What are Core Values? How does it relate to building our team, and how is it related to our team’s performance? What Core Values should our FLL Jr team have to be able to achieve our goals? Our goals are big, we dream of a better future.
By definition, "Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization. These guiding principles dictate behavior and can help us understand the difference between right and wrong."
For me Core values is an experience, it's not a project to be shown on board, it shows within us when we present ourselves as a team or as an individual.
These are the Core Values FLL would expect in a team:
First LEGO League & First LEGO League Jr
- Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
- Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
- Impact: We apply what we learn to improve our world.
- Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
- Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.
- Fun: We enjoy and celebrate what we do!
Apart from these Core Values, our team SmartLunarLegoKids believes in Cooperation.
Cooperation involves learning from teammates. It is teaching teammates. It is learning from Mentors. And it is managing and being managed. Cooperation means competing always, but assisting and enabling others when you can.
When someone is ready to learn; teach them, give them some time to understand, help others if you can, build your team, get friendly, don’t let down your team members, learn the good things from each & everyone, and understand what is right & what is wrong.
Before we start every session, we try to have a warmup game to build our team. Every month in our sessions we try and include a fun team activity & learn new things, either it’s a festival like Deepavali or Christmas, playing cricket & soccer outside & let the kids be themselves. This helps us to understand how each child reacts & how we can incorporate or change based on our core values of our team. The idea is to have our team built strong, no matter how you do... staying positive always helps the team achieve great benefits!
When I asked the team what they liked most about FLLJr last year, I expected them to say “winning medals” or “going to the Expo”. What they told me instead got me to thinking about team chemistry and the payoff that’s even greater than winning or the presentation at the Expo. What they enjoyed the most was The Team & Learning experience they had as a team itself!
The word team is defined as “individuals coming together to accomplish a common goal.” Makes sense, right? Our teams pick a Challenge and they work together relentlessly to accomplish that goal. But what makes a team great or successful? What makes a team stay together year after year? It's the Chemistry.
Developing chemistry with a team happens over time and with various shared experiences. Making memories together gives the team members a sense of unity and bonds them together. Here are a few things we did for building the chemistry within our team.
- We Shared a Meal Together. Sitting around the table and talking about their lives promotes a sense of family. It’s around that table they share ideas, laugh about what’s going on at home or in class, and ultimately become friends.
- We Played Together Often. We always try to do something fun with the team to start off the practice and to get them loosened up. A lot of times, we are trying to get their jitters out too. They’ll feel more connected to you and will feel safe enough to take creative risks without a fear of failure.
- We had Team-Building Games/Experiences. While it may sound cliché, team-building games can be a great way to assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses. These experiences are necessary for them to learn how to communicate.
- We Celebrated Both Successes and Failures Often. Regardless of their ages, we kids love to be recognized for doing a good job. We always give compliments to the team when they do really well and try to find good things to say even when they fail. Sometimes we bring treats like candy, homemade cookies or Donuts to practice as rewards for accomplishing goals. Each little victory we celebrate together as a team, but we also celebrate our failures. It develops chemistry and a sense of belonging.
- We dealt with Conflict in a Timely Manner. It was inevitable. Where there are individuals, there is conflict. And where there are multiple tiny individuals, conflict can often be constant. Collaboration doesn’t come naturally to us. Teamwork is a skill that is developed. It’s up to us to teach them how to work together and how to resolve their conflicts constructively and in a timely manner. When we had conflicts in our team, we began by asking questions. We Model appropriate behavior and conversations for our team. We had the team brainstorm ways to handle conflict and work through it. Where there is constant conflict, chemistry cannot exist. One way we squelch conflict on our team is to have well-defined roles during practice sessions. This allows everyone to feel like a part of one bigger machine, working together to accomplish the task. Once the team members realized their strengths and used them regularly, we have had fewer conflicts and chemistry began to naturally occur
- We are Focused on the Bigger Picture. So, you might ask what exactly is it that my team liked best about doing FLL? When asked this question, these eight-year-olds answered: “We started out as strangers, but we became a Robotics family.” And I wholeheartedly agree. Creating chemistry with the team isn’t only important to completing the Challenge; it’s an essential part of the chemistry puzzle. If you focus on building a sense of belonging and shaping their shared purpose, you will likely end up forging friendships that will keep your team together for years to come.
- Each session we learnt a lesson & adapted them in our lives too! We learnt about not using single use plastic, ensuring proper use of water, electricity, trash management, transportation, saving money for future & spending it wisely, internet connections in a smart city, we learnt about accessibility, durability & environmentally friendly buildings & came up with new solutions to the problems. We visited Hyperloop to learn new modes of transportation.
- We had amazing parents come & talk to the team about what they work on at their job & how useful it is for the community. We had engineers to doctors to realtors to dentists to managing everything moms to CPA’s to musician & more in just our team of parents & they explained it so well to the team too!! Thank you parents, this was one new thing we tried this year for the young brains to have aspirations when they grow up & each time the respective mom or dad came in to talk the kids were beaming with joy. It was priceless!
We are SmartLunarLegoKids, future engineers building this world one day at a time!
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