Shadow Experience

Shadow experience
HDF 413: Student Organization of Leadership Consultants
Alexandra Gonzalez
The University of Rhode Island

Shadow Experience

2
Student Organization Leadership Consultants
Memorial Union Building Managers Retreat
February 25, 2015

Group: Memorial Union Building Managers

Group Contact & info: Shiana Ashworth
SOLC Contact: Colin Rumbel
Goal of Retreat: Team Building; The fall semester was filled with events and formal meetings,
the group never had the opportunity to truly bond.
# Participants: 15
Date: 2/25/15
Time: 6:30pm- 8:30pm
Location: Gallery Rm. 301
Facilitators: West Caster, Jessi Feiner
Shadow: Alex Gonzalez
Retreat Agenda:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Time/
location

Topic/Activity

Facilitator

Notes/Supplies
needed

6:30-6:35

Introduction

6:35-6:50

Two truths and a lie

West

6:50-7:05

Coverage

Shiana

7:05- 7:50

Blanket Volleyball
Plane Debrief

Colin

2 Sheet, Blindfolds,
Volleyball

7:50-8:25

Questions out of a bucket

Jess

Bucket, Question
Slips

8:25-close

Facilitator Review

Review Sheets,
Pens

Handouts: Review Sheets

General Supplies Checklist: Review sheets, Pens, Trolleys, blindfolds, bucket, Question Slips
Questions out of a bucket:
The best to motivate me is..
I become defensive when..
The most effective way to confront me is..
The most important thing in a working relationship is..
My favorite memory of working with this team is

Shadow Experience

I recently shadowed was the Building Managers retreat. This group is more that just an
organization at the University of Rhode Island. The Building Managers serve as liaisons
between students, faculty and other occupants of the Memorial Union. They also manage the
daily activities of the Memorial Union and provide event support. This organization is works
independently but together as a team. Each member is responsible for holding up their part and
responsibilities, if they fail to do so the balance of the Memorial Union suffers.
The Building Managers have biweekly meetings on Wednesdays. Their meetings are
usually between 1 to 2 hours long. Their meetings are also all about business, there are a few
moments where the managers can socialize overall the meetings are always productive. Since
their meetings are held biweekly and they work independently the Building Managers havent
had the opportunity to create bonds. This is especially true for the newest hires. A few others
and myself are the newest addition to the team and speaking from personal experience I have
not had an opportunity to bond with my co-workers.
Because of the lack of community amongst the managers one of the main goals of the
retreat was to help team bonding. Senior Building Manager Shiana also included
communication and conflict resolution as other goals to tackle during this retreat. Colin
managed to incorporate an activity for each of the goals Shiana listed in the retreat schedule.
The three activities he selected were Two Truths and a Lie for bonding, Blanket Volleyball for
conflict resolution, and Questions Out of a Bucket for communication.
As a participant I really enjoyed the two truths and a lie. It allowed me to get to know
some of my co-workers better and they got to know me too. However, I noticed that the majority
of my co-workers did not seem as excited to be their as I was. There were a few employees that
just participated to the very minimum.
The overall vibe of the room seemed to give me the impression that the Building
Manager retreat was a chore.

Shadow Experience

The most interesting part about the retreat was the blanket volleyball activity. When
Colin was explaining this activity to the group I assumed that all of the managers were going to
attempt to lead the group. Since my co-workers are very active leaders at URI. When we
started to actually do the activity, I instantly noticed a few cargo and Luckson took the role as
the pilot. At first it was very difficult to catch the volleyball with the tarp. Both my group and the
opposite group were getting very frustrated and irritated with the activity because we could not
get it right. This activity demonstrated that the managers havent much practice with
communication as a group. Once we started using the countdown method we got better at
tossing the volleyball. The opposite group however was taking a lot longer to get their strategy
down. There was a lot of tension growing between the two groups because we were getting it in
their tarp but they claimed we put in no effort to catch their toss. It never really occurred to our
group to verbally help the opposite group and let them know what worked for us. It wasnt until
we told them how to hold the tarp that we started to make progress. This activity was very
effective at highlighting our groups weaknesses.
The last activity that we worked on was questions in a bucket. There were a total of 15
questions inside the bucket. Not all questions were work related but they were pretty interesting.
This activity was useful at calming everyone down a bit because there was still some tension in
the room after the blanket volleyball activity. Some of questions were The best way to talk to
me is when Im frustrated I. This activity did a good job of letting the managers get to know
each other a little bit better. This activity was place the best right after the blanket volleyball
because the managers need to work as a team and they may or may not known at the time how
to speak to their fellow co-worker in an effective way.
This retreat taught me that in some cases not all of the members that attend are willing
to participate. I also learned that when the group or organization is having some internal issues
it would be highlighted when they do the activity. When this happens I think it is best to address
the conflict during the debrief. This way they can realize what that did wrong and how to fix the

Shadow Experience

problem. If the next retreat I facilitate has members that are not participating I would incorporate
more interactive activities at the beginning of the retreat. This way they are force to participate
and hopefully they are more forthcoming during the other activities.