traffic jam

this all seemed especially fitting, as the traffic between boston & bridgewater was quite slow on my way to work both dreary monday & tuesday mornings...

during our building manager staff meeting yesterday, i chose to try another team building activity.  in the past, i didn't include such activities in our bi-weekly meetings, but i decided to introduce them this year in hopes of allowing my evening and weekend building managers to get to know the day managers better.  we basically have two staffs: those who work mondays thru fridays between the hours of 7:30am and 4pm and those who work 4 to 11pm sundays through saturdays.

source

this week's team builder was called "traffic jam" and opened the conversation for the importance of communication & how the group communicates, especially between the day managers and the evening/weekend managers.  we discussed problem solving and its importance to the group.  i was really proud of the way the group persevered through the challenge of the activity.   they took risks and were not afraid to begin again when they failed.  once they completed the task, i asked them to do it again without talking.  although, it proved more difficult, they were still able to complete the task & did so in about a minute!

teaching students to communicate well among their peers, as well as with the professional staff, is a goal for this academic year.  each year, i've been in the position, communication has improved a bit.  following a week of challenges and feeling like a salmon swimming against the current, it was an encouraging moment in an otherwise mundane staff meeting...but i'm seriously trying not to hold mundane meetings this semester!

[[disclaimer: the above link for the team builder is not my sole source.  although similar, the questions i asked to facilitated discussion, were not the ones listed on the site.  please contact me or the acui central office staff for the team builder provided by acui from their  i-lead ® program for which i was a facilitator this past summer. ]]