Leadership Workshop - April 2018

The Beacon Leadership Workshop at Savage Wilderness in Sagana was held on 14th April 2018. This was the third workshop in a series of four, and was titled Improving Team Performance.

Scholars, Candidates, and Beacon staff boarded two buses from Sarit Centre in Nairobi on a dull but momentous Saturday morning, departing at about 7:30 AM. On the way to Sagana, each bus had ice-breaker games guided by the Savage Wilderness team, led by Renson Muchuku.

The group arrived at the venue and kicked off activities at 10:00 AM, having first had a hydration and snack break. This was followed by a theory session, facilitated by Renson, based on the ABLE acronym which stands for:

Assess

Build

Launch

Evaluate

After the warm-up games, the candidates and scholars were divided into four teams for more activities centred around the ABLE acronym. The teams formed were Wildest, Dragons, Phoenix and Blazing Blemmmaks, who all came up with their team chants.

The teams were then given their first challenge. This involved one member of the group observing a board with certain materials assembled in a specific order. Each group member then played a different role in verbally relaying the attributes of the materials on the board from one end of the grounds to their base. The point of the activity was that each member could only relay what they had been told by the previous one, but only the first group member had seen the board. Teams competed on communication, speed of execution and collective effort in executing the task within a set time.

The second set of challenges came in a group of four activities and each team undertook the activities consecutively. The first activity was Rope Tangling and Untangling in teams. Each team was divided in two, and was instructed to tangle two long ropes round a tree, with as many knots as they could within a specified time. The groups were then instructed to change positions and untangle the other group’s knot; the fastest to do so and lay the ropes on the ground won. This activity required strategy, coordination and problem-solving under pressure.

The second activity was the River Crossing. In this activity, a team was asked to cross a hypothetical crocodile-infested river using four crates, and to ensure that the crates did not float away at any point during the crossing.

The third activity was the Robot Language Invention. In this activity, teams were divided into groups of three, and each team had to invent a language for giving robots instructions, which was not English or Swahili. Each group had to guide their ‘robot’, who was a blindfolded group member, to pour water on another group’s ‘robot’, causing it to malfunction. The robot who survived at the end won.

The fourth and final activity in this round was the Mats Activity, where a team was split into two groups of four members and each group was to face the other in a line, while each member stood on a mat, and there was one mat placed between the groups. The two groups had to change sides under specific rules, and the activity tested analytical thinking, coordination and leadership.

After this activity, there was a lunch break where delicious food was served by the Savage Wilderness team. The group later reassembled for the Rocket Activity, which was the final challenge of the day. Each group was given paper, a bottle and other supplies, and instructed to build a rocket which would be set off after they were done. The rocket which went the highest would be the winner.

The rockets were eventually presented to the entire group and set off after being pumped with pressure. One rocket soared so high it got stuck in a tree and was evidently the winning one.

The Savage Wilderness team held a final discussion and debrief to reiterate the ABLE acronym and highlight the points at which it was relevant through the day’s activities. We would like to thank Renson and his team of Savage Wilderness Instructors for a brilliant day full of fun learning activities and leadership lessons.