Just wanted to report a bit about my stay here in Graz which so far has been really exciting. The whole visit to Graz started off with Lori and me defining objectives and setting an agenda for my two days stay in Styria. At the end of our call Lori said "I am going to take care about promoting the visit". It was quite funny afterwards when I read the E-Mail Lori wrote to all Graz members... some quotations:
"A big big event is taking place..." "Our NATIONAL president himself is coming" "Mr. P-eter.."
and it goes on in the same style. I think i never was announced like this and I had to laugh about it. I imagined myself being in the position of a newie receiving the mail, reading it, getting excited and then seeing me walking in the door in the LC office. Two scenarios of thoughts in the newies head:
1. This guy is really cool, he gives me the feeling that I could be president to.
2. It seems that Culture of Excellence didnt make its way up to the national office...
;-)
Well anyway, I just have to tell you some impressions that I had when I entered the Graz office for the first time after 2 years (my last time was actually a stay overnight together with 8 other facis in the beautiful office)... Looking at the walls with all pictures, quotes, etc. , looking at the people working, looking at other people dancing and having fun I just had one word that came into my mind for the environment:
spirit
I think it is a really healthy combination of chaos and order, of fun and seriousness that I found in Graz. For me it is a place, where I would feel comfortable working right away. The masses of things on the wall and other stuff somehow make sense as a whole. I am not that into Feng Shui, but if it is about creating a healthy environment then Graz managed that.
What did I do here... so here you go with some infos about the sessions that were run with LC Graz:
- Culture of Excellence
We had a look at the Culture of LC Graz and tried to combine it with the resources of the CoE community at a global level. Although Austria is advanced in the implementation of the strategic triangle there is still some way to go. We ran exercises in order to find out more about the current culture of the LC and ways to ehance it. Value based cultural reviews, talent clustering and talent management, etc.
I really recommend that you have a look as well at the Culture of Excellence community to find out simple steps that you could take in your LC. - Membership Criteria
Tough one. But still an interesting and productive discussions with a bigger amount of Grazers ranging from newies to former EBs. There are still a lot of doubts and fears especially in the older generation about our strategic direction. Membership Criteria as such are there to ensure minimum standards in all LCs and a basic quality - but they are just the continuation and follow up of decisions we took regarding culture of excellence, Aiesec experience and changes in our identity.
Doubts are still there. And thats not bad at all. What we need to do is to look at the holistic picture when we are talking about membership criteria. Its not the membership criteria alone that are important, one has to look at them in context of all other strategic developments. On the other hand we have to take care about how we are communicating our strategies, especially when it comes to culture of excellence.
A conclusion was reached, and thats what the goal was about. - Socializing
They are able to discuss.
They are able to party.
No further comment needed, just that I heard some more rumours about Arturs visit here. Will keep you updated in my personal blog. - Team Management
We'll run through a team management session, which consists of 8 key lessons I learned throughout my experiences in AIESEC. Tell you more about it later... - LC Development
AI*s model to develop LCs on a long term perspective. I am really looking forward to this one, which consists of several steps, including an identity and strategy refresh, external environment assessment as well as looking at the role Graz plays but as well could play in the society. - Finally we will have a train preparation of Dora and Angie who take part in the fabulous delegation Austria will send to Expros in the Czech Republic...
- Other cool stuff: got "21st century citizen" - the book AIESEC wrote which served as the basis for defining the four change agent characteristics. Heard a lot about it, but never saw it. Graz had it and I am looking forward to reading it!
That was a long post, but I had the feeling to write it. Its a cool team and a cool LC and I am enjoying my time here...
and here we go with some pics:
Peter
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