Contributed by Kayla Buki
After spending winter break apart, our cohort reunited at a summer camp-decorated Federation board room for Workshop #5. We kicked things off by presenting our Israeli partners. Some highlights were Chloe’s 2 truths and a lie, Akiva’s killer rap, and Danny and Emma’s awesome slideshows! The presentation made us all that much more excited to meet our partners IRL (in real life).
Next, Lara lead an activity to preface the lesson+discussion that was to come. The instructions were simple: split up into 3 teams, each team got to choose 3 objects from a bin of knick-knacks, and then we had to prove to Lara that our team had “won”. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not quite. Despite the seemingly straight-forward instructions, each team was confused on how to prove their victory. And still, the question remained: had we really won?
After some short team meetings, we reconvened to explain exactly why our teams had won the game. Different methods were utilized to do so. One team used a figurative approach and explained how each of their chosen objects represented aspects of life. One team explained that in order to win the game, you had to cover yourself in stickers, and that’s exactly what they did. One team stood firm in the fact that they had won, and delivered a speech on why that was true.
So, who won? We followed up with a discussion about setting goals and the satisfaction that comes with those meeting those goals, which was a perfect segway into our next activity: “The Journey of Bread and Water”.
We learned that every successful journey is four-fold, and must comprise of a mission, vision, goal, and objectives. We begin with a mission: what are we addressing and why are we addressing it? We practiced recognizing mission by matching popular companies with their corresponding mission statements. Next up comes the vision, the “where are we headed?” question that needs to be addressed.
You would think that goals would come next, but what came next was actually a snack break on the roof of the federation. The beautiful view of the bay was admired, pizza was consumed, and then it was back to business.
Okay now comes goals. This component of the process asks “how are we going to achieve what we wish to do and follow through with our mission and vision?”. Finally, objectives are the clear, attainable, measurable, and time bound things that need to happen to reach said goals.
We debriefed the lesson and then moved on to our upcoming Self Management Shabbaton. We decided on deadlines, talked about logistics, and most excitingly, decided on a theme: “What is my place in the world: עבר,עַכשָׁיו ,עתיד (Past, Present, Future)”.
We walked away from the workshop with a new way to manage our goals, and we can’t wait to use it as we prepare for February’s shabbaton!
