1000 Leaders Initiative - Day One

This week I am participating in the Saginaw County Vision 2020's "1000 Leaders" initiative at Delta College (translation - train 1000 community leaders by the year 2020). I was a slightly apprehensive about spending three full days studying leadership principles, even though we were promised that the program would be comprised of "highly participative, exciting, thought provoking sessions filled with subtle surprises." And that it is; I'm actually looking forward to returning to class tomorrow for another eight hours of the aforementioned "stuff." One exercise was quite interesting to me. We were given a case scenario of a manufacturing operation that had marginal bottom-line performance, and we had to individually identify the problems and solutions prior to group discussion. What the class did not know was that one person from each group was privately asked by the moderator to be a non-participant in the discussion. That person could not contribute any thoughts or ideas unless he/she was specifically asked by another group member. I was the non-participant in our group, so for thirty minutes I just sat and listened to the others banter. That was difficult and frustrating! But it was interesting to observe the others' non-verbal realization that I was not participating in the discussion. Their quizzical facial expressions and uncomfortable glances were priceless. Eventually the lady sitting next to me said, "Jeannette, you're being awfully quiet," to which I could only smile and agree. She didn't ask for my input. After all the groups presented their conclusions, the moderator revealed that he had planted one non-participant in each group, and we all had a good laugh. Briefly, the exercise was designed to demonstrate the relationships between a person's input, influence, ownership, frustration level, and commitment/level of support in group problem solving.

After class was over, I walked to the parking lot with two other ladies, and I could not find my van anywhere! I thought it must have been stolen or towed. I called Joel to tell him that our van was missing, and he asked me if I was sure I was in the right parking lot. "Yes, I'm in the west lot, and the van is gone!" He said he would head out to the college right away. I found a campus security officer and told her, "I parked my van in this lot this morning, and now it's gone." While she tried to surpress a smile, she asked if I came in on Mackinaw Road. When I told her I had, she informed me that I was in the east parking lot, not the west and offered to walk me through the building to the other lot. "Don't feel bad," she said. "This happens all the time, because the two sides of the building look exactly the same." That really doesn't explain my disorientation...I guess all those leadership principles caused me to lose my way. ; )