Tasmanian Leaders

The Tasmanian Leaders Program is an annual program, which is delivered on a part time basis over a 10 month period between February and December. This structure allows participants to maintain their professional and personal responsibilities. The realistic time-commitment also allows attendance, reading, reflection and active networking to occur over a sustained period, strengthening the relationships between participants.

The Program has four main streams of development activity:

• three residential retreats
• eight linking sessions
• ongoing contact between the retreats and linking sessions
• a group based community project

Residential Retreats

The retreats provide an opportunity for in depth personal and professional development. The same core facilitators run all retreats providing continuity throughout the year.

During the residential retreats, and also at the linking sessions, participants will develop and practice a range of leadership competencies including:

• understanding self, understanding others, group dynamics
• motivating, mentoring and leading people
• team building, relationship building, networking, negotiating and influencing
• working with change and fostering innovation
• problem solving and analysing complicated information, assessing competing objectives
• strategic thinking and planning
• communication
• engaging with diversity
• problem solving
• developing and implementing a vision

Linking Sessions

Each linking session is held over two days – typically a Friday and a Saturday.

One day of each linking sessions is devoted to the exploration of an issue of significance for Tasmania, its communities and its future. Examples of issues explored in previous programs include Economy, Social Inclusion, Innovation, Education, Governance, Health, Sustainable Development and the Environment. These sessions involve a variety of guest speakers who help participants explore different perspectives and challenge existing beliefs.

The second day of each linking session is devoted to exploring different facets of personal and leadership development.

The linking sessions allow for robust discussion of issues in a confidential environment (all sessions are conducted in accordance with the Chatham House Rule). A key element of these sessions is the engagement between participants and presenters through facilitated question and answer sessions.

Community Projects

A key feature of TLP is the identification and successful completion of a community project. Projects are designed to reinforce and develop program learning, to make a positive difference in the Tasmanian community, as well as to deliver a demonstrable “return on investment” to the State. It is not expected that the projects will be completed during the life of the Program but that they will be decided and substantially planned during this time, with a view to them being completed within one year of graduation.