Thinking in Toys: An Alternate View on Leadership

The book that I chose for my leadership course at Ohio State was called Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child. Initially, I was extremely skeptical. The topic seemed legitimate, yet how could you write a legitimate novel, over 200 pages, by directly taking leadership lessons from silly toys? Wouldn’t some of the parallels drawn be a little bit of a stretch? And, most importantly, what toys could you use?

Well, the answers to those questions would come. Firstly, let me say that I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is still a kid at heart. Many of the other leadership books that I’ve read have great concepts, but seemingly dry filler and aren’t the most effective way of learning to lead. When it comes to leadership books, any text that can simplify leadership lessons to vocabulary and concepts that can be understood by all ages and background definitely succeeds. Even better, when a book relates leadership concepts to things that all of us experienced at a young age: creative play, it truly allows for a great opportunity for learning leadership.

So are you still wondering about the answers to those questions? Well, I don’t want to spoil a surprise, but drawing on the previous paragraph, I would definitely say that the authors (Ron Hunter and Michael Waddel) succeeded by writing a legitimate leadership novel with legitimate leadership lessons. I would also argue that they are not silly toys, and that, in fact, they are great learning tools, regardless of age.

To criticize the book, I must say that drawing some of these conclusions requires a bit of a stretch. A creative mind is definitely something that you need in order to visualize these connections; however most of them are easy to understand.

That being said, in a short summary, here are the connections drawn in this book:

• LEGOs = Relationships, “Building Begins with Connecting"
• Slinky Dog = Vision, “Pull-Then Be Patient”
• Play-Doh = Mentoring, “The Mold Makes the Man”
• Yo-Yo = Creativity, “It Only Happens When You Let Go”
• Mr. Potato Head = Communication, “The Right Face for the Right Place”
• Rubik’s Cube = Ethics, “Making the Right Turn”
• Rocking Horse = Efficiency, “All Show and No Go”
• Little Green Army Men = Strategy, “Success Is in the Setup”
• Lite-Brite = Message, “Illuminate to Communicate”
• Weebles = Endurance, “Staying Down Is Not an Option”

Obviously, it can be hard to decipher, but having a background in some of those topics does help me understand it a lot more. As for the Yo-Yo analysis, it was the one comparison I truly didn’t understand. Not having an extremely strong background in creative roles probably didn’t help, but I really couldn’t understand how they were trying to draw that comparison. That being said, the one’s that most “spoke” to me were Play-Doh, Little Green Men, and Weebles. Those analogies truly hit home and allowed me to grow.

This book also helped me grow personally. It made me discover that things don’t have to be taken too seriously in order to learn. You don’t have to be a militant leader, but rather someone who takes the situation back to the grassroots of figuring out what to do. Make things simple, and most importantly, have fun with it!

Dodge, Duck, Dip... Storming, Norming, and Performing?

For this week's blog, I've been asked to talk about Tuckman's model for Stages of Group Development.

The Five Stages: Forming, Storming, Nornming, Performing, and Adjuourning all conicide with a certain point in the life of an organization, group, or team. I strive to show you guys diversity among my experiences. Being involved in a plethora of things here at OSU and back home allows me to take from my experiences and learn from them in ways that few others can. I'd like to do my best to pass the knowledge on to you. So, for this entry, I'd like to talk about my relationship this year with The Ohio State Dodgeball Syndicate.

The Ohio State Dodgeball Syndiacte (or OSU Dodgeball, for short) is one of the few clubs on campus that has transcended many leadership changes, struggles, and most importantly, time. That being said, the club has had no shortage of problems in its tenure here on campus. One of the most promient problems that they've encountered falls into playing locations, which falls into the Forming aspect of group development.

OSU Dodgeball prides itself on being as open and encouraging as any organization on campus can be, which makes them prime examples of utilizing the Forming State to the best of their ability. They have an established game and focus, with predetermined goals. They also are under great leadership, and do their best to recruit to everyone who would like to play. The one problem that they may have is, as said before, playing location.

In Storming, things are still pretty plain. Because the club is set up to play dodgeball, and pretty much nothing else, and dodgeball is a game that has rules that aren't really up for interpretation, the phase is short and sweet.

Norming is where things start to get a little bit more complicated. Because the club is played at more of a casual level, leadership is a little sketchy. Other officers openly mock their peers, and while this definetly makes everyone else feel closer to them, it devalues their leadership. Also, the club recently underwent transition, which puts the "primary leader" position in absolute limbo, as the former primary leader still attends meetings, but strives to just be a regular member, and the new primary leader still hasn't been able to show that he can handle things yet.

The being said, the group still has enough order, vision, and purpose to proceed to the Performing stage. They will no longer truly grow in a way that is significant, their meets are consistent, and no monkey wrenches have been thrown in. They're pretty much a well oiled machine, and will continue to work until something changes. They are absolutely at this stage of equilibrium.

All things considered, this group will not have to worry about the Adjourning stage for quite a while. They consistently generate interest, attempt recruitment events, tournaments, and many more things to keep the group alive. They are the essence of a long-lasting group, and will continue to be around for a long time.

Lost and Found

Since I'm always trying new things, let me start off with this video, and move on from there:

Sometimes, in order to find  who you really are, you have to lose yourself first. Sometimes, and especially for me, you have to start with a blank slate, and build yourself up from there.

For me, my "Lose Yourself" phase was in middle school. Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy kid, wasn't really involved in anything, and did't really have any friends. After some reflection, even at the age of 13, I knew that I needed to make a change to find out who I really was and who I was meant to be. I got involved, went out for a club baseball team, but most importantly, took a class from Dale Carnegie, the world renouned executive leadership company.

The class was called Dale Carnegie Generation.Next, a leadership class specifically tailored for teenagers. I was the youngest person in the class, but that didn't stop me from being the one that truly changed the most. I remember the first class vividly, a bunch of shy teenagers came early, sat in their seats, and were quiet until the instructor arrived. We all came from different background, lifestyles, schools, and experiences, but little did we know that our world was about to be flipped upside-down.

My instructor, a peppy woman named Tracy Robinson, told us that she was going to strip down our personalities and build us better, and stronger from the ground up, and boy was she right. The class taught not only leadership, but public speaking, networking, small-group and large-group interaction, stage presence, but most importantly, confidence. The 8-week intensive course changed who I am, and made me into the outgoing, personable leader I am today.

So now I'm in college, about 6 years removed from my class, and I'm still growing and prospering. I took the Jung Typology test, and here's what it told me:

• I am what they term as a Promoter, with results of ESTP.
• The E, which stands for Extrovert, is the essence of who I am: An outgoing, action-oriented individual who strives for a wide bredth of knowledge. It is an outward function.
• The S, which stands for Sensing, is the basis of how I percieve my reality. I trust my gut on things in life, as well as basing them on facts and data that I have aquired, as opposed to my feelings. It is an outward function.
• The T, which stands for Thinking, is the basis of how I make decisions. I like to step back and take everything in so I can make the best decsion possible. It is an outward function.
• The P, which stands for Perceptive, is the basis of how I live. This means I like to be flexible and keep things open. This is an inward function.

So basically, it told me what I already know, but in a great form. I'm one of those people who is a mix of a lot of personalities, and I can adapt to be the person I need to be for any situation, which is why I love being a leader. It allows me to play many different roles, and succeed in many, if not all of them.

Throughout life, I've gone through many things. Between working at Camp Christopher and becoming President of my student organization (see previous two posts), as well as being youth leader and my parish's Youth Ministry, being captain of my volleyball team, and being a leader on my many baseball team's I've played for, each experience that I've had has allowed me to grow as a person and as a leader.

The most important part, especially for me, is bringing it all together in the end. You can have all these experiences, but until you step back, reflect, and actually learn from them, you won't be able to grow, and you won't be able to find yourself.