When we arrived we signed in and picked up a name badge, before heading into the room that would be our base at HKU for the next 4 days.
Hong Kong university's main building is an absolutely beautiful place. It's the oldest building on campus, and it's post-renaissance style gives it a unique look compared to other buildings nearby. There are a couple of tranquil courtyards with lush green plants and soothing water features too.
The university is all interconnected and it's easy to get from one building to another, although you might need a map!
There are some beautiful art pieces scattered throughout, including this thought provoking piece called "Pillar of Shame" by the artist Jens Galschiot. It was originally erected in Victoria Park in 1997 to mark the eighth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, and was designed to mark the loss of life there. The base has the words "The Tiananmen Massacre", "June 4th 1989" and "The old cannot kill the young forever." engraved into it.
When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by Louise, Ivy and Shradha from Common Purpose. Louise and Ivy introduced themselves and the program, and introduced us to the core values of the course. Day one was titled "What we share", and was a day full of openness and getting to know each other.
Then everyone got up, went to mingle with new people (the rule was that the person you chatted with couldn't be someone you'd spoken to before!) and asked ice breaker questions, as well as some personal questions about goals and ambitions, in order to better get to know each other.
Throughout the day, we discussed key concepts such as cultural intelligence, what challenges faced us as leaders, and we were lucky enough to have two guest speakers, Tina Arcilla (Senior Manager, Diversity and Inclusion in Asia) and Lehui Liang (Purpose Capital, Social Ventures Hong Kong) who came to discuss with us how the city works and to give us a raw insight into the city and it's challenges and successes. I won't speak much about what was said, as one of the core principles of the GLP is that we operate under Chatham House Rules in order to encourage openness of dialogue.
We also discussed as a group our core and flex values, and discussed a number of statements on flashcards and debated on how far we agreed or disagreed with them. It opened up a healthy debate between everyone, and it was great how everyone listened to each other, and even when disagreeing, did so eloquently and politely. It was a great start to the program!
In the afternoon, we started to discuss the challenges we would be facing, which was "How do we ensure technological innovation delivers societal as well as economic value in cities?". We were again extremely fortunate to have three more guest speakers; Janet Pau (Program Director, Asia Business Council), Devi Novianti (Equal Opportunities Officer, Equal Opportunities Commission) and Emily Lau (Previous Chairperson of the Democratic Party, and the first woman to have been directly elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong). The speakers spoke with passion and care about the challenges faced by Hong Kong. We discussed the current protests and the poverty crisis, the political crises and many other things, and it was truly an honour to speak with and listen to these incredible people.
We also did an exercise called "speaker, listener, observer", where a group of three took it in turns to discuss what challenges they face as leaders. Each time, the speaker spoke about their issue, with the listener listening for the first couple of minutes, and then after that spending several minutes asking the speaker questions about their issue. The observer watches the interaction and at the end comments on how the conversation went. This was a great exercise as it helped people figure out which role they felt most comfortable in, as well as some people also saying they found it quite therapeutic and even helped them to see more clearly in terms of their perceived challenges. It was really lovely and again helped to make new connections with the people we partnered up with.
At the end of the day, we were put into our working parties, and signed up for our immersion visits the next day.
Following the program, we had some free time in the evening. Some people went back to the accommodation and chilled for the evening, some people went out for dinner, some went shopping, some explored, and some people grabbed a few drinks and went to watch the sun set at the harbour. All in all, our first day of the program was a great one.
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