Sustainable Leadership anyone? No? How about Design Thinking? Well, most of us know what each word means by itself, but combine them to together, it becomes a real head-scratcher.
On the 16th of February, The District Rotaract HR Directors with the help of the Rotaract Clubs of ANC, Battaramulla, CIRP, Colombo University Faculty of Law, Kandy and Katugastota Region organized the first-ever Rotaract Sustainability Forum which is a part of the project “Lead the way”, which was held at Hatch.
Now I, who likes free gifts registered early and got this free book,
The Speakers
A bunch of Enthusiastic Rotaractors had gathered for the event. We were first introduced to Chris Doering, the Design Thinking Expert from Venture Frontier Lanka. He asked us to partner up with someone we did not know. So I turned to the right, and lucky for me, there was a girl next to me. She asked, “Shall we ?” and then I replied “ Yeah”.We started talking and she, Evangeline (who told me to call her “Evan” cos that’s what her friends call her. :D), turns out to be studying Psychology at CIRP. She told me that she’s from Chillaw, and that she had to leave home at 4:30 am in the morning to be here and that she teaches ( I don’t remember what it is) in a rural school in her village. How cool is that! Anyway, I told her a few things about me, she told me about herself and then, Chris asked us to do the strangest thing ever. He asked us to go through the partner’s purse/wallet and study its contents. Evan had one of those long purses and I had a casual black wallet.
She had her NIC, bus tickets, restaurant receipts, a couple of bucks and a bible verse which she said she got from one her teachers. which had something like this;
She said that one of her teachers’ had given it to her and it had helped her during tough times. And, she wanted me to have it. I was taken by surprise. She had only one and she wanted to give it to me. I thought for a moment and said that I can’t accept it and that she should keep it. Thanks, Evan!
Then we were interrupted by Chris who wanted to explain what Design Thinking was, we had to halt our moment, and listen to it.
Chris gave us a crash course on Design Thinking.
He asked us to design the perfect wallet, by questioning our partner what they liked about their wallet/purse and what they want it to be. Evangeline wanted more slots to put her cards in and also an interior design for the purse. We drew the perfect design in the sheet given to us by Chris. While we were busy drawing, Husni arrived and we felt an august presence in the room.
“Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, This is sustainable leadership”, Husni explained.
See, this definition of sustainability denotes that although the current populations may use what they need regarding the earth’s capital, this must be done in a manner that will leave ample resources for others, with minimal waste.
There’s a variety of Sustainability Leadership principles.
- Understanding the interconnections of systems. It is vital to recognize how each group of related factors (people, objects, processes, etc…) is connected and impact each other.
- Think globally and towards the future. Consider what current and future impacts you are making with each decision on other countries, society, oceans, animals, communities, waste, resources, etc…
- Protect nature and people. Distinguish how actions taken, affect people and the environment. Try to make decisions that will reduce the negative impacts on the 2nd and 3rd levels of people, processes, the environment, and economics.
- Transform business as usual. Do something different within your span of control. Change a habit that reduces waste such as reading via an e-book or printing double-sided.
- Lead by example in your actions. Be responsible for yourself, your job, your actions, and your organization. Hold the organization accountable to lead by example in its actions. Hold yourself accountable to reduce waste and increase efficiency. Others will follow.
After the brief introduction to Sustainable Leadership, we got back to design thinking. Chris had brought the equipment (Paper, cardboard, stickers, etc.) for us to make the perfect wallet/purse. This great guy, Chris, had bought all these stationery for the mere motive of defining the concept of design thinking. He gave us 15 minutes to design the wallet of our partner’s dreams.
People hurriedly started to design the wallet. I remember, there was a guy from Moratuwa University that had it all thought of. He had pockets and a flap and everything needed in no time. He knew what to do, he was prepared.
Anyway, after we finished it, they were displayed and Chris showed us that, different people had different requirements. Just like that, whenever you design a product, you need to know your customer and what he/she requires. This is a repetitive process, Create, fail, create, fail and create again until you get the near-perfect product.
The session ended and I bid goodbye to my dear friend Evan and I do hope I get to meet her again someday.
Rtr. Hasitha Jayasuriya
Editor