‘Alumni Learn & Network Series’ event hosted by Australia Awards – Nepal, 34 alumni

Business consulting and leadership coach and member of Australia’s Global Alumni Network, Arun Basnet, led the training session, which took place at the Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu on 22 September 2023.

The session included a discussion on leadership and mindset, especially in Nepal’s context. It delved into ways to think about strategy and leadership, particularly in relation to contemporary workplaces, and how successful strategy evolves with context and situations and involves setting well-defined goals with clear milestones. Finally, the session incorporated a discussion of implementation of strategic frameworks and associated processes. Arun shared several resources on framework development, on which one alum commented, ‘I want to check all the tools as soon as I reach home.’

Following the session, Rajeev Karn (Australia Awards Fellowship alum in Capacity Building for Radiotherapy Services in Nepal from the University of Sydney), Supervisor Therapy Radiographer at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, shared, ‘The finest part of the lecture was understanding that strategy is a process, not an idea.’

Similarly, Dr Krishna Prasad Timsina (Australia Awards Endeavour Research Fellowship alum from Charles Sturt University), Senior Scientist at Nepal Agricultural Research Council, learnt that ‘Strategy is living and continuing. It is a process rather than an idea.’

On reshaping one’s own leadership as part of strategy development, one alum commented, ‘My takeaways are to open up, loosen up and be naive and vulnerable.’

Another summed up, ‘The event was thought- provoking! This is needed as a nudge time and again for leaders like us who need to make decisions on a daily basis and many times face a dilemma.’

After the training session, all alumni attendees briefly introduced themselves which facilitated the networking part of the event.

The ‘Alumni Learn & Network Series’ supports alumni to quickly pick up modular contemporary workplace skills and maintain or build their inter-alumni networks. Training sessions of 45 minutes’ length are delivered by subject-matter experts. From such quick turnaround professional development opportunities, alumni gain tangible learnings they can immediately apply in their careers.

Australia Awards – Nepal plans to host additional events in the series over the next several months on topics such as emotional intelligence and CV and cover-letter writing.