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Painted canvas represents technician teamwork

The painting created by UF Small Animal Hospital technical staff hangs in the technician locker room inside the hospital. (Photo by Sarah Carey)

A colorful, newly hung canvas inside of the veterinary technician locker room at the UF Small Animal Hospital reminds staff every day how their individual perspectives combine harmoniously to represent a single team and vision.

“Each square in this canvas was painted by a member of our small animal technical staff as part of a team-building exercise,” said veterinary technician manager Megan Elliot.  Elliott attended the Veterinary Leadership Conference in Post Falls, Idaho in June and brought the canvas idea back to UF, where she used it as an activity during a professional development seminar held for staff over the summer.

“The idea I brought back from the meeting was that of using color to represent your vision of your career future,” she said.

She said color was used to convey individual and team identities, literal and abstract. Hospital management hung the framed assembly in the technicians’ locker room to remind them that they are all part of one team and one vision.

“Each technician received three colors, blue, red and yellow, and a 3-inch by 3-inch canvas to paint,” Elliott said. “They were to pick one color that represented themselves and start painting any picture or shape. Then they picked a second color that represented their team, and continued painting. Then they could mix colors and finish the painting showing where their team was heading.”

When the task was completed, a few people shared what their picture represented, from the abstract to the literal. Elliott then collected all the individual paintings and had them framed.

“There was no specific design as to how the pictures were laid out, as the technician team is one team,” she said. Elliott then had the picture hung in the technician locker room, “to remind us of how we work together and to remind us of our vision.”