2021 MEG Team Skills Workshop
On 23.01.2021 the annual MEG Team Skills Workshop took place for the MEG 16 generation. Despite the corona restrictions, the day saw a series of reflection, team building and team skills workshops successfully provided in an online format for students of the programme.
After a series of warm up games, the group of 39 were split into smaller breakout rooms to discuss and reflect on their experience so far as MEG students so far. The teams were tasked with creating a metaphor which they felt summarised their time on the programme, and creatively portraying this in a visual manner.
The group then re-joined the plenary session in order to exchange experiences and compare the results of their group process. This proved to be a light-hearted and creative way for the groups to share their thoughts as well as creating a space for deeper reflection on studying, particularly in the context of the challenging circumstances the students find themselves in.
One of the metaphorical visual depictions created by MEG16.
Nevertheless, a number of positive messages came as a result of this exercise. Whilst acknowledging the difficulties, the students also stressed the strengths of the group (staff and students) and the ability to support each other to foster optimism, resilience and continuously high standards of teaching, study and research.
The workshop then turned its focus to the all important subject of team skills. Both whole-group and small breakout room discussions followed on the topics of team roles, group processes, constructive feedback and non-violent communication. This also allowed the students to further engage with each other's experiences of the Masters programme so far and to reflect on previous group work in light of these findings.
This process included a series of role plays, discussion and reflections - not forgetting the all important mental breaks and energisers in between topics; involving music, dancing, stretching and more!
The team skills workshop is an annual feature of the MEG programme and each year the programme staff develop this session to enhance the learning experience of all the students. All in all, this was an important workshop which allowed the participants to voice their thoughts and feelings in relation to the topics covered and the programme as a whole so far. Students were able to voice their feedback and - importantly - to learn from each other and get to know the views of the class. Overall, this made the workshop a productive and enjoyable learning process!
