I haven't updated the blog for some time now. Had been trying hard to secure an IPP (Individual Professional Project) with a company during the last month. I'll write more about my IPP in a separate post. However, let me write a little bit about what happened this week.
This week saw the completion of the first set of IPP seminars. I, along with about 19 other colleagues who are going for individual professional projects, attended these seminars.
The first 2 day seminar was on "Global Warming & Economic Opportunities" with Walid Malouf who is the City Director - Paris
at William J Clinton Foundation. The seminar focused on reviewing some key results published based on the World3 model that forecasts the environmental situation of our planet, until 2100 years and beyong, under various scenarios.
Using the model, we could review the impact of various scenarios on the,
- state of the world - measured using effect on population, food production, industrial output, level of pollution, non-renewable resources
- material standards of living - measured using effect on food production per person, services per person, average life expectancy and goods consumed per person
- human welfare and footprint - measured by calculating the human welfare index and the ecological footprint.
In summary, we concluded that,
- no one crisis (food, population, resource etc) can be solved independently.
- we run out of capital before we run out of planetary resources. Huge capital investment is needed if technology is considered as a solution driver.
Finally, we concluded with the opinion that to ensure a sustainable future the high consuming societies will need to rationalize their consumption while at the same time the socio-economic conditions of the people living at the bottom of the pyramid will have to be raised.
The later part of the seminar focused on Cleantech and the economic opportunities arising from the same.
The second 2 day seminar was on "Personal Assessment and Leadership" with Prof. Alain Keravel of HEC Paris and Stéphane Lhuillier, Associate Director and Executive Coach
at Arquites.
The seminar allowed me to undertake the MBTI assessment along with my colleagues. We had a very interesting debrief using group games that allowed us to understand the various scales on which MBTI measures personality types.
This was followed by the plank exercise in which each group was given 15 slotted wood planks that we had to fit together to form the complex design which was given. The task was to create a plan to finish the job in less than a minute. Our group, of 4 participants, achieved the shortest time of 8.94 seconds to deliver the job. The exercise was followed by a debrief wherein we discussed on the team dynamics of the various groups.
More exercises, debriefs & leadership theory followed and the session finally ended today evening.
Tomorrow, we are leaving for the
2 day offsite leadership seminar at the Special Military School of St Cyr Coetquidan.I'm looking forward to have some fun away from campus.
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