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KARL |
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GENESIS SEMINARRock Spring 4-H Center
Rock Springs was the site for the Genesis session of Class IX KARL. After getting reacquainted with class members met in Salina, the class walked to the Williams Dining Hall for supper. With supper concluded, the official start of the class began at 7 p.m. in the Flint Hills Building Auditorium. Going around the room, class members said their names and where they call home. Next, session Chairman Brooks Brenn introduced Gordon and Karen Hibbard, the evening’s keynote speakers.
The Hibbards addressed Class IX with “Leadership and Ethics for Kansas.” Karen, director of Manhattan’s Tourism and Business Bureau and Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, led the class in an ethical leadership activity. She challenged individuals to think of five people you depend upon, five that depend upon you, one person admired for being ethical, one person who lost admiration for unethical actions, and at the conclusion of her presentation, who we are when no one is around. Karen presented points from the book Ethics 101. In the end, Karen pointed out that ethics boil down to one’s character.
Gordon, president of the Kansas 4-H Foundation, asked the class to think of their ethical person and asked for volunteers to share their story. He asked for the same for the unethical person picked. Gordon pointed out the four P’s of why people are unethical: Pressure, Pleasure, Power and Pride. The catchphrase Gordon gave is: “There is no such thing as ethical leadership, only ethical people.” Brooks presented the Hibbard’s with a thank you gift. The class had some housecleaning business to conduct. KARL President Jack Lindquist distributed Rock Springs health forms then led the class into detailed introductions. Members learned about each other’s profession, families and what they expect from the KARL experience. Alphamates – the two people alphabetically contiguous to you – were decided for people-tracking purposes. Speaker session guidelines were reviewed and the International Tour research project sign-ups were held. The official meeting adjourned a little after 9 p.m.
Saturday August 18, 2007 – Scribe: Ken Woods
The day began early with treatment of mild frostbite for many of the members as Jack tested our leadership ability early by forgetting to reveal that there were blankets in the front hallway and turning the air conditioner to FRIGID. Obviously everyone short of Trevor failed the test as he retrieved his sleeping bag from his vehicle. We then headed to breakfast to get our day started right.
Shortly after breakfast we cautiously headed to the adventure course to find out whether we were worthy of the challenge. We battled piranhas, tight ropes, and Antarctic water but came out unscathed short of Brook’s fingers. We all learned that depending on our each other was the only way to excel. Stephen exemplified this by hopping down the tight rope and using his support crew to dominate the exercise. We also discovered that blindness and physical inabilities occur frequently throughout all of the challenges. Once through with the warm up tasks we approached Lea Ann’s nemesis “The Wall”. This 12 foot wall was aggressively attacked with an excellent plan and the entire group scaled the wall in record time. The team statue is on order.
After cleaning up and eating lunch we met for a session on building high performance teams with Leon Atwell. This was the most popular seminar of the weekend and gave everyone something to take home to their local teams. It created great insight as to problems teams have and outlined the steps to go through to achieve and sustain High Performance. We then separated into groups and learned about where others are with their local teams in the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model and compared problems and solutions within their team. This generated many ideas between team members and offered a straight forward 7 step plan to help build your team.
Our next seminar was “Getting Your Message Across” with Ron Wilson. Ron opened and closed with original cowboy poetry and carried this common sense approach throughout his presentation. He used several examples and drills to help us communicate in an effective manner. We were then split up into groups to help us understand our small group roles. Our mission was to organize a Kansas Agricultural Celebration complete with entertainment. The trick was, everyone was given a hat that was labeled differently (Ignore me, I have good ideas, Agree with me, Disagree with me, and Delegate tasks to me.) The hats could not been seen by the person wearing them but it was amazing how quickly they took their role when everyone was disagreeing with them or ignoring them. It was also amazing that some ideas can be terrible if not discussed, as represented by one group deciding they may need to change the date of the State Fair to accommodate their Ag Day Celebration. It opened your eyes to how positive one person may feel about a meeting and how negative another may feel after going through the same meeting. It also showed when the team isn’t communicating things can be made much more difficult than is necessary.
The highlight of the day was the evening meal and refreshments provided by KARL class VIII. This was held at the Kniebel Ranch compliments of Mary Ann and Kevin Kniebel. There were several guests from other classes and Class VIII’s effort was greatly appreciated. They had a beautiful setting with excellent food, and fellowship. It was amazing how close we had become by the end of the evening. It was a beautiful evening and much of it was spent sitting under the stars and sharing stories. We learned a lot about each other and even discovered a new group self described as the Dirty Dozen (the last 12 awake). After everyone else had gone to sleep The Dozen had an evening sing along and Brian agreed to bring his guitar next time to help keep the group on key. The dogs and coyotes howling in the background did not provide the proper backdrop for the group’s vocal prowess. In fact, Jack heard the noise and thought it was Raccoons fighting over an empty snack bag in the trash bins. The evening concluded with a pitch game and more laughter. After gathering blankets we adjourned to rest up for the final day of boot camp. The entire group had evolved in 30 hours from acquaintances to friends.
Sunday, August 19, 2007 – Scribe: Brian Waugh
The meeting began with the Chair Joe Carpenter introducing our presenter for the day, Mr. Dan Kahl of Kansas Pride Program and The Center for Engagement and Community Development. The presentation given by Mr. Kahl was discussions of Learning Styles. Understanding learning, thinking and working styles are helpful to;
- Understanding Self - Understanding Others - Creating the best Group
- To helping serve everyone's needs - Work with Family, fellow workers and friends
We began establishing where we are as individuals in our Learning / Thinking and Working Styles by ranking groups of 4 words that best characterize ourselves, graphing the scores and breaking up into groups of likeminded individuals. This was very productive as we could assess how individually we think and what appeals to us, while beginning to understand how other groups differ in there though process, both on what appeals to them but emotionally what would make a difference in their buying decisions.
Discussion was ended with an enjoyable task and discussion of how we related to individuals in given scenarios.
Following the presentation by Mr. Kahl, we evaluated the weekend and presented what we felt was the most helpful and or enjoyable thing we took away from this Genesis Seminar. We then adjourned the meeting, stopped for a group photo on the steps of the dinning hall and went to lunch. After good meal discussions we departed to the four corners of the state.
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"With Leadership Comes Responsibility" |
