Mondays are leadership training days and I was delighted to be back in the WIP office with my fellow WIPers, not to mention being able to write about my day’s work here. Among the highlights of this program for me, was the opportunity it offers to share things with both the rest of the group and the wider WIPer audience. I was really disappointed when I realized that I couldn’t blog, in minute detail, the workings of an office. Sorry guys.
Anyway, as always, Monday was a jam packed day! The subject was the role of diversity in a team and the role of a leader in harnessing these differences for the betterment of the team.
Each of the SAWIPers (South African participants in the Washington-Ireland Program) shared a little of the challenges facing their country and communities, while highlighting their hopes for the future. It struck me just how similar the problems that they are facing are to those which I see in Ireland’s present and future. In some ways, South Africa has an advantage in starting from a relatively clean state. Their systems have been structured such that gender equality is a central characteristic of their political system, making them 3rd in the world on the score-card of women in politics. We were also later joined by Clare Walsh- a WIP alumnus who was central to the establishment of the South African Program.
We did an interesting exercise on the position of Minutemen in American Society, which examined the relationship between a group’s tactics and motivations and the limits to a civilian’s power.
The WIPers have been broken up into task force groups, each responsible for different areas of the program. I’m part of the Public Relations Group, which I’m really enjoying. The inner workings are top secret but there are some exciting things on the horizon. All will be revealed soon!
In the afternoon, we met with GW Prof. Henry Farrell who keeps a blog at www.crookedtimber.com, and offered us budding bloggers tips on what works well and what to avoid.
We then went for dinner as a group and did some well-earned chilling out!
