Strategies for Success on a Team

At our alternative school we wanted to teach skills that would help students think about and choose values that would lead to success rather than get them into the cycle of failure.

1. Identify the values that make a team or family successful.
2. For each strategy generated by the group, define each strategy, identify descriptors for those strategies and, identify disruptors to those strategies.
3. For each strategy genereated by the group identify what those strategies look like when they are working. Identify what it looks like when the team is working against those strategies.

1. Apply strategies to what the individual can do to help a team/family/class succeed.
2. Focus on locus of control when making choices in a group.

Set:     Action speaks louder than words.

            Words without action is nothing but hot air.

Wanting to succeed and doing something about it is the difference between one who thinks he has and one who has.

On the 4X6" card, identify a team that you have played on or a team that you admire.

Be specific: what does a team need in order to be successful?

• Leadership
• A common goal: to win
• Support even when there are differences

Think of a good family situation, even if yours may not be the best family situation right now. Think about how you want to bring up your family.

What are the characteristics? Write them down on your card.

• Leadership
• Safety even when you do something wrong
• Openness - honesty
• A place that inspires hope

TALK OVER HOW A FAMILY AND A TEAM ARE A LOT ALIKE.

Crossroads is a school where we can be a team; we can be a family. For some of you, it might be the closest thing that you can have to a family.

The older guys identified some Strategies for Success while you are attending Crossroads. We are going to work on clarifying those Strategies.

You are going to be given a partner. You and your partner will pick one of these strategies. You and your partner will 1) define that Strategy, 2) write descriptors for that Strategy, 3) identify disruptors to that Strategy. After that, you are going to teach that Strategy to a Teaching group where you will process that Strategy with that group.

After that, we will gather as a whole group and talk about these strategies, identify what Crossroads should look like if we all focus on following through on trying to accomplish these strategies for success.

With your Partner:

• 1) Pick a Strategy ____________________________________
• 2) 2 min. Talk about the Strategy - try to identify the definition, and write out descriptors for that
• o Use the Chart Paper: Person A Writer Person B Check for accuracy
• 3) Write out Disruptors (things that disrupt this Strategy) Person B Writer

Person A - Checker

• 4) Identify What It Doesn't Look Like and What It Does Look Like Person B Writer, Person A Checker

Once your poster is made, put it up on the wall.

Move into your Teaching Group - All A's with same people, all B's with same people. Each person has a total of 2 minutes to complete the following items.

Youngest starts:

• 1. Define your trait in your own words
• 2. Explain "what it looks like"
• 3. Identify the kinds of behaviors that will demonstrate striving for that Strategy.
• 4. Explain the behaviors that won't be acceptable or that will disrupt the success of that Strategy.
• 5. Ask the group what consequences would they expect to be carried out if those behaviors show up. Write those down on your 4X6" card: to be transferred to your chart later.

Return to the Whole Group Setting

As a group, Chart those 9 Strategies for Success

Identify what you think is the best example that identifies when it is taking place.

Closure:

On your 4x6" card write out

• 1. The two strategies that you demonstrate most easily.
• o Write one line explaining how you got that under control
• 2. Identify two strategies that are most difficult for you to be successful at.
• o Identify two behaviors you will follow through on during the next week where you will work on strengthening those two Strategies

• 4X6 " index cards
• Chart paper
• List of Team Strategies/Characteristics that help a team or family succeed: 1. Communication, 2. Thoughtfulness, 3. Leadership, 4. Boundaries, 5. Accepting  when things aren't going right

On your 4x6" card write out

• 1. The two strategies that you demonstrate most easily.
• o Write one line explaining how you got that under control
• 2. Identify two strategies that are most difficult for you to be successful at.
• o Identify two behaviors you will follow through on during the next week where you will work on strengthening those two Strategies