Staff Team Building

January 9th, 2017

As an organization, influenced by the "Compassion and Systems Thinking Wave" we decided to welcome our staff back (300+ people) with an interesting team building approach. For their first day back to work, after the winter break we experienced the following:

FOCUS:

We wanted staff to reconnect with the "inner child". Explore concepts such as "what does it mean to leave out or break the mental frames, stigmas, perceptions?" What does it mean to truly connect with an unknown cause, people and places? What is the power of systematic design, planning and execution of a plan? Why and how should we reflect? What is the power behind a message? How do we present data? etc.

ELEMENTS:

• All staff from eight school sites and around ten programs were randomly assigned to a team;
• Each team had 10-12 members;
• Each team brought random "Tools to help them design something" (email was sent to entire organization)
• What to bring (WITH YOUR NAME ON ANYTHING YOU WANT TO KEEP):

• 1-3 items from the Resource List below. The more tools and resources, the more your team will have to work with (You MUST have an item as your entry ticket to this event!)

..........

Everyone must bring:

2 Boxes (the bigger the better!)

Scissors

Other Resources to use or barter with:

Box cutters

Fabric (like an old sheet)

Duct Tape

Zip Ties

Clamps or clothes pins

Your own good ideas

......

• Upon arrival, each team was prompted to get together, share space and work on exploring their team materials by having each team member introduce themselves, offer their tools and provide a rational for their tools;
• Teams were given two detailed prompts (design challenge and systematic reflection)
• Once they built forts, they went though a set of activities: 1) How would you host a someone in your space; 2) We invited children to share the space and purpose with the adults (we invited mixed age children 2y.-16y.). All staff welcomed kids, shared their design and purpose for the project.

SEE Pictures and REFLECTION VIDEO Bellow.