Getting to Know Your Co-workers

How do you integrate and recognize True Colors in your work, department, and while helping students?

As we gear up for a new academic year, it is important to remember how True Colors can help you through this busy time. True Colors is about knowing yourself and the people you work with. Learning how we each interact and approach our daily work helps us collaborate as a team toward our goal of effectively assisting students, whether it be through service, programming or in a supportive role.

Student Financial Aid and Enrollment Services recently played a fun and informative game during a staff meeting to learn more about our co-workers and their True Colors.

The focus of the game was for a team member to guess an opposing team member’s dominant color and last color (known as the stress color) of their spectrum by asking 2-4 questions. The team that guesses the most colors correctly wins. Knowing what types of questions to ask is important, so here are a few guiding questions:

• What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
• How do you respond to conflict?
• Do you prefer to be alone or with people?
• What are your strengths?
• What are your challenges?
• During a meeting, how do you contribute to the cause?

Here's how the game can be played:

1. A facilitator will divide everyone into evenly numbered groups (6-8 people in a group).
2. Within each group, there will be an A and B team. All A’s will be together, all B’s together. Each team member will be assigned to an opposing team member, meaning A will partner up with B.
3. Partners will ask questions about each other. Throughout this process, each will take mental notes on what they suspect are their partner’s dominant and stress colors.
4. After about 5 minutes, partners will disband and go back to their respective A or B group. They will each explain what they have learned to the rest of their team. Each team will guess the opposing team member’s colors.
5. A facilitator will then go to each team and write down their guesses. Once the guesses have been written down, each team member will reveal their dominant color and their last color. The facilitator will then calculate the scores to determine which team guessed most accurately.

Knowing ourselves and our co-workers will help us learn how to work together efficiently and effectively, especially during our peak seasons. Remember that each person has strengths they contribute to the team!

Sarah Webb
Senior Training Specialist,
Student Financial Aid and Enrollment Services

---

Has your color spectrum changed over the years? How?

Describe those changes to your colleagues. Remember True Colors is a tool to understanding others and ourselves. It is a common language because we talk about it and use it to articulate our perspectives to each other. Keep it going.

Training Schedule for Student Affairs STAFF (SD 410) — Fall 2014

• September 23, 2014 (Tuesday) — 9:00 to 12:00 (HUC Bexar Room/HUC 1.102)
• September 25, 2014 (Thursday) — 1:00 to 4:00 (HUC Bexar Room/HUC 1.102)

Training Schedule for Student Affairs STUDENT WORKERS (SD 417) — Fall 2014

• October 2, 2014 (Thursday) — 1:00 to 3:00 (RWC 2.214/Campus Recreation/Texas Room)
• October 2, 2014 (Thursday) — 3:30 to 5:30 (RWC 2.214/Campus Recreation/Texas Room)
• October 3, 2014 (Friday) — 1:00 to 3:00 (RWC 2.214/Campus Recreation/Texas Room)
• October 7, 2014 (Tuesday) — 1:00 to 3:00 (RWC 2.214/Campus Recreation/Texas Room)
• October 8, 2014 (Wednesday) — 3:30 to 5:30 (RWC 2.214/Campus Recreation/Texas Room)

Any questions or comments? Please send us an email at VPSA@utsa.edu.