This is my 7th year leading Geoteaming for Tony Robbins Foundation’s Global Youth Leadership Summit (GYLS). This conference gathers 450 of the top youth from around the world to improve their leadership skills. They came from as far away as Kenya and they were tackling issues of bullying, depression and purpose.
Geoteaming happens on Day 2 of 4. They have just been formed into teams and this is their 2nd team challenge. It starts after lunch and they can explore the beautiful USD campus with their team. Every mission was customized to highlight valuable lessons taught at GYLS.
The first thing this group taught me was what it takes to win Geoteaming with 20 team members. Team 4, the Destiny Dolphins, achieved the lead in the first 30 minutes by heading to the highest valued locations first, then they held their lead for the entire game.
4 – Destiny Dolphins is the yellow line in this diagram
I met up with their Team Leader and he gave me insights to their success. He said their success was from these factors:
- Yes and…. Used with improv, this team was saying “Yes and…” to each other ideas. This allowed team acceptance and team flow that produced a team that completed missions quickly and with fun.
- Shared Leadership – There was always one leader but there was no one leader. At different missions, other leaders would emerge based on the task and they selected the leader with enough skills to complete the mission. This allowed many on the team to succeed and feel a part of this team.
- The Middle Vote – With 20 kids, not all of them were engaged 100%, but they participated enough to complete missions. Simple voting can be thumbs up or thumbs down and a new vote is: Thumbs Middle. Thumbs Middle is a team vote that says I’m not 100% bought in but I agree enough to go along and not sabotage the team. This allows a team with a diversity of thought to go forward.
These 3 factors allowed Team 4, the Destiny Dolphins, to perform better than over 200 of the top youth in the world.
What can you learn from the youth of the world?
* These fields are required.