Retreat at the Lake House

I spent a few days up in the mountains with my co-workers at the family lake house.  We have been working non-stop this summer and almost didn't make time for our annual staff retreat.  That would have been a big mistake.  We really did need to take a break, spend some time reconnecting and breathing in some mountain air, and gaining some focus for the new school year.  I put together a little workshop/discussion on MBTI type and dealing with stress.  We use the MBTI as a communication tool during our new student orientation each year.  We had a great discussion on stress and how we deal with it as individuals and as an office (our office is crazy busy ALL THE TIME).  I think it brought some needed self and group awareness to our staff and we had a great talk about how we deal with stress, how it can effect others, what kind of situations are stressful for each type, and what helps us feel supported. We started orientation this week and we have been trying to apply what we learned!  We also did an activity and created an office code stating our core values and beliefs that we need to be a healthy and functioning office/team.  We also listed the things that lead to disfunction and are the things we will try and avoid.

The amazing women of the Office of Academic Affairs

Our office code

Thanks to Bobbi and Stan for letting us use the lake house.  It was the perfect place to get away and have our retreat!  If you know your MBTI type and want to know more about your stress preferences let me know - it was so enlightening and pretty funny (mine was so accurate).   Here is an online assessment if you don't know your type.