As always, The Engagement Forum WA held at ECU Mt Lawley every December was worth its weight in gold.
The Welcome to ECU delivered by Glenda Campbell-Evans (Dean of the School of Education) was a hoot – she certainly was an inspiration to listen to, followed by the Keynote – Professor Chris Brook of Profectus Education, Consulting and Coaching, who took us through the stats around disengagement of students in Western Australia. Although there were some ‘Yep, I already know that’ moments, there were some moments of hope and some ideas about how we can move forward in a more positive manner, by applying what we know to develop the conditions for student engagement around:
- relatedness
- competence
- autonomy
- creating purpose
- unconditional positive regard
- unconditional self acceptance
- unconditional other acceptance
- unconditional life acceptance
After his presentation, I ran after him like some rock star groupie and made time to chat further about his presentation. We certainly share the same set of values and drive to assist our young people make meaning out of education and life!
In the afternoon, Annette Garlett (Keipa Boodja Aboriginal Corporation), Lidia Cavallaro (Breakaway Aboriginal Corporation) and I gave an interactive Personality Dimensions® presentation to over 60 attendees. We put them into groups of four (one per colour) to go through the associated images and come up with suggestions about what each set of images represent.
One participant asked how young people interpret the images.
My response, ‘exactly how adults do’.
No matter what background you come from, how young or old, your gender, your preferences, everyone interprets the images exactly the same (clearly there are some minor differences across cultures). She found that hard to believe so we showed the responses from our cohort of kids. It was exactly the same!
I received a beautiful email from Lidia later in the day, ‘Jenny thank you for having invited Annette and myself to attend today…For me I experienced something that I thought I could never do. Again thank you’.
Jenny Gleeson is the Empress of Ideas and Queen of Honesty. She has built a career out of helping people find their authentic selves, and get the most out of their teams. She has a strong focus on Aboriginal communities, not-for-profit organisations, youth services, and charities. Jenny is a Personality Dimensions Level II trainer, and distributor for Personality Dimensions in Australia and New Zealand. Connect with Jenny through her website at https://www.jennygleeson.com.au/
Personality Dimensions In Action 