FOL Day 3: Tape Art

Did you say tape??

Have you ever thought, "I feel like drawing with tape all over this blank wall!!". No? Well, neither had I ... until Foundations of Leadership training Day 3.

The class was split in two, each half going to separate activities for the morning and afternoon. Jim Swims' (aka my team, Team 7) morning started off, yet again with amazing food and lattes - but even more interesting was the clown. He wasn't dressed in a clown costume so we didn't know his true form until he told us. We learned to get comfortable with ourselves by all standing in the classroom following the hand and body motions of the clown in front. Then we partnered up to do what was called the leader-follower activity. One person leads and the other person follows and then you switch. You stand in front of each other and the leader does things like move their hands up and down and make facial expressions, while the follower mimics the actions. The next part is the seemingly tricky part ... you both lead and follow at the same time!! Think it can get crazier?? It did. We then closed our eyes and kept moving. Our instructor said stop and we opened our eyes to see if we matched our partner.

You may be wondering at this point, "Why is a clown leading exercises in a class about leadership?". Well it showed me that you can be a leader and a follower at the same time, and that there is a time to be a follower and a time to be a leader.

This activity lead right into a large pile of painter's tape. The group simply titled Tape Art, joined the clown instructor and invited us to let our creative sides. We split into two groups: Amiables & Expressives and Drivers & Analyticals. We were tasked with drawing GE. The Amiables and Expressives were drawing 20th century GE while the Drivers and Analyticals were drawing 21st century GE. We were then let loose. There were about 15 Drivers and Analyticals and over 25 Amiables and Expressives (largely Expressives). There was minimal planning and lots of taping ... everyone ebbing and flowing from leader to follower.

After 1.5 hours we switched with the other half of the FOL class that was at another activity. They followed suit with the clown activities then continued the tape art ... bringing 20th and 21st century GE together. Check out the images below!

Stay tuned to learn what happened in the afternoon and evening in ... FOL Day 3 continued!!