Cohort 7's Second Workshop: Leadership -- by Miriam Abadi

                During our second Diller Teen meeting, we saw our fellow friends after the long period of the Jewish holidays. To our surprise, Cohort 6 was there to begin the meeting with us! Once we all sat down, the two cohorts got to know each other by playing a few exciting and creative games such as “the wind blows”. In this game everyone is seated on chairs arranged in a circle. One person stands in the middle and mentions something about them self .Whoever has that fact in common must get up and find a new seat. Then there will be one person left standing and that person mentions something about them self and so on. We also played another ice breaker game involving telling the group one thing about yourself. These games were great ways for everyone to feel more open and comfortable with each other!

              Once Cohort 6 left, we played “the headband game” where every teen had to hold a piece of paper up to their forehead which had a famous person’s name on it. Each player had to ask questions in order to find out who the person on their forehead was. At the end of the game, we figured out together that all these people have something in common-they are all great leaders of their time!

      

  Next, we partnered up with someone and everyone performed a speech to the group without knowing which charismatic leader lectured it. Once we figured out who these speeches were said by, we then spoke about what makes a good leader. We concluded that we must take into account that an inspiring and thought-provoking leader should be eloquent, giving a speech in a way that he connects to his audience. For example, putting a quote into his speech, adding something that you can relate to on a personal level, or even just the way he catches your attention with his slow and captivating voice!

             After a delicious snack break, we watched two videos. One was about one man free styling dancing alone, publicly. After a minute, someone joined him in the crazy dance! Right after this person joined, more and more people felt comfortable to dance as well. After watching this video, diverse opinions within the group were expressed, whether the leader should be overly glorified or does the first follower share the spotlight with him. Most of us agreed that each have different roles. The leader is obviously glorified but the first follower still gets glory for starting the leader’s movement! After all, what’s a leader without any followers?  The second video was the TED talk. It was about a man who changed a student’s life, by unintentionally, making her feel relaxed to enter university. Four years later, he was told this by her and he couldn’t recall this moment, whereas the student was thankful every moment of her successful life for his remarkable act! From this video, we each shared a moving moment in our life with the group where we gave this enduring effect on someone.

               Towards the end of the meeting, we played one last game. It consisted of all of us being limited from our vision or speech and the goal of the game was to get a certain message across the group. For all of us it seemed to be frustrating and stressful! This game signifies the crucial concept of communication. Communication is sometimes hard and overwhelming because your followers may be limited, and, for example, might not understand your perspective on something. Our job is to overcome that, make an effort, communicate, and get through to the people we inspire!

               To end with, I think we all really gained a lot from our second Diller Teen Workshop. Now, we truly understand the qualities and effects of a leader and how anyone can become a leader and reflect their inspiration onto others! I am very excited to see what we can all learn next time we see each other!

                                                                                                          By: Miriam Abadi