ELP 2012 Retreat - January 21st, 2012

Our 2012 AIA Dallas Emerging Leaders Class held its retreat on January 21^st at the Turtle Creek Pump House.  The venue for the retreat, which was once the pumping station that supplied water to Highland Park, is one-of-a-kind.  It showcases how adaptive reuse can bring new life to not just a building, but the entire site.  Our class enjoyed spending the majority of our time in the well-designed and spacious conditioned space (particularly with it being a chilly morning), but glances out of the windows provided views of an amazing landscape design which celebrates the historical use of the site.  During breaks and at lunchtime, many of the members of our class could be found strolling around the exterior garden spaces.

We spent the morning learning from Dr. Pete DeLisle about the leadership strategies that make leaders effective.  Part of the discussion involved the explanation of the intriguing diagrams that were included in our class binders.  Through clear visual representation, these diagrams helped to give us a better understanding of a number of complex concepts.  One such diagram portrayed the four main aspects of one’s ‘self’ – the open self, the hidden self, the blind self, and the unknown self.  The open self, which is that known to ourselves and to others, can be expanded through our actions and communication.  Each of us can choose to reveal more of the hidden self through revealing aspects to others, which would then make those aspects part of the open self.  Each of us has a blind self that includes aspects which are only known to others, but a leader can become more effective by choosing to ask others about the blind self and then learning how to improve upon revealed weaknesses.  The unknown self, at its best, might include an inner heroism that only reveals itself in an extreme situation where that heroism is needed for the well-being of others.

Throughout the retreat, each of us was thoroughly engaged.  Dr. DeLisle interspersed examples of real-world scenarios throughout the discussions of the diagrams and other leadership strategies, then the discussions were interspersed with interactive activities.  One of these activities began with a simple request: choose a partner, then decide which partner will be the communicator and which partner will be the receiver.  Next came the tricky part – the communicator could not speak, and the receiver had to close his or her eyes.  For a few seconds, we were stumped.  Then came the development of an alternate communication method, which for most of us, ended of being a Morse code of sorts – one tap for yes, and two taps for no (or vice versa).  Those who had been ’20 Questions’ champions during long car trips while growing up were at an advantage.   After (hopefully) successfully communicating our messages, we switched roles.  After the exercise, we discussed the importance of effective communication and how we can become better leaders by continuously making efforts to improve upon our communication skills.

Our lunch was a tasty combination of tacos and sides prepared by Street Fooder.  After lunch, we delved further into understanding different cognitive problem solving styles and how these styles shape how people communicate with each other, work together, and relate to one another.  Each of us filled out a questionnaire, then we added up our scores to three sub-scores and finally a total score of where each of us fell on the scale of ‘Innovator’ to ‘Adaptor’.  We all fell somewhere in between the score extremes, but those within a certain middle range fell under the ‘Bridger’ category.  We learned that all three groups – Innovators, Adaptors, and Bridgers – were essential to the success of an effective organization.  Dr. DeLisle stressed how important it was for each of us to be aware of our problem solving style differences and how the most effective organizations allow each member to thrive in his or her style rather than being expected to perform in a long-term role that does not fit that member’s style of problem solving.  We also learned that Bridgers are handy to have around when it looks like an Innovator vs. Adaptor disagreement might turn into a brawl.

Throughout the day, which seemed to fly by, we learned more about ourselves and took in an extremely valuable (both in quality and quantity) collection of information and lessons for learning how to become more effective leaders.  Photos of the retreat, taken by Michelle Northington, can be found on our group’s Flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aiadallasemergingleaders/sets/72157629042294359/

Christine Robbins

5G Studio Collaborative