Prep Stages for the Self-Management Shabbaton

       Our most recent workshop kept everyone in the cohort busy and engaged, it was never dull for a moment.  We began with an activity focused on communication and the importance of understanding why it’s important to keep good communication with everyone in the cohort, especially leading up to our self-management shabbaton.  Before arriving, we were told to bring a blindfold, if we still had the one from our first shabbaton, for one activity in particular (throwback to the trust walk!).  We quickly found out why.  We split into pairs and awaited instruction.  Next, peanut butter and jelly made an appearance, featuring gluten-free bread.  At this point, we were told to blindfold one person who would be making the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while the other person acted as eyes, facilitating the sandwich making.  During this activity, we saw some groups communicated well and were successful, while others had a more difficult time.  When everyone had finished, we quickly went around the circle discussing the problems we faced and how we reached our end product.  We saw that although there might be a traditional way of going about things, there is not only one way to accomplish the same goal. 
After that, we did activities led by our very own JCs!  Sam’s activity was focused on looking in at ourselves in order to see what motivated us, specifically regarding Diller.  It consisted of an interesting lesson on things like motivation, mission, and vision.  Then, again we got paired up and were given a guiding question.  After giving a response, our partner listened thoughtfully and came up with a further “why” question.  This was a way of probing ourselves to see where our motivation truly lay, beyond the surface.  It was interesting to see how each answer took shape, becoming more concrete and true of ourselves as we kept going.  We ended the activity by recording our answers on a tree, with the superficial answers in the branches, and each deeper response first on the branches, then the trunk, and then the roots. 
Annabelle’s activity, like Sam’s, was something eye-opening.  In pairs, once more, we began the next activity.  The goal was to practice active listening and see how it differs from how we normally listen.  On four note cards, words like college and Israel and parents were written, all flipped over.  One at a time, someone would pick a card and be given three minutes to say whatever came to mind.  The catch was that for the entire three minutes, the other person could not respond or chime in.  After each sort of round, people were called on to give quick summaries of what their partner discussed to show that they listened to and absorbed what their partner was saying because all they had to do was listen, not think of how to respond or move conversation forward.  During the final discussion post-listening, we brought up how although everyone was given the same four words, our conversations were nothing alike, because we as people have different views and different experiences.  We also touched on how difficult it could be to listen thoroughly to what someone is saying and hold back from responding even when there is something you’ve been waiting to say. 
After all of the wonderfully planned activities, courtesy of Amanda and co., everyone was given time to get into their committees for the self-management shabbaton to solidify ideas and start finalizing plans.  All in all, everyone is getting excited and can’t wait to see how things will fall into place.  One more workshop and then we’ve made it!  Wish us luck!

Sophie Caplan