« Day 1: Learning environment, shared purpose | Main | Day 3: Inclusion, empathy, shared purpose, committment »
April 29, 2008
Day 2: Self-awareness, inclusion, empathy
Key Takeaways:
• Teamwork on a low-ropes course leads to many realizations about the way leaders behave
• Have to consider the risks involved before brainstorming, consider “try-storming”
• Circles can be a powerful tool for effective group communication
• Five aspects of leadership that we inventoried to determine our strengths
• Does social justice belong in every student organization’s mission?
We started the day with a low ropes course that encouraged team building. Low ropes were some adventurous challenges that helped bring us outside of our personal boundaries. Examples of games included using wooden blocks to cross a “Raging river”, balancing everyone on a giant see-saw while “whale watching”, and crossing through a giant “spider-web”. While the games were extremely fun, we did manage to learn some lessons too. Dependence on others, the importance of everyone’s unique skills on a team, people sometimes have to be followers—you cannot lead all the time. Sometimes a good leader is passive. Sometimes when working with many leaders, sometimes you have to know when to step back. “You need to learn how to lead from the front and the back.” We also learned about the importance of asking for help when needed. In a group full of leaders, it’s important to realize when it’s necessary to ask! Different activities required different leaders, who had different abilities and knowledge. Communication needs to come full circle, from listening to speaking to everyone needs to be heard (interlocking circle, like a Venn diagram). In each activity, there was a certain amount of planning that needed to be done before starting. Having the ability to trust people is important.
Lindsay made an observation that her group practiced a lot before starting. She said that, in a situation with little risk associated with failure, what’s the harm in jumping in? “We had nothing to lose.” She talked about “try-storming”, where we brainstorm, then immediately try the idea. It’s useful when there are little risks. Claudio also stated the importance of adapting to situations on the fly, and related it to the toxic waste game. Meghan said the forest smelled like chives, but Lindsay thought they were leeks or onions.
Brian saw a major difference when we were out in the forest and trying to brainstorm ideas. Many people had ideas and lots of voices were not being heard. We decided to get in a circle so everyone could see and hear each other. Suddenly, only one person talked at a time, and everything seemed more efficient. Brian is now a huge fan of being in circles during meetings. When we are in a circle, everything is equal, unlike in a rectangle table, where there is a clear head of table.
Lunch
We returned from low ropes to delicious lunch of pizza and salad. Lindsay met the dental hygienists of America group at lunch. There are 27 women in the class, no men. They are all undergrads, who take the same exact same classes together for soph., junior, and senior years.
Leadership Practices Inventory
After lunch, we worked on a student leadership practices inventory. There were five different aspects to leadership: 1) modeling the way, 2) inspiring a shared vision, 3) challenging the process, 4) enabling others to act, and 5) encouraging the heart. A leader is comprised of all those aspects, plus others not listed. We filled out an inventory test to determine our strongest aspects. After grouping based on our highest strength, we acted out a scene to help others learn about how to become more like that aspect. Meghan and Brian were strongest in challenging the process, and Nate, Lindsay, and Claudio were strongest in enabling others to act. After evaluating ourselves, we also evaluated the fellow EGL members present. This was a critical tool in the improvement process; giving constructive feedback provides the spark to kaizen (continuous improvement). We will return to this tomorrow, when we quantitatively compare our own ratings to the group ratings. TUNE IN TOMORROW, by 11PM EST.
Dinner
Lindsay and Brian, along with members of the Michigan Economics Society, tossed a Frisbee for some time. According to Claudio, cheesecake was on point for dinner. Apparently, in tilapia scampi, the scampi is butter sauce. Nate was a big fan of the fried chicken, and ate dinner with a table full of girls. For the record, Claudio also ate with a table full of girls! Brian ate with Circle K girls, and realized what a great opportunity exists for EGLs to volunteer! Expect more details to come…WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING?!
Social Justice
Is Ally short for Allison?: A session on social justice. We ended the night with a whole-group session about the role of being an ally, as well as the role of social justice within student orgs. An ally is defined as a person who fights for a cause, whether or not they identify with it. We also discussed the different social identities, such as race, sexual orientation, geographic status, ability/status, socioeconomic status, country of citizenship, etc. We all had to select the identities with which we felt most salient, with those which we felt most uncomfortable, and with those we felt most privileged.
The discussion veered to answering the question: Can every student organization be a social justice organization? We talked about the difference between fighting for social justice and being socially just. Many students talked about using their org email lists to let all their students know about social justice issues and asked if people found that was appropriate. We did not find any clear answers on the topic, so if readers have opinions on the role of social justice within EGL, please do post comments!
A key take away from this segment was phrased as three questions:
1) When is the best time to do something?
2) Who is the most important person?
3) What is the right thing to do?
Leo Tolstoy posed those questions and answered them as 1) Now, 2) The person you’re with, and 3) That which will most benefit all. Just something to think about…
PICTURES COMING TOMORROW! WE PROMISE.
Cheers,
Lindsay, Claudio, Meghan, Brian, and Nate
Posted by brumao at April 29, 2008 10:43 PM
Comments
I think that social justice is intrinsically linked with being a global engineer. One of the core tenets of EGL is to understand different cultures like Asia or Western Europe. But, who is to say that cultures are based upon geographical difference? Shouldn't we also try to understand different social cultures as well? I think that it would be beneficial to make EGL members aware of social injustice in the world. I do not think that we are an organization that is equipped to fight social injustice, but I do think that as global engineers, we should at least be aware of it.
Posted by: smlittle at May 3, 2008 06:15 PM
Login to leave a comment. Create a new account.