clinton east

I’ve been away this last week; and it’s been pretty amazing experience.

The idea of the Rotary Youth Leadership Award is to develop young (typically under-30, but varies between districts) leaders. I’ve been involved with quite a few such things over the years, through both work, and charitable type stuff. This was definitely the best so far…

So what sort of stuff did we do? Highlights for me include;

• Values and Vision: The veteran seminar people among my readership might groan at the mention of these words. However, Ben Purdie delivered a very considered view of how a person integrates values into their life, and, especially, gave some simple rules which I think are particularly insightful and make a very useful check.
  1. I am what I have; my possessions define me
  2. I am what I do; my achievements defines me
  3. I am what others think of me
  4. I am separate from everyone
  5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life; I am disconnected from what I want
  6. I am separate from God

  NB: “God” in this context was to be understood in a general sense, not a specific one.
  Ben’s point was that as humans we represent unbounded intention, that imagination is the necessary concomitant of choice.

• Steve Arthurson (Marketing director at CUB )
  delivered a powerful presentation looking at the self, with well constructed examples exemplifying values. He presented a particularly interesting activity which allowed us to easily define our values in terms of the effect we have on others; we wrote our own eulogies from the perspective of friends, family and loved ones. While at first blush this might sound a little morbid, I enjoyed it immeasurably.
• Toby Travanner is an engaging, not to mention hilarious speaker. We ran through quite a lot of material, from Neurolinguistic Programming, to the revised Maslow learning matrix (which now includes a new stage named ‘Conscious-unconscious competence’). Perhaps the best take-out for me was a quick-and-dirty MBTI-like tool by Merrill & Reid. It scores in two senses; the first ranges from ‘Ask’ to ‘Tell’, the other from ‘Controls Emotions’ to ‘Emotes’. It results in 4 basic personality types.
  1. Analytic: Asks, but controls emotions.
  2. Driver: Tells, controls emotions
  3. Amiable: Asks, emotes
  4. Expressive: Tells, emotes

  What I found interesting is that this is enough detail to illustrate conflicts which I would have previously used Myers-Briggs to describe- namely, T/F conflicts on task-orientation and J/P conflicts on timing. I really ought to find a reference that tells me whether they’re equivalent in some way, but for the meantime I’m assuming that Ask-Tell is probably just a quick conflation of the extraversion and perception dichotomies; point is it works well.

• A major focus thoughout the camp was on trust and community building, by a speaker named Shane. Shane began by relating a number of very personal things to us; to say that my view of what ‘integrity’ meant changed rapidly would be an understatement. Shane lead by example, and frankly, and inspired me to approach my personal relationships with greater openness and honesty. His presentation was powerful for me beyond belief, and with such a simple message.

  As I seem to have a bit of a thing for lists today, he lead us through a four-stage map of community which I’ll put below;

  • Psuedo-community: Initial development; everybody is nice, but will not reveal their true self.
  • Chaos: In fighting and ‘fixing’ as individuals attempt to impart their values on others in the community and ‘fix’ them.
  • Vulnerability: Individuals develop a level of trust and openness which allows differences of opinion to be seen clearly, without hidden agenda.
  • Community: This is true community.

  Shane’s model is undeniably a simple one; however the power was more in watching our community develop through these stages rather than a purely prescriptive or objective point of view. His presentation served more as a timely annotation to real life than as a class lesson.

I’ll try to come back to this and add & edit more as time allows; for the meantime email me if I’ve left anything out! Photos to follow!

I’ve been away this last week; and it’s been pretty amazing experience.

The idea of the Rotary Youth Leadership Award is to develop young (typically under-30, but varies between districts) leaders. I’ve been involved with quite a few such things over the years, through both work, and charitable type stuff. This was definitely the best so far…

So what sort of stuff did we do? Highlights for me include;

• Values and Vision: The veteran seminar people among my readership might groan at the mention of these words. However, Ben Purdie delivered a very considered view of how a person integrates values into their life, and, especially, gave some simple rules which I think are particularly insightful and make a very useful check.
  1. I am what I have; my possessions define me
  2. I am what I do; my achievements defines me
  3. I am what others think of me
  4. I am separate from everyone
  5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life; I am disconnected from what I want
  6. I am separate from God

  NB: “God” in this context was to be understood in a general sense, not a specific one.
  Ben’s point was that as humans we represent unbounded intention, that imagination is the necessary concomitant of choice.

• Steve Arthurson (Marketing director at CUB )
  delivered a powerful presentation looking at the self, with well constructed examples exemplifying values. He presented a particularly interesting activity which allowed us to easily define our values in terms of the effect we have on others; we wrote our own eulogies from the perspective of friends, family and loved ones. While at first blush this might sound a little morbid, I enjoyed it immeasurably.
• Toby Travanner is an engaging, not to mention hilarious speaker. We ran through quite a lot of material, from Neurolinguistic Programming, to the revised Maslow learning matrix (which now includes a new stage named ‘Conscious-unconscious competence’). Perhaps the best take-out for me was a quick-and-dirty MBTI-like tool by Merrill & Reid. It scores in two senses; the first ranges from ‘Ask’ to ‘Tell’, the other from ‘Controls Emotions’ to ‘Emotes’. It results in 4 basic personality types.
  1. Analytic: Asks, but controls emotions.
  2. Driver: Tells, controls emotions
  3. Amiable: Asks, emotes
  4. Expressive: Tells, emotes

  What I found interesting is that this is enough detail to illustrate conflicts which I would have previously used Myers-Briggs to describe- namely, T/F conflicts on task-orientation and J/P conflicts on timing. I really ought to find a reference that tells me whether they’re equivalent in some way, but for the meantime I’m assuming that Ask-Tell is probably just a quick conflation of the extraversion and perception dichotomies; point is it works well.

• A major focus thoughout the camp was on trust and community building, by a speaker named Shane. Shane began by relating a number of very personal things to us; to say that my view of what ‘integrity’ meant changed rapidly would be an understatement. Shane lead by example, and frankly, and inspired me to approach my personal relationships with greater openness and honesty. His presentation was powerful for me beyond belief, and with such a simple message.

  As I seem to have a bit of a thing for lists today, he lead us through a four-stage map of community which I’ll put below;

  • Psuedo-community: Initial development; everybody is nice, but will not reveal their true self.
  • Chaos: In fighting and ‘fixing’ as individuals attempt to impart their values on others in the community and ‘fix’ them.
  • Vulnerability: Individuals develop a level of trust and openness which allows differences of opinion to be seen clearly, without hidden agenda.
  • Community: This is true community.

  Shane’s model is undeniably a simple one; however the power was more in watching our community develop through these stages rather than a purely prescriptive or objective point of view. His presentation served more as a timely annotation to real life than as a class lesson.

I’ll try to come back to this and add & edit more as time allows; for the meantime email me if I’ve left anything out! Photos to follow!