Part of the purpose for the all-staff meeting is go through policy and training but another big part is just for the staff to come together, hopefully as caring brothers and sisters.
One explicit attempt at team building was an exercise in which teams worked together to create a structure from the same ordinary materials given to each of the teams. Here Julie Lawler explains the activity.
Real team work and cooperation was required to accomplish the task of building a structure from spaghetti strands and tape and paper.
This type of activity allowed deaf and hearing staff to work together and participate as equals. Not a lot of language was required but rather more cooperation and attention.
But aside from the formal activities, one of the greatest advantages of time away like this is just to provide the time and space for people to talk to each other, about anything.
