Let the Good Times Roll! Sushi as a Lesson for Life and Leadership

Contributed by Danny Charney

WORKSHOP #6

Bright and early, the Diller Teen Fellows Cohort 20 gathered back in the city for workshop #6, but with a twist! A new location, a bright and sun centered loft in the middle of Potrero Hill. We were all a little sleepy, because of the early start time of the workshop, but we were excited to get things rolling (literally-  as in sushi rolling!).

 

We started off by having a check in about our week, to reconnect and to breathe a little bit on this peaceful Sunday morning. Lara then proceeded to ask us a question to wake us up and to get our brains to start moving.

She asked, “How do our values translate into goals, and how can goals shape our lives?” I was perplexed by this question, and really thought about my values and how they relate to my goals. After a thoughtful discussion, Lara led us into a talk on a statement by a prominent Israeli Politician, Yair Lapid. We talked all about the current political climate here in the USA, and why dialogue is necessary for a balanced view. After both of those thoughtful conversations, Lara and Aaron gave us some time to work in our Self-Management Shabbaton committees, and reminded us that later in the workshop, we would be having an influential guest speaker, and a spectacular cooking demonstration. I for one was super excited!

After the productive work in our committees, we gathered back together, and Lara introduced our guest speaker for today, Alex Sandrovosky from L’chaim foods. He introduced himself and told us a little tidbit about his life and his idea for his catering/sushi company. He explained to us his mission and goal for his company, “to sustain a kosher catering business, while taking meat out of the equation, in order to make a larger impact in the Bay Area community.” He then gave us some advice that he said to take with open ears. He said, in his opinion, “Even if you are very successful in life, you may also have some sadness.” A lot of the members in the cohort had differing opinions on his view. I for one, thought this was a very difficult view to comprehend. I look at the meaning of success as different for each individual person and for some, sadness was not part of that journey, so I somewhat disagreed with his opinion. After some deep conversation we had a surprise, we were making sushi! We all went into the kitchen, and Alex and his assistant showed us the art of making sushi. It was super exciting and I can now say, I somewhat am a sushi master!

After making the sushi, we all went back and thanked Alex for the insightful lesson. We then processed all the information we just learned and debriefed. Lara then talked about how this relates to our Shabbaton that was coming up later in the month, and how we should all have a goal, vision, and mission, to make this Shabbaton meaningful and empowering. 

Afterwards, we took some time to write in our journals about this wonderful experience we  just had.  Before it was time to part ways, and get some sleep, Lara had an announcement. She was unfortunately leaving the Diller program as a coordinator. We were all devastated, but we ultimately knew that the friendships we made with her are going to be kept for life. She promised us that a new coordinator, who is just as amazing as her would be filling her shoes. We all then hurried over to her and gave her the biggest hugs. Fundamentally this was a profound workshop that was influential in our Diller journey, to help us become better leaders, and to get us fellows to start thinking about our life's  mission, vision, and goal.

I for one am excited to continue this journey and make the most of our time left with Lara as meaningful and joyous!

Embarking on a journey: New Year, New lessons in leadership!

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!