MUSCAT, 16 April 2008 — A unique program to develop a new generation of leaders capable of creating cooperation between public and private sectors was detailed yesterday in Muscat. ELIAS, or Emerging Leaders Innovate Across Sectors, is a joint initiative of 10 global institutions, and participants in the Global Forum of the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL) got a firsthand look at the initial successes of the prototype program that began in April 2006 and concluded in May 2007.
“The really big issues we must confront around the world simply cannot be addressed effectively by business working by itself, governments working in traditional ways. In the last 30 years there has been an extraordinary growth of NGOs - civil society organizations around the world. They too, by themselves, are unable to wrestle with the really difficult problems we face,” said Dr. Peter Senge, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding chair of SOL. “The intention of ELIAS was to proactively build networks of leaders who could work across these boundaries - to develop unique capabilities to work together.”
Senge said the 30 program fellow were high-potential, mid-career executives likely to become organizational leaders within the next decade. Participating organizations included BASF, BP, Nissan, Oxfam Great Britain, the UN Global Compact, Unilever, the World Bank Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.
The prototype project used a methodology called presencing. “It’s very simple and probably somewhat familiar to all of us,” Senge said of presencing. Forum delegates then got to hear experiences from three program participants, who shared their experiences and successes. Frans Sugiarta, executive director of Indonesian NGO United in Diversity, gave two examples of the process in practice.
Sugiarta spoke of the Indonesian government’s setting of sugar prices, which in the past often resulted in unrest in certain parts of the country because of dissatisfaction with the process. Using the new model, government officials traveled around the country for several weeks listening to the concerns of those involved in the sugar industry from growers and sellers to the consumers. With a better understanding of the priorities of all the constituent groups, a sugar price was set that satisfied the needs of all concerned.
“For the first time, there were no riots,” Sugiarta told delegates.
More than 400 regional and international leaders from 45 countries are attending the forum, which concludes tonight. GulfSOL, the regional affiliate of SOL, organized the event in cooperation with the Oman Ministry of Higher Education with support from Nesma Holdings, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Binladin Group, Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman Mobile, Bank Muscat and Petroleum Development Oman.
