Connecting the Dots – Round Up Day 4 and 5

Poverty had been the worst of ills that surrounds us; more than 1.6 billion below poverty line. This further triggers several issues. As put by Habib Malik from Islamic relief, big 5 issues that needs quick intervention includes, hunger, Disease, Death, Health, Livelihood.

Dr. Hani Taha the founder of Islamic relief was a hilarious inspiration. The work he has done and the achievements he had are simply commendable. All about him can be summarized in his concept of FAT KISS. F = Fund Raise, A = Advocate, T = Train, K = Knowledgebase, I = Innovative, S = Sustainability, S = Solution.

Mike hardy, Anjum Anwar and Chris Chivers gave absolutely magnificent talks inculcating a sense of accommodating others and having a meaningful dialogue to resolve issues. In the end, I would simply quote Jonathan, “The one who would be a leader, must be a bridge”.

Flow Begins – Round Up Day 2 and 3

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential in order to maximize their performance. It is about helping them to learn, rather than teaching them.”

Certainly, Professor Bina Kandola and Stuart Duff holds the capability to unlock a person’s potential. Stuart lead the sessions amazingly and a single most important message he gave to be a good leader was to stay ALERT. ALERT is the set of characteristics / habits that includes Awareness, Learns, Enables, Resilient, True. Together they make a leader ALERT. Exercises in coaching and self coaching were simply impactful. Within few hours we were ready to GROW. Again GROW represents the phases in coaching that includes Goal, Reality, Opportunity and Will. After these sessions you feel like being on The Leadership Journey.

Will Day’s speech on sustainability was magnificent. It was a real MIND OPENER. Haven’t heard so well before of all the apparent issues that we as a global citizens are facing, the way they all are inter connected and their negative impact. Issues like food, land grab, population, rising temperature, maternal health, child health, poverty, energy are amongst the few what we are facing today.

Few interesting global findings he shared includes, 1) More you are rich, less religious you are, 2) There is strong link between health and positive and negative growth, 3) Population growth is way quicker in poorer parts of the world, 4) Climate change could force 1 billion from their homes by 2050, 5) US military is one of the biggest consumer of oil on the globe and they have warned massive shortages by 2015, 6) British Petroleum says that for every 9 barrels f oil we consume, we are only discovering one.

I am sure bells must have started ringing in your minds by now. It’s a matter of concern and we as a globally responsive citizens holds the responsibility to address these issues.

The Appetizer – Round Up Day 1

A great start to an invaluable learning. Stuart Liang’s (Deputy Vice Chancellor Cambridge, Master of Corpus Christi) welcome address simply built the connection between the ambience and the spirit of leadership. Followed by Farah Pandith’s story of defining priorities and values and pursuing passion was quite commendable. Sir Fazl-e-Hassan Abed is a great success story in the social sector. Challenging the status quo and being the mad man to invest GBP 8000 pounds in BRAC after selling his house could only sound insane. But that insanity turned into the world’s largest NGO working globally. Last but not the least, John O'Brian. He opened up the summer school with some really meaningful thoughts and expressions. How does one defines a leadership - through character, knowledge and role. A good foundation definition that is certainly meant to expand in the remaining summer school.

And I never thought that I would revert back to painting after so many years. And while painting, I discovered my hidden interest towards playing with colors and using them as a way of expression. But even more interesting was the fact that a small little contribution by everyone resulted into a beautiful Mosaic in the end. A lot of thoughts – floating on the exosphere of the brain.