Visionary & 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
The Applied Final Project in LDRS 802 Organizational Systems, Change, and Leadership was the first assignment that compelled me to apply leadership theory to a real-world situation. The process required observing the organizational needs from several “altitudes” — from large-scale goals to identifying objectives and connections to resources to specific details of what would be required in the potential project. For students like me who were new to the program, it was a poignant process to follow. It made me slow down and asked me to observe the organizational context from multiple angles. The process confronted the temptation to rush toward a good idea without first considering if it was the right one.
Edgar Schein (1987) discusses an approach to organizational development (OD) that is more than just a set of techniques and strategies but is instead a philosophy of change. He describes OD as a “set of underlying assumptions about how things work and how they ought to work” (p. 2). It’s a mindset that is focused on pursuing organizational health and not just solving individual problems. The process of the Applied Final Project helped me tap into that mindset and was a powerful way to begin the program. It taught me that to affect positive change, it takes effective observation and a fundamental understanding of how an organization operates. Having a vision is much more than a one-size-fits-all strategy, it means being intently focused on the organizational context.
While the L-DIP and LDRS 811 were my favorite assignment and course in the entire program, there was a point in the process of that assignment that I was struggling more than any other time at Fort Hays. The large project was broken down into smaller assignments so that the professor could aid us in completing each step. The second portion of the assignment involved developing learning objectives and my submission was…let’s say…subpar. (OK, it was way off the mark, but I’m trying to be kind to myself.) In fact, what I had submitted was not learning goals at all, but instead strategies that I wanted to implement. Dr. Klaus was gentle in redirecting me back to the proper path and we spent a long video chat discussing the issue. She pointed out that I was getting ahead of myself and needed to focus on what I was trying to accomplish before planning how I wanted to accomplish it.
Learning objectives are the knowledge, attitudes, and skills you want participants to gain through the process. Strategies are how you intend to help them attain those objectives. Nadler and Nadler (1994) say that “to determine objectives it is necessary to go through a process involving people and data. It is not a straight-line process but an evolving one, with many twists and turns” (p. 107). There were certainly twists and turns in this project for me, and I am grateful for the lesson I learned in the process. Rushing to strategy and solutions without clearly articulating what you want participants to gain from the process is a fool's errand, one that is certainly doomed to fail. I learned this lesson the hard way but is one I will never forget.
The final artifact is from the LDRS 890, the final course in the program that I am working to complete. The internship described is being conducted at my current organization. The proposal describes how I assessed the leadership development needs of the organization and designed clear, achievable, and measurable objectives to affect change that will address this need. I love this organization. For so many years, I worked in less-than-healthy organizational environments with dysfunctional leadership systems and unhealthy boundaries. My current organization, on the other hand, is committed to its core values of people, empowerment, accountability, and innovation. When planning this internship, I approached the CEO and the Director of Research and Education with a proposal. Their response blew me away. “This is exciting! How can you help make us better and how can we help you?” In my previous experiences, defensiveness and suspicion were normal reactions when addressing weaknesses. Here, however, I different mindset reigns. I am blessed to be in an environment that welcomes change and has taught me yet another lesson about vision and being change-oriented. Even in healthy organizations, there is always a path to improvement. Healthy organizations want to identify weaknesses and address needs. They don’t resist change, but instead seek it out when it fits into their vision.
My work team was confronted with the opportunity to be visionary and change-oriented in recent months. Due to several factors, the fundraising environment is changing quickly beneath our feet. We have been challenged by the leadership to reassess some of the ways we have traditionally raised money. We have felt the need to become more personal and grassroots in our fundraising, but have been reticent to alter some of our efforts that have proved fruitful for years (even if less so in recent history). One of the tentpole events for us each year has been a banquet held in Oklahoma City. Many of our donors look forward to the event every year and a large portion of our fundraising is done through this event. After much discussion (and some not-too-subtle nudges from our CEO), we decided to take the event statewide, holding seven events in cities across Oklahoma where we have offices. It was a bold change focused on developing new donor relationships instead of mainly fostering existing ones, but we identified a future need and chose to act together to address it. The team is still in the process of discovering how much that decision has changed our calendars and workflow, but are beginning to realize the positive effects this change could have on our organization.
I like to think of myself as a visionary person, one who is always open to change and looking for ways to improve. My CliftonStrengths assessment (Gallup, 2020) shows that my greatest strengths include strategy and ideation, two future-focused qualities. Yet as I mentioned above, I definitely have a tendency to get ahead of myself. I can feel bored or unsettled and start to seek change just for the novelty. This is the area of growth I am committed to pursuing when it comes to vision and change orientation. I want to continue to learn the lesson Dr. Klaus so effectively taught me. I want to continue to grow in my ability to be observant, to astutely assess the needs of the organization, and only then to patiently develop strategies and ideas. Change for change’s sake is often fleeting, but change rooted in organizational need can have lasting effects.
REFERENCES
Gallup, Inc. (2020, December 2). “What Are the 34 CliftonStrengths Themes?”
Nadler, Z., & Nadler, L. (1994) Designing training programs: The critical events
model. Taylor & Francis Group
Schein, E. (1987). Back to the future: Recapturing the OD vision. Working paper,
Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Artifacts
Applied Final Project
LDRS 802 Organizational Systems, Change, and Leadership
The Applied Final Project in LDRS 802 asked students to examine an organizational setting and identify opportunities for positive change. By examining the organization from multiple “altitudes” and utilizing accepted systems theories and organizational learning models, students are able to demonstrate the ability to put theory into practice. My project focused on my workplace at the time and ways to adjust the leadership model so that the organization would operate with more participatory leadership.
L-Dip Final Paper
LDRS 811 Organizational Intervention Strategies
The Leadership Development Intervention Project presented the opportunity to analyze leadership development in my current workplace and develop intervention strategies to accomplish specific learning objectives. While the presentation in the Knowledgeable section shows my ability to communicate knowledge effectively, the final paper goes in-depth to describe specific strategies intended to induce real change in my organizational environment.
Internship Proposal
LDRS 890 Internship in Organizational Leadership
LDRS 890 Internship in Organizational Leadership is the capstone course for the MPS in Organizational Leadership program. The internship proposal includes the identification of a specific organizational need, scholarly research regarding that issue, and the development of clear, achievable, and measurable objectives to address that stated need.