A-WILLers go counter clockwise,
declare ‘Together, Every Atenean Achieves Magis’

By Rodolfo ‘Sonny’ SB. Virtus Jr.

While most students today prefer to take the normal clockwise direction for ease and convenience, forty-three student leaders have chosen to go counter clockwise, determined to quash apathy and mediocrity.
They called themselves one Team Ateneo, a powerhouse of Ignatian student leaders from different co-curricular, extracurricular, volunteer and athletic organizations, fusing their respective organizations, with their Mission-Visions and great desires, and justifying the truest  essence of the theme: “Team Ateneo: Together, Every Atenean Achieves Magis” during the Workshop on Ignatian Leadership for Life (A-Will) Teambuilding for Student Leaders last Oct. 20-22, 2008 at the Arrupe Retreat Center.

BUILDING TEAM ATENEO

The participants in the A-Will Teambuilding for Student Leaders started it so right by answering a resounding “Yes” when asked if they are truly part of the Team Ateneo during the opening program last Oct. 20.

The University’s Academic Vice President, Dr. Rebecca C. Torres, underscored in her Opening Remarks very important team efforts of the University community. She cited ADNU’s collective actions that significantly contributed to the ouster of former President Erap Estrada, our opposition to PGMA-peddled Charter Change and many other local and national issues besieging the nation and affecting the lives of different sectors in the University.
Dr. Torres finally urged the student leaders to continue this culture of activism in the midst of the present socio-political strife.

It was followed by the presentation of the Workshop’s program design and theoretical framework by Rodolfo SB. Virtus Jr., point person for A-Will and program officer for student development at the Office of Student Affairs.
Virtus stressed on the theme and its emphasis on one of the most overused terms that Ateneans normally encounter – magis or the more. He asserted that while individually, leaders should strive for magis, “this Ignatian principle means much more when things are done collectively.”

“More than our individual victories are the milestones which we were able to achieve as a result of our collaborations as one team,” he added.

He also discussed a current trend among student organizations, pointing out that they, although performing well, are so confined in their own affairs, rarely trying to reach out to others for meaningful collaboration and greater impact. He explained that A-Will is also a timely opportunity for them their teamwork and to make a transition from relationships of competition to harmonious ones within their organizations and with those outside their organizations.
Premiere formator Janet B. Badong-Badilla opened the afternoon with Session 1: Understanding the Ignatian Company: Organization’s Identity and Mission.

Badilla challenged the participants to reflect on their awareness and understanding of their respective organizations’ composition in terms of people, task and structure.

“What makes or breaks your organizations?” Badilla struck the participants with such mind-boggling question.
She cited jar as a metaphor for an organization, saying that one will see two things on it – the interior and the exterior parts. The exterior, she said, is the physical or external environment of the organization. What makes an organization, she explained, is the interior or the spiritual dimension which represents the organization’s capacity “to act, become and expand”.

In one group sharing, Badilla asked them to contemplate on the kind of persons their groups respectively have, their expressed desires and needs, their views of their self against their views of their work, and their effects on the formation in their groups.

In another group sharing session, participants reflected on the persons that they see as leaders in their organizations and the kind of persons they are.

A very appropriate start, she successfully led the participants to realize the level of their awareness of their organizations, especially their weaknesses which need to be ordered so that they may build strong foundation for their teams.

She further bolstered her session with Session 2: “Sharing the Same Bread”: Teamwork and Guiding Principles where she walked the participants through undisputable principles for maintaining and building teams.
After foundations were laid in the first two sessions, the next four sessions were skill-based and were labelled as “Our Way of Proceeding”: Ignatian team Spiritu, Corde, Practice (In the Spirit, From the Heart, Practically). It primarily aimed at engaging participants in teambuilding, the Ignatian way.

The first Resource Person under this session, Edsel T. Navera, expounded on Role Playing and developing Team Skills in an Ever-Changing World.

Navera engaged the participants in an activity that put them into thoughtful reflection of the crises and issues that their organizations have confronted.

He claimed that crises and issues  “bring about change and growth” which are catalysts of a team, therefore generating dynamism of its members’ roles, responsibilities, and even desires for magis.
He also highlighted the characteristics of a team player, according to sociologist John Maxwell, stressing that members should be “creative, adaptable, collaborative and committed.”

On the morning of the second day, Oct. 21, Dr. Ronald SP. Elicay, chairperson for Psychology, served as the Resource Person for the next two parts of the Session 3.

The first part was Effective Team Communication, which aimed at establishing a culture of open and working team communication in the organization, enhancing relationships within the organization through team communication, identifying barriers of communication, and learning network of channels or paths along which information must flow between members or subunits in the organization. Participants, through highly interactive exercises, also learned the importance of constructive feed backing.

The second part, Understanding and Resolving Team Problems, aimed at developing among participants the foresight of conflict, skills in facing conflict with open mind, emotional intelligence, courage and strength.
Here, Dr. Elicay tested the participants’ quality of response to a conflict which Dr. Elicay planted through some participants.

He also stressed the inevitability of tensions in the organizations which will serve as a catalyst for team maturity. It is important, he said, that teams must solidly anchor their relationships on mutual trust, respect and responsibility.
Coach Emanuel Rene” Noli” S. Ayo was the Resource Person for Decision making: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning.  It aimed at developing common language/vocabulary and rules, procedures and tools in tem decision making, seeking synergy and high level of idea formulation, exploring and analyzing options and alternatives before reaching a team decision.

Ayo designed a teambuilding challenge course, the Tribal Egg War, reminiscent of last year’s A-Willympics, through which two teams had to go through using teambuilding skills.

Though raining, the two tribes, in their official A-Will shirt and with ribbons tied around their heads, trooped to the Covered Courts and hurdled four challenges: Mine Maze, Helium Stick, Egg Drop and XOX. Coach Ayo was assisted by his College Athletics Office team.

In his processing session, Coach Noli urged the student leaders to go counter clockwise - challenge the status quo, be willing to go through “discomforts”, and create meaningful changes.

Finally, he dared them to be a tribe – connecting meaningfully with each other, keeping the faith that bind everyone, and committing to and working for the needed changes for great impact.

The evening showcased the participants’ creativity and teambuilding as they were challenged to run the Fellowship Night given only two hours of preparation. It was the working staff’s turn to have fun as they witnessed ingenuity and versatility in their happy and amazingly impressive performances - vocal solo, duet, tribal dances and skits.
The University Choir added meaning to the occasion as they engaged both A-Will participants and staff in an Evening Praise through Jesuit songs.

Session 4, “To be Aptissimi: The Very Best” covered the final day of the Workshop. The first part was devoted to the session, Building the Ateneo Team through Collaborative Engagements, with OSA Director Atty. Jo Aileen A. Cabiles as Resource Person.

In her session, organizations had a dialogue through interactive exercises like Speed Dating: The Ateneo Orgs Way wherein participants introduced their organizations to one another through an elevator speech highlighting their respective Mission-Visions and desires so that they may explore possible collaborative undertakings.
“There is no ‘I’ in team Ateneo,” Atty. Cabiles said, asserting that the organizations’ “plurality of gifts, perspectives and experiences” will make collaborations achieve full magis.

In the afternoon, there was a synthesis of all sessions. A sharing was done afterwards, highlighting the participants’ learning/realizations/insights that they were able to acquire through the Workshop. A-Will fired up great desires in the participants. Further, they were asked to write a letter addressed to their respective organizations. In the letters, they expressed their personal pledges to their organizations.

The student leaders affirmed A-Will’s necessity and usefulness in their generous sharing. Brent, one of the participants, optimistically expressed: “I just hope that as A-Will ends, the fire gets bigger to burn away apathy and mediocrity. One big fight!”

At the Ground Floor of Arrupe Building, their final challenge awaited them – hot air balloon making. After making the balloon, the participants gathered for their final ritual. The participants each burned their letters on a pot of fire and shouted their pledges. The burning of their commitment pledges under the same fire symbolized the unity of their pledges and their organizations and Mission-Visions.

As a culminating activity, Fr. Tabora celebrated a Thanksgiving Mass at the Arrupe Chapel. In his 50-minute homily, Fr. Joel challenged the participants to undergo Spiritual Exercises if they were to be true to their labels as Ignatian leaders. He said that in the Exercises designed by St. Ignatius, the inspiration of ADNU and of A-Will, student leaders will experience Ignatian Spirituality which will lay the foundation of their leadership.
Against the backdrop of materialism, wars and conflicts, hopelessness, disconnectedness, and other negativities in the world leading to people’s distorted worldview, Fr. Tabora urged the participants to “see the world as something good.”

The same participants are expected to return to the Arrupe Retreat Center for the next A-Will, Facilitating Skills, on January 10-11, 2009.