I thoroughly enjoy making presentations which is why it was so much fun to present workshops on communication and leadership at the second annual Optimist International-Nepal conference May 3-4. I break several rules with regard to Power point protocol and general public speaking guidelines all in the name of making workshops interesting and something participants will remember while actually learning something.
So it was Saturday during a Leadership workshops which appropriately followed a Q &A via video conference with Optimist International President Rebecca Butler Mona.
The workshop that day focused on the five, or six characteristics of leadership. One of them is innovation. Strong leaders are innovators and that's where tennis balls come into play. The room is divided into three groups. Each group forms a circle and each is given a tennis ball to pass around the circle. After a minute or so, you add a second tennis ball to the circle and then a couple minutes later you add a third tennis ball. So you get this...
People having fun. And the argument goes that if you are enjoying yourself and are of a positive attitude, you are more receptive to learning.
It is kind of like that with the marshmallow challenge. It 's a teaching tool that has been around a few years at Optimist International, to help people get to know each other and to teach, collaboration...another one of those characteristics of leadership. The rules are simple; takes 20 strands of spaghetti, some tape, some string and a marshmallow. The goal is to build the tallest freestanding tower with the marshmallow on top so it stands for at least five seconds. They did very well at the conference as you can see...despite me having to correct a couple of the teams who borrowed a couple of other marshmallows to shore up their tower.
So whether it be laughter through innovative practices or team building through collaboration, Optimists in Nepal have a better understanding of at least some of the characteristics about leadership.
Until next time....
The presntaion and both activities, tennis ball cuallenge and marshmello w tower, were very powerful cobination to deliver the message. It was both fun and learning. We shal remeber this for a long time to come.
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