All God S Creatures

ALL GOD’S CREATURES

--INSTRUCTIONS--

(Do not share this with the group. You want them to discover this!) This is a wonderful team-building exercise. It helps people to open up to see that not everyone thinks alike, and that we all have different ways of learning, perceiving, and taking in information. We process information differently. This is a fun way to illustrate the point.

(Share this with the group) While it does a great job of grasping some quick, basic information about a person, be quick to point out and to understand that this is not an in-depth assessment by any means. Credit: Thanks to Dr. Tony Everett at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary for his development of this tool and his willingness to allow us the opportunity to benefit from it.

You will want to take this yourself and familiarize yourself with the concept, the scoring, etc. so that when you give the survey, you will be well versed in it yourself.

All that being said, have a great time with this. It really gets people laughing and learning together in a more cohesive, team spirit. They will keep referring to it throughout the training if you make it fun.

I. Set up the inventory a. This is an inventory to help us and you to know yourself better b. Use the summary at the top of the inventory to present the concept. II. Give the inventory a. Some people have difficulty following the columns. I have included two different samples to help you with this. b. Since some will finish ahead of the others, I try to wait until everyone is done. You may want to hover a little yourself to see if someone is struggling and not asking for assistance. III. Summarize the Styles a. If you have familiarized yourself with the four styles, it will flow much better. I struggled the first few times when I did this, but the more you do it the more fun it can be, and it is very effective. b. Ask each group to raise their hands as you go over each Style. Ex: “How many Monkeys do we have in the room?” IV. Connect the Inventory with the Purpose for the Day and Future Meetings a. Our diversity in receiving, processing, and making decisions is a gift to the process of coming to conclusions that are beneficial to and representative of the whole group or community. If everyone on the team thinks the same way, we may not see other facets that would broaden/focus our vision (giraffes do this ); we may not see potential pitfalls or overlook details that need to be addressed(hawks do this ); we may not include everyone in the decision-making process so that there will be buy-in or ownership of the vision/concept/decision(monkeys do this); we may not move forward and act on the hard work, energy, and time that has been invested to follow through on the plans that have been laid (beavers get it done). b. Therefore, it is important that as we are more in tune with how we might think or perceive, it is important for us to familiarize ourselves with the other styles so that we can take full advantage of the unique gifts of the whole team. c. Show the cartoon. When we are all working together, we get the job done and done right! Summary: Please bear in mind that we all have some of each of the styles. One will usually be more dominant; although there are some people who may come close or even tie on two of the styles. This is fine. It is not good, bad, or indifferent. We are who we are. Now let’s get to work together! 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 27 24 18 21 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 3 1 2 4 4 3 1 2 2 4 3 1 27 24 18 21