BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP

“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Cabinet Retreat for the Senior Leadership Team

“Taking BSU To The Next Level”

Background:

The origins of Bowie State University is derived from and grounded in a number of
significant historical forces that has formulated its existence, shaped its institutional
legacy as an HBCU, and ensured its sustainability within the 21st century. Examples of
those forces include the spirit for freedom, religious (Quaker, Baptist), cultural, the
Nelson Wells fund, a social stewardship mission, state and city legislation, progressive
politics, and financial commitments. Officially it became Bowie State College on July 1,
1998 and one of the 11 constituent institutions of the newly founded University Systems
of Maryland. Currently, Bowie State University is embarking upon its 10th legacy
leadership cycle through the Presidency of Dr. Mickey L. Burnim and a Sr. Leadership
Cabinet of 10 members.

Opening Remarks:

As you recall during the President’s opening remarks, he identified the critical challenges
for BSU over the next 3-5 years. This Cabinet Retreat for the Senior Leadership Team
has been provided in order to launch a high performing team that will guide BSU through
this 10th legacy leadership cycle.

Situation:

An external consultant from HRD Consulting Services has been engaged to provide team
building facilitation services to the Sr. Leadership Team. The purpose is to initiate the
team building process for optimizing their efforts at working effectively as a high
performing team in fulfilling the Vision, Mission, and Values of BSU and strategically
positioning this University toward a future of excellence and sustainability.

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Objective:

The primary objective of this Cabinet Retreat is to foster a climate of engagement,

commitment, and accountability to action learning and professional development that
results in the building of a high performing leadership team.

Challenges:

In order to foster a climate that will cultivate a high performing team, an Action
Learning Leadership Simulation has been designed to support the launching of this newly
formed team through its fundamental stages of development. This simulation will be
conducted over 8.5 hours in two ½ day sessions and consists of 12 Modules of team
building activities. The process will involve ongoing expansion of self-awareness,
increased understanding of others, norms for working effectively together, clarity of
expectations, role responsibilities and accountability, team member contributions and
their impact on the team’s performance, utilizing the talents and resources of the team,
and cultivating collaborative leadership practices required for the 21st century and the
fulfillment of this 10th leadership legacy cycle. Participants will be engaged in an
ongoing process that includes assessment, reflection, dialogue, discovery, reality-testing,
experimentation, feedback, validation, and the re-framing of perspectives. Our focus
will be on the present – clarifying our current capabilities and challenges, and exploring
the opportunity and requirements for strategically positioning BSU into the future.
These challenges, opportunities, and requirements will be addressed at the individual,
team, departmental, cabinet, university, student, and community level.

Approach/Outcomes:

In order to achieve this objective a Sr. Leadership Team Building Simulation has been
designed. It consists of 8.5 hour event (across two half days) to jump-start and prepare
the Cabinet for launching its 2007 Initiatives. This is a relatively new working team that
will be making additions to it membership, thus theoretically forming a new team.

It is expected that the team will continue in its developmental process beyond this
event. However, this event will provide an opportunity for the team to address some of

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

the common team building issues and challenges. Outcomes sought include - expand the
level of mutual respect, build trust, establish an identity as a high performing team,
formulate a shared vision, target common goals, leverage strengths, recognize and
modify operational performance norms, establish outcome benchmark measures for work
products, initiate strategic and operational plans, and set progress milestones that will
monitor and evaluate the Cabinet’s performance over the next year.

Modules:

The modules have been designed to address the following questions:

1. What are the critical initiatives and priorities mentioned in the Presidents opening remarks?
What are your expectations and the outcomes that you seek from this retreat?
2. How well and at what level do team members need to get to know each to establish a
foundation of trust for working effectively together?
3. What is the current view and level of understanding about the challenges of the team?
4. What are the issues and level of synergy that emerge when the team is engaged in a complex
creative planning task requiring an outcome under limited time pressures?
5. What is the shared vision for “taking BSU to the next level?” How does the current
organizational culture enable or hinder this desired outcome?
6. What is the collaborative leadership potential of this team? Strengths? Developmental
targets? How will it enable or hinder fulfilling the shared vision?
7. What are the themes, issues, and challenges that surface when the Cabinet is in a problem-
solving mode? How is information shared? How well do they communicate and collaborate?
8. What is the Cabinet’s orientation to change? What is their collective agility dexterity?
9. What are the types of cognitive preferences and how do these preferences influence team
performance? Strengths? Developmental targets? What is required for going-forward?
10. What is the team’s composite preference type profile? How does it serve the team in doing
the work of the Cabinet? What is required for becoming a high performing team?
11. What were the outcomes from the survey of the team’s functioning? Strengths?
Developmental targets? What is required for going-forward?
12. What lessons have you learned about yourself? Team members? Challenges for the team?
What Individual and Team goals and action planning is required for going forward?

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Labyrinth

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Team Building Modules

Day 1 / June 13 Day 2 / June 14

Part A / 1:00 – 5:15 Part B / 8:00 – 12:15

Activity #1: Activity #7:

Opening – President’s Remarks Team Puzzle Exercise
Overview / Outcomes (P. 1-8) Communicating & Collaborating (VG)

Activity #2: Activity #8:

Getting Acquainted Cabinet’s Change Orientation
Irregular Introductions (VG) Nine Dots / Mental Agility (P. 24)

Activity #3: Activity #9:

Team SWOT Findings MBTI Overview
Team Effectiveness Challenges (P. 9-11) Applications of Preferences (P. 25-35)

Activity #4: Activity #10:

Tower Building Exercise MBTI Team Preferences
Design, Plan, Deploy, De-Brief (VG) Team Member Role Contributions (P. 36-39)

Activity #5: Activity #11:

“The Next Level” Visioning Video – The Five Team Dysfunctions
Strategic Organizational Positioning Cabinet’s Team Report (P. 40-44)
Navigating the BSU Culture (P. 12-19)

Activity #6: Activity #12:

th
BSU Leadership 10 Legacy Cycle Individual & Team Goal Setting &
Collaborative Leadership Profile (P. 20-23) Action Planning (P. 45-47)

Dialoguing, Reflecting, Journaling (P. 48-49)

Workshop Evaluation (P. 50)

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Team Retreat Guiding Questions

1. What are the strategic initiatives for BSU?

2. What are the 3-5 year goals and outcomes?
3. What are our order of these goals and initiatives?
4. What is the current view of the state of the BSU culture?
5. What are our values and how will they influence the direction of
BSU?
6. How does your level of self-awareness influence your leadership
impact, effectiveness, and outcomes?
7. What are the current thinking patterns of the Sr. Leadership
Team?
8. What is the source of your leadership behavior?
9. What are the team’s strengths and developmental targets?
10. How will the team leverage its preferences, strengths, and
agility?
11. What is the current level of team effectiveness?
12. What are the critical developmental targets that require
management?
13. How can the team efforts be aligned with the BSU Mission?
14. What action plans will be deployed to ensure strategic
organizational positioning?

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Workshop Ground Rules

1. Place all electronic communication devices on mute or vibrate.

2. Be present and actively participate.
3. Listen attentively and respect others when they are talking.
4. Speak from your own experience using “I” statements.
5. Practice being timely and punctual when returning from breaks.
6. Respectfully challenge others by asking questions – focus on
the ideas under discussion and avoid personal attacks.
7. We can agree to disagree on some matters and ideas.
8. Professional growth requires participation, feedback, and
reflection.
9. Be open to divergent points of view before making up your
mind.
10. Solicit feedback about your impact on others at your own level
of comfort.
11. Our primary goal here is to listen, understand, and learn.
12. Be conscious of your body language and nonverbal responses.
13. Guide your own level of participation to fulfill your learning
expectations and the objectives of this workshop.
14. Please offer other ground rules that would ensure your
Participation.

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 BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP
“TAKING BSU TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

Workshop Objectives

1) Establish an understanding of the source of your

leadership impact.

2) Expand awareness of self and one’s impact on others in a

team context.

3) Provide grounding and traction for a new forming team in

transition.

4) Optimize overall team effectiveness.

Outcomes

Provide a framework for team members to work effectively by

understanding and managing the following:

Self in a team context
Creativity

Goal Achievement
Collaboration

Team Dynamics
Decision Making

Building Trust
Problem Solving

Communications
Conflict Resolution

Information Processing
Stress & Change Mgt.

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