Teaching Staff how to Notice Things - Camp Code #167

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/teaching-staff-how-to-notice-things

The Skill No One Trains (But Every Great Camp Leader Needs)

On this episode of Camp Code, Beth and Gabz dig into one of the most overlooked and most essential skills in camp leadership: teaching staff how to notice. Not just supervising for safety, but observing with purpose. It’s the difference between running an activity and truly understanding the campers within it. From spotting the quiet camper who’s pulling away to recognizing moments of connection, joy, or leadership, noticing is what allows great counselors to step in early, build relationships, and shape meaningful experiences.

The challenge? Noticing isn’t instinctive, it’s learned. Many younger staff haven’t had the chance to develop observational awareness, often due to structured environments, screen-focused attention, and a growing fear of being judged themselves. That inward focus makes it harder to read the room. The solution is intentional practice. Beth and Gabs share simple, practical ways to build this skill into training: using observers in scenarios, breaking down cues like facial expressions, body language, and group dynamics, and asking predictive questions like “What might happen next?” to help staff think ahead instead of just reacting.

By embedding noticing into everyday moments, whether through reflection, shared observations, or guided practice leaders can help staff shift how they see their role and the campers in front of them.

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth,

Instead of simply telling staff to “pay attention,” build noticing into a daily habit. A simple question like “What did you notice today?” encourages reflection, sharpens awareness, and helps staff connect their observations to action. Over time, this consistent practice strengthens empathy, improves decision-making, and helps staff feel more confident and prepared in the moment.

Your Hosts:

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Thanks to our sponsor…

UltraCamp

Imagine camp registration software that actually gives you MORE time for what you love - CAMP! With UltraCamp, you can effortlessly track attendance, manage staff, streamline registration, and more. Explore now at ultracampmanagemnent.com/campcode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Camp Code, the podcast that explores what it takes to create great staff training so you can create incredible summer camp leaders. Today we're diving into a skill that almost no one trains directly, yet it's at the heart of great counseling. We're talking about teaching staff how to notice things.com slash campcoat. Welcome to Campcoat, everybody, a podcast brought to you by GoCamp Pro. Gab and I have been podcasting together for this is season 12, and we just knew that we needed to continue because just like people grow and change, so does our industry. So here we are, ready again to discuss new challenges, new ways of handling situations, new advice from those doing the work, and new ideas to help us all do our jobs better. Our commitment to intentional leadership training grows stronger every single year. So welcome everybody to another episode. It's just Gabs and me today. And as always, before we get to the discussion, we're going to begin with introductions. My friend Gabrielle. Hey y'all.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

My name is Gabs, and I'm one of the camp directors of Camp Warro. My pronouns are she, her, El. And at Warro, we try to create a positive environment for gender minorities and girls. And we do that while speaking in French and Anglais.

unknown 1:44

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

And I'm Beth Allison, co-owner of Camp Hacker and Go Camp Pro. My pronouns are she, her, and I am a camp consultant and trainer and author. And I think staff training is the coolest ever. Um it takes a lot of work. Yeah. All right. Noticing campers, noticing group dynamics, noticing when something feels off, and noticing when something wonderful is happening and needs encouragement. All sounds really obvious, but it's actually a learned skill. And many of our younger staff arrive without much practice in it. And when we don't train this intentionally, we end up saying things like, Why didn't you catch that earlier? Or you need to be more aware. And staff hear that as criticism. Awareness isn't automatic, it has to be built. So by the end of this episode, Gab and I hope to break down what noticing really means, why it's so hard for younger staff, what it looks like in practice, and how you can build it into your training this summer. Sound good?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

All right.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

So what do we mean by noticing? So let's define this first. When we say noticing, we're not talking about watching kids so nobody gets hurt. That's babysitting. We mean observing with purpose. It's the difference between I'm supervising and I'm paying attention to what's actually happening. So what questions are you constantly asking yourself if you're noticing? So I would start with something like, which camper got suddenly quiet? Or who's engaged and who's drifting away? Gab, what other questions would you ask if you were constantly noticing?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

I sort of frame it into two categories, which is connected and disconnected, and then those break into two other categories of calm and excited. So basically, I asked my staff to pay attention to our campers, usually energy is easy to notice. So is it a is it a calm energy or a low energy, or is it a high energy or an excited energy? And then the second question is are they connected or disconnected? So a lot of the time, calm reading a book can look like bored, but if you really pay attention, it's they're connected. They're connected to themselves. They're connected, they probably feel safe in the environment that they're in. Sometimes a high energy could look like they're excited. They might be, but are they excited where they're playing with friends and everybody's having fun? Or are they just excited and they're kind of irritating other people or not paying attention? So it's sort of a a little bit of a grid that I like to present to our staff when evaluating a group or an individual within a group.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Right. Because energy rising towards excitement is great. Energy rising towards conflict, not so much. Not so much.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

And some and that can get mixed up when you're when a kid just chill looks like they're chilling. Yep. But are they like happily chilling or are they sort of wishing somebody would come and say hi to them, you know? So helping them be able to distinguish between the two, essential. Essential for a camp counselor.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Absolutely. And it's not passive. Great counselors don't just react, they read the room. They see patterns early, they step in before things escalate. It's kind of like being a detective and a coach at the same time. You're noticing the signs, and then you're thinking, what small action can I take right now to make things better? And here's the thing: noticing isn't just for problems, it's also noticing moments of joy, creativity, leadership, courage, connection, and reinforcing those. So we're gonna dive into a little more of what that looks like, break it down, and then talk about how to train it. We'll be back right after the break. For camp code listeners, unlock UltraCamp's operations checklist for new directors, a free download to help you prepare for a smooth season. Find it at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Running camp comes with countless moving parts. Ultracamp helps you stay on top of them. Organize activities and daily schedules, manage wait lists and cabin assignments, automate billing and payments, centralize all camper and staff info in one place. With UltraCamp, camp operations run smoother so directors can lead with confidence. Book your free customized demo at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. And here we are and discussing how to teach noticing skills to staff. That was very energetic of me, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 6:49

I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

I think that a lot of directors assume staff already know how to do this particular skill, but many young adults haven't had to develop observational awareness yet. So, Gab, why why do you think younger staff often struggle with situational awareness? I think I've been thinking about this quite a bit.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

So, first is a developmental level where, as we're babies, infants, toddlers, young people, adults, more self-focused. And that's a biological thing. So there's a practice element, but I think with any practice element, there is practice that is needed. And I don't think that in schools we value practicing observation skills. I think that there is where we practice memorizing skills, we practice math skills, but I don't think we practice observing group dynamics. Though people do it because they want to be accepted and they do it for themselves. But one of the things that I've noticed within my staff members is an extreme fear of people noticing them when they're doing something that's cringy. So I think a lot of young adults' focus is actually going quite a bit inward and they're nervous to act a certain way or be a certain way. And I saw this for sure before COVID. Like this wasn't something that was kind of new. But what I'm seeing now post-COVID is that those staff members are actually even nervous about what their campers think of them. And we all wanted, if if those of you that are listening right now, if you can stretch back to if you were ever a camp a camp counselor, I remember really wanting my campers to like me, but there's almost a there's a different layer of anxiety and stress. So they're not actually able to sometimes pick up on what they're they're so sort of focused on what they think other people are perceiving of them. They're not they're they're not really reaching out and saying, like this, this kid really is having a good time. And I have a couple of examples from that this summer where I walked into a group and they were, as the kids would say, were they were vibing. It was like a good time in that cabin. I walked in, I was like, man, the vibes are chilling here, like felt so good. And the staff member was like, I'm so sorry. I know we're supposed to be doing this, but they were they all went to read their books. And did and I was like, wow, like I was not thinking anything negatively. I was, and I turned her around and I said, What do you see? And she said, They're not doing stuff, and they should be. They're supposed to be here for a camp experience. And I was like, they are here as a camp experience. One's braiding somebody else's hair, the other one's teaching somebody to you know make a bracelet. I was like, this one for some reason is excited about organizing the other campers area. Like, I don't know why, but that was happening. I was like, this is kind of picture perfect. She can come to my house when she's all grown up. I honestly, yes. This kid was is quite lovely. Or now do you next? Yeah. But it but I saw how self how she was really more. Of course, the boss is coming by, so maybe she's nervous, but as somebody that observes people quite well, she was nervous before I got there. I that's actually why I went in. She was outside the cabin. I could sense her anxiety. So so I think there's a lot of like performance anxiety, perfectionism, and it doesn't allow them to connect with with the campers. What about you? Like, what what have you noticed on why observation skills have been tough?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I also think that they've grown up in highly structured environments. Right. Okay, yeah. Adults solve problems for them when they were children, not necessarily now, although they are still sometimes too. And technology keeps their attention directed. And there are fewer opportunities, I think, to just sit and watch and interpret human behavior. Yeah. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things was to go get ice cream with my grandfather, and we'd go sit on a bench and we'd, you know, lick our ice cream cones from Dairy Queen and we would people watch. And he taught me how to people watch, and we'd, you know, he'd make guesses about what do you think they're thinking about right now? What do you think they do for a living? Do you think that person's happy? You know, those sorts of things. And I think we don't have enough of those anymore. And a lot of our our young staff have trained their brains to focus on one thing at a time, which is usually a screen. Can't require scanning multiple things at once: safety, emotions, group dynamics, the environment. And that is a really big cognitive switch. If we don't teach that shift, then staff can assume that their job is just to run the activity. They they don't realize that their job, their real job, is understanding the campers within that activity, noticing what's going on, what's off, what could go wrong next. And when they miss those cues, it can feel like a failure on their part, even though they just haven't had the practice yet. So I think we cannot assume people of a certain age that that they have grown up with this ability. So so what is noticing look like in practice? Okay, so let me let me paint you a picture, Gab. You're at archery.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

You know I love that.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

You're at archery, yes, and a counselor who isn't trained to notice sees kids are taking turns and the activity is going fine. But I would ask you, what would a counselor trained to notice see at archery or maybe see at archery?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Like, oh, and what we would want as camp directors from that counselor, that's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, yeah. What what would be if they know if we were training them to notice, what might they see that this other person who's just seeing the activity going well has missed?

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Like things are going. I mean, I I you know, we don't prep these. So I'm I'm gonna go on where I would think, and I actually archery is something a little bit of a thorn in my side within my own camp. So it's a it's a great, it's a great one. Again, I go back to connected. So sometimes a lot of campers are waiting in line for the activity. I honestly don't mind if you have a couple of campers that are just sitting with each other and they're chit-chatting a bit, as long as they've gone up and they get to go a couple of times uh within a timely manner. I don't mind. It's those campers that are disconnected, that kind of are sitting by themselves. And I, and and boredom's really important, but only if it's sort of cultivated, I think, you know, only when it's like it's time for you to figure out what you're gonna do next on your own. I think that's really important. Opportunities for campers to help each other, opportunities for campers to learn more support. These are things I'm always looking for. And a great camp staff member would have engagement from campers, but also would recognize that maybe those 15-year-olds are just chit-chatting, they're having a deep conversation. They still will have to go and do archery, but let them just have a little bit of that moment. So that's what I would be hoping for at archery. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

I would also suggest that maybe, just maybe, a camper has stepped back twice and is now pretending to fix their shoe. So they have missed their turn at least twice. So why? Why could that be? Maybe two campers are dominating all of the conversation. Maybe somebody looks frustrated and is trying to hide it, or the group energy is dropping. It could be anything. And those things that I just suggest it could be for any activity, doesn't have to be archery, but it's those kinds of behaviors that I think we need to train our staff to look for. Because noticing leads to action. So what could that look like? So maybe there's a camper that stepped back twice is pretending to fix their shoe. So they invite that hesitant camper back in. They adjust the pace, they they intervene before frustration escalates into behavior problems if the energy is dropping or whatever. Noticing is prevention, inclusion, relationship building, it's behavior management before behavior becomes a problem. And and you can use it, I said earlier, like with joyful things too. So say you've got some camper and they're doing what Gab was talking about, they're braiding hair, somebody else is, you know, organizing, like those two women that I follow on Instagram, you know, somebody else is reading, whatever, making a bracelet. One camper is quietly humming. And most staff wouldn't think twice, but a noticing staff member might be like, hey, I really love that song. Do you want to share it with the group later? So that small observation creates the connection and confidence in the camper. So I mean, that those are one of those things that it's such a great tool. And it's for the good stuff too. So it's not just for problems. So so we know that it's good, and we know that our young people don't necessarily have that experience yet. So, how do we train them to notice instead of just telling them? Yeah. So, like, here's the key you can't lecture somebody into awareness. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

I've been doing it wrong.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

But you have to give them structured practice. So instead of saying be more observant next time you're with your kids, you want to teach them exercises that train the brain. So, Gab and I'll give you a couple of ideas here that you could incorporate into training. And they're not big ones. We're not talking about a two-hour session about noticing, but we're talking about little ways that you can put things into staff training to help to make this easier. So, one of the first ones I would do is we talk a lot about scenarios here on Camp Code and how important they can be. I would always make sure that when you do a scenario, it's not just two people. So it's not the talker and the listener or whoever you're going to set it up or the person trying to have the hard conversation and the person responding, but you also at least have a third person who's the observer. And they cannot participate. So they're just observing. So when your whole thing has been debriefed, you're asking observers who looked confident, who looked unsure, what moments of connection did you see? Where might a problem develop? Um, and and doing that sort of thing, I think can be really helpful or get them to watch an activity together, like kids are at the beach for three minutes, or staff are at the beach if it's during training, and ask them those same questions. Who looks confident? Who looks unsure? What moments of connection did you see? Where might a problem developed? Most staff are shocked at how much they miss the first time. And so you repeat it with reflection and discussion, and suddenly patterns start to emerge for staff. And I think that that can be really helpful. And it's not a difficult, you know, hour-long prep. It's a five-minute conversation.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

And it's so smart because well, we it's so smart because we are trying to encourage camps, you camp professionals that are listening to this podcast, to do more experiential learning with your staff, such as scenarios. And sometimes the observer role takes is taken on because the numbers just don't match. And you're like, right, right. We have this is a snare for six, and we have a seventh. You are now observer, but maybe aim for the observer. And I and and and wonderful, you're giving them practice. So uh that this is one that we that we're we've started to do. It's fresh, it's new, but it's tried and true, it's working. During staff training, we assign staff members, typically cap returning staff members that have experience. We onboard them and they're captain of the table. Captain of the table just basically means like they set the tone, they you know, serve the food, they encourage clearing, all that kind of stuff. So a couple of years ago, we've adjusted the captain of the table to observe the group. And of course, you're observing your peers. We're very transparent about it, and we're clear about what we're observing. It's it's it's not like for little details that's secret. It's it's really just about sharing, you know, how it went at the table. But we look at, we're we're trying, we help staff members get from a remembering people's I like schedules to how people experience their schedules. So, an example of this, when we first started doing this exercise, and I would meet with the captains afterwards and say, okay, tell me a little bit, you know, what was the vibe at the table and what do you know that kind of thing? I had one staff member say, you know, Jessica did kayaking this morning, and Beth, you know, slept past her alarm and Kara, da-da-da-da. And I was like, this is really great observations of knowing their schedule of the day. How did they experience that? Did was Beth upset about it? Was Jessica excited about her kayaking? Did she get to do her roll? And I remember this person looking back at me being like, oh my gosh, I didn't ask any of those questions. And I said, that's okay. But practicing at camp and saying that what we're what we're looking for is a like a piece of somebody's day slash how did they experience that day? Just those two little pieces and practicing during staff training and then having them to report it back was really helpful because it gave them the permission. What I noticed with my staff, even when I asked my staff about their campers, and this is different from 10 years ago. Staff 10 years ago, no problem. Oh, my camper did this, and oh, she had a hard time here, but this is how we dealt with it. Staff today, it's almost like they're betraying a camper if they're sharing the who am I to say what the experience is. You're you're just interpreting. I'm not gonna say that, you know, Beth waking up this morning, she did have a bad day. Your interpretation is, but this is an important observation. She looked down, she looked stressed, she looked overwhelmed. How did you know? So, this is something that we're practicing at the meal times, and it's and it's just like fun facts about that person's day and and how they experienced it without breaking any confidentiality or anything like that. At first, when we first did it, it it of course it felt a little bit awkward, but once we allowed also new staff members to do it, we got everybody to do it. And we said, I did say at the beginning, if we could have a sample core of campers that could come in for 40 kids and we know we could do no harm without any training, I would do that. But we we can't, but we do need to practice. And this is how we practice observing with with care. We always do it with care in our hearts, and and and we do need to talk about it. And this is we've got each other, team, so this is how we're gonna practice. Now they're used to it, and and it's great, it's a great practice. And one one of my staff members said that going to a party is less stressful because now she observes and then she asks follow-up questions, which she learned at Cat.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I love that, and and just so we're clear, Beth would never sleep through her alarm.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

You never, that's why I said it.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

She would love to sleep through an alarm, but she never sleeps that soundly. I know. You wake up before your alarm and you turn on. I know, I do it all the time. All right, I love that. And my next point kind of builds on that a little bit, but observation isn't instinctive for everything. No. So we need to teach them, we need to give them some anchors. So for example, Gab was like, How do you know? Was she stressed? Did she look upset? So thing like having some sort of quick session on faces. So faces is one of the anchors. So if you're noticing things, you can notice a lot by somebody's face. Many, many people have told me that even if I don't talk, my face has subtitles. So I definitely am one of those people. But but what does the face say? So if you have three things that you're telling your staff to look out for, one is face, because you're looking for emotion and you're looking for engagement. Like, are they engaged in the activity with other kids or in the book that they're reading all by themselves, whatever it is? The second thing is bodies. So what's the movement? Are they withdrawing? Have they moved away from the group? Or are they, you know, have their back to you now or something like that? Is there tension in the body? Can you see that in them? And the third thing I would say is space. Who's in, who's out of the space that you're in together, and where is the energy shifting to? That kind of gives them a framework of structure for attention and can reduce that overwhelm. So if I'm supposed to be noticing, I notice faces, I notice body language, and I notice space. Who's in in the space, who's actively engaged and connected in the space? What else you got, Gab?

SPEAKER_02 23:33

That's so great, Beth. I love that. I have I I like to ask staff members who's blocking and who's inviting. So blocking can be in a conversation. So sometimes when campers are sarcastic, that would be blocking. When campers ask up, ask follow-up questions, that's inviting. Or just the normal, the straightforward, do you want to go play with me? Is inviting. Ignoring somebody is blocking. And so, Beth, as you were talking about at the beginning, those patterns, these are patterns that can tell us there might become friction in this group at some point because I'm noticing this person ignores this person. Or another way of blocking is just honest over talking when you're just talking and talking and talking and you're not leaving space to other people. That's a form of blocking. I also just want to go back to what you were saying with pictures of looking and and and showing faces. I think this is brilliant. I think every camp should show these, show pictures of groups and of people's expressions because we're we're trying to be inclusive with learning differences and neurodivergent brains. Not everybody recognizes how faces are. And for certain camp directors, there's some camp directors that are really skilled at reading people. And sometimes when you're really skilled at something, it's hard to teach. But we have a lot of people that might be on the spectrum or just even reading people's faces are difficult. I know I have on my staff, and I've never thought of creating a visual aid for that. And why? That is so wild to me. So I just wanted to bring that up. That's a aha for me, Beth. I I really I'm like, team, everybody that's listening. Do why didn't we do this?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

If you did do this, hats off and we had a head counselor one year who was new to the role, but had been on staff for a number of years. And so she did all the faces of her during her introductory session on I'm your head counselor. And here is how you can get to know me a bit better. So she was building a relationship with all of her counselors, and it was hilarious because we used to tease her about this all the time. But her faces are always exactly the same. So I'll use my own name. So this is Beth's happy face. If you're not on YouTube, you can't see that. Like I'm just looking straight ahead. This is Beth's sad face. This is Beth's angry face. Like her face never changed. So you could never read her facial expressions. And it was really helpful because people would, you know, the counselors were intimidated by her. You know, she's older, she's the head counselor, but she also always looked like she was mad. Like that's just her face. And 99.9% of the time, she was never mad. Um, and so that was really helpful for them too. But anyway, that's just a little aside there when you were talking about using pictures. But I do think that's a great point that not everybody picks up on those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

No and and there and we're working with people and we're working with children, and so of course, we should be using visual aids to to showcase the stuff. I love it. What what else do you have, Beth? I'm sure you have a couple.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Well, I laugh because I listened to the podcast that you three did about me. Oh, yes. And you talked about the fact that you know, you're you come with three things and I come with 20. So just like my two, I I squeezed two into the first one, uh, instead of just one about adding an observer and then an activity. But I have two more to end with and they're really, really short. So one down, one is slow the moment down. So you can use video clips or even live demonstrations if you have you know people who can do a good job for you, and then pause mid-action and ask your staff what could happen next. So you're training prediction, not just reaction, because great counselors always think one step ahead. And that's kind of a fun little thing. Maybe it's a rainy afternoon or something, and you can watch little video clips like two minutes and say what happens next. Don't pick things that are really obvious, like I don't know, out of Star Wars or something where everyone knows what happens next, but just random little videos. And my my final thing would be to build it into daily practice. So I would do this throughout the summer, not just at training, but especially once the campers arrive, obviously. But at the end of each day, whether that's before they get on the bus to go home or before they go to bed, just to ask small groups of staff, who did you notice today that others might have missed? When, or maybe when did you step in early and how did that feel? How did that progress? Or when do you wish you had noticed sooner? Because I think those kinds of reflections can turn awareness into habit. So those would be my last two. Do you have another gap or are we heading to recap?

SPEAKER_02 28:48

I think we're heading, I think we're heading to recap, baby. All right, let's do it. Recap, recap, recap. Okay, my favorite quote of the day is observing not just for safety, those are babysitters.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

And I would argue also lifeguards, but observing with the I also feel a I also feel a little bit guilty because a lot of babysitters do more than just I know we love them, and they become the counselors and they go off and be o pairs.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

But it was very funny.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Funny, wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

But that is a very good, I was gonna say also, a lot of the times people think that camp counselors are just glorified babysitters. And I love that we can say, you know, it's with a purpose, you know. So observing with a purpose is a wonderful way of setting the tone and the mission for your staff when you're talking about noticing the importance. It's because we are going beyond just safety. Safety is number one, but we have to go beyond because we're trying to build connections. So when you're building connections, we want to look for patterns. How do we look for patterns? We have to practice noticing. Best straight out the right out of the gate, look. So faces, bodies, and space. I love that. The space between people, the space between objects, the kid that's pretending to step, just tie their shoe just to avoid an activity. All of those things is a great, great structure. And if you're also wanting to get a little bit more deeper into that, let's look at connections. Are they when they're calm? Is it a connected or disconnected? If they have a high excitement, are they connected to others or not? So let's pay attention to those things. Also, what can you know? I love the scenario of what could happen next. Have your improv team to get up there, create a a great scenario, and then ask your staff members what could happen next and point out the things that you saw when doing it that could be a daily practice. I think at the end of the day, whether whatever the reason is that staff members have a hard time noticing, we have noticed that they're having a hard time noticing and communicating. Share with them the power of paying attention and that you're there to listen and that you're there to help make campers' experiences the best possible. And really at the end of the day, they just want to belong and you need to be noticed to belong.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

I love that. I will throw in one little thing that I have told before could be gosh, season one, season two, I'm not sure. But when I was directing, I had those fridge magnets on my fridge in our cabin. And every so often, staff, if they'd come into our my cabin or Travis's cabin, they would, you know, write us little notes with the magnets on the fridge. And there was one day that I noticed this, and I I don't know who did it. I have my suspicion. But it said, sit still and listen, watch and see. Oh so that's all it said. And so I've taught my staff that for years, and I still teach when I'm training. Like if you're in a room, if you enter the room, stop. Just sit and listen, you know, watch and see what's happening. Sit still and listen, watch and see. And so you're taking the vibe of the room, you're taking in, you know, who's doing what, who's participating, who's not. I used to do it at campfire at night all the time. I'd walk into the situation and kind of go, okay, they're sitting over there together and not with their campers. You know, we we might have to have a chat about that, like those kinds of things. But taking those moments when you're in charge every so often just to check in on your people and notice those kinds of things. So you can create your own little fridge magnet sentence, but that's the one that worked for us. Well, thank you for that recap. Yeah. Um, as usual, you can tell us any topics you would like us to discuss or guests you recommend that we have on the show, or any of your great leadership training tips that you have to share. We would love to hear from you because we're all about sharing in this industry.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

All right, Gabrielle, how can they get a hold of you? Y'all, you can check out where I work at warro.com. You can press on the French button if you're so inclined to check out the French part. You can also get in touch with me at info at war.com o-u-a-r-e-a-u.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

I love that Ruby's with us even when she's not with us. When Gab says, y'all. It's an inclusive language and I love it. It is very inclusive, one of the most. Yep. All right. You can email me directly at Beth at Gokamp.pro or you can find me on threads at topaz underscore fay. And for our next podcast, we're going to talk about problem solving under pressure. So not just regular problem solving, but under pressure. And Gab's really excited for that one. I am Beth, not so much. She doesn't like pressure. But anyway, today we're going to do the best practice, and it'll be from me. So noticing is a skill that changes everything at camp. When staff learn to notice, issues get caught sooner. Not because kids magically change, but because staff intervene early. Missing home gets addressed before tears turn into meltdowns, friendships form more smoothly, risk is reduced, quiet kids get included, and staff feel more confident because they're not constantly reacting to surprises. I think it also changes staff identity. They stop seeing themselves as just activity leaders and start seeing themselves as guides of human experience. I think you should take that phrase and use it this summer at training, guides of human experience. So if you take one thing from this episode, here is a very small but powerful shift. So instead of telling staff to pay attention, ask them every single day, what did you notice today? That simple question rewires how they see their role and encourages reflection every day. Noticing is really the foundation of empathy and safety and leadership and connection. And like any skill, it grows with intention and practice. When we teach counselors how to notice, then we give them the tools to truly see campers. And that's when camp becomes transformative. So what did you notice today? Camp Code is part of the GoCamp Pro Podcast Network, and you can check out all of our other podcast podcasts, of course, at gocamp.pro slash podcasts. So thanks for joining us today. And if you have any questions or want us to dive deeper into any part of this, please reach out. We are here to help you create the best staff training possible. So thank you so much for listening and have a great week.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Please remember, no other industry shares their best practices the way summer camps do. If you use an idea you heard on a GoCamp Pro podcast, please be professional and remember to give credit where credit is due. The Camp Code is brought to you by GoCamp Pro. Thanks for listening, friends.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Camp Hacker bringing your world into focus.