Leadership & Management Seminar 1
05 Apr 2016
Our Leadership & Management Seminars have been envisaged as opportunities for Grantees to share experiences, exchange best practices and tackle constrains. These are also an opportunity to learn something new and improve skills in various sub-areas of Organization Leadership and Project Management, such as Networking, User Engagement, Project Quality, Sustainability, and Innovation.
Our Leadership & Management Seminars are primarily targeting the Grant Project Coordinators and/or persons who have decision-making powers in their organizations, such as Presidents, Executive Directors, etc.
A total of 3 Leadership and Management Seminars have been planned for 2016, and another 3 in 2017.
The seminars have introduced the Word Café Methodology, whereby the participants were divided in 8 thematic groups (World Café Tables), based on the coincidence or similarity of their lines of intervention and/or target groups:
Our Leadership & Management Seminars are primarily targeting the Grant Project Coordinators and/or persons who have decision-making powers in their organizations, such as Presidents, Executive Directors, etc.
A total of 3 Leadership and Management Seminars have been planned for 2016, and another 3 in 2017.
The seminars have introduced the Word Café Methodology, whereby the participants were divided in 8 thematic groups (World Café Tables), based on the coincidence or similarity of their lines of intervention and/or target groups:
- Roma Women in the Labour Market,
- Rural Employment Opportunities,
- Disadvantaged Groups in the Labour Market,
- Municipality Initiatives,
- Enhancing Employment Opportunities,
- Education and Training,
- Ethnic Minority Women, and
- Social Inclusion.
This division was based on the preliminary assessment of the Grant Projects based on their Grant Applications. If so required, Grantees may be allowed to re-group or re-name their groups accordingly, in due course of time.
The topics that were covered in the 1st Leadership & Management Seminar include:
- Introduction to the Technical Assistance Project: scope and vision, objectives, key stakeholders, key activities, geographical distribution of Grantees, the strategy and the principles of the technical assistance, visibility and key messages.
- Setting the Momentum in the State We Are Now: all Grantees were given the opportunity to reflect on their current status regarding the Grant Project registration and implementation; to identify, list and prioritize the challenges they are faced with at this moment; and in mutual exchange with other project teams to compare their situation with the other projects.
- Partnerships and Leadership: how to build and manage successful project teams, what the main characteristics and challenges of an effective project team are, how to boost the efficiency of a project team, stages of team development; aspects related to individual team members (team composition); team management styles, conflicts in project management, effective communication; qualities and attributes of an effective project manager, the difference between managing and leading a project, role of the leader, soft skills, project management and project leadership combined.
- Understanding PRAG and General Guidelines: what PRAG is and where to find it, its structure, importance of PRAG from the perspective of Grantees and of the Contracting Authority, its core principles and rules; what constitutes a Grant, how it is evaluated, main challenges and pitfalls for Grants; main steps of Procurement Procedures, recommendations.
The participants have also done practical exercises in the thematic World Café Tables. One aspect of the group work was focused on a better understanding of the position of one’s own Grant Project by familiarizing with and learning from the other Grant Projects. Another point in the group work was focused on the teambuilding. The participants were asked to give an individual score on various survival items and then see the average score that is yielded by the whole team they belong to.
A point that was particularly appreciated by all participants was the involvement of Monitoring Officers both from MLSP and CFCD. Together with them, challenging issues were raised and practical solutions have been proposed.
The theoretical input was delivered at plenary sessions, with the help of Power Point presentations, whereas the exercises were implemented in the 8 World Café Tables as listed above, with the help of hand-outs and flip-chart presentations.
The seminar was delivered by our Team Leader and Senior Expert, Ms Maria Marinakou, with facilitation from our Expert for EU Grants, Ms Andreja Tonč, and the support from our Assistant Team Leader, Mr Radomir Trajković.
The seminar was delivered to a single seminar group on 5th of April 2016, in the Porta Hotel in Skopje.