Six women leaders met in Mombasa on 28th and 29th September to learn and share their experiences with writing as leaders. This was the third meeting for the sisterhood group, that first came together in 2019 having similar challenges at the personal and organizational level, and the idea was to support each other and learn from each other.
This write-shop was organized to compliment a three-month personal branding process that each of the six women leaders had gone through between July and September 2021.
What happened?
- Participants watched a video from an established multi-media assets expert who briefed them on what to consider when incorporating or using multi-media into their stories/articles
- Participants were taken through the writing process to understand what they need to work with their teams, and what constituted each stage of writing
- Participants were taken through the process of dissemination and publishing for them to understand book publishing rationale
- Participants review their write-ups in pairs (Prepared the previous day), and afterwards the facilitators gave feedback on each of the write-ups. A guide on peer review was had been shared previously.
Take homes for the participants
- Broad outlook of what it takes to write and publish. The writing practices shared and practical feedback from the facilitators was spot on. The knowledge and attributes of the facilitators was fantastic.
- The Courage to start writing Is the hardest part of writing.
- The write-shop made me realize writing is not an easy job I need to plan in terms of time, contents/subject matter, and financial resources.
- The workshop also helped me to understand that when I am blocked and cannot continue writing I need to distract myself by doing other things and resume writing later.
- The importance of accountability partner to consistently remind me about my writing assignment. I can also set deadlines, use computer applications to remind me and try not to be a perfectionist.
- The workshop also enlightened me on how to make a good story, types of writing, using 6Ws etc.
- The session on the Importance of using multimedia assets such as photographs, videos, infographics, illustrations to make your story good and interesting was also very useful for my work.
- The exercise on writing, peer review and feedback from expert was very interesting and useful for improving my writing. The session has also motivated me to write more stories.
- Better insights in reviewing personal and organization articles and helping others review their articles objectively.
Specifically personal commitments were made to: –
- To write my autobiography, and reignite my blog.
- I am thinking more about improving my own writing first. Perhaps offering some guidance here and there when the opportunity arises.
- I am going to write more frequently.
- I’ll feedback to my team because many are struggle with writing and reporting
- I will be able to review personal and organizational articles more objectively and also help others in reviewing their articles
- I will start writing articles on newspapers and blogs to show my staff that it is possible to be a writer
- I will give a feedback session for my staff on what I leant from the write-shop
- I am planning to organize a learning session for my staff on communication focusing on writing. I will discuss this with our facilitators for tips.
