The XXVI generation of the educational programme "Future Studies" strengthened the team spirit at the traditional Winter School of Teamwork, which was held from February 28 th to March 3rd, 2019, on the Gucevo Mountain.
Milorad Bjeletic, the Executive Director of the Belgrade Open School, opened the School of Teamwork, whose introductory lecture dealt with term and concept of a team. During this session, students talked about what makes a team coherent and efficient, as well as what prevents a team from achieving their results and implementing their vision. After the introductory workshop, the following session was led by a longtime friend and associate of BOS Vladimir Pavicevic. Upgrading to the previous workshop, Pavicevic emphasized values and long-term vision behind the team that, like a compass, lead to its success. He also mentioned that the team leader must be aware of this in order to successfully lead his team, and thus gave a small announcement for his next workshop.
The second day also began with Milorad Bjeletic, who went deeper into the composition of a team, speaking about team and functional roles that exist within a team. Through the Belbin test, students learned about the roles that best suit them within a team, while they also understood that their roles may vary depending on the type of team, as well as the fact that dedicated and continuous work can achieve the desired role within the team. After a short break, business communication workshop was introduced for the first time at the Winter School of Teamwork. This workshop was held by BOS employees, Danijela Grubnic, Educational Programme Coordinator, and Evica Kuc, Business Communication Manager. Students received a theoretical introduction to the field of business communication, as well as practical and interesting exercises. Simulations involved situations that require written, oral and telephone communication, so students went through simulations of writing business e-mails, conducting telephone conversations, and holding business meetings with different partners and colleagues. Next-to-last workshop that day was hosted by Vladimir Pavicevic. During this session, students learned what a successful leader has to do and what qualities are required in order to lead the team. The last workshop during the second day was aimed at rounding out everything that students had learned, as well as to instruct them to apply practically all the knowledge they gained during the previous sessions. Vesna Djukic, General director of BOS gave students the task of making a difficult team decision, within a very complicated imaginary situation, with limited information and a short timeframe. This was a great opportunity for XXVI generation to better understand the process of team decision-making, as well as communication within the team. The second day of the Winter School ended with the traditional Mafia game, which, in addition to being a fun social game, aims to enable students to practice their persuasive abilities and public performance.
After an intense second day, the day of active rest and relaxation followed. The whole generation went mountaineering to the top of the Gucevo mountain, led by mountaineering society Biciklo. Students enjoyed fresh air and unspoilt nature, but they also learned about the historical events of the First World War that took place in this area between the Serbian and Austro-Hungarian armies. After a break and lunch, the last lecture at the Winter School was held, and it was another simulation run by Vesna Djukic. This time, now a team of the twenty-first generation, has practically learned consensus as a decision-making mechanism, as opposed to making decisions through voting. In this way, another Winter School of Teamwork has been successfully completed, which is just one of many activities within the educational program "Future Studies", which for the 26th time leads the generation of great young students to become the next bearers of change in our society.
After the School of Teamwork, students return to regular activities on the programme such as lectures on the Modules Classroom 4.0 and Looking towards Europe, psychological workshops, as well as several interesting elective activities such as Students2Students lectures and the Literary Club.
