The last coaching weekend of this years' PLP took place from 3-5 October in Bochum, Germany, at the headquarters of the GLS Bank (Christstrasse 9).

 

"It's not what you say but how you say it"

With this message Maria Beck, presentation trainer, welcomed the participants.  The first day was devoted to the participants' preparation for the presentations on Saturday. Maria Beck worked with them on voice, articulation and "presence on scene". In the afternoon the participants had the chance to practice what they had learned and applied it to their personal presentations.

 

October 4: the presentation day

With their final presentations the project leaders summarized their projects' progress and their personal learning journey with the PLP for a wider audience. They received feedback on their presentations and project ideas by oikos stakeholders:

• oikos Business Partners
• oikos International representatives
• oikos members

 

After each presentation a moderated discussion explored the possible next steps to be taken by the project leaders.

 

The art of concluding a project successfully 

Every end is a new beginning - therefore the end of each project needs to be carefully thought though. Closing the loops of a project involves looking back and into the future: Looking back, you need to capture results, looking into the future you should ask, what to do with these results. These questions were addressed by Lars Stein, oikos PhD Fellow 2006-2009, as a last step of the coaching process.

 

The oikos Project Leadership Programme itself was then closed by a storytelling exercise. Each project leader was asked to write down part of the learning journey events that the PLP entailed. Out of this eight fictious stories evolved, giving account of the hikingtrail the project leaders walked together.