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Gitta’s Message
Gitta Kulczycki, Vice-President, Resources & Operations, gitta@uwo.ca
Gitta Kulczyki, Vice President of Resources and Operations
As I write this column, students are in their very last day of exams. You sure know it's the end of the year, with all the moving vans around and "no longer needed items" curbside. And this week, once again the campus will become very quiet. Normally students leave before any of our trees are in bloom, but with a non-winter and abnormally warm spell in March, some of the trees have acquired glorious colour.
Recently some of our group had the opportunity to hear Yvonne Camus. I want to share some of the insights from her talk. Yvonne was the lone woman in a team of Canadian amateurs to compete in an extreme race - 500 kilometers through the jungles of Borneo. What a story of courage, determination, and perseverance as she and her team mates became the only amateurs to complete the race. Amongst the many amazing tales she told, she climbed some 600 feet up a cave while suffering from a untreated broken wrist. The experts assessed her team 0% probability of finishing the race. Imagine how you would feel if told that before you'd even started?
What are some of the insights she imparted?
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Teamwork was essential. Team agreements were made in advance including significantly: what will we do when things go wrong? They agreed there would be no torpedoes (who is at fault, what went wrong, etc.), but rather only the question: what can we do to help this situation right now?
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Sort out little issues because they can become big ones. Of all they had to face, blisters on their feet became the most significant impediment starting from a bit of sand in the shoe.
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Every team member had their area of expertise -- and each needed to step up when the situation called for it. In other words, everyone needed to be a good leader and a good follower.
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They helped each other -- unasked. When one team member saw that another could use a hand, they simply helped -- no questions, no comments.
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They took the time to think about how best to approach a race element. An example: they jury-rigged a sail on their boat ...so that they didn't have to row but instead could take advantage of the wind. Theirs was the only team to have thought of that.
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Encouraging words made such a difference. The e-mails from home, delivered at the moment when they seemed to be the most discouraged, turned defeat into renewed determination to finish.
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They truly faced significant issues: daunting race elements, heat and humidity, creatures and bugs of all kinds (including some whose bite could be deadly), exhaustion as well as their physical ailments. I've reflected on that talk. Imagine the power of those lessons if we practiced them in our work every day? We face challenges, but when held against what she faced, most are trivial. It's reinforcement that an optimistic and "can do" attitude will take you far.
Thank you to everyone for another successful academic year. Truly, I work with the best in each and every one of you. Our staffs are indeed the lifeblood of the University. Happy summer to all!!
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