(This article was written by Zhi Hui, our intern at Kingmaker! Her StrengthsFinder® talent themes (Empathy | Developer | Restorative | Individualization | Relator) makes her an Authentic People Centric Empowerer who sees the value of Diversity and Potential in Humankind. She is passionate in Social Sciences, in particular areas pertaining to people management, personal development, and leadership.)
I always had camps as a student, be it Secondary School adventure camps or Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) ones. However, I never did think about what goes behind the planning and execution of such activities, much less be part of a team which specialises in creating such a great learning experience for the students.
Ever since my internship in Kingmaker, I have had the opportunity to be involved in the planning, preparation and execution of the 4-days Bartley Secondary School Camp, which uses the StrengthsFinder profiling tool to guide graduating students in their post-secondary school journey. The “peak period” was what they called it, and I am fortunate to have been in such a great team which made this camp possible. Here’s how it went.
Planning a Strengths-based Camp
In our company, the quality of our products is our priority. We constantly seek to update our curriculum and improve the design of our experiential games to ensure that our students take away insights from our programmes, and take active steps to achieve their goals. I was involved in the constant refinement of content:
- Is this content worth learning and meets the learning objectives of the programme?
- Are there engaging ways (ie. Games) for the students to learn and for us to get our point across?
- Most important of all, will the students have learn and fun?
These are the questions which we constantly ask ourselves throughout the course of our planning process.
Preparing a Strengths-based Camp
I always took the collaterals I received during my camps for granted. From the worksheets to the game logistics, we had to prepare them by hand and make sure all students got what they needed during the camp. From the filing to the stapling, folding and packing, all these were done by a small yet dynamic team which sped up this preparation process tremendously. To make things more complicated, every set of collaterals received by the students are customised specific to their signature talent themes.
That being said, it was extremely rewarding to see how the students on the receiving end found these resources useful for their learning.
Executing a Strengths-based Camp
During the camp, I was involved as an operation consultant to ensure the smooth flow of the station movement. From ensuring the timing of the camp was on track to the logistic preparation that was needed for each segment of the day, I had to ensure that all procedures were adhered to. A seemingly simple activity required tons of preparation work and checks to ensure everything was all set and ready for the students.
Besides lending a hand in the background operational work, I had the opportunity to coach students who are not so much younger than I am, on making post-secondary choices using their strengths. Initially, I got really worried when this task was being assigned to me. Nevertheless, I seized this opportunity to recall my past experiences as a coachee, in allowing the students to gain clarity regarding the choices they make in the future.
The coaching sessions were more difficult than I thought they would be. The beautiful thing about coaching is that the students learn from you, but you get to learn even more, from both the students and this whole experience. Some of the students I coached were more certain of what they wanted compared to others, but what they had in common was the desire to make use of this coaching session to gain insight regarding their choices.
Throughout the coaching experience, the sense of fulfilment comes from the spark of revelation the students experienced, and the fact that the students start to open up and get really comfortable with you.
Coaching aside, being part of the mass games as game facilitators was an integral part of my experience at Bartley Camp. It seems like the “people in orange” work in isolation, but the truth behind it is that it takes a whole lot of effort to ensure that everyone in the team is clear of what is expected for the execution to be flawless. Looking at how actively the students participated in the games made me really proud of being part of something so much greater than myself.
In conclusion…
All in all, my experience in Bartley Camp was one that was filled with self-discovery – for myself and that of others. As exhausting as this experience can get for the team, I am more than grateful to have had colleagues who supported me, taught me and led me on this learning journey.
The genius of your Adaptability talent begins with where you “live” in terms of your mind. You live in the present – – – even the present moment. Whereas others live their lives in their “rear-view mirror”, always looking to the past and being tied to the past, you are a right here – right now person. The genius of this perspective means that you can change and change quickly. Rather than being rigid, you are flexible; and rather than being tied to some pre-set plan, you can quickly change to meet immediate demands and circumstances that require attention. But the real genius of your adaptability is seen in circumstances that make others scramble and cower into some safety zone for security. Your genius talent of Adaptability comes to light in chaos. In fact, you not only deal with chaos, you get energized, come alive and get a thrill out of chaos as you “ride the wave” and quickly make the changes that chaos requires. This then points to another genius aspect of your Adaptability talent. You can learn and change so quickly.
The genius of your Context talent is found in the way you think about the past and use that form of thinking to learn, plan and solve problems. The present is important to you, but in your mind, the present is best understood by seeking to understand what has led up to the present. Thus, your mind often goes backwards and looks for what has caused what we are experiencing today. This look to the past gives great wisdom for understanding the present and forms a basis for making informed decisions and plans in the present and for the future. The genius of your Context way of thinking provides you with a basis for making high quality decisions and plans and for problem-solving. In addition, as you apply the genius of your Context way of thinking when you learn, you will learn with great understanding which results in high achievement.
The genius of your Focus talent begins with what you can do with your mind. You can focus your attention to an unusual level of concentration. That concentration enables you to amass facts and information, read with clarity of understanding, and solve problems with great precision. You can concentrate to the extent that people may come into a room you are in, and you may not hear or see them. While others pride themselves with their ability to multi-task, you know that for you, you are most productive when you concentrate on one thing at a time. Your focusing talent results in prolonged concentration to address and solve complex problems and planning processes. You learn in great depth, and because of your focusing, when you learn, plan and solve problems, your recall is remarkable.
The genius of your Ideation talent begins with your love of ideas and the way you so quickly learn new ideas, concepts and principles. But you are not passive. It is as if you take ideas and then begin spinning them around in your mind. With each new idea you learn, you tend to think about it over and over – – – spinning it around with the many other ideas you already have. The result of this thinking, turning, and spinning around of new ideas with what you already know does two things. First, you generate new connections and insights about ideas and their implications. Second, the spinning of your ideas often results in new ideas. Therefore, the genius of the Ideation talent is the creativity of generating new ideas and insights as a result of contemplating and reviewing the ideas you have learned.
Your genius strength of Consistency involves both the way you think and process information and the way you see what is fair and equitable. Whereas others often take a long time to determine what is fair and equitable, to you it is obvious. You can quickly determine what should be done so that problems are solved in ways that treat everyone in a just and equal manner. This process of determining what is equitable often involves processing a great deal of information. But the genius of your Consistency talent sorts through information and comes to equitable decisions so quickly that you may not see anything special about what you do because you do it with such ease. In your relationships, you strive to treat everyone equally and consistently. This helps you win the confidence of others. You are a great, fair and just thinker because of your Consistency talent.
The genius of your WOO talent involves the impact you can have on other people and the ease with which you can win them over. You have an incredible ability to meet new people and almost magically know what to say in order to draw others out. Other people love the attention you give them and the way that you can affirm a person so quickly. Of course you love the process and the challenge of meeting new people. And people love it when you connect with them. The genius of this talent is that you can not only quickly connect with people but you can be a catalyst in helping people connect with one another. Make no mistake about it, when you enter a crowd the crowd will be dfferent because you were there. In fact, you have the capacity to transform a crowd of disconnected people into a group and this is no small accomplishment.
The genius of your Deliberative talent is found in the quality of your decisions, choices, values, and the directions you decide to pursue. Your deliberative genius involves thinking and the fact that you will take multiple things into consideration every time you make a decision or a plan. The genius of your Deliberative talent allows you to look at an issue from multiple sides. You will “play the devil’s advocate” as you think through alternatives, values, and propositions, and you will look at multiple sides as you are learning. You will slow down the process whenever you are learning, planning or deciding. But this does not mean you are “slow minded”. Quite the opposite. This is part of your genius and results in very high quality decisions and a depth of understanding.