YCE—3/26

We began our day with a workshop alongside members of the Center for Innovation and Leadership. We first brainstormed and discussed about what characteristics make a good leader — among them communication, understanding teammates’ strengths and flaws, self-awareness, and listening — and then proceeded to a team-building activity. As a group of four, we had to decide three out of 12 items (including matches, a map, a sleeping bag, tent, water, knife, jacket, and medical kit) to bring on a hypothetical camping trip. It was undoubtedly a difficult decision-making process. Our team began by agreeing that the water bottle was an essential item we could not compromise. Then, we turned to the process of elimination and agreed that certain items, such as the map and jacket, were less necessary than others. We finally came to our final decision of water, a sleeping bag, and a medical kit. Interestingly, the other team devised a more democratic process by directly voting on what items they thought were essential and selected a varying set of items.

We then talked about power dynamics, and how this can often be subtle and something that we don’t notice unless we actively pay attention to elements such as gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation and identity. This discussion made me want to be more mindful of not only how I treat others, but how my presence can affect the conversation as a whole.

One of my favorite activities this day was when we participated in somewhat of a backwards version of charades in which we were seated back-to-back with a partner and we had to explain the shapes that constituted an object our partner had to draw. For the first round, the person who was drawing could not ask questions.

This is a drawing from when I attempted to draw what I later found out was a beanie. I could not ask questions, so I had a difficult time figuring out where to draw the lines.

Above is an image of my second attempt at drawing, this time a calendar. In this round I was allowed to talk with my partner, so I made sure to ask specific questions to ensure what I was doing was correct.

I also listed my biggest takeaways from this workshops!