05/21/2001CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL WORKSESSION
CITY OF CLEARWATER
Team Building
May 21, 2001
Present: Brian J. Aungst Mayor/Commissioner
Ed Hart Vice-Mayor/Commissioner
Whitney Gray Commissioner
Hoyt P. Hamilton Commissioner
William C. Jonson Commissioner
Also present: William B. Horne II Interim City Manager
Garry Brumback Assistant City Manager
Pamela K. Akin City Attorney
Cynthia E. Goudeau City Clerk
Brenda Moses Board Reporter
The meeting was called to order at 9:03 a.m. at the Sailing Center.
Judy Siracusa, Corporate Trainer with Winning Ways of Tampa Bay, Inc., outlined the focus for the meeting. She said the truly successful person is one who: 1) knows her/himself; 2)
knows her/his strengths and weaknesses; and 3) develops the ability to study situations and people and adapts appropriate behavioral strategies. She said participants would discuss
their differences, styles of behavior, what motivates them, and their perceptions.
An exercise was performed which involved interviewing a partner to find out something about that person’s background that they did not know.
The meeting recessed from 9:46 to 9:48 a.m.
An exercise was performed to determine the types of behavioral styles of each participant: 1) dominance; 2) influence; 3) conscientiousness; and 4) steadiness.
Participants of similar behavioral styles broke into teams to verbalize the traits they appreciated most about each other. Each team came to a consensus as to their interpretation
of each behavioral style. Teams also verbalized what they thought of another group’s behavioral traits.
An exercise was performed to determine those traits participants felt most closely fit their personalities.
The meeting recessed from 11:05 to 11:15 a.m.
Ms. Siracusa reviewed the personal and classical profile patterns of the behavioral styles as they relate to: 1) emotions; 2) goals; 3) how a person judges others; 4) how a person
influences others; 5) value to the organization; 6) overuses; 7) actions when under pressure; 8) fears; and 9) methods that would increase effectiveness. Participants reviewed their
behavioral tendencies by: 1) recording 3 of their greatest strengths; 2) recording 1 or 2 of their limitations;
3) recording 2 or 3 of their strongest motivators and if they are currently in their environment; and 4) recording 1 thing they could do to be more effective.
Ms. Siracusa said that communication is the ability to share thoughts and feelings with others in order to promote mutual understanding. She said words comprise less than 10% of communication.
She said the key to communication is to send the message, receive it, and feed it back. A circle of communication is necessary to complete the process. She said 30% of the time this
circle is completed; 70% of the time it is not. She reviewed various methods of communication: 1) visual object language; 2) body language; and 3) paralanguage. After completing an
exercise in communication, Ms. Siracusa noted that a high percentage of the participants listed “listening” as their weakest area of communication.
Participants performed a selective attention exercise. Ms. Siracusa said causes for communication “tune out” include: 1) receiver’s purpose is different from the sender’s; 2) under
stimulation; 3) over stimulation; and 4) pace and delivery of the communication. She said the 4 rules for effective listening are: 1) full attention; 2) listen to understand, not to
judge; 3) focus on the entire message sent; and 4) use reflective listening.
An exercise in reflective listening was performed using one of the following: 1) a frustrating situation; 2) a person or thing that has had a huge effect on one’s life; or 3) a future
goal for the City.
Ms. Siracusa said the most important exercise when listening is to listen to the whole message. She suggested good listeners practice listening twice as much as they talk.
The meeting adjourned at 12:54 p.m.