Objective:

Visionary and Change-Oriented:

Demonstrate the ability to envision opportunities and desirable futures; develop means of attaining them and initiate change processes at individual, organizational and global levels.

Reflection:

An excellent leader will strive to create fundamental shifts that will push the organization and its employees to new levels. This learning objective focuses primarily on the concept of transformational leadership and change-making. Essentially, leaders must be concerned with improving the performance of their followers and developing them to their fullest potential by inspiring a shared vision for future outcomes. Bennis and Nanus (2007) describe this well by stating, “When an organization has a clear vision, it is easier for people within the organization to learn how they fit into the overall direction of the organization and even society in general. It empowers them because they feel they are a significant dimension of a worthwhile enterprise” (p. 90-91). It is most common for the leader to establish the vision using the dreams and collective interests of their followers and to showcase where the organization plans to incorporate those into its roadmap. Hence, the best leaders are change agents and push for instrumental shifts that will move the organization towards being on the cutting edge of the industry.

My Organizational Intervention Strategies class has been one of the most applicable to my professional journey. Organizations are continuously looking to put the right people in the right roles. One of the primary ways they avoid gaps in the talent pipeline is by developing, coaching, and promoting those internally. There are benefits to this strategy such as cost savings from hiring someone externally (advertising costs, recruitment costs, relocating costs, training costs, etc.) and using leadership development to shape the culture and strategy of the business. In fact, some organizations are now requiring employees to complete professional development hours regarding leadership skills and are offering internal development workshops to ensure employees have the skills to be proficient in a role that requires more knowledge and responsibility. During the Organizational Intervention Strategies course, I developed a leader and leadership intervention plan that included a detailed needs assessment, learning objectives, adult learning and development styles, and intervention strategies using the five methods of development: feedback processes, self-development activities, formal programs, developmental assignments, and developmental relationships. At first, critiquing my organization was difficult because understanding the needs of learners and defining clear-cut objectives for an organization of this size was a huge undertaking. Particularly, because the organization that I worked for in the past had a total of 20 staff members, whereas CivicPlus has over 1,000. However, once I was able to refine my objectives and shift my focus to understand that this assignment was meant to improve employees by teaching, learning, counseling, and coaching, it was easier to define the intervention methods that I planned to use (formal programs, feedback processes, and self-development tools). My final intervention project and presentation included as artifacts in this section are beneficial tools that will help other employees grow personally and professionally. As my organization continues to grow and prosper, this intervention report can assist in mitigating growing pains and help them shift their mindsets to focus on growth, learning, and change.

LDRS 802 Organizational Systems, Change, and Leadership was the first class that I took in this program. Naturally, I remember this course being difficult because I was navigating the transition from being a full-time on-campus student to being a full-time online student. I learned a few valuable lessons from this course. First, although trainings are important, they should not be mistaken for organizational change. Weisbord (2012) states this well in his book Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century, “I’m advocating for purposeful meetings, interactive meetings, meetings that matter, meetings where people solve problems and influence decisions” (p. 12). Too many meetings waste time, create information overload, and are not deemed productive. Smile sheets and surveys do not always gauge how well information is being received and applied by employees whereas pre-tests, post-tests, and job assignments may serve as a better way to track progress. Second, change and productivity occur when you have the entire system in the room and the right people sitting around the table. “When people meet across levels and lines of status, function, gender, race, and hierarchy, treating problems as systematic rather than discrete, wonderful (and unpredictable) things happen. Long-standing lockups are resolved. Relationships improve, walls come down, problems are solved, and norms change. These results can’t be planned except in the sense of making them more probable. Such happenings lead to more creative and committed actions, and more secure and engaging work” (Weisbord, 2012, p. 333). Third, I learned that even though an organization may have motivated personnel, they may not have the resources (financial resources, human resources, physical resources, intellectual resources, etc.) to provide opportunities, and thinking outside of the box becomes critical. Granted, the best strategy to deploy is to use the resources and talent at your disposal. “Your best strategy will always be to help people do the best they can now with what they have” (Weisbord, 2012, p. 4). Lastly, change is messy and difficult, and you must be willing to be vulnerable and shift your strategy when your plans are not being executed properly. The leadership texts make it sound easy in theory but in reality, it is incredibly difficult in application. As leaders, not all of our ideas are going to work all of the time and we must be prepared to accept that and adapt accordingly. 

My artifact for the LDRS 802 Organizational Systems, Change, and Leadership course was an applied final project that focused on change initiatives within the Department of Leadership Studies at Fort Hays State University. At the time, I worked for them as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) and formerly as a Student Marketing Coordinator. The purpose of the project was to use systems knowledge and organizational learning models to develop a change proposal that followed industry standards and that could be presented to organizational leadership for consideration. Importantly, as you read you will understand where the organization was in terms of marketing recruitment, and provides a detailed change initiative to show where we wanted to go and what we wanted to accomplish over the next several years. This assignment was gradually produced over the semester in three phases. During this course and this assignment, I learned that graduate school is more deliberate, thought-provoking, and virtual. Also, I learned that it is normal to scrap everything that you are working on and go back to the drawing board if it is not what you envisioned or if it did not meet specific criteria. The process is more about learning and completing something to the best of your ability. Lastly, as the technical expert within my organization, I realized that it is easy to get stuck in a pattern or establish habits that become routine and it becomes harder to recognize or speak up about changes that should occur. However, as my peripheral vision has changed, I have learned that it is acceptable to speak up when something is not correct systematically because I would not be utilizing my education or background knowledge correctly if I did not. Also, age and status are not required to be a leader and are not pertinent if you establish credibility with others. 

My final artifact stems from a topical leadership course offered on crisis leadership taught by Dr. Jill Arensdorf. It is a running list of weekly reflections that were submitted highlighting information that I found important and that I found applicable to potential crises. I appreciated this assignment because it taught me to write short, informative synopses with a limited word count. The assignment was designed to teach students that press releases, messages to employees, social media messages, and other forms of communication during a crisis need to be directive. To be most effective at addressing individuals it needs to state the facts and give clear directions on how to proceed. In addition, this assignment taught me to think about future crises outside of a global pandemic such as natural disasters, mergers, computer hacking, sexual harassment, embezzlement, product failure, negative legislation, or any incident that interrupts daily functions. In fact, one of the most insightful crises that I learned about is technology and security awareness. In my current organization, CivicPlus, we must be cognizant of this potential threat. The company provides technology services to local and state governments. Hence, we hold sensitive data on our Customer Relationship Management platform (CRM) that would be detrimental to our clients if it was lost, damaged, or stolen. Therefore, we spend an adequate amount of time training employees in security awareness and prevention. By doing so, we are complying with regulations, creating a culture of security, preventing data breaches and phishing attacks, and reassuring our customers that we invest our time to develop a safe and secure system.

As an example, one of the ways that I have promoted change in my career is by evaluating the standard operating procedures of my current department. Prior to this, our department did not have procedures outlined on paper and the rules for how we distribute marketing and sales leads were learned from seasoned employees. Important steps were being missed and forgotten but there was no document created to reference. Furthermore, we were severely understaffed, and leads were not being distributed within the appropriate window for Account Executives (AE), Client Success Managers (CSM), and Business Development Specialists (BDS) to reach out to follow up and send product information. The process was slow, and inefficient, and upset our prospects who reached out for our services. To remedy this problem, I wrote down the proper steps and rules for sending leads to the best of my knowledge and had my colleagues add relevant information until we compiled one working process document. Then, we brainstormed on ways to update HubSpot forms to improve the appropriate information fields for easy processing, spoke with sales professionals to receive answers about miscellaneous lead types and how they should be handled, and filled in the gaps regarding product information. Then, my immediate supervisor and I outlined a job description and hired two additional employees to distribute the workload. As I trained and worked with new employees, I had them follow the document to distribute a lead and used their fresh set of eyes to tell me what made sense and what did not. To this day, the document is being refined and new information is being added. One of the best tools an organization or department can have is a written set of procedures that provides the same onboarding and learning information to each new hire. As I envision the future of the Inbound Marketing Department, I would like to continue developing new training materials such as lead processing videos, case studies, instructor-led training, and computer-based simulations. Advanced training and development helps companies gain and retain top talent, increase job satisfaction and morale, improve productivity, and earn more profit. 

As I progress forward, one of the ways that I plan to instill change is through creative thinking and allowing myself and my team members to question old assumptions and stimulate new perspectives. Effective leaders and followers think outside the box to identify ideas for their organization. Below, are some of the primary methods that I plan to utilize as we engage in this effort. 

Brainstorming:

A group collaborates for 10-30 minutes and comes up with as many ideas as possible without taking other factors (scope, resources, creativity, financials, etc.) into consideration (Winstanley, 2014).

Brainwriting:

This method is an alternative to brainstorming. Brainwriting has individuals in a group silently write ideas on note cards until all ideas are exhausted (Scholtes, Joiner, & Streibel, 2003).

Mind Mapping:

An individual or group forms a pictorial representation of their thoughts or ideas. Ideas can be generated using a paper concept map or they can be created using a computer-generated platform (Jam Board, CMap, Lucidspark, etc.). A general theme is represented in the center of the diagram and ideas radiate from the center. Often, this method is used for easy note-taking. (Winstanley, 2014; Gardner, 2013)

Six Thinking Hats:

This method includes examining a problem and potential solutions from six specific perspectives, or “hats”--factions, emotions, judgment/caution, logic, creativity, and control (Gardner, 2013).

Checklist:

To use this method appropriately, ask the six universal questions in relation to the problem and potential solutions generated--who, what, when, where, why, and how? (Gardner, 2013).

Pet Peeve:

This strategy works well if you enjoy playing the devil’s advocate. When a group or individual identifies all possible complaints (from those within or outside the group or organization) about the issue at hand and asks, “What if?” with regard to any potential solutions to addressing the issue(s) (Dubrin, 2016).

As I continue to work with various change efforts, my goal is to foster a culture of congruence, commitment, and collaboration. However, the more complex a situation is, the more diverse opinions will emerge. To remedy this, I hope to address these viewpoints by facilitating an open and honest conversation amongst team members. It will be important for me to utilize end-based thinking and consider all perspectives. “Ends-based thinking posits that regardless of the process to achieve an outcome, right and wrong are best determined by considering the consequences of the process or results of an action. A maxim of end-based thinking includes doing what is best for the most amount of people” (Goertzen, 2019, p. 40). As a leader, my followers and I should make decisions and do what is best for the organization and as many employees as possible within it. As a general rule, change within an organization must surpass change outside the organization and should be at the forefront of a leader's responsibilities.

References:

Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (2007). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Dubrin, A. J. (2016). Leadership. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Gardner, H. (2013). 8 creative thinking techniques and the tools to use. Retrieved from https://www.koozai.com/blog/content-marketing-seo/eight-awesome-creativethinking- techniques-plus-tools/

Goertzen, B.J., Kastle, S.D., Klaus, K., & Greenleaf, J. (2019). Discovering the leader within: Learning leadership through service (2nd ed.). Available from: https://www.fhsu.edu/leadership/student-resources/discoveringtheleader

Scholtes, P.R., Joiner, B.L., & Streibel, B.J. (2003). The team handbook (3rd ed.). Madison, WI: Oriel, Inc.

Weisbord, M. (2012). Productive workplaces: Dignity, meaning, and community in the 21st century. (3rd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-470-90017-8.

Winstanley, D. (2014). Personal effectiveness: A guide to action. (pp. 53-73). Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill.