SADC Training & Development Forum Meeting Here I come!
Dear reader, mine is just to share with you my experience of the SADC Training & Development Forum Meeting & Workshop on Talent Management in Pretoria
Having been invited by my director to accompany her to the Training & Development Forum Meeting & Workshop on Talent Management in Pretoria for about three days, just make me go into stress related panic mode. You might think that I did not want to go with my Director or that I had a phobia for flying, but what really triggered this uneasiness was rather because of so many expectations that flooded my mind as a first time participant. I pondered on about how I was going to contribute towards this meeting, right up until the time that I put my head down to rest at the hotel.
Getting to the meeting the next day was not without its dramas. Being delegates from different countries and having our different concepts about keeping time, we arrived at the South African Reserve Bank fashionably late. The representatives from the secretariat were thankfully very patient with us. When we sat in the well dressed conference room with our respective flags placed in front of us, I felt a rush come over me. As we progressed into the meeting I began to feel at ease. The magnitude of knowledge and passion that the delegates deliberated with around the agenda points was marvellous.
The fundamental aim for the SADC Training & Development Forum Meetings is to have a common training and development strategy for the region which would support and enhance the internal strategies of individual central banks. In essence the platform for delegates to share what their country would like to experience in terms of training and development and then consider how that would play out with the other member countries.
Let me then just underscore what I deduced from the two day meeting and one day workshop. It was made clear that the courses for the year 2010 will have a strong focus on leadership as well as negotiation and influence. This is an endeavour to capacitate leaders within the region. The management programmes that will be developed will be in consultation with various selected companies and assurance will be ensured by the secretariat that these courses are accredited. On a more practical note, the group got to participate in the decision of the layout of the 2010/2011 prospectus as per the different proofs were presented by the SARB IT department. We also had a sneak peek of the look and feel of the new website for the SADC Training and Development Forum which is more user friendly in terms of the flagging /and or bookmarking for visitors to the site.
I would also like to share the deliberations held about Karibu. Karibu is an establish journal which allows anyone from member countries to write articles that they perceive would be applicable to the SADC Central Banking community. This is yet another valuable vehicle for sharing information and enhancing the reading culture. The journal has however not been doing well as member states did not forward any articles. More efforts will be directed to reviving Karibu. The journal will be published once a year. An opportunity was then given to any of the member countries present at the meeting to write an article on the just ended CCBG Training & Development Forum meeting for the coming publication. I was more than happy to take up the challenge!
The workshop that was part of the meeting on the third day was outstanding. The different presentations evolved around the relevant topic of talent management. The facilitators kept us captivated with their individual discussions. The first one directed our thoughts on how organisations have hidden talent that they need to tap into in times of unusual challenge. During these times individuals operate under high levels of adrenalin which is triggered by great levels of urgency. Another facilitator spoke of the need to consult the generation X about what they want for the future as they are the future leaders and the shift that organisations would have to make in order to accommodate future leaders by allowing more room for innovation and having the ability to work with things like ambiguity. The third talent Management presentation was about why talent management is critical to business success. Basically we learned that the employer must take on the whole person approach and nurture the four human needs of employees (mind, body, heart and spirit). Further, he elaborated on the six criteria (elbow room decision making, ongoing learning, variety, mutual support and respect, meaningfulness and a desirable future) of productive work that any employer needs to be cognisant of. The presentations were so interesting that the delegates suggested that it would probably be useful if the meeting is reduced to one day and the work shopping be increased to two days. This will allow more time for the countries to network and discuss the real and harder HR issues and further engage with the facilitators of workshops.
All in all my experience of the SADC Training and Development Forum was a good and enlightening one. I appreciated the workshop as it broadened my knowledge base as human resources specialist.
Till next time,
Theresia Amupolo
Senior Training & OD Specialist
Bank of Namibia