Welcome to IGW Insights Issue 13!
Measuring the profound impact Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI) had on me is impossible. My first summer there was in 1985. I was twelve years old. Over the ensuing decade, I would be a camper, a song leader, a counselor, and a drama director. My long-time camp friends are still some of my closest friends. My best memories are still camp memories. And my most closely held values are still camp values. Below are a few scratchings from my notebook about how those camp values (especially related to leadership) have stuck with me.
Create the conditions for belonging and connection
One of the most important leadership skills (remember, skill = can be developed) is creating the conditions for belonging and connection. At summer camp we lived in cabins with a dozen or so other boys. We had to learn to live together and create a cabin culture.
Each cabin was a community within the broader communities of the camp units, defined by age groups, and the camp as a whole.
The best counselors and unit leaders created that feeling of belonging and connection–which is why I wanted to return to camp so many summers in a row, why I ran up my parents’ phone bills (in olden days, long-distance calls cost money) calling my friends all over the Midwest and Ontario, and why I cried harder than I’ve ever cried in my life when camp ended that first summer.
Belonging. Connection. Two currencies of culture that the best leaders learn how to invest for incredible returns. My reflections continue here.
Recommended Reading and Listening
What made sleepaway camp so powerful was how vision translated to culture. In my opinion, this can be traced to one person, Rabbi Ron Klotz. Rabbi Klotz took over the leadership of Goldman Union Camp Institute in the late 1970s and stood at the helm for more than three decades. Every leader since his retirement has been a product of GUCI, including his son who is the current camp Director. Rabbi Klotz’s fingerprints are everywhere at camp. His vision and leadership formed the GUCI culture that is so unique, that we alumni all so cherish. To understand how this works, please read The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. It is a concise and compelling analysis of the centrality of culture to creating organizations that deliver on their mission.
Journaling Exercise
What places, events, or people gave you the most profound sense of belonging and connection when you were a child? What can you borrow from those places, events, or people to create that sense for the people you work with? Or even your family?
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