Collaborative

Develop the capacity to foster successful teams and to create effective formal and informal collaborative networks.

ARTIFACTS

REFLECTION

LDRS 801 Theoretical Foundations of Leadership is included as one of three core courses within the FHSU MPS OL program and is one of the courses determined by the Leadership Studies Department to reflect achievement of the collaborative learning objectives. The MPS OL program provides ample opportunity for students to experience creating effective teams and fostering networks. For this objective the artifacts included were purposefully selected to reflect attainment of collaborative capacity.

The case study and teaching notes assignment from LDRS 801 was the first formalized group project I was assigned to for nearly 20 years. My prior involvement with group projects while providing experience have not necessarily been all that positive. Admittedly I am introverted with perfectionistic qualities and high expectations (of both myself and others). Historically I find myself in the position of being the strongest and perhaps most engaged with the project thereby placing me with the heaviest workload.

Group D (as we were defined by the instructor) included an interesting mix of student backgrounds and experiences. The most diverse group I had worked with up to that point in time. We were composed of a physical education teacher, registered nurse, ESL student in China (including time difference challenges), and me a manager of clinical documentation integrity. Our assigned leader was the registered nurse who experienced some significant health challenges during the course of the semester. Again, I found myself the strong link; however, in retrospect nearing the end of my MPS OL graduate program journey there were significant strengths in the group which I did not readily identify during the course.

Our leader (registered nurse) was exemplary at collaboration which allowed me to experience this approach close up and within the safe confines of our assigned team. One of his strengths was ensuring each member had opportunities to provide input, suggestions, and speak their mind to the work at hand. The physical education teacher had a different cultural/ethnic background than anyone else on the call and was very thoughtful in his comments and approach to the teaching notes. Based upon these comments one of his significant contributions came in the way he suggested we craft the teaching note comments. The third member ESL foreign Chinese student provided positive challenges for the entire group as we struggled to ensure she contributed relevant content to the teaching notes. Ensuring relevancy while attempting different approaches to support her ideas and contributions.

While I found myself frustrated at times with the progress and details of the task it was beneficial as I labored through managing my impatience. I employed conscious diligent effort in providing kind and positive feedback to our ESL Chinese group member when she submitted her draft portions to the group. In my younger days I have too often been sharp tongued, brash, and thoughtless in my comments when communicating with others. It has taken years to recognize this and more years to overcome this fault. I was surprised but pleased to receive email communication from this student regarding my thoughtful feedback, helpfulness, and kindness during the time we worked together in Group D.

Group D genuinely pulled together and used individual strengths to the groups’ advantage. I did not identify any personality clashes. It is my perception and belief the group intent was focused on completing the task at hand. I believe this result is exemplified not only through the artifact selected but also through instructor provided rubric, and comments included with the artifact.

Another significant artifact included for this learning objective is the team competency final project for LDRS 807 Leadership in Teams and Collaborative Environments, a concentration course within the program. The artifact is the group developed textbook chapter of the leadership topic Problem Solving and Decision-Making. This learning objective has been supported through the initial report assignment where our assigned team was expected to coordinate and communicate how our project would be completed. Included within the initial report our team described norms and expectations surrounding several key categories (time, listening, decision making, participation, accountability). Early on each team member shared what they perceived to be their strengths and weaknesses as part of establishing team norms.

The collaborative objective was further supported by creation of our chapter prospectus which required our group to work toward a common vision by determining which aspects of our assigned topic would be used to create a cohesive textbook chapter for an undergraduate audience. In conclusion, specific to this learning objective; the final report project was the crowning achievement of a collective group where we displayed our ability to foster a collaborative environment successfully. This artifact further supports the achievement of fostering effective teams when individual goals align with desired group outcome.

The instructor assigned group in LDRS 807 was extraordinary in strengths. This group is by far the most action-oriented achievement focused group I have ever had the opportunity to work with. The group participants were diverse in employment / educational background but lacked the cultural diversity experience within Group D from LDRS 801. The LDRS 807 group included a project manager, information technology expert, FHSU professional advisor and me with a health information management background. This group is the first one I have participated in where I believed several team members had overall strengths greater than my own. In our first meeting the question arose as to what each individual saw as their goal relating to the course. Every individual noted they wanted to earn an “A”. This individual goal then became the group goal which set the tone for the short summer semester while creating the textbook chapter.

As part of LDRS 807 students were tasked with providing a self and peer evaluation for each team member. The evaluation included ranking each member on a scale of 5-1 (5 = well above average and 1 = well below average) for 20 key items. Additionally, team members provided descriptive feedback for self and peers for greatest area of strength and greatest area of opportunity.

I found several surprises in the evaluation from my peers regarding my perceived involvement, strengths, and weaknesses as part of the LDRS 807 team experience. As I considered comments regarding my greatest strengths; persistence is not surprising since I do consider this to be a strength and I rated myself as five – well above average. I agree with this category as a strength as I routinely go above and beyond to see a project through to completion and believe I manage setbacks in a manner which supports successful project completion.

For the other two categories: Feedback and Vision and Change Plan I rated myself as three – average. Listing #5 – Feedback as a strength from the first team member may be a result of the “constructive criticism” portion of the category since this team member wrote comments on an initial draft I submitted to the group. Those comments were perceived by myself as “harsh”, but I chose not to react in a personal way but rather revised the draft based upon suggestions provided. I disagree with the portion of the category “seeks extra help when needed” and comments from peer regarding seeking “feedback numerous times from the group and other individuals”. My inquiries to the professor were a result of differences in opinion within the group regarding a few points. Seeking clarification from the professor was in my opinion the most straightforward way to resolve the conflict.

In reviewing and reflecting upon the peer evaluations, I did not identify any specific patterns within the feedback related to opportunities; however, the feedback from different team members is, in my opinion contradictory. It is interesting to receive feedback from one team member who perceives an area for improvement to be “communication/actively contributing” while a second team member states I was providing constant “comments and suggestions” (to the point of “micro-managing”). Collectively we speak of the value diversity brings to teams and some go as far to say they do not have bias; however, it is apparent we are all affected by bias and our perception of reality.

Reflecting further on the feedback received I find it surprising a team member perceives I did not communicate/actively contribute; especially after I collated what each member contributed to this project. This specific feedback created much reflection. Prior to feedback received during LDRS 807 I did not realize how quiet I may be during meetings, or that my internal reflection was perceived as “confusion” or created an appearance I had no additional thoughts or opinions. The day after the feedback for LDRS 807 was provided I happened upon the following blog: Introversion: The benefit of quiet employees, Works, Emerald. (2020, August 14). I believe information shared within this blog is a more accurate representation of what my peers perceived as a lack of communication and failure to actively contribute during team calls/project completion.

Another team member perceived my areas of greatest opportunity to be “creativity, written communication and not micro-managing”. I agree creativity and unique ideas is a growth opportunity and it was listed by myself as my greatest weakness in the peer evaluation form: “Greatest opportunity is in Creativity/Unique ideas. I tend to be more traditional in my thought processes. When presented with unique/new ideas I struggle to understand how they fit into context, how they may be applicable and how they contribute to project or my knowledge. In this struggle it can take time for me to synthesize and apply such ideas which can hinder timely team accomplishments.”

It is also interesting this team member stated the desire to use “more creative figures, layout, and be more modern” in our chapter project and is inferred my lack of creativity resulted in her and the team not being able to implement these ideas. In reviewing the meeting minutes, agendas and documents kept as part of this project there was no identified mention of this desire. If the peer had this desire it does not appear it was ever communicated to the team.

The third team members’ perception was I “get off track with what the paper needed to be about”. I disagree with this specific comment and was very surprised by this perception. I believe my understanding of the project along with my developed portions of the chapter were consistent and in line with expectations as described within professor provided course materials. I agree my tendency is to gather more research than necessary which I then whittle down to craft my assignments. While I did have a lot of research collected, it was reduced and my assigned portion came out to the five-page expectation, consistent with my “habitual approach” to similar writing projects. In retrospect perhaps this approach is uncomfortable or foreign to some and may be an area for me to communicate to or focus on altering during future group work.

Effective leadership is a lifetime pursuit and in consideration of that pursuit the below noted goals are included in my personal development plan.

Based upon experiences within LDRS 807 including received peer feedback I have opportunity to increase my emotional intelligence specifically as it relates to working within groups. In reflecting on the team competency project, I may have been able to alleviate some of the misconception surrounding my perceived lack of communication/active contribution had I shared how I approach thoughts and ideas from others.

Now that I am more keenly aware of my tendencies to explore ideas in depth while also listening to ideas from others; I can speak to this within team settings to facilitate the understanding of different approaches. Sharing this approach also provides an opportunity to highlight some of the strengths of introverts: increased ability to understand complex topics and effectively assessing options prior to decision making (Work, 2020).

Developing my team EI will support a greater appreciation for the strengths other team members bring to a group setting and supports communicating in ways which foster cohesion and synergy.

Goal #1: Emotional Intelligence (EI):

By end of 2023 increase my emotional intelligence within a team is by “emphasizing interpersonal understanding” (Druskat & Wolff, 2001, p. 83) during my work with groups. Development of team EI can be accomplished by encouraging group realization that actively listening to “accurately hear”; all team members’ results in cooperation, effectiveness and output being positively increased.

Based upon experiences within LDRS 807 including the self and peer evaluation I have opportunity to increase my ability to develop creative thinking and produce unique ideas. As stated in the self-evaluation: “I tend to be more traditional in my thought processes. When presented with unique/new ideas I struggle to understand how they fit into context, how they may be applicable and how they contribute to project or my knowledge.”

I have been reflecting on this area of opportunity for a couple of years (even prior to receiving peer feedback results) and contemplating if there are avenues available to increase my skill in this area. I believed some people were simply naturally more creative than others. One goal is to continue my formal educational journey following completion of the MPS OL program. My continued educational journey will provide additional opportunities to work with diverse groups thus increasing my exposure to creative ideas and innovative solutions.

Thompson (2003) discusses how to improve creativity within organizational groups. One area which I can leverage to improve my creativity is by seeking opportunities to be part of diverse groups, outside of my current employer and formal education pursuits, such as work groups for professional associations, community affiliations, worthy causes, or religious groups. Perry-Smith and Mannucci (2017) speak to using social networks as the “drivers” for creativity, innovation, and unique ideas (p. 59). This article caused me to reflect on whether continuing to develop my social networks could be used to strengthen creativity and unique ideas and would be aligned with goal #2 as outlined in the knowledgeable objective section.

Recently during an online search, I located www.bridgepointeffect.com a consulting company which specializes in creativity and innovation training.

Goal #2: Creativity/Unique Ideas:

“By the end of Winter 2024 enroll and complete at least one individual course from www.bridgepointeffect.com starting with “BEING CREATIVE: 6 Skills to Power Up Your Thinking and Resilience in an Evolving World”.

I believe the awareness and goals outlined above will support my continued journey towards becoming a more effective leader.

References

Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001). Building the emotional intelligence of groups. Harvard business review, 79(3), 80-91.

Francisco, J. (2021, March 8). Innovation strategy Consulting, creativity in business, Innovation Training. BridgePoint Effect. https://bridgepointeffect.com/

Perry-Smith, J. E., & Mannucci, P. V. (2017). From creativity to innovation: The social network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 53-79.

Thompson, L. (2003). Improving the creativity of organizational work groups. The Academy of Management Executive, 17(1), 96-109.

Work, Emerald. (2020, August 14). Introversion: The benefit of quiet employees. Mind Tools for Business. https://emeraldworks.com/resources/blog/tips-and-expertise/introverts-extroverts-working-from-home