UNHCR Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Nov 2012
InterWorks conducted the thirteenth iteration of this 5-day Emergency Team Leadership Programme (ETLP) Workshop in Villars, Switzerland for 17 participants from several IASC partner agencies from 4-8 November. The ETLP workshop utilized various participatory and experiential methods to cover the elements of emergency team leadership for organizations working in international humanitarian assistance, disaster coordination and response. The first ETLP programme, launched in 2006, was designed to respond to a need for a leadership development programme with inter-agency participation focused on developing individual team leadership competencies and fostering effective, efficient and professional leadership in humanitarian emergency settings.
Participants for this workshop were emergency staff from OCHA, UNHCR, FAO, IOM, IFRC, OHCHR and Save the Children. The blended learning programme consists of a pre-workshop self-study module, a 4.5 day residential workshop and a post-workshop self-directed personal action plan whereby participants apply the learnings from the workshop in their own workplace situation.
The course focused on key competencies and skills for emergency team leadership, such as situational leadership, effective communication and feedback, decision-making, teambuilding, negotiation skills, coaching techniques and other elements associated with being an effective team leader. The course trainers covered these topics with short presentations on theory and best practices followed by scenario-based hands-on exercises, role-plays and simulations in which each of the skills were further explored and an opportunity given to use these skills in a risk-free, open environment. The core exercises and case studies used were based on submissions from current and past participants and therefore reflected actual, real-life situations that emergency team leaders have faced or may face in future emergencies.
I thought the course had good pace, was very interesting and very well facilitated. Thank you!
– Workshop participant.
Enjoyed negotiation role play. Great to watch and think how we would have acted if it were us.
– Workshop participant.