Bridge building team exercise: Teams had to build a 12’ bridge out of string, doweling and popsicle sticks. The bridge had to hold a 10 lb. weighted dump trunk.
On October 16 and 17, Dr. Steven Cohan organized a Leadership Workshop (PLSC 489K), which provided 22 students with an opportunity to learn and role play skill that were applicable to their personal lives as well as their future careers. The two day interactive venue included goal setting, team building, self-analysis and personality analyses.
The workshop promised students to give experience with: role playing, brain storming, team building, process management, leadership skills, communication, motivation, adjustment to change, personality analysis, and goal setting.
Students who participated from our department included: Brian Cooper, Fred Wasserman, Mitchell Dickinson, Steven Burchett, Bruno Gonzalez, Keri Grant, Constance Hoge, Justin Jamison, Harold Jiminez, Collin Plumley, Shuang Qui, Jon Vander Vliet, and Yilin Zou. Students from Finance, Geological Science, Accounting Business Management and Government and Politics also participated along with managers from the landscape industry.
How did participants enjoy it? Read how the workshop helped out a plant science student. Keri Grant's shared her experience taking the workshop:
"This Leadership Workshop taught me so much. It went far beyond learning to be a leader and taught is how to maybe be a follower, how to asses people, how to work as a group, how to make and meet goals, and how to 'start with why'.
In a group setting it's not always important to be a leader- too many of those would result in nothing getting done. There's nothing wrong with being a 'follower' despite the fact that it can be stigmatized today. In fact, there are no leaders without followers.
As a follower or a leader it's also important to understand how to communicate with your team members. We learned how to loosely categorize people in order to guess what kind of communication would be the most effective. This is universally helpful- whether it be with work and school or family and friends.
Jim Paluch had us put our learned skills to the test- we grouped up and constructed a bridge. This was such invaluable application. It's not every day that you find yourself in a group that's main focus is really to work well together. It put the practicality of tailoring interactions with specific people showed through immediately as personalities came through, and was a necessary part of the process if peace was to be kept.
Before the bridges, he taught us how to make goals and work on them by filling in a 3x5 card with goals and dreams and reading it multiple times a day. This is to keep you focused on what you want to achieve- its easy to get distracted. And this is important for everyone- leaders and otherwise. If you don't have goals or you're not meeting your goals, it's hard to succeed.
Success is also influenced by, as the author Simon Sinek says it, your WHY. The reason you're doing what you're doing past money. Your WHY should be your passion. In businesses, it's easy to forget the passion part and focus on the money, but money isn't fulfilling, and customers have a better time relating to a company that is driven by passion rather than dollar signs.
All of these things have greatly impacted me and will continue to do so. Every day I take out my 3x5 and read it to myself. My passion for my future has been rejuvenated by the glimpse of possibilities past college. I'm learning to work with people much better than I used to. This leadership workshop changed my perspective on life, in a fantastic way and I am so happy I signed up."
