KARL Genesis...

Breaking the ice upon arrival, and learning a few fun facts.

This weekend kicked off the two year journey I am about to embark, and it was an incredible experience. If the other sessions are only half as good, then it's going to be exciting.

We began our session with an ice breaker. Prior to arriving at Rock Springs we sent in a story, or a fact no one would know.We then had to match people to stories by asking then questions that clued us in. At first I dreaded it because I'm not very good at activities like that, but it was actually fun. I learned a lot about my fellow classmates. 

One guy joined an all black choir at K-State by accident, another was a bodyguard for Tiger Woods at Augusta. There was a woman who liked junk, and another that started the women's rugby team at K-State in the 80's. We have a very diverse group, who took to each other like ducks to water.

This is a good thing, because that next morning we all got really, really close.

"I hope that's an arm," was heard more than once. 

Team building is the norm at group functions like this one, and we were no different. The first activity was a lot like Marco Polo, but we were farm animals on all fours. Did I mention both partners were blindfolded and it was a little muddy? No. That's because I'm trying to repress it myself. It was fun, OK, it was hilarious - as long as you were watching and not actually in the group hollering animal calls out to each other trying to get reunited.

The next activity tested everybody's patience, and ability to tolerate other people's sweat mixing with your own. We had to successfully get 30 people in one little area, and some were blindfolded with an ailment - like having one leg (they had to hop the entire time), or one arm (they could only use one). There are still inside jokes going on about this activity. It wasn't fun at the time, but it's something we'll all remember. Because the inside jokes are still going.

The engineer (right) and his parter with their rocket. 

In between the speakers we also did an activity where we paired together to make rockets that we actually launched. Some did really well, others didn't. However, it was fun to put ideas together and see how everybody did. Only one rocket didn't launch - and it wasn't mine! The rocket I worked on flew, but not very far.

I can get people to enjoy the rocket, but building one - that is not a strength of mine. But, it looked good. Once we launched then we talked about how to make the rocket better and this was supposed to get us thinking about critical thinking and solving problems, or coming up with potential solutions to face challenges. It was a great exercise.

The best part of the entire weekend was getting to know new people. It's an awesome group of people who each bring something to the table. It's amazing to sit around with like minded people who have common goals. We all want the same thing. We want to be better leaders, better professionals, and better people.


*Photos from KARL, Inc.