I used my time productively this weekend, gaining much clarity on the direction of my team. I enjoyed delving into our project which has changed from art therapy to healing through art for children who have experienced trauma or significant change in their lives that they are still suffering from. I am happy with this new focus and am excited to start the interviews!

My experience relates to the part of the“High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create it” article that asks people to approach new ideas with curiosity rather than disagreement. I was open to new ideas regarding my project, especially because my team didn’t have a particularly clear direction for itself. After some brainstorming and productive conversations about where we could choose to focus, we came to a clearer idea of where we are headed.

I am looking forward to the next few months although I am a little nervous about the interviews, especially the first one that I conduct. I’m excited to work with my team mates to help children. I predict that our team will learn how to productively conduct interviews and how to successfully work together as a team. We will learn how to more efficiently communicate with one another. We will figure out our strengths and weaknesses both as a team and around our project. We will have to remember that “everybody thinks they are right” as said in“The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives”. Keeping that in mind during the whole process of interviewing will be important for all of us as we will probably come across some differences in opinion. It will be hard to change some people’s minds. Our goal is not to necessarily to change people’s minds, but to at least expose people to an alternative to traditional therapy and show them that it works. What I see my part being in the next steps moving ahead is to contact a few more people and conduct interviews with them as well as being n active participant in my team.

Featured Image by:  Michal Lomza