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| Dreams &Teams Sports Meet - Rehoboth, Namibia |
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK
‘To inspire the desire to lead, to create one team, one dream, one world’ is a quote in the cover of the Dreams & Teams Young Leader’s Learning Log Book. So, this has got to be a special programme and it is.
Having the privilege of being a Lead Trainer – trained by the British Council in UK in 2002 – has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life.
Dreams & Teams was the key programme I was associated with among others such as Connected Classrooms and Intercultural Dialogue where I worked with Mihirini De Zoysa - to bring together university students at a dire period of the civil war in Sri Lanka – but here I focus on Dreams & Teams.
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| Sanjeevani Munasinghe initiating a Session |
I worked with Sanjeevani Munasinghe – the Progamme Manager at British Council Sri Lanka who managed these youth leadership initiatives (ages 14-16) with schools around Sri Lanka – mixing languages, race, religions and cultures (as some schools were separate).
We also had an ally at the Ministry of Education who enabled us to run these programmes without scrutiny from a paranoid Sri Lankan government who was in the middle of the civil war with Tamil Separatists – Liberation Tigers of Thamil Ealam (LTTE), where words like ‘peace’ and ‘human rights’ were akin to being traitorous.
Any programme funded by foreign agencies was considered interference with the country and the conflict, therefore we did our work - between 2004 and 2009 - under the radar.
The programme had two components:
1) Leadership Training for Teachers (Train the Trainer);
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| Teacher Training in Sri Lanka |
We trained English speaking teachers initially - as the British Council’s mandate was to facilitate all their programmes in the English language as a part of their mission.
The train-the-trainer programme’s aim was to help these teachers to move away from the ‘chalk and talk’ teacher-centered method to be more relationship oriented by being learner-centered.
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| Teacher Training in Sri Lanka |
The fundamental foundation was based on the use of power as a leader – and the importance of moving from the ‘positional power’ of the teacher towards ‘personal power’ based on a moral compass and values to complement skills, expertise and competence – where a two-way relationship is created between the teacher and the learner – based on mutual respect. I call this ‘power of balance’.
This walking the talk leads the young leaders by example on how to balance with the ‘power of balance’ and to realize that it is situational.
An effective leader has to be self aware, open, flexible and fearless to be uncomfortable even - to do the right thing for the right reasons – to deal with dilemmas - to choose the best course and make decisions.
Therefore, the well-designed and effective learning progamme of the Youth Sports Trust of UK was enhanced by adding emotional intelligence and mindfulness practices for more self-awareness - to be more culturally appropriate - to hold that ‘power of balance’ - so the teachers became more innovative and impactful trainers.
To validate all this, I introduced neuroscience-based concepts into how the brain functioned with emotional intelligence into these sessions – which validated ancient mindfulness practices.
As the programme spread around the country to rural areas where there was less English comprehension, I had to facilitate using both Sinhala and English languages. In predominantly Tamil speaking areas – I worked with teachers who were bilingual to interpret and help me facilitate - so everyone learned effectively.
I trained a cohort of over 100 teachers over the years – with a few core members who later helped me to train other teachers as the programme expanded.
2) Youth Leadership Training
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| Inauguration of Leader Training |
The 3-day youth leadership training of 20 students was facilitated by 4 selected teachers - where my role was as an observer to guide and provide feedback to the teachers when required – as they moved away from being teacher-centered to learner-centered to empower the youth.
The first few programmes were run in single schools, but Sanjeevani and I decided that it would be a good opportunity to mix schools given the polarization of communities at a time of a civil war.
Further, we wanted to address the other separations between female and males; urban-rural; social classes; between secular, Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim schools. To bring these diverse students together, we chose 20 youth from two or three different schools.
The programme was a combination of theory on leadership, teamwork, communications, project management reinforced through experiential learning activities.
I added the emotional intelligence and the mindfulness components as appropriate to help the young leaders become grounded and confident with self awareness.
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| Sports Event Welioya Sri Lanka |
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The practical assignment for the young leaders to action out their learning was to organize a 4-5 hour sports event after 7-10 days - for up-to one hundred 8-10 year old students from a junior school.
This assignment required the cohort to get together as a
leadership/management team with an organizational structure covering various
aspects of organizing such an event with many moving parts within the
time frame.
They had to set a date, book a sports ground, design and organize novel sports activities and events for the one hundred children safely - manage a budget, logistics of the grounds including food, seating for parents and guests, prize giving etc..
On day 3 of the training - the young leaders were requested to design an organizational structure with check lists of things to do and then decide on who will play the role of Leader/CEO and managers of various operational units and the teams.
Even if the teachers had their own ideas of who should be the leader and the management structure – they could not interfere with the young leaders in their plans and decisions.
Once the leader and the teams were self-selected, the young leaders presented us - their trainers - with the team, the organizational structure and a skeletal plan to be expanded over the next few days to organize the event.
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| Sports Event in Colombo |
On the day of the event, with music blaring through the speakers with sporadic announcements - the anticipation and excitement is palpable. As the children and some parents arrive, the games are held, food is served, speeches are made and prizes are distributed – after the clean-up, we facilitate a review.
I am amazed at the rich learning these young leaders – who are usually stifled in an academically focused STEM education process – express themselves with innovation, leadership, teamwork and organizational skills to creatively conclude with a successful event – where so many things could have gone wrong.
In the feedback – I heard things like this;
“We do not get a chance to get to know boys – let alone someone from outside our family or the Tamil community – even though these boys are Sinhala, Muslim or Burgher – we are all the same. We had a challenge and we used the new skills we learned and what we already knew and came together as a team to achieve the end goal – to give these children a day to remember and do it in a way it was great fun – but also kept them safe”. A female leader from a Tamil girl’s school.
“We sometimes disagreed - had difference of opinions, had different ideas or different ways to do something – but we learned to compromise by looking at what needed to be done rather than be stubborn about an idea – no matter how much I was attached to it” – A young leader.
In well over 50 such programmes where I have trained teachers and overseen the young leader training (2002-2010) - in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi and Namibia – there was complete success in the way the young leaders organized the sports meet and the deep learning they had from the entire programme.
This was a very effective and efficient way to develop young leaders – who in most cases continued to play a leadership role within their schools – often taking over the organizing of sports meets, prize-givings and other school events – relieving the teachers and administrators of those duties. These young leaders also started various volunteer projects in their communities – overall became model citizens of the community.
I share the following story from my experience in Malawi with this programme.
The article below was published in 2008 in the 'The Intelligent Optimist (Ode)' magazine from the Netherlands and USA.
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Dare to Dream - The Malawi Story
As I sit here in the makeshift Dreams & Teams secretariat at the Chipasula Secondary School in Lillongwe, Malawi, there are nineteen enthusiastic Young Leaders setting up for their maiden sports and arts festival for sixty young children from two local primary schools.
It’s a cloudy, cool day and the Young Leaders are swinging
to the music blaring out of the PA system as they help erect the tent, move
chairs, set up cones and demarcate areas for the games - the positive energy
and the vibes are palpable.
These Young Leaders, ranging from ages 12-17 have gone through a three-day session where they learned about leadership, teamwork, communication skills, values and their assignment at the end of the training is to organize and manage this festival for younger children. They pass with flying colours if at the end of the festival, the children leave happy and smiling.
Their trainers are six teachers who have been taught to be facilitators of this programme. I conducted the training as an International Trainer for Dreams & Teams to take the teachers out of their comfort zone from their normal ‘chalk and talk’ process to a more interactive and experiential learning method as facilitators.
The most difficult part is managing the shift in the power relationship from ‘adult-child’ to ‘adult-adult’. The process begins with respecting the Young Leaders as significant individuals, expecting them to rise to the occasion required of responsible learners and leaders.
The programme is sponsored by the British Council and designed by the Youth Sports Trust of United Kingdom and happens in over forty countries around the world.
I went through a five-day facilitations skills training programme at British Council in Oxford followed up by a supervised practical session in Sri Lanka in 2003 to gain the skills to run the programme. The focus then was leadership through sports.
The Dreams & Teams programme was re-designed in 2006 post 9/11 to include culture and arts and I went through a re-orientation in India with a Youth Sports Trust trainer.
I have run over 20 training programmes in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and now in Africa and every one of them has been a learning experience for me.
I have also adapted this model of training for cricket in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. For instance, I have worked with both country under 19 and 17 national pools where they organize a cricket festival at the end of the leadership training programmes.
The Dreams & Teams Charter
The aims of Dreams & Teams is to develop Young Leaders and global citizens through sport and cross-cultural awareness.
Through the programme these young leaders get an opportunity to be constantly challenged in their assumptions, beliefs and behaviour relating to sport and arts leadership and cross-cultural awareness.
It will also help them to think about other cultures and different ways of doing things and, particularly, how to become open to people who are not the same.
Dreams &Teams has a distinct feature because of its international linking and cross-cultural dimension. Sport and the arts provide a platform for these young leaders in different countries to explore together issues relating to fair play, equity, mutuality, cultural diversity, inclusion, religion, ethics, global communication and many others.
By establishing international links, these young people will join other Young Leaders in each participating country and form a global team, working towards periodic celebration events, perhaps a global sport and arts festival to be held every year.
Taking from my own experiences as an entrepreneur, trainer, researcher and community leader, I add value to the training of teachers by dwelling deeper into topics such as emotional intelligence, self awareness through mindfulness, self esteem, values and behavior.
Esteem, beginning with self leading to the collective social esteem is especially an issue in the developing world for many reasons.
Poverty, lack of access to opportunities and information as well as issues related to justice and human rights in emerging nations make this extra dimension important for us in Asia and Africa. High self and social esteem makes for strong and confident individuals and societies.
The only way to ensure stewardship in this area is through the positive use of power as leaders in the way we speak and act. We have to create a new leadership ethos for the world, if we are to change the destructive direction it is taking at the moment in social and environmental terms.
Values, behaviors and the use of power become important considerations as the models we see in politics, business and even sports with it’s corruptions is not worthy of emulation.
Therefore, Dreams & Teams provides a wonderful platform to enter into this important dialogue and to provoke thought in changing towards a more compassionate way of leading for the next generation.
A Happy Ending
As the festival is ending, the music is blaring, children
and adults from all over the Chipasula community are dancing, laughing and
enjoying. The festival has touched not
only the young children who participated, but even younger children and adults
from the community around the school.
The Young Leaders did extremely well to organize the event in such a short time - to work as a team, with good leadership, design and manage the games and activities, decorate the grounds, manage the funds, entertain the crowd – there was music, mini dramas, folk tales in the African tradition – and to experience taking responsibility for themselves and their actions.
“I have learned so much in the last few days about myself, my friends and about leadership – I feel proud that we got together and did an event like this”, said, Mervis Liwonde, one the older Young Leaders.
The six teachers were thrilled with their achievement in getting out of their comfort zones to empower the Young Leaders to take responsibility.
George Makande, the Local Tutor from the host school, Chipasula said “I think I have changed as a teacher through this programme. I learned something interesting about self-esteem and how my way of speaking to students effect their esteem. So, I will be much more aware about the way I speak to my students”.
For me - I enjoyed the wonderful energy in the “heart of Africa”. More I work with these kinds of programmes around the world, more reassured I am that there is hope for the world.
Dreams & Teams is one of the most important gifts the British Council and the Youth Sports Trust of UK has given the world and its new generation, so we can indeed realize the dream someday of a more loving, compassionate and a contented world.
‘Dreams+Teams allows all nations, as one spirit, to grow as one. It allows the smallest voice to travel the furthest distance’
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK
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A reflection on my experience with the British Council is on this link:
https://www.britishcouncil.lk/about/70-years-sri-lanka/stories/lalith-ananda-gunaratne
