On the 6th of November we held the inaugural Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Emerging Leaders Program 2024 graduation ceremony in Canberra, providing our mentors and mentees a well-deserved chance to shine. This program brought together twenty participants from the water management sector, across various groups within the MDBA, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH), ACT and NSW Governments. Run over ten months, the mentors and mentees work together on a waterway project which this year ranged from birds in irrigation farms, to First Nations engagement, to Murray crayfish and data visualisation. The waterway project provides the focus for each mentoring partnership, but it is the conversations and relationship that grows between mentee and mentor where the real magic happens.
Graduation day commenced with an Acknowledgement of Country, before getting straight into the first activity to reflect on the year and the program. The group began with a three-question reflection activity on what they learnt, connections they’d made, and new understanding about mentoring and leadership. These reflections sparked meaningful conversations, showcasing the deep and open dynamics that had developed over the course of the program. Siwan led an exercise that emphasised the new relationships that have been forged throughout the duration of the program, showcasing the strength of the bonds between mentors and mentees, and the new networks and partnerships created around the cohort. Participants reflected on how they are now equipped with a new network that will allow them to make collaborative and cohesive management decisions within the water industry.
The next part of the morning brought the purpose of the mentoring journey into the spotlight, which is to build and nurture social capital. The work of Margaret Heffernan was explored, with Siwan explaining how by investing in ourselves and each other social capital grows and, along with it, the connections that enable fulfilling work and personal lives.
Participants then collaborated in small groups to creatively capture their experience of the program in a poster by answering three questions: ‘What happened? So what? And What next?’. The result was a vibrant array of posters, each reflecting unique perspectives and innovative representations of their personal and professional growth throughout the journey. Each group presented their posters to the room, many showcasing their heartfelt journey through analogies- including one about bread!
The afternoon session featured mentor-mentee pairs presenting the projects they had developed over the past ten months. Each presentation gave insight into the shared journey of growth, collaboration, and achievement. Andrew McConville, Chief Executive of the MDBA, delivered a presentation on leadership, aligning the program’s outcomes with the principles of the MDBA Way.
Multiple mentors reflected on how much they had learned from the program and from their mentees as well. Many pairs are committed to staying in contact once the program concluded. The graduation day for the 2024 MDBA Emerging Leaders Program was an amazing series of stories about personal growth and achievement. The program has set a strong foundation for participants to flourish as leaders and collaborators in the water management sector, and we look forward to witnessing their continued success.
Congratulations to our graduates!
We would like to thank the MDBA for piloting this program this year. We would also like to thank mentors and mentees for their commitment, as well as their colleagues and supervisors who supported them this year and attended the graduation.
To read more about the year that was here are stories we wrote along the way:
Workshop one – Canberra & Bredbo Gorge
Workshop two – Normanville & Goolwa
