Why you ask? Well because we have an opportunity here, as a group of independent individuals, to collaborate, come together and create something magical this year. Interdependence.  I feel as though one of the most powerful things is a group of individuals who each have the same common purpose (putting students first), are independent (responsible, proactive, and accountable), and who can come together to take the necessary steps to ensure they work as a team to create interdependence.

Some of you may realize that I am referencing Stephen Covey’s book the Seven Habits of highly effective people, and you would be totally right.  To be honest I wasn’t able to put all of this together until today when we were talking about our smart goals and going through our deep dive. Then it all started to come together as I have explained above.

I started to realize that we were taking the steps to ensure we knew there was no room for slackers and that they probably would not be helped if they slacked off. Which I think may be a little rough but at the same time I agree with it personally. But we also realized the importance in checking in with each other when things are getting hectic in the office, and that were here to support each other when one of us is having trouble

If we don’t check in then we risk missing out on some great opportunities to collaborate together and possibly create some legendary things. If we don’t check in we risk drifting as a team. If we drift as a team then our impact will be much less. And if our impact is much less then have we really served our purpose? Have we truly done everything we could to ensure that every student feels welcome in the NAIT community? Have we ensured we gave the students everything we had and left it all on the field so to speak?

Probably not.

Coming off of the summer and getting ready for the fall and all its antics with the plethora of events, new students to welcome and communication to uphold with the office, as well as NAIT definitely holds its challenges in trying to maintain some work life balance lol. But then again, that’s why I ran.

So what is the KESA deep dive you ask? Well I’ll first have to explain a bit of background before I go into what a deep dive is. At the beginning of our term, the other three executives and my self, as well as the past execs went on a retreat where we set the stage for the whole year. Creating our expectations of each other and establishing a platform for accountability, success, and what it all looks like to us as NAITSA executives.

We did this, and then were sent home with some homework; to come up with some smart. Throughout the summer my smart goals have evolved a bit, and I think its safe to say that some of the other executives have also. They mainly rest on what my platform was when I ran and ensuring I deliver on what I promised this year.

The deep dive was a get together once again to confirm our smart goals. But more so to have a getaway where we can check in with one another and listen to what we each have to say, where were coming from and to see how we’ve each grown and how our situations have changed since our first retreat.

To be honest I wasn’t really sure what the deep dive was before we sat down. But I can tell you that after coming out of it I’m extremely excited to have the team I have behind me right now. I think this deep dive was more about making sure that as executives, we’re all on the same page with what our objectives are; making sure that our smart goals are in line with what our purpose is as executives of a students’ association, and to enforce the fact that we’re in this one together.

When I say we’re in this together I mean we are here to help each other out when one of us are having trouble. Let me stress that this does not mean we are here to bail each other out when someone has slacked off and just depended on others kind of like a sponge soaks up everything around it for its self.

What I mean is that we are expected to act independently at this stage, seeing as we are executives of a post secondary institute. So it is very important to make it clear in these types of session, I feel, that we bring that forward and let each other know that personal responsibility, and accountability are expected at this point (not being dependent), but at the same time we can’t afford to just act independently either.

Content: Third Day

Three of the sessions from Day 3 were regarding conflict management, developing your personal strategic advantage when looking for work, and communicating between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers. I enjoyed these sessions but found they were a bit introductory, and believe I would have appreciated a bit more depth. Overall, they were a good entry point for some interesting topics.

Networking Event

Day 3 had a dinner/networking event with about a dozen local business leaders. This was a great time to network and meet some interesting individuals. I had the opportunity to chat with a representative from Shell, so it was pretty cool to pick his brain about Shell’s business model in our area.

Content: Second Day

The sessions at the conference which began the next morning were absolutely great and featured a Shinerama legend, Drew Dudley. Drew has years of experience and insight around what we can do to put on great events as well as tips to succeed in our year with the Students’ Association. I felt as though Drew was a master VP Campus Life who has moved on and grew on so many levels. From changing what might be weighing your organization down, to risk management, idea generating, to life advice; I really enjoyed Drew’s speech and thought he was the perfect person to have speaking at Leaders Hall.

One session which was met with a bit of controversy was an info session/workshop on four different personality types. The session was put on by Steve Pilot from People First HR. In his workshop Steve was letting us know about 4 different personality types, the ponderer, commander, harmonizer, and elaborator.

I was an elaborator, which means I’m always excited about a bigger and brighter tomorrow. I contribute great ideas and am usually the life of the party. Now my weaknesses are that I’m usually all over the place with my ideas. I can bring awesome ideas but move on and bounce all over the place. In all honesty, that pretty much sums me up in a nutshell. I know that might be a bad thing, but recognizing our strengths and weaknesses was, in my opinion a huge reason why we attended this conference.

So what does that mean moving forward? I need to find a ponderer to balance my attention span out. The ponderer does, pretty much what his title suggests, which is ponder. Always thinking about the possible outcomes and thoroughly weighing the options before committing to an answer. The ponderer usually pays attention to the details and takes pride in their work. Basically I was told that I should surround my self with at least another ponderer so that they can insure the ideas we come up with are followed through. Because its like I said, I have a hard time finishing.

Now one thing I noticed is that our team, the NAITSA team only had Govind and I in the elaborators group. I can’t remember where Tessa was but I know Tim was in the ponderer group so I think that means Tim and I should be working together on some things, well by some things I mean I should go to Tim for some advice when it comes to some of my crazy ideas because I think his insight may actually be crucial to my year being successful, we’ll have to see.

To Lead

Leaders Hall

I’m impressed. It all began with leaving NAITSA in a rental, picking up the other execs and then traveling down to Hotel Alma in Calgary. Hotel Alma is located on the UofC campus. Their brand new hotel on res is pretty impressive I must admit. They even have small plastic keys, which were pretty neat. Hotel Alma was the headquarters for the 56 student leaders and 20 school represented. There was a mix of Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, Ontario and even NS schools, colleges, and universities alike being represented and it was quite inspiring to be around some of the leaders of tomorrow; some of the people who are going to change the world, now that’s a good feeling. Below is a picture of the welcoming committee and my self.

Gallivan had a huge part in organizing and fund-raising this event, as well as U of C, SAIT, and Conestoga College. Together they delivered. Gallivan was there to meet us as we arrived with employees and also one of the founders, John Gallivan and that really sent me a message. They actually care. Not only with warm smiles and great service but we were all each given great leather notebook carrying cases which must have cost at least $80.

From there we were treated like royalty with welcoming beverages, maps of the city, free transit passes and cool bracelets.

Food

Here is an area, which in my opinion, could not have been better. We had sushi, roast beef, scrumptious potatoes, cool finger foods and complimentary drink tickets for each meal. The food was great and had a nice differential touch (again the sushi).

Fed breakfast, lunch and dinner, I don’t think there was a single meal that was sub-par. Except maybe the watery looking scrambled eggs the last morning lol. Below is a picture of what our table placements for our sessions looked like. Sorry I never thought of taking a picture of the food:(