Team Leader Training
When: March 1 – 3, 2019
Where: Wichita, KS
Our desire is for Team Leaders to walk away from TLT with a basic understanding of how to successfully lead themselves and others through O-Week and their overseas project. Our goal is to equip team leaders with entry-level leadership principles, as well as with a set of tools to help them succeed. We especially want to emphasize the importance of the FOCUS Values and how these Values are tools they can use to help them lead well.
Objectives
- Gain trust of team leaders
- Define what success looks like
- Communicate the importance of the FOCUS Values
- Communicate our strong belief in their ability to lead
- Define the role & responsibilities of leading a team
Format
Keynote/Platform Speakers
The large group times focus on the bigger picture of students leading a team of peers in a cross cultural context.
Logistics
A short portion of the weekend is dedicated to communicating the logistical elements of an overseas project and the leader’s role. These are a combination of O-Week, travel and contingency logistics.
Field Exercise
Saturday afternoon, the tribes will be divided into groups. Each group will have a training operation to conduct in Wichita involving public transportation, problem solving, walking, and communication.
Leadership Workshops
The workshop sessions are designed to give team leaders content related to leading their team during the spring semester, through O-Week and overseas. The goal of these workshops is to give practical resources for students to lead a team of peers well.
Interactive Tribal “Council”
Each team is assigned to a “Tribe,” which is their community at TLT and O-Week. At TLT, leaders start working with Tribe Leaders, who will act as coaches for the Tribal “Council” small group sessions. These sessions are great relational times together, where you can process the challenges of leading, ask questions, and learn from each other.
Topics
- Introduction to Participatory Learning – Preparing and Explaining O-Week
- Leading by Casting Vision
- Leading with the FOCUS Values
- Earning Leadership (servant leadership)
- Engaging Conflict
- Read/Act Model
- Leading Different Genders
- Decision Making (field Exercise)
- Leading a “Team Time” (field Exercise)
- Identifying Leadership Roles
- FOCUS Communication Policy
- Contingency Plans and Risk Management
- Communicating with Overseas Partners
- Serving Your Overseas Partners and Organization
Orientation Week
When: May 19 – 24, 2019
Where: Salina, Kansas
At O-Week we create a simulated country called Focustan. Within Focustan is a “new culture” where students will eat, sleep and live together with their team for the week. It will include numerous interactions with almost 100 actors / instructors playing roles of Nationals (locals) and Polis (government officials) in ways similar to what you would experience overseas.
The training scenario condenses overseas life into a one week experience so students/teams learn on numerous levels at once:
Participitory Learning
Our model for learning is called “Participatory Learning.” The FOCUS method of training will revolve around the following areas: Train to go on assignment with a heart to live a values driven life.
- Train to live safely overseas: We train for travel awareness.
- Train to make friends overseas: We train for building cross-cultural friendships.
- Train to joyfully travel as a group of friends: We train for group cohesiveness.
- Train to fully cooperate with and bless our Overseas Partners: We train to cooperate with and be a blessing to those we work with.
Levels of Learning
Level 1: Character Confrontation and Resolution.
Level 2: Cross-cultural Engagement.
Teams learn to live with integrity in a cross-cultural setting and effectively share life with their new friends.
Level 3: Team Building.
O-Week is designed to facilitate helping teams work together as a group of friends who honestly care about each other. The training is designed so student’s summers will be filled with a healthy balance of trust in others and tested confidence in oneself.
O-Week Format
Orientation Week (O-Week) is a mixture of simulation (hands-on) training and debriefing (classroom and small group instruction)
Tribe Leaders
Teams participating in O-Week are divided into subgroups (by culture/region/people group) called Tribes. Each Tribe has a ‘Tribe Leader,’ who coaches throughout the week and helps teams debrief what they are experiencing and learning.
Tribe Coaches:
Within the tribes, tribe coaches serve as hands-on coaches when teams are in simulation.
Polis:
Each Tribe has their own ‘squad’ of Polis that will be present with the team throughout to week. Polis are coaches for the teams, training students to responsibly and respectfully interact with different government authorities in the countries they will travel to.
Nationals:
Like Polis, each Tribe has their own group of “nationals” assigned to them. The Nationals will challenge the students in relationship building and being aware and respectful of cultural norms.
