I had the pleasure of working with Creative Themes facilitating a team building and leadership program with Nazareth College in Rochester NY. The college brought all the Resident Advisors and Directors to Creative Themes Day Camp for a great day of Team Development. It ended up raining so I got to be under this large tent.
Outcomes;
- Students to meet and determine individual strengths.
- From these strengths find people with different skills and develop a method of cooperation to make each other and the dorm better.
- Increase resiliency (ability to handle adversity & challenge) of RA teams.
- Develop a method for planning and decision making.
- Have fun!
Below are some of the photos from our time together, to see more images.
Team finished “Putting it all Together” this was led in a 2 team method that forced collaboration and real-time planning. Resulting in a process for giving and taking feedback, plus understanding that a clear and distinct goal is needed for successful college programming.
Using “infinite loops level 2” to change the focus from individual to team systems. Resulting in understanding that the process / system needs to be explored and not the person. If we find people under-performing, is it the person or the system causing that?
They were very happy they completed the challenge!
Discussing what is needed for great work, allows people to share why they are part of the team and what they need for success.
Once the fun stops and the work starts-using real-time processing we can create new habits and behaviors for solving problems.
Thank you Nazareth College and Creative Themes for for pleasure of facilitating your Resident Advisors, Peer Mentors and Directors.
Would your college team benefit from increased team-work and communication amongst students and staff? Contact Mike to make your team and leaders better.
michael cardus is create-learning
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Respected sir,
Even in such team building activities,some people will not involve themself much.which will not solve the purpose..how can we involve them into the activity ,as a leader.
Wonderful question!
Keeping people involved is a challenge. Plus as a facilitator it is being alright and understanding that not everyone is involved in the same way. This is a challenge of choice. Some people are physical and like to get right in (those people look involved) some are mental and like to sit back and think before acting (they make look un-involved yet their brains are involved) and some people just want to sit and talk to others (this involvement still reaches the objective of team building, because they are sharing with other people.
Additionally in the processing period ask the people who “did not involve themselves” – I noticed that you did not look very involved in that activity, why? If you chose to be more involved what would that have looked like? In what ways can the team ensure that they have your best effort and involvement in the future?