SPPEDS Event 2021
Grant
Because Saturday was the last day of restrictions on meetings, the President Elect Development Seminar was held virtually last weekend via ZOOM. I was impressed with how well the medium performed with only minor glitches which were quickly overcome.
It was great fun attending both Plenary and Break-out Sessions, with Liz doing a fantastic job of keeping us on time and focussed. The Break-outs included varying groups of us being whisked away from the main group into smaller numbers which allowed us to interact more personally to discuss focussed topics.
We were also able to “chat” with either others or the entire group in the background.
While I did miss the opportunity to mingle and meet people in 3D, the range of speakers and the content was varied and topical to where we are at as well as looking at where we might focus going forward.
I was especially impressed with the last presenter, Christopher Luxon, MP for Botany Downs. Chris has vast experience in leadership including most recently at Air NZ and Unilever.
One particular slide that I valued was this one that relates to managing change by preserving the core values & purpose of Rotary while also ensuring we keep changing as our focus and practices to meet ongoing changes in the environments and communities we serve.
He concluded by suggesting we focus on building diverse teams and focus on 1-3 major changes with small goals rather that spreading our focus too thinly and to ensure we look after each other first and summarised this approach with the phrase:
“Invest in relationships 1st and then focus on vision and action.”