How to develop good managers – a recipe from Cairo

It looks very simple – bring together 25 people: experienced managers, good programme people from different countries and make a “melting pot” of different cultures, religions, personalities and preferred working styles. With a little help from our facilitators, our aim was to develop their managerial courage, help them build high performance teams, understand the need to communicate our vision and strategic purpose, have an external orientation as one of the top priorities and, knowing all that, deliver results. Is it that simple?

“Hi, I’m Hamouta from Liberia!, Hi, I’m Charity from Nigeria!, Hi I’m…” That’s how all similar training programmes usually start… But this one is not “similar”. This one is a unique opportunity to take an in-depth look into our organisation, see where we are and what we need to develop… But how?

Facilitators who spent some time with us and our colleagues working in the group, helped us analyse, identify strengths, weaknesses, barriers and possibilities. They enabled us to realise who we are in Save the Children and who we can be if we just forget about our fears and anxieties, if we are ready to face challenges. So many ifs! When we all met in Cairo we had the typical faces of people who still do not know each other and who are thinking about our own presentation, performance and asking questions like “Am I going to contribute and be efficient in my group?”. Compare this moment with the last day, before we all kissed each other good bye, when we were full of optimism, readiness and a sense of belonging to a family who cares and who is ready to recognise our management development and help us grow in different directions. There is a long journey between these two moments, but we made it together, proving that learning goes together with a joy of life. The Cairo recipe was a good one!