Learning in the wild

The Global Land Tool Network staff resumed work on Monday following an insightful, three-day training retreat at the hippo-ridden Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge. Facilitated by Kathy Vaughn, the retreat provided a good blend of fun and learning activities which focused on enhancing the team's collective negotiation skills to enhance team work. "The training was great and I learnt a lot from it, more so, on how to be a better communicator. The facilitation was awesome as well since the trainer used relevant examples and activities," said Vera Marosi, the team's Web Developer. Sessions on employing effective feed forward approaches, negotiation and communication methods were discussed at length by the team, which expressed its confidence in applying them in their day to day work. The multi-cultural team also got a chance to identify each of their preferred Intercultural Conflict Style during the training. The training was a culmination of a year-long series of internal capacity development trainings that the team has participated in, and with great results in presentation, communication and negotiation skills. Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge turned out to be a great-and scenic- learning environment for the team, even as the towering giraffes and motherly waterbucks walked about before making way for the hippos in the night.