Leadership from the ground up

What do Biblical heroes Abraham, Moses and King David have in common? They all prepared for leadership by tending sheep. The Asian Rural Institute teaches practical know-how and hands-on sustainable living to develop a new generation of leaders.

Farm chores, keep-fit and washing the dishes - they're not the typical subjects you'd expect to find on the curriculum for students on an intensive training course to become community leaders.

But at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Japan - a rural leaders training centre rooted in Christian mission - experience shows that mucking in with the dirty work can mean the difference between producing a good leader and inspiring a great one.

Around 30 different students from across the globe come to live and work within the self-sufficient ARI community in the Japanese region of Tochigi-ken each year. Their aim is to absorb as much theory and practical know-how on sustainable living they can on the nine-month course before heading home to pass it on in their local context.

But as the students realise soon after they arrive, you won't find perfecting the art of giving orders from the comfort of an office anywhere on the training agenda. At the ARI centre, students don't just learn - they transform themselves.

For some, says centre ecumenical relations coordinator Steven Cutting, it can come as quite a shock.

"Our main focus here is leadership development but we emphasise servant leadership - which means that we train our leaders to be people that go outside and work in the field with the rest of their workers. They don't sit in an office and give orders. They get involved - and there is no work they would ask someone else to do that they wouldn't do themselves," he says.

"At ARI the director here cleans the toilets everyday. That is his job and it is an example that we set, a symbol that there is no one person or group that is left to do the dirty work. Sometimes this is quite shocking for the students that come here - especially if in their own contexts, they would never wash the dishes or work out in the fields."

Founded by Rev Dr Toshihiro in 1973, the centre draws in trainees from all over Asia, Africa and the Pacific each year and now boasts more than 1,100 graduates at work worldwide. Students work and live together with staff and volunteers, growing their own food, caring for the centre's animals, cleaning the facilities and even washing the dishes as part of a daily schedule designed to shape them into conscientious, hands-on rural leaders.

The whole centre rises at 6.30am each day for morning exercise and prayer before carrying out chores and an hour's work on the farm - only then dp they sit down to eat their breakfast.

"Everyone takes part in two hours of farm work a day," says Mr Cutting, who lives and works at the centre with the students. Part of his role involves finding scholarships for students from some of the ecumenical organisations the centre partners with.

"We take it in turn to cook and clean away the meals. Some people struggle with this. They don't want to do the dishes - they would never do it at home. Some are shocked that they have to feed the animals in the morning before they have their own breakfast. But at ARI we teach people about the dignity of labour.

We tell people there is dignity in labour, that working is serving God. Labour is part of who we are as human beings and there is dignity in that."

Non-traditional mission

The ARI ethos is based on approaching mission in a different way. In order to help communities in rural regions across the globe, the centre has shunned the traditional mission approach of sending an "expert" in, and instead invites community members - the local "experts", to learn what they can about rural leadership and take it home themselves.

Its work revolves around three key things: sustainable agriculture, community development and leadership training.

"Our philosophy is so strongly about sustainability - we want to prove it can be done," Steven says. "We are involved naturally because that is how the place runs. We do farming everyday. I do some teaching but it's centred on providing reflection to the students so that they can look at themselves and discover their strengths and progress as they go along."

He adds: "Our goal is to transform people. I really try to avoid using the word empowerment because it's used at every turn these days but I think what we do covers its true meaning. The students' confidence grows hugely and they feel that even though so many forces are against them and the work is difficult, they get this energy that they can really do something. They know that even something small is better than nothing and that it can start to grow."

Students undergo a rigorous recruitment process to get onto a course at ARI. Coordinators want to ensure that prospective candidates genuinely want to help their communities and aren't just using the course for personal gain.

Mr Cutting adds: "The point of the course is not to train just the individuals but for those people to take their training back to their own communities and contexts. It's about creating a ripple effect. Sometimes the work ripples far out. Sometimes it doesn't - but there is no judgement on who achieves what."

Trying on leadership

"You see a great change in people during their time here - especially in women. You really see a difference," he adds. "The organisations that send people here rarely send women because this is a leadership course - and women are not seen as leaders in many communities. We have to really push for them in our recruitment process. During their time at ARI they take part in all the conversations and committees we run - it's new for them because they have never been expected to take a leadership role at home. In their own context they wouldn't know what that would feel like.

"Here, they get the chance to "try it on", just while they are in ARI - but I still don't think they go back the same person. They go back home with a spark in their eye."

Mr Cutting adds: "Most people do struggle on the course at some point - we expect that. They get cultural fatigue, but they soon adjust to this and start to enjoy their work again. For staff, the last couple of weeks of training are exhausting.

This is when we carry out the students' last interviews - but at this point it feels so good to staff because we begin to see that someone that was not getting it earlier in the programme has turned around and is now getting it. They are starting to change how they think and what they will take home. That's why the programme needs to be nine months long. It takes that long for people to really adjust and begin to change."

Staff keep in touch graduates through emails and newsletters. They also ask them to report back on their progress when they can. Where possible, former students get a visit from staff to find out how what they have learnt is rippling out into their communities. Mr Cutting says the ARI is now looking into ways to measure exactly how the course has helped communities grow. Although he is quick to point out that this will be a very subjective task that avoids calculating progress through figures and statistics.

"A community no matter how small or how poor is a rich place - as long as there are people that are there together, that work together and help each other, he says. "They can accomplish so much on their own. It's about development from within. If you can stimulate that through training someone from within the community then you have succeeded."