of us, that helped us get back on track.

Did anyone say procrastination?

We don't do that... right?!?

Who am I kidding. We're all doing it and we will procrastinate just a bit more... but much less that we did it before LSS 2010.

Amazing days of LSS 2010 ware flying by and I met lots of new, interesting, crazy, inspiring, hard-working, funny, dedicated (... running out of adjectives ...) people that gave me new energy and motivation to improve myself, my self-confidence and my perspective of life...

Thank you all for amazing moments during LSS 201o.

I'll be really bold for the end and I'll use really worn out line with a twist:

"I'll be back!" ... next year maybe as LSS trainer...

Blaž

Saturday, 24th of July Case Study and Focus Session

2010-07-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the last day... :-(
LSS 2010 is already eight days old. Time to wrap up things and this day was indeed to wrap up things. We started this day with a lot of rain and mild temperatures. Perfect to raise temperature in the case study. We got together in out small reflection groups (~8people) and worked on a case study to apply all things we learned in previous training sessions. The trainers really pulled off a great exercise and some great challanges each group had to overcome. In the end we all gathered and all groups had to present a little role play - great fun!
In the afternoon we wrapped up things from a more personal point of view. The case study basically was a summary and application of the academic things we learned. Now, in the Focus Session we had time to reflect, set goals and think about all the great experiences at LSS as well as things to come after LSS.


This grid kind of represents this day in my eyes. Where do you want to go, what do you want to do? You have it in your hands... Alsp the different fields we touched in the LSS (marked) and the fields you still can fill. (My two cents)

Friday, 23rd of July: On top of Ljubljana

2010-07-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went out... Of course we did... And we took ownership by dancing the Waka Waka within the first ten minutes after arrival on the dancefloor all together. Let's say it like that: in an exclusive setting like this club you earn quite a number of stange views and laughs when a crowd performs a dance like we did. Anyhow, the club was really nice. On top of a 8 storey building you had a great view over the nicely lighted sights of Ljubljana. I want to post some picuteres here but I don't have any.. Maybe I can add them later by changing this post?

Thursday 22nd of July: TEDx LSS Ljubljana

2010-07-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Uh yeah,

this years LSS contained even a TEDx like event which maybe is to become an official part of LSS in 2011. This year 10 voluntary speakers took the chance to practice their presentation skills in 6min talks. The talks were very interesting and inspiring and braought a new perspective on different topics related to LSS as well as others. I think that these talks were just perfectly fitting into the whole LSS spirit and defenitely should be a part of LSS 2011.

Friday, 23rd of July: Conflict Management Session

2010-07-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

It is Friday but the LSS people don't stop to work, train, have fun and enjoy being together. The Friday afternoon session was about Conflict Management. In the first part we learned about the four different personal characteristics in Conflict Management of which everyone of us is likely to prefer one. The different characteristics each stand for a behaviour during a conflict where generally there is an "in" and an "out" perspective. The "in" perspective is concerned about the self in the conflict whereas the "out " is concerned about the other person in a conflict.
In the second part we talked about effective conflict resolution. We learned about one communication pattern which takes the need of a person into account. The pattern goes as follows:

Observation - statement of observations based on facts without any subjective judgements.
Feel - statement of how this observation makes you feel.
Need - statement of (resulting from the earlier points) what would be needed from the other person (or ingeneral) in order to find solutions for the conflict
Wish/Request - statement of a wish (not order!) to resolve the conflict.

By applying this pattern the different needs of the involved parties are revealed and a conflict becomes easier to attack at the right points.

Decision making 101

2010-07-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

After 4 hours of sleep, breakfast, quick shower and big can of RedBull was time for some decision making trainings... Damn RebBull was strong... I was as hyper active as squirrel on ecstasy, but it helped me to contribute even more so guess what I'm having now...

Tim and Sara ware great trainers and presented the topic about decision making on really easily understandable way so we soon got the point and could use it in our exercises. Being stuck on a life raft in the middle of Pacific ocean was quite a challenge, but due to teamwork and great discussions we manage to survive long enough that we ware saved and we are still present on this LSS. Although last night took some casualties, some people ware dead asleep till late morning, almost afternoon, we still manage to get our best to contribute to our trainings and to hopefully meet the expectations of our trainers.

We will soon start to prepare for afternoon sessions and afterwards for a party so probably shower or just fresh air will help us keep our head clear and open for new ideas and tips...

Blaž

Thursday 22nd July: Salsa Night

2010-07-23T04:21:00.000-07:00

Exactly... LSS goes Salsa... At least until the police came :-) Below you can see how professional the LSS is attacking not only leadership related tasks but also additional task like passionate dancing during the night: see below two highly motivated participants deeply connected in an intimate moment of true salsa (kidding)

Partying really is pure pleasure with you LSS guys! See you tonight on top of Ljubljana :-)

Timon

Thursday 23 rd: Change Management Session

2010-07-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

With high speed to another great training. That is LSS. I really think my head is going to burst from all this great input, insights and ideas floating around in the endless LSS sea. It is just amazing.
The trainers Claire and Sara gave us an introduction to change management, what it is about , what it consists of and what different obstacles within an organization might be. We played a great roleplay where a team had to construct a house made of paper. Different roles in the team made effective communication, delegation and team work necessary. After a while the team had the chance to reflect on the situation and implement one change to the current process.
It was a great session with a lot of insights from participants and two very experienced trainers. Thank you!

Timon

Red Square or How Presentation skills can blow your mind

2010-07-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

After long relaxing day in Bohinj and Bled we got some well deserved rest and sleep, well actually I start chatting with friends late in the evening and went to sleep late or early how you take it. After breakfast we ware prepared for new sessions and ware hardly wait for our Presentation skills session.

I was privileged to attend training conducted by Herve. Mind blowing training was also one of most exhausting on this LSS. Even thou we had no additional energizers to maintain our energy level we actually (Uroš and Umut says HIIII!!) didn't even need it. Content was so amazing that we ware focused all the time and sucking information after information, expecting new slides and exercises that Herve was giving us. Helen, Robert, Märt and me ware trying to satisfied Herve's expectations and contribute as much as we could. As trainer myself I got presentation skills training as part of process becoming a trainer, but what Herve gave us was on totally different level. Even just listening to his training anyone would start thinking about past experience and trying to connect it to content of training. Soon you would realized how many "mistakes" ware made even by yourself doing presentations or by others who's presentation you ware attending. His analogy of projecting "red square" too us is still in my head and I believe that I got clear picture of Herve's "red square", maybe not so bright red yet, but will probably get brighter and brighter when I'll go trough handouts after LSS.

Time is passing unnoticeable so it 2 hours since I typed first character and I engage in intersting conversation about differences between EPSA and EESTEC so now is time to move closer to the bed. So see you on trainings in the morning.

Blaž

Tuesday 20th of July: Trip To Bohinj and Bled

2010-07-21T05:14:00.000-07:00

After that many days in training rooms it was time to leave our beloved dormatory for a nice trip to Slovenia's finest places. The OC made shure that we won't miss out on a perfectly sunny day to see the Savica Waterfall, take a swim in the lake in Bohinj and then see amazing Bled. That was a really relaxing day and everyone had the time to sit, mtalk, swim, get tanned and experience Slovenia. Here some impressions from the lake and Bled.

Savica Waterfall

Lake Bohinj

Bled

All in all an amazing day with lots of impressions and great discussions.

2010-07-21T04:52:00.001-07:00

During today's morning the LSS participants got the chance to learn a bit more about facilitating. It isn't always simple to chair a meeting and if there are people that naturally possess the skills needed, other personalities/behaviours don't fit as much in this team role.

Luckily, there is LSS to give us a help!

In this morning session all the participants had the chance to experience the challenge of chairing a meeting and to receive feedback from their colleagues and trainers on his/her performance.

In the end, all of us took our own lessons on how to improve ou facilitating skills. The ultimate goal is always the same: To make us better leaders!

The expectations are high for this afternoon training: Presentation Skills!!

See you during lunch!

Mariana

International Food and Drinking Party

2010-07-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Eight facts about the Internation Food and Drinking Party:

- It started quite early

- It was outdoors

- We all learned how to dance a Jordan song

- We went crazy with the brazilian song "Rap das Armas"

- There were some dutch people in orange (normal... :))

- Drinks were gone soon

- There was one trainer with badges on her feet (check out the picture)

- We all had fun

Now seriously, it was the best party ever following a training in intercultural awareness. We all could put in practice some of the knowledge acquired and fly from table to table, tasting food and drinks, learning more about the culture of other countries, sharing experiences, having fun and dancing, building our (already high) team spirit-LSS spirit.

Special thanks to the OC who made this happen, and to all the people smiling behind the tables, always available to explain us everything about their beloved countries!

Your portuguese leader,

Sofia

Case Study: Intercultural Awareness

2010-07-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

About the wonderfull training on Intercultural Awareness we decided to present you a case study: In Slovenian "Cona" means zone... but does it mean the same in Portuguese?

Find out!!

Answers will be given on demand!!

Your Portuguese Leaders,

Sofia and Mariana

Team role day!

2010-07-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

After one more night with few hours of sleep the LSS participants came back on track with training sessions at 9 am. Group Dynamics seemed like a vague topic at the begining, but soon we find out what it was all about!

Who would say that its possible to build a 2 meters bridge just with 75 sheets of paper and 2 meters of tape? What if we add that it had to stand with a 1,5L bottle full of water on top of it during 45 seconds? Well, the LSS participants showed outstanding engeneering skills and the goal was achieved for most of the teams :)

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to find ourselves! The topic of the session was Team Role and the NGO leaders made their own Beldin Test to discover their role within their teams. The main aim was to find out what should be one's role and to respect the differences among them.

In the end, one more step was given by these students to become a better leader :)

That's all for today! We need to run for international party!!

PS: Find us near the Port Wine!! :)

Your Portuguese Leaders,

Mariana and Sofia

Hot hot hot, almost 2 hot

2010-07-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Sitting in our hot room with my roommates... Each of us working on laptop... Most people attended party... what is wrong with this picture?

actually many things... first it's to f*ing hot... second I'm exhausted after quite intense day and now I'm playing with laptop instead of partying... well I'm a big boy and I'll do my "responsibilities" first. I volunteer to help with blogging about this great event so party will have to wait a few more minutes...

Since LSS 2010 in Ljubljana started on 16th and in like 15 minutes it will be 19th of July, I'll go trough details tomorrow. This is just an initial blog that we can start somewhere and we get the ball rolling. Soon I hope other "blog team" members will join and we will give you the taste of LSS 2010, our moments, trainings and adventures during this event.

p.s. my spelling mistakes is correcting spell.checker so any nonsense is intentional :P

Have fun till l8er...

Blaž