EGL @ Leadership Connections

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May 01, 2008

Day 3: Inclusion, empathy, shared purpose, committment

Key Takeaways:
• Mind-mapping is a good way to see how a team can break down an issue into smaller parts
• Defining EGL’s organizational culture through purpose, philosophy, priorities practices, projections
• EGL has many important manageable goals and stretch goals that we’d love to hear your feedback about

Ideal Campus
We began the morning discussing our ideal campus. We performed skits and such, and it was a nice way to begin the day. Some of the common themes included social justice, adequate resources, improved communication, sustainable resources, which led to a discussion on social justice. Although it was another good discussion, we did not feel it was the most beneficial segment to our goals for the week.

Lunch was salad. The cookies were AMAZING. We also played a game of ultimate Frisbee, where Nate was a beast.

Mind-Mapping
After lunch we did mind-mapping, and it was an opportunity for us to be creative in a very organized fashion. Our mind map focused on issue “EGL needs to better engage its members.” We came up with four main branches, which are: improve relationships, events, meetings, and open communication. It was a good brainstorming strategy that allows us to take a large problem and break it down to smaller, manageable pieces. We noticed that the events and meetings have very similar issues, including the scheduling conflicts and the perceived value of the topics. Improving relationships tied in with the other branches. You can check out a picture of our beautiful mind map below.

Organizational Culture
Assessing your organizational culture was the next segment. We looked at our purpose, philosophy, priorities, practices, and projections. You can check out our culture in the beautiful concentric squares below, created by Meghan. The purpose is the fundamental reason the organization exists. Philosophy is what makes the organization distinct, or the prime believe that directs how business is conducted. Purpose and philosophy are supposed to always stay the same. However, priorities, practices, and projections will change with time. Priorities are the key values and standards of an organization. Practices are where your organization lives out the priorities, both internally and externally. Projects are how your organization markets itself, how the org lets others know about it.

Trivia: What’s the biggest room in the world? Post your answer in the comments…right answer gets a prize!

Goal-setting
After dinner we had a two-hour session on goal-setting. We all found this to be very beneficial. We learned about the state of an organization and how different factors can create different results. For instance, you need vision, skills, incentives, resources, an action plan, and results to create change. Without any of these, you might get confusion, anxiety, or frustration. Then we individually brainstormed goals for EGL in the generation segment of the session. When we returned to the group, the five of us created a list of 40 distinctive goals. From this we separated the goals into manageable goals and stretch goals. The stretch goals are more long-term while the manageable goals are more readily achievable. The top three manageable goals based on our discussion were:

1) To create incentives for student engagement
2) Session with new members and Tauber II’s
3) Create committees under the executive board to get more involvement

The top six stretch goals based on our discussion were:

1) Increase awareness and support of EGL on campus
2) Engage more members (tied with #1)
3) Create more prestige of EGL
4) More corporate donations/sponsorships
5) Fully define the board positions to align with the mission
6) 100% internship placement of all members (tied with #5)

We would like to get more input from the membership about these goals. As the summer progresses and as we return to campus in the fall, we all look forward to hearing everyone’s opinions on the direction of EGL. Feel free to leave a comment on the blog!

After finishing these goals, we went to the bonfire by Walloon Lake. There were smores, singing, dancing, and overall a lot fun.

Posted by brumao at May 1, 2008 12:56 PM

Comments

Posted by: smlittle at May 3, 2008 06:17 PM

Posted by: brumao at May 5, 2008 02:04 PM

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