TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Inese Minsi
Training course "Creative Leadership" was developed with motto: a goal of every living
creature is to break out of the box. Thought experiments and plays of creativity and
imagination is a path to develop effective leaders. General aim of the project was to give the participants knowledge, skills and resources that would help them to become better leaders in the future and to be more active in the social, political and cultural life of their communities. With this training we intended to reach following objectives:
- To give the young leaders knowledge about working environments and practices in different countries of Europe and to raise general European awareness, thus increasing their intercultural competence.
- To gain understanding about good leadership behaviors and to develop following leadership skills: team building, creative thinking, coaching, communication and presentation.
- To discuss the creative process, to examine the link between leadership and creativity and to
encourage creative thinking in youth organizations through proposing new creative thinking tools and methods.
- To inform the participants about opportunities to develop new projects under the Youth in Action Programme and to support establishment of new partnerships among Programme Countries and Neighbouring Partner Countries.
The target group of this training course was young people in age from 18 to 30 wishing to develop their leadership skills and to learn methods of creative thinking. Most of participants had previous experience of leading organizations and teams, managing projects.
Training involved 24 participants from Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Germany, Turkey and Czech Republic.
Several methods were combined to explore the topics: intercultural learning exercises, simulation exercises, discussions, creative thinking techniques, self-assessment inventories, reflection groups and presentations.
During the training course we implemented activities and exercises that strengthened some of the basic competencies of a good leader: team-building, facilitation, communication, intercultural competence and creative thinking skills. We explored why creative thinking is considered a core leadership skill and enhanced participants power as leaders by increasing their ability to think creatively.
Training contributed not only to the personal development of the participants, but also promoted exchange of best practices and
establishment of new connections among three different regions: South Eastern Europe, Caucasus and European Union.
Some excerpts from the final evaluation forms:
"The program of the training course was… very intensive, interesting and exciting. I was participant for the first time and made a lot of great and impressive experiences / Very good and useful it was easy to understand/ Such a good experience that it had lived during my life / Well composed, maybe difficult during the last days, but still very effective / Full of interactive games that combined teaching and fun. I like reflection groups."
"The biggest success of the training was… that I realized that I can really be creative and that people except my ideas and enjoy them / That we all wanted to came and work, interesting program/ I have new friends from different nations / Friendly again, trainers were supportive / I will repeat myself the working methods / Making own speeches. It was like exam after a year of lectures and as for me I have broken some of my bricks in my head."
"My biggest personal achievement during the training course was… I got some really great ideas / You challenged us and I like challenge / Gained more knowledge, experience and finally of course friends / Self-confidence / Finding inspiration for further work."
Needs assessment, designing learning program, preparing grant application, facilitating and evaluating learning activities, preparing final report, overall project coordination.