Staff from Monash South Africa’s (MSA) School of Business and Economics recently attended a team building workshop to improve the services they provide to their students.
Guided by one of South Africa’s leading strength building experts, Simon Hurray (author of the blog ilovemondays.co.za), the staff members from MSA’s Department of Accounting were guided using a tool known as the Clifton StrengthsFinder.
Mr Hurray’s work assists companies and businesses to align their respective strategic goals and outcomes with the people that are needed to fulfil these objectives.
The workshop involved team design, talent selection, engagement, management/leadership identification and development, identification of key performance areas, professional goal setting and evaluation.
All the participants agreed that the two-day workshop made the team stronger as the content allowed each individual to explore what they could bring to the table.
“It made us realise what role each of us played, which enabled us to discuss ways to improve the Department of Accounting for the benefit of the students, the University and the accounting profession as a whole,” Anton du Toit, Head of School, said.
“Many exciting ideas came out of the workshop and we have already begun to implement some of them.” These included new ways to teach and engage students as well as how to understand someone’s strengths in order to engage with them in a more meaningful way.
MSA is one of only 13 South African universities, and the first private higher education institution, to have been accredited with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) to educate prospective Chartered Accountants up to undergraduate level.
MSA is a campus of Monash University Australia, whose Faculty of Business and Economics received international business school accreditation by the Brussels based European Quality Improvement System.