Brainstorming in the plenary:
What characterises a good leader?
Aim: to raise awareness on what it takes to be a good leader.
The time it takes: 30 minutes.
How: Ask the participants to name leaders they admire and ask them why they admire them.
If only male leaders are suggested, challenge the group to think of women as well. There should be at least two female and two leaders as examples to get a good variation of characteristics.
Write the characteristics on the flipchart and hang it on the wall.
Exercise: A leadership case
Aim of the exercise: to raise awareness about leadership in general, and dilemmas that may have to be faced.
The time it takes:
30 minutes in the groups
30 minutes in the plenary (role play)
How:
This is the case:
A very popular young man is elected as the leader of a youth organisation. The election takes place in a democratic manner by voting, and most of the members are happy with the choice. He is elected for two years.
The organisation does not have a lot of money, but one donor has promised to fund one of their projects if they present a good, realistic proposal. The youth organisation decides to organise a competition among the members in order to come up with good projects.
All the members put a lot of efforts into designing interesting projects. Three projects are presented to the members. They discuss the projects and are then asked to choose the one they like best.
Project A gets 21 votes, Project B gets 11 votes and project C gets 5 votes.
It then turns out that the newly elected leader does not like project A, he prefers project B. Without telling anyone, this is the project proposal he presents to the donor in the name of the organisation. The donor accepts the proposal and sends a cheque for project B.
Group discussion
Divide the participants into groups of 5-7
The groups are asked to discuss the case and answer these questions:
1. How do you feel about the action of the leader?
2. What should the organisation do
- about the elected leader?
- about project A and project B?
- about the money they have received from the donor?
3. What can the organisation do to prevent similar problems in the future?
Role play
After about 30 minutes in the groups, it might be a good idea to organise a role play in stead of just presenting the arguments in the plenary.
This is the situation that you present to the participants:
The members of the organisation have different opinions about the action of the leader. Some feel that he was right because the important thing is that the organisation got the funding. Others are angry because he did not follow up the decision made by the members and he should therefore be dismissed as the leader. A number of members ask for a general meeting to discuss what to do.
Organise this General Meeting as a role play.
The roles may vary according to the group discussion, here is one suggestion. Make sure everyone is given a role in the play:
The General Meeting (GM)
The participants are representatives of the organisation. Some of the members are very angry about what has happened and they demand a general meeting to discuss what to do.
1 person is asked to be the facilitator at the GM, S/he has to make sure the discussion is conducted in a good manner, making sure everybody is given the floor in turn, encouraging all the actors to participate in the debate, and making sure that no one is allowed to dominate.
1 person is asked to be the elected leader who has to explain and defend his action
- Some participants (2or 3) are asked to be the angry ones who want to dismiss the leader and elect a new one
- Some are asked to be his defenders
- Some are asked to be members who don’t really know what to do
- Some argue that the money has to be sent back to the donor
- Some argue that the money could be used for project A anyway
- Some argue that the money has to be spent on project B
- Some argue that they should discuss the situation with the donor in order to find a way out.
Let the group act out their roles for max 20 minutes.
Then discuss the role play, the participation, the method.
How to organise a local project?
It is a very rare individual who can influence the development all on his or her own. We need to work together. If we want to have influence in society it is very important to know how to develop alliances and how to work together. We need to know how to organise a group, a campaign or a project. And in order to succeed we also need to think about how to fund our activities.
Present a list of things to remember when you want to plan a project: Discuss the different items as you present them.
Here is a list to help you: As a facilitator you can of course add or take away as you see fit for the group you are working with. Make sure the participants understand and accept each point before you move on. Use everyday examples to make it easier. (This will probably take about 45 minutes)
In advance you cut out one card for each item on the list, write one item on each card and hang them on the wall as you present them.
- What is the problem we want to address? (Discrimination, HIV/AIDS, sexual harassment, violence, corruption…)
- What is our objective with this project? What do we want to achieve?
- Decide on an idea or a method. What kind of project do we want? An exhibition, a demonstration, a round table, a clean up campaign…)
- Target group. Who do we want to reach with this project? (youth, women, politicians….)
- Venue and time. Where and when do we want it to take place? How long will it last?
- What challenges might we meet? How do we overcome the challenges?
- Budget. What will it cost? (see below an example)
- Identify resources in the community. (influential people, churches, mosques, NGOs, teachers, business people..….)
- Fundraising. How can we raise the money we will need?
- Possible partners. What other groups might be interested in joining us in this project?
- Information. How do we reach our target group? (letters, posters, e-mails, advertisements….)
- Publicity. How do we get the media interested?
- Planning process. Who does what, when, how? (Elect an organising committee. Make a list of the tasks, decide who does what, set a time line and deadlines, follow up. Remember to keep a record of all the decisions)
- Implementation Carry out the project/ the activity, take pictures, invite the media..)
- Termination. What needs to be done after the activities? (Clean up, write report, thank you letters to donors and special guests, write articles to the media, make the accounts…)
- Reflection and evaluation. What worked, what did not work? Why? Did the organising committee work well together? Did boys and girls contribute equally? How can we improve the next time? Make sure all these point are discussed carefully and recorded for the next time.
Group work
Designing a local project
The aim: to practice the planning process, using the points above. This will be a help when the participants will run their own local training workshop and plan a local project.
The time it takes: Designing the project: between 90 and 120 minutes. Presentation and discussion in the plenary: 90 minutes
Divide the participants into groups according to where they come from. Not more than seven in each group
Ask the groups:
- Decide on a problem and find an project which you think will help solve the problem.
- How will you organise the project to achieve your goal?
- Go through all the points
- Design the project.
Ask all the groups to present their projects and discuss them in the plenary.
You may want to ask questions like these:
- Are the projects realistic?
- Will the projects work?
- Will the group achieve their goal?
- What obstacles might you face?
- How can the project be improved?
- Will the project have lasting impact?
This is also an exercise in presenting to an audience and facilitating a discussion
Use a video camera if possible and let the presenters see their own performance.
