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Staff Development Day: Urgent Conversations

Today was staff development day.  Or as we say in the biz... Staff dev day.  Or maybe that was just at our table.

The way it works is... we generally have a staff development day about twice a year.

The day sometimes lasts the entire day, or sometimes just half the day.  It depends on what other sort of things are on the table to discuss.  Sometimes there's lots of things like budgets and what not, or mission related stuff.  Or sometimes it's more of a fun type of day where we have activities planned.

Generally it goes something like....

Breakfast and mingling.  So, we'll get either just a light breakfast of coffee and pastries and such.  Or if it's a longer staff dev day we get eggs and bacon and the works.  After a half hour of chatting and consuming our tasty beverages and other breakfast food items, we'll be seated at tables.

The first person to speak is kind of the "M.C." speaker.  They are in charge of the... "Okay everyone hello? *taps mic* Is this thing on?  Yes, okay, everyone please take your seats!  And now... I'm going to say something funny *everyone laughs*... And now... I'm going to introduce the next speaker..."

The next speaker is usually the opening prayer.  So Sister So and So will give the opening prayer and everyone amens.

"Amen."

It's a Catholic College.  Sooo it's just part of the deal.

After the prayer they kind of go over the outline for the day.

Then the outline person introduces the main act or speaker.  There's then the main day presentation.  Although sometimes we do things where we'll be split in two... Or, as they say in Robinhood Men In Tights... Split in twade.  "HE SPLIT ROBIN'S ARROW IN TWADE!"

Twade may not be the exact spelling.  But... That's how it sounds in the movie.

So, one half will be in in one room and another half in another.  Then we'll swap.  This is if the presentations are more of a nature that requires the group to be smaller.

Then we'll kind of wrap things up with any sort of announcements or other small things.  And of course then we'll have some kind of lunch thing.  Today we had a BBQ cookout thing.  It was nice.

Then it's back to work.  If it's a longer day... We'll have like breakout session part two... Or whatever.

There's usually pens and paper on table and interactive audience participation.  And we discuss at our tables and then there's group presentations with a mic as to what each table came up with.

Ideas are flowing.  The whole thing is it's supposed to get us to mingle with departments we don't normally work with and it's also supposed to get ideas that can be taken back to staff council where they can then use the ideas to shape and change and add to the core values and mission of the college and make the college community better for everyone in the future.

Today our presentation was on Urgent Conversations.  This has to do with race on campus and in general in our society.  One of the presenters was a student that I'm a good friend with.  The other presenter is a teacher at a school in Philadelphia, and as well is a published poet.  So the Urgent Conversations were poems from her published poetry book... The format of the presentation was kind of that she presented along with the student and then after that she would read a poem from the book.

Then from there we would have an open discussion questions related to the poem and how we felt about the issues that the poem raised.

Each one of the five different poems discussed some serious issues related to race and diversity.  It was very interesting for sure and everyone was very receptive and into it.

The presentation itself was VERY professional.  Customized slides and even photoshop artwork and backgrounds along with videos.  A custom professionally made poster sat next to the podium.  The topics of the various poems ranged from discussing the origins of race in the first place and what diversity means and then how can we change things going forward.  How to approach people and the topic to discuss it in a constructive and productive way.  How are we each fitting into the mix.

They even used a more light hearted approach of different hairstyles and hair types and how we feel about our own hair versus the hair that others have to add to the discussion.

Does a specific hairstyle make you feel a specific way about someone?  Or make you think specific things about people?  How would you feel about someone reaching out and grabbing your hair... A stranger... A friend... Does that make you uncomfortable or are you all about it?

The idea is that... We all sort of perceive and interact with each other in ways that might be fine with one person but not with another.  That we might judge someone on a hairstyle, even though that's just a temporary thing.  That's not WHO they are inside.  Or we might do something like reach out and grasp someone's hair and say... "Oh, is that real?"  Or question the coloring.

And that can be offensive or make the person that is having that done to them uncomfortable.

So we had some interesting discussion and took away some new perspectives and ideas.

That's what it is about.  Trying to get everyone to think in a slightly different way and see things in a different light.

After the presentation they closed out the staff dev day and we all had some BBQ.  Then it was back to work.

The takeaway is that sometimes conversations can be uncomfortable, especially if there's an urgent need for those conversations.  But those conversations are necessary for progress and change to happen and to make the spaces that we live and work in, safer and more productive for everyone!

It's one of the things that I enjoy about working in a college community, that the ideas are always flowing and everyone is always trying to challenge everyone else to think and look at the world in a different way.  Critical thinking.

What kind of urgent conversations can you start with those around you to make the world a better and safer place?  What is the best way to start those conversations and open up that dialogue?