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.

ARTIFACTS

REFLECTION

LDRS 802 is a concentration course within the FHSU MPS OL graduate program. Titled Organizational Systems, Change and Leadership the course focuses on enhancing students’ view of systems thinking as it relates to leadership and change at an organizational level. The course includes the reading of books authored by Meadows (2008) and Weisbord (2012). I began perusing the Meadows text a few weeks prior to the start of the semester and found the idea of “thinking in systems” fascinating. I self-identify as a “linear” or “black and white” thinker and found the course to be an avenue to broaden understanding of the interconnectivity that encompasses us. For the visionary and change oriented objective selected artifacts portray successful attainment of the outlined learning goals.

Having started the semester early by beginning the reading of Meadows (2008) I found myself eagerly looking forward to how the course would evolve. In addition to the noted book readings students were tasked with the analysis of a couple of selected scholarly journal articles along with engagement in weekly discussion boards.

The final applied project was the culmination of phases where students engaged in defining a system level change, followed by subsystem mapping of the significant stocks-and-flows within the defined system with eventual compilation of the final project. Considering my apprehension prior to the start of the course as a result of my linear thinking I was very pleased with the result of my final applied project. However, rather than including the final applied project as an artifact I opted to showcase the executive summary presentation. This summary was created as a high level overview of the outlined organizational change intended to be presented to the executive suite.

Unfortunately, the change proposal was met with significant resistance from my direct leadership. As a result of this resistance the applied final project moved from a potentially desirable future for the organization to a required assignment for the FHSU MPS OL program. My direct leadership stood firmly blocking the path to the executive suite. While I was denied the opportunity for an audience with the executive the creation of the presentation was a positive developmental experience. I was able to masterfully prepare a presentation appropriate for the intended audience.

The second artifact included in support of the outlined learning goal is the action learning coaching reflection from LDRS 811. Organizational Intervention Strategies (LDRS 811) is another concentration course within the MPS OL program. Using leadership concepts and assessment techniques students create an organization specific leadership development program. This course (as with the MPS OL program overall) provides multiple opportunities to collaborate with and learn from FHSU peers.

Providing descriptive and constructive feedback while including course materials to peers was challenging. The challenge increased when faced with writing styles which may be described as immature considering graduate level work. This process further revealed my strong tendency of personal bias. However, communication skills are critical in any relationship and increasingly so when attempting to describe desirable futures for an organization with which one does not have personal experience with or knowledge of.

This artifact includes several of my own realizations and was recognizably beneficial in the following ways: 1) revealing my own bias necessitating confrontation of this personally, 2) requiring me to find strengths and weaknesses within the presented work from other students, 3) compelling me to provide positive reinforcement through finding value within another’s work, perspective, and experience , 4) developing positive communication to promote improvement in the development of other students’ contributions and work, 5) furthering my understanding and application of leadership concepts to foster personal learning and further development of my work, and 6) providing significant personal opportunity to become visionary and change-oriented as it relates to my personal development and desirable future.

For one with a linear mind set being visionary and change oriented is a lifetime pursuit. In consideration of that pursuit the following goals are included in my personal development plan:

Goal #1:

Continue to identify and minimize negative impact of my personal bias. Create opportunities to seek out input from my currently assigned team at least once per month. By the end of 2023 implement a minimum of three workflow changes which positively impact productivity. KPI reporting will reflect increased productivity when comparing FY 2022 to FY 2023.

Goal #2:

Seek for opportunity to become involved in another system wide change initiative by the end of 2025. This will be attained by continuing in my networking efforts, displaying my ability to understand system behavior through smaller projects working under my current director.

References

Meadows, D. (2008). Thinking in Systems. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-60358-055-7.

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