I Opening Retreat
Twice rejected once accepted, September 15th, 16th, and 17th marked my beginning journey into Leadership Omaha 47 (LO47). Leadership Omaha trains leaders in the Omaha area about different aspects of the community and fosters private and public collaboration to improve Omaha as a whole. Hundreds of people apply each year and only 50 are chosen to participate. Before the kickoff weekend my anxiety ramped up. I turned to a good friend and stalwart community king, Jay Kline, for guidance. Jay and I met for coffee and I asked how I could maximize my experience in Leadership Omaha. He left me with sage advice, “connect with everyone at every opportunity.” Getting to know as many of my 50 cohort members as possible in just three days felt daunting. Our facilitators recommended sitting with new people at every juncture possible, advice which put me into an uncomfortable position, but what did I come here for, to be comfortable? No, I came to make an impact, to meet new people, and to engage with the Omaha community in a way I don’t regularly. I buckled in for a long weekend of listening,
growing, and making the most out of a unique opportunity.
A wise leader emphasized to me early in my career that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Using this as a mantra I sought first to understand my classmate’s “whys”: The reason they wanted to be in LO47, why they care about community, and why they seize the day. It showed me a diverse answer that can’t be boiled down to a catchy, buzz word laden phrase. I was reminded that a community is built of people and they’re vibrant, unique, and special in their own ways. And, as such, I challenged myself to be brave and authentic in my own replies when questions made their way to my ears. I came to grow, so grow I must.
The importance of silence was emphasized by the facilitators of our several different group activities. Especially poignant was Alexander, previously a benedictine monk, and someone who knew the power of silence better than most. Leadership revolves around being an active
listener. I had a powerful reminder standing in front of me, choosing his words carefully, each of his words carried the impact of a truck – it showed me to get comfortable in my own silence, to give others space to speak, and to listen intentionally. My bones shrieked at the want of filling the space left by others, but I had little choice but to stay in discomfort and listen intentionally.
Our first piece of homework was to use a dollar given to us by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce to buy an object representing our leadership style. My fellow classmates’ ideas ranged from dollar tree thank you cards to practice gratitude, safety earplugs to cut out the
noise and focus on urgent important tasks, and seeds from a local library that remind you to grow your people. All items had salient real life implications. I left the circle of leadership items with certain people I wanted to meet, and not just to get some zinnia seeds!
Each night we had a quality time activity designed to bring down our walls and encourage fellowship. Night one was a catchphrase like game with famous peoples’ names in a bucket. The group laughed uproariously as people guessed frantically at the names. Seeing people who were strangers come together quickly to have fun together lessened the barriers we’d all be facing when harder work was to come. After a winner was crowned we all carpooled to a local bar in Ashland, Nebraska. Personal anecdotes flew across bar tables and quickly the group felt like a close group of friends from college. A fellow LO47 member and I dove into an incredibly personal discussion, sharing our medical diagnoses, medication regimens, our wins with new doctors and medicine updates that transformed our lives. Another LO47 member talked about the struggles of growing up with inattentive parents and how he’d vowed to do better. Kinship began in the trenches of a dive bar in Ashland and friendships forged into lifelong bonds in the crucible of LO.
Day two took us into some community minded exercises where we envisioned the Omaha of today and the Omaha of tomorrow. People voiced concerns about rising housing costs, the state of streets, and the ever controversial street car. We spoke of an interconnected future Omaha
with more access to healthcare and opportunity. The exercise asked us to further challenge ourselves with committing to bridging the gap ourselves. Little did we know how much this exercise would come back to us over the rest of our retreat.
After lunch we were introduced to the group who’d be our small group, in my team’s case, team Alpha was born. We built out guard rails for how to approach shared work, shared experience, and a way for us to all engage safely and confidently in our upcoming journey. Our team valued
honest, open, transparent communication, doing what’s asked by the group, and having the je ne sais quoi of entrepreneurial verve. With our rules laid out in front of us we found a small space to answer the prompt “If you really knew me…” We each had to fill six minutes and honor any silence left by our small group members. Hardly a person struggled to fill their six minutes but all of us struggled to not ask follow up questions. We cried, cheered, shared, and absorbed what everyone spoke about, with the impact deepened by the permeating quiet.
The nighttime group activity shook us Monday. Our task, a rap battle using words from the today/tomorrow Omaha exercise earlier in the day. The experience created joy, trash talk, and beaming smiles all around the room. The hooks slapped, the beats were certified fresh, and the
creativity flowed wildly. The battle culminated in a freestyle using 10 chosen words, no prep time to write, and Queen Debra rocked and rolled her way to the throne for her team. She was seamless and clever and quick on her feet. The applause rang through the retreat’s hallways
and her smile bloomed into a grandiose grin.
Tuesday we learned about our group project: to complete volunteering with different organizations representing LO’s curriculum topics throughout the program The goal, to connect us more deeply to people in the community who are already doing the work to improve our home. Our team will be developing our group project over the next 3 months then executing it for the following 4 months while we complete Leadership Omaha with an astounding feather in our caps. We will make an impact in our community and present on the implications at our graduation ceremony in June 2025, and I’m looking forward to telling our story.
Our last exercise was making goals for before our next LO47 session. I personally committed to connecting for coffee, lunch, or drinks with 3 classmates before our next session. The goals from our class were diverse and unique. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with giants with diverse backgrounds and accomplishments, who, after the retreat left me with a sense of kinship. Reflecting on my experience I am exhilarated and ready to tackle the challenges that face Omaha and I’m committed to learning about challenges outside my comfort zone so that my unique strengths can play their role in helping Omaha move in a positive direction.
