UKZN Extended Learning recently hosted its premium short course for leaders, the Management Development Programme (MDP) for different Managers across the public and private sector. This was the second monthly block session for the programme and took place from Thursday, the 25th of August to Saturday, the 27th of August.
The course was uniquely designed to build delegates’ capacity so that they are able to lead their organisation to the future. Over the three days, the 42 delegates were educated about concepts such as Strategic Human Resource Management and the different types of changes organisations go through: Restructuring, Reorganisation and Cultural Change.
The course provided practical exercises of Applied Theatre where delegates had the opportunity to showcase their talents through role plays which aimed to demonstrate the relations between the employer and the employee. Issues that were highlighted through the role plays were: How to deal with generational gaps in the workplace, effective communication methods, company culture, the use of social media as a means of communication in the workplace and how to solve the lack of skills amongst graduates and interns in the workplace.
The course also covered topics of Leadership Management and looked at the new Leadership Paradigm contextually, relationally, dynamically and further analysed how it is dispersed and distributed. The course concluded with a group discussion about the movie, Invictus, which was used as a case study to reveal how Nelson Mandela led South African citizens, post- apartheid, in a new democratic country. “When you go through shifts, different people have different turning points and as a leader, your position is to help people transition to their turning points,” Dr Shamim Bodhanya (facilitator on day three) said to the delegates.