Leadership Laboratories
Relevant Videos
Climbing Wall
If you are fortunate enough to hold your RYLA program at a facility that has a climbing wall, you have an opportunity to utilize a leadership lab that young people really like and teach several leadership lessons. The leadership lessons would include stepping outside of your comfort zone, putting the team objective before personal desires, and working together to achieve a common goal. And importantly, every team has at least one handicapped member, and that member is often more of an asset than a detriment to the group.
To provide an opportunity for team members to learn about incremental learning, group processes, and where good ideas come from.
This activity involves making ethical decisions. Three stories are presented with ethical choices. Each story involves two advocates (one for good and one not so much) attempting to lure the participants into standing with their opinion. The first scenario involved students cheating on a test. The second scenario consists of a football coach letting players who should not be allowed to play in the big game. The third scenario concerns a businessman who adopts truthfulness in business as a competitive advantage. That last one is Herbert Taylor and the story of the Four Way Test.
This leadership lab involves the assembly of a ‘gadget’ by a small group of participants. In many ways, it is like the old Telephone game where a message is passed from participant to participant with the probable result of the end message not resembling the original message. It also involves the ability to see and describe an object in multi-dimensions. This lab involves communications, coordination, and problem-solving.
Egg Drop
The Egg Drop lab is similar to a tower or bridge-building activity. No matter what gadget participants are asked to build, the lab’s purpose is to stimulate participants to work together in thinking and doing the exercise. This message does suggest an additional feature that introduces the need to be flexible to changing circumstances.
Alien Encounter
I want to share an exercise I have never done at RYLA. It is a business simulation exercise involving a message from an alien world expressing concern over our sending spacecraft into their part of the universe. Participants are asked to prepare a brief 1-to-2-minute response to three alien questions. Conflict resolution at its finest.
Rainbow of Colors
This activity was developed as a simple, user-friendly personality test. An important element of leading others is understanding that everyone has a unique personality and dealing with those differences is essential to the success of a leader. This activity is based on the psychological research and work of Isabe1 Briggs-Myers, David Keirsey, and Don Lowry.