Michał Nawrocki Local Committee Vice President Candidate 2013-2014 AIESEC Local Committee Łódź
„Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”.
General questions: 1. What does AIESEC mean to you? What has changed in you since you joined AIESEC? To me, AIESEC means a lot. It is impossible to describe it in a few words. Several times I had this situation that I have met some colleagues in a bus and when I started answering their question “What AIESEC is?” it turned out that we were talking about it for the whole way and the topic was not finished when I had to leave. It is also funny because each time I was talking about some other aspects of it.
Most amazing and inspiring people.
Lifechanging experience . Joy of challenging yourself.
Practical experience. Importanc e of my decisions.
My influence on the others.
Going out of the comfort zone.
Being a member of AIESEC is a result of a change that started in my life when I began to study Business Management. There is one lecturer who made a huge impression on me by his attitude and who inspired me to change my life. After one year of classes with him I joined this amazing organization, and then I found out that he was also an AIESECer! Comparing the current me to the one from high school I can truly claim that I am self- confident, aware of my weaknesses and strengths, brave and open-minded guy with a huge will to challenge myself even more. Moreover, I practiced a lot in the area of management and selfawareness. The unique lesson I have learned from AIESEC is about respect for time. While getting more and more experience I discovered how important it is to use it in an efficient way. Because AIESEC showed me that there are so many things I would like to do to make my comfort zone bigger and because it is possible to take care of dozens of things and in most of the cases people do not take things into their own hands because of excuses they follow. There is one more extra change that happened in since I joined the organization. I got the attitude to be grateful for the time, as it does not belong to me. It is a gift that I cannot waist. 2. What attitudes should leader in AIESEC present? What would be the characteristics of a perfect leader? Which of them do you possess, and on which you still have to work?
First of all I have to admit that attitudes that I will list here are not only for AIESECers but also for each individual, as everyone is a leader of a project called “life”.
Self-awareness is one of those key factors that make some people successful. Everything starts within your/my head. This is our individual key for success.
Role model attitude. It is the best way to show the others that we can do/change/inspire through our own actions.
Openness - You cannot be a good leader if you avoid taking into consideration ideas and points of views of the others. Good leader is the one who helps team-members develop and prepare to become a leader.
The only person you can judge is yourself and that the biggest expectations you should have toward yourself as you are the only person you can control in 100%.
Partner - building the atmosphere of cooperation and partnership within a group in which (s)he works is important to change group into the team.
Flexibility - Changes are natural, they happen all the time and a good leader should be able to prepare not only himself but also the others for them, and what is even more be willing and acting to shape as well as make some of them happen.
Proactiveness – these are actions that counts, without the action nothing changes.
Enthusiasm – nothing can be done without it. Answer for the last question must be kind of tricky as we all have those characteristics in us. The main point is about being aware of their existence and of the level we currently have. I think I need to work on self-efficiency the most and for sure I cannot
stop challenging myself. Moreover there is always something to improve, even if it may seem to me that I am good at one thing I still need to work on it as there may be even more room to grow. 3. What is and what should be the role of EB? What will be Your role in LC life as a part of EB team? As a general statement it can be closed into words: ”encourage, lead, coordinate all the activities of LC Łódź”. The role of EB is very complex and
many
challenging operations are included. It is also really hard to
make a
hierarchy of the most important as they are strongly connected within themselves.
Executive Board
• presenting the role model of leadership for all other members, celebrating the culture and implementing organizational values. • ensuring the continuity of the team and whole LC • delivering knowledge • implementation of national direction into LC and strategic planning process • coordination of local projects • taking responsibility in front of external environment for all the actions undertaken under the AIESEC brand. • informing external environment (business, NGO, other organizations and students) about organizational values and objectives. • ensuring financial stability of LC because without that little can be done. I will do my best to ensure the possibilities for personal development for every LC member, particularly for middle management group. I would also do whatever I can to present the role model attitude for the others and simultaneously I will do my best to help my teammates achieve their personal as well as organizational goals. I will be the living example of implementing the value: enjoying participation.I will put all my heart and creativity to make EB 13/14 an amazing team with huge influence on the others. 4. Imagine, that you can make three changes in our Local Committee Łódź, what would it be and why? Draw main strategies of introducing those changes.
First of all, according to the statement that nothing can be done without enthusiasm I want to get as many LC members as possible into celebration of organizational culture and its life so that each observer could say “they are having really good time with each other, maybe I can join them”. Moreover, if I achieve that, one day it will give results in the number of applications send to join our organization. The other reason for this comes from my personal experience. Being active and present in the events of AIESEC (general assemblies, local committee meetings, conferences and I want to introduce regular sport events) helps to maintain the motivation level in each individual, it reminds me of why I am in AIESEC and what our values are, this will boost the level of commitment and contribution of LC members.
Secondly, the change that should be made is about setting up cooperation with other organizations that joins students especially scientific circles. The cooperation may be based on organizing common events (which means more people involved and probably shared costs) and sharing knowledge as well as showing possibilities of growth. The main advantages are: making our organization more recognizable in students society, enforcing the impact, enlarging number of people involved into our activities. The third change that I would like to make in LC is connected with creation of a group of people that will take care of refreshment of our webpage. They would also be responsible for webpages and all other kinds of LC activities in the internet. Why this is so important? People do not always have an opportunity to meet an aiesecer, and if they want to find out something on AIESEC they search the web. If they find old and ugly webpage with of-the date information they will just turn it off. How to do that, first of all we can try by looking for help our current members, if it wll not be successful then we can ask for cooperation some scientific group of students according to what I wrote above. 5. What are your personal values (min.4) Give examples when you have behaved according to those values.
Saying the truth now I am really living according to AIESEC values. Anyway, before I joined this organization they were already kind of similar, and that was one of the reasons why I decided to apply. One very important value for me is to watch out what I am promising as I am always doing everything I can to fulfill the given promise. The example is very simple, that situation happened recently. I have a group of friends since childhood, once we promised that always we would be able to count on the others. So, last week my friend got off the road at night. He called me and asked for help, I just woke up, took my car and went to the place where he was to help him get out of drain even though it was 4a.m. and before he called I was sleeping. Another value can be represented by “enjoying participation”. I am always doing things in such a way so that it will be kind of fun for me. For example, last semester, I was in a group working on marketing project and we didn’t have any ideas on what can be the topic of our project. I gave the idea to just go play pool and drink something instead of sitting inconclusively at the faculty. We went there and after an hour of play we started to talk about our project. All in all the topic was connected with the place where we went to play. One of my most important values is what I have already mentioned in answer for 2nd question. This is about concentrating on my thoughts, my decisions and my actions instead of looking for someone else to blame in difficult situation. This one connects with striving for excellence. I believe that there is always something that could have been done better, if I cannot find it, it means that I should change the perspective or analyze another aspect. This is one of the ways I am learning. Example from the last exam session: I was in a group and we were
supposed to prepare a poster for organizational design and theory classes. We did it, we got 35 out of 35 points that were possible to get. However I had many doubts concerning the way we organized our work and I know that I will remember about them next time. Another value that become more important for me since I joined AIESEC is the respect for time that we are given. I want to use it as effectively as I can and to get as much as I can get from it so this is why I am in AIESEC, applying to EB, studying in foreign language, learning by myself French, working as a lifeguard, concentrating on gym and swimming trainings and also having time to spend with my friends. Last but not least important value that I want to list here is hard work. Of course “hard” does not only mean that we put a lot of physical efforts in it. I do really appreciate people who are putting a lot in what they are doing I also believe that it pays off after some time. In my life that hard work was the learning of English on my own, as I did not have this as a subject in high school, instead of that I had two other foreign languages. I put a lot of effort in it, but now I can see the effects: I am studying in English and the language barrier does not exist for me. 6. Write at least 2 actions towards each ELD program that can be undertaken in LC Łódź to improve the quality of AIESEC experience.
From my personal experience I can say that the quality of programs included in ELD is really good and the most important part of how effective they are, is dependent on members attitudes. We cannot force anyone to do anything (I mean we can do it physically but we should not because it would be useless) so the most suitable way to encourage the others leads through inspiration.
Help leaders understand (through additional courses, conversations, examples) how important their attitudes are for those who participate in TMP.
To ensure possibility of gaining deeper comprehension of organization and the impact that we have on society.
If we set up some cooperation with other student organizations it may appear that TMP members would be able to gain a lot of new knowledge in various categories.
More meetings between middle management and executive board.
Encouragement to participate in both international and national conferences can be implemented.
Set up meetings to share and discuss the knowledge that delegates gained so that each LC member would be able to see how valuable they (conferences) are.
7. How do you as an AIESECer have an impact on the society? Give at least three examples of how you were an agent of positive changes.
Since I joined AIESEC I understood the importance of setting ambitious goals to ourselves. Whenever I talk with someone on this topic I do always show him what this attitude can give to
himself and what it gave me. This (there was also number of other talks but everything began from that conversations) helped one of my friends to motivate himself to start preparing for his technical exams and he passed them. What I actually did even before I joined organization is that I set up a regular event for those who loves basketball, but cannot get enough people by themselves to play. This meetings happens now even without my participation and people do really enjoy it. How it connects with me as an AIESECer? Well, when I joined the organization I realized that to reach our BHAG we do not have to get several bilions of members, we can do it by creating possibilities and encouraging others to participate and realize their own ideas. I also encouraged handle of friends to go abroad and travel with AIESEC they will apply for OGX opportunities. I believe that this will be a life changing experience for them. Additional questions: FINANCE: What steps would you take to ensure that every project in LC Łódź is self-financing? Very important will be the planning stage. This is why cooperation between LVCP Finance and OCPs should be very close. At that stage creation of budget is crucial. Some external help may be needed here, I mean meetings with Alumni for example. It is also important to take into consideration not only plans and short term history but to identify current tendencies. The other step that should have been done even earlier is to analyze deeply the project itself and try to think of as many risks and threats that can occur as it is always better to deal with risk (that can be managed) than with uncertainty. Moreover the analysis should touch financial issues. Then if there will be an agreement that the project has potential high enough and the planning and budgeting stages will be completed the control of expenditures is of high importance. TALENT MANAGEMENT: Suggest three solutions for keeping the highest retention rate from TMP to TLP. What retention rate would you suggest as our goal? As a goal for 13/14 term I’d suggest retention rate on the level of 45%. To ensure that score I would do my best to get as many participants of TMP to be present and active on every meeting (LCM, GA, conferences) and also to encourage them to realize their ideas for projects and events, for example we may set up meetings during which we will exchange our ideas on what can be organized, we will help in development and implementation of the ideas. Moreover, we can start creating movies in which the actors will be people who actually went through their AIESEC experience. We will ask them to tell few words what was it like to participate in exchange program, how it influenced their life and encourage to tell “thank you” to those people who made it possible for them. We can do the same by inviting those people for our meetings and asking to tell those few sentences. I believe this would be very motivating for every member as it will show the real impact that is full of positive emotions. The other idea is to create additional monthly award for the most active and effective TMP participant.
Making that information loud(known in all committee) will represent our respect and estimation to his/her contribution. The other idea is to ensure that current leaders and EB members will fulfill their role of being a role model. How would you like to implement Reward and Recognition system inside project? Suggest at least two solutions and time line for implementation. To suggest any solution that may have some deeper positive consequences in this case it is fundamental to be aware of the role of reward and recognition system. This is really powerful tool helping to build high level of motivation and contribution. First of all such a system should be present in every single project but also in the whole committee. This system inside projects should be based on two phases. 
First one will concern award for recognition for recent and temporary actions and should be given every three-week period(with an assumption that the project lasts 5 months so It can be represented as 3/20). The award and its nature should be chosen by team so that it will fit their individual needs or tastes. Moreover, this frequency of giving the award will help to maintain its value.
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The second phase should be based on giving the prize for achievement of specific goals or presentation of specific attitudes. It should be given every 1/3 of project duration and the receiver should be announced to the whole LC. The reward also should be set by the whole committee. This will enlarge its value.
COMMUNICATION: How would you improve cooperation with student organizations. Please point specific steps that have to be undertaken highlighting the sequence of the actions.
Define our needs.
Send a clear message what kind of organization we are and what our values are.
Evaluate needs of our potential partners.
Prepare individual proposition.
Implement corrects.
Evaluate mechanisms.
Create a plan for cooperation. Get knowledge about existing organizations.
Implemet plan.
The rules for cooperation should be described in an agreement. This agreement may work the same way as projects do (time limits, plans, tracking, evaluations, possible recommendations and resigning of agreement to continue cooperation).
We should also seek for already existing models of how such cooperation can be set up in external environment. EXTERNAL RELATIONS: What should be the focus of the ER area for the term 13/14 to ensure financial stability of the Local Committee? The main focus should be put on implementation of new products such as Global citizen for example. This is fundamental as they need to get a brand name that will be highly recognizable among our target groups. But before that the long-run strategy should be worked out on the national level so that all the actions undertaken locally will be coherent in a long run. How this will ensure financial stability? Well, they are supposed to be the solution for our bottlenecks. If we improve that area we will be closer to achievement of already set goals. This translates into more people involved, more experiences delivered more cooperation with other entities and more moneyas well. What should be the main synergies between ER and other areas? List two main strategies and describe why they are so important.
iGIP
Finance
Communication
• One of the most important part of ER is sales. Considering sales, the crucial part constitutes our products: GIP and GCDP. Moreover the exchange program is fundamental for fulfillment of our mission. As we want to keep the quality of those programs as high as possible those areas need to cooperate.
• This area will take care of ensuring that all the actions we as organization are taking are legal, if they are not we will not be perceived by the environment as a potential partner.
• In quite a big part ER is working on what has already been created in a matter of brand recognition in the environment. Without coherent actions and information send by these areas the organization will not be perceived as professional and trustworthy partner and without that it will never achieve the position of First Choice Partner.
ICX: In your opinion, what are the main benefits for companies who are cooperating with GIP program. Suggest at least 3 ideas how to improve positioning GIP program in external environment as First Choice Partner. There is a couple of benefits for companies cooperating with GIP program:
Possibility to reach young, motivated and proactive people from different regions and introduce their innovative and creative ideas. As they comes from different environment their way of thinking and ideas can be examples of “thinking out of the box”.
Work in international team gives many new possibilities of employees development so the brand name of employer becomes more attractive for talented people – potential employees.
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Possibility to benefit from foreign know-how and other perspective.
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Help in opening for foreign markets and setting up new cooperation.
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Low cost of employment.
Improved positioning of GIP: Building the recognition of our brand name and companies consciousness of what products AIESEC is delivering. It can be achieved through more engagement in marketing affairs and collection and sharing of references from cooperators.
Keep matching and realization rates as high as possible with the simultaneous control of servicing quality.
Deep market segmentation and targeting in terms of products to be delivered, so that our proposition for the company will fill its needs in terms of trainee specialization and country of origin.
Getting references as well as feedback from the companies.
OGX: Please name three strategies in order to increase numbers on OG GIP.
Set up cooperation among particular committees all over the world that are looking for polish trainees.
Find international companies operating in Poland that may be interested in taking benefits from potential of polish students in their foreign departments.
Promote this possibility among students in country so that more people with various specializations and expectations will apply for GIP possibilities.