MSLD 511 Module 3 - Directive and Supportive Behaviors

Northouse (2016) explained directive behaviors clarify, often with one-way communication, what is to be done, how it is to be done, and who is responsible for doing it (p. 94). I exhibit directive behaviors in two ways, currently training a new hire to perform specific roles I do, which are more investigative, and as a training coordinator.

The situational leadership model reminds us to treat each follower differently based on the goal at hand (Northouse, 2016, p. 99). I find it difficult to train 1 new employee, after successfully training 2, when all 3 started at the same time. I define the successful training of the 2 employees by their willingness to learn outside of the standard training forums, presenting new ideas, offering to simply work distribution, staying focused on one topic, then inquiring about things that seem ambiguous even to me, which unfortunately, I try to tackle to reduce the amount of ambiguity through training meetings. For example, finding inventory is not easy especially, when it didn’t arrive to its intended location. You have to know who to contact. For new hires to work unique situations and come out victorious without needing an outline of what to do, shows growth in development. 

It’s difficult to understand why this one person, shows initiative only after asking what to do, and how to do it almost every time. In my opinion, this person is disillusioned about the degree of complexity of the work involved, commenting after about the ease of doing it after being told how to do it. This particular thought of why is a criticism of the situational model because research is unable to explain decrease in commitment, and for me, I personally believe the commitment was never there. The reason is because this particular person had limited choices to pick this job, due to internal conflicts from their last job. For example, this worker fails to take notes, and ask questions after explanation was provided from more than one person. My recommendation would be to transition this one employee to another team doing more routine work, and less investigative work. 

As a training coordinator, I provide the latest information to team members such as, process changes and initiate team integration between different functional teams to make team members aware of task performed by other teams. The typical response from attendees is positive, attending when they can, open to new information and knowledge. I would say now about 40% (out of 20) of the team is made up of new members who started back 3 months ago. 

When middle management leads a meeting, the style of leadership is authority-compliance grid aiming for results and sharing information they believe is critical to the performance of the team, with minimal human elements. Usually, meetings are comprised of company wide information, in my opinion, could be distributed through a memo or email. 

My goal as a training coordinator  is for middle management to support training meetings from a task relationship, stimulating participation to support team uniformity. Uniformity, in this context, is to increase team members familiarity with the structure mechanics of the enterprise system used program wide, in addition to referencing newly designed a work instructions. Manufacturing companies have a set of standard codes or instructions written that employees are expected to follow, much like a code of ethics but ,for executing functions, especially when personnel roles are hourly versus salary. 

Currently, training meetings have shaped work instructions specifically designed for team members as a reference, to formalize and share in the future with the customer. As of today, I’m leading a working group to develop a handbook with less than 50 pages to highlight common processes.Unlike directive behaviors, supportive behaviors are centered around team member support valuing their inputs and development. 

Supportive behaviors involve two-way communication and response that show social and emotional support to others (Northouse, 2016, p. 94). Supportive behavior, from my experience, stems from showing compassion for others, at work and at home. Working with people can be difficult in that you always deal with people on some emotional level. 

A sign of frustration from a customer can provoke different reactions from different employees. My response to frustration has been to acknowledge what the employee has done, what they could still do and ways to inquire on how to improve in the future. At times, I succumb more into emotion, for instance on a  recent call with a customer, complaining about the delivery times of product, that likely hasn’t been processed through the proper channels, my co-worker couldn’t speak on the matter anymore, due to the limited time they have known about the concern. I gave a words of encouragement to my co-worker that the customer is unaware of the background work involved and ignore the negative comments. 

As a friend and child, I lean more towards supportive behavior to develop and maintain relationships with family and friends. I probe for details inspiring emotional conversation sharing my woes and listening to theirs, comforting one another. I engage with friends and family hearing their advice, choosing to adjust or not accordingly. For example, a family member quits her job with no other opportunities lined up, I would find a way to be supportive, even thought I won’t necessarily make the same move. The beauty of having a close network of friends and family, is that we share many things in common and tolerate the many differences that evolve our relationships.  However, I can’t always act on supportive behavior as a friend or child. For example, consulting friends through disappointments in life (low self-esteem) by communicating opportunities to be satisfied such as, leaving the house demanding time away from the source of pain or heartache. 

On a typical work day, I have control over day to day decisions with little management interaction, or involvement, unless I bring it to their attention or someone else. This supportive delegate environment has it’s strengths allowing those with high skill, experience and commitment to work at your own pace but it puts a strain on employees and management relationship. This weakens management interest in the type of work employees perform on a day to day basis. When issues involve management, management is not as familiar with the type of work each employee performs individually developing, evolve and retain talent. The art of delegation only goes so far, by experience as documented by Rohlander (1999) below. As a manager, you need to define the task you want to delegate and consider how much authority will be required to reach a desired goal (Rohlander, 1999, p.12). Then consider who will be the delegates (Rohlander, 1999, p.12). Once you have made your decision, announce the delegates’ new roles to their team members (Rohlander, 1999, p.12). The art of delegation works to the benefit of work given to managers but doesn’t work as smoothly as work comes from employees that require management support. For example, budget increases, risk employees identify in their day to day work the impact overall team goal. 

Furthermore, there is lack of desire from management to evolve employee careers due to high turnover every year losing about 20% of the current team members instead, managers check attendance and with general understanding of the team primary functions, as minimal as just know who is one what sub teams. I find it troubling for managers to ask season employees, “what do you do?”, which screams to me poor authentic leadership after working in the same location for 2 years. A balance of directive and supportive behaviors is necessary to develop effective leaders coupled with developing authentic leadership and employee engagement. 

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rohlander, D. (1999). PEOPLE SKILLS: The art of delegation. Journal of Management in Engineering, 15(1), 12-13. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(1999)15:1(12)

MSLD 511 Module 2- Reflecting on Leadership Traits

Leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in another situation (Northouse, 2016, p. 20). I can relate to this describing two different experiences as a leader of two separate events. I approached the first event much like Stogdill’s research approach, using a survey to asses the position of others before planning the event. I received overwhelming responses, exhibiting one trait, social interaction engaging across platforms of social media, email and telephone. The second event required in person support to share ideas dealing with a compressed timeline, I exhibited the drive to exercise initiative in social situations. Before going into detail about each event, and the outcome as a leader, Stogdill’s research on trait characteristics he found both in 1948 and 1974, were insight, responsibility, initiative, persistence, self-confidence and sociability. I believe each characteristic is important to my leadership style. My style is of open-ness to include various points of view, reviewing the situation at the end and aligning actions. I find insight is important to trust your initial thoughts at times, adjusting as needed to the methods of trial and error. I have strong beliefs that may intuition is usually spot on when is comes to assessing my surroundings that has saved me only a minutes later when revealed accurate. Intuitive decision making can help magnify issues, but a good leader knows emotions can sometimes prevent you from seeing a broader view. Nosich(2012) revealed that emotions give us data, for example sometimes people have a narrow view of rationality (p.15). Suppose that while walking through a neighborhood at dusk ,you becomes afraid you are in danger (Nosich, 2012, p. 15). If they cannot pinpoint what is damages about the situation, they draw conclusion that their fears are unfounded (Nosich, 2012, p. 15). I say that to say, insight is good to reason through why we feel a certain way, responsibility is good to own the results of our involvement, persistence is good to know whether or not continue working towards change or find another approach until we are satisfied, self-confidence having faith to exercise our power and sociability to be engaging to all to find their own ways to contribute. 

Based on Stogdill’s findings, my actions do align with traits mentioned above. For example, I decided to host of  my first high school reunion. I made it known the reasons why, persistence I would add was key because within the time span of 9 months, it was important to keep consistent communication. Getting closer to the event, I started to detract from self-confidence in pulling it off because grand plans of hosting at a hotel was downsized after the selection of the date, timing seemed to be off for potential attendees, despite the date being the top selection in the survey. I didn’t believe there could be any other way to pull it off without doing it one way. I consulted with my team for some insight and reviewed my own beliefs before the event. The event occurred as expected in fact some attended and others didn’t but unexpectedly it gave attendees something to aspire to attend events like this in the future to add to their list of social events. Once I decided on a end goal, it was much easier to lead others in a clear direction, the same can be said in a second situation when no one agreed to developing flyers or sign up roster through a webpage for an event, I assumed the role. I found a website designed two or three designs, then when presented I was confronted with policy guidelines what not to do. I started to pull back from responsibility acknowledging that I was unaware of the policy, and taped in to sociability discussing this over with a proper contacts, and discovering my limitations but another ability to take over a portion of the responsibility designing a sign in form. I exhibited initiative to transition the task to another more fitting for the task giving insight and that person nailed it. Afterwards, I was told I did a great job seeing the potential in another as they executed the job flawlessly. 

My leadership style were quite the same in both situations unique to specific traits, however, being able to work through leadership traits Stogdell (1948 and 1974) listed is something that takes me back to an arguerable similarity between a trait and a skill, that they can be developed. 

Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum (4th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

MSLD 511 Module 1- Leadership a Two Way Street

The summer after my second semester in college, I was asked by a leader to volunteer for a week grade school students who enrolled into an summer program. The program is apart of an outreach education initiative funded by the local community to give students the opportunity to grow their knowledge in math and science. I felt I was asked to be a apart of this initiative to be a indirect role model for students, most transiting from 5th to middle school. The person in charge of this initiative is leader in her own right because she asked for funding support from schools to encourage other leaders in political arena to support communities who are often over looked. I admire what she is able to bring to the community encouraging change, proper behavior, etc. Although I don't seem much of an influencer, she has told me how many time she is proud of me and I always say in the back of my mind, what for? As I explain to her my career aspirations, that is when she asked me to be apart of the camp to see a rising young professional. As I told her about my studies, she mentioned how discipline I was and applying that to mean something she can learn from when executing her vision. In addition, I have influence this leader by sharing my knowledge and being involved in programs similar to this initiative. This initiative falls under the Office of Community Outreach held at a well known church in my hometown community. The program mainly focuses on math and science skills coupled with life skills. 

Life skills is a topic of interest some continue to debate on whether they should be taught in school. For some the argument is that this will help reduce student debt solely focused on financial interest and for others, they want to see students be aware of these skills prior to entering as some call the real world capable of making decisions to curb trends that have appeared in the last decade, such as boomerang kids, or falling into a family history pattern. The World Health Organization (1994) reported that life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior, that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenge of everyday life (para. 3).
Having an outreach initiative can enhance learning skills, and I remember during the program most students were happy to be away from home, whereas, I encourage them to be able to manage life ups and downs, through activities and games. I try to influence good will to others. 

As far as I can remember, during the summers in grade school, I became friends with someone in close relation to this leader while attending college sponsored summer programs. One important way I am and continue to be impacted by this leader is that no matter what may be going on personally the drive to ignite change in other is the primary motivation for this leader. Being that this leader has achieved things in life personally well simultaneously making life a little brighter for other is something I wish to posses one day, without sacrificing one for the other. I'm able to leader from her and vice a versa to inspire others to reach back to the community. Recently going back to my home town, this leader, Dr. Cole, has sponsored events encouraging major support from donor such as colleges, to put on art events for adults and kids alike to come together something that may be missing or would find difficult to participate in because of circumstances such as cost. This initiative reference above  was designed to help students improve their overall performance, guiding them to practice life skills such as handling conflicts, financial literacy and exposure to various art disciplines. I know one time I paid to learn CPR, something I said I will continue to educate myself in as I try to apply to be a member of the American Red Cross. If I want to improve and gain these skills, I also would like to see others improve at the same time. Leadership being a two way street is a peer mentor relationship, as the student becomes the teacher. Leaders should also be willing to divide their time to personally develop and develop others around them. An emerging leader should be motivated to lead not doesn't just lead when there is a clear need too.

Life skills education in schools. (1994). World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.asksource.info/pdf/31181_lifeskillsed_1994.pdf

Dimensions of Interactive Leadership

Denning (2011) examined leadership more directly in his final chapter stating explicating what king of leadership he discusses that has several dimensions (p. 236).

One dimension is the interactive leader worked with the world rather than against it (Denning, 2011, p. 236). The best visual of this concept is a practitioner of Judo, as Denning (2011) described someone who can overcome stronger adversaries by catalyzing and channeling his or her energy (p. 236). Second dimension is interactive leadership adds and subtracts elements from the leadership palette (Denning, 2011, p. 236). This is more reflective on interactive leadership going hand and hand with traditional management but as Denning (2011) stated subtractive by setting aside techniques of manipulation. Third dimension is interactive leadership builds on personal integrity and authenticity (Denning, 2011, p. 236). Values that reflect behavior become infectious. The last two are interactive leadership doesn't depend on the possession of hierarchical authority and benefits from a understanding of the different narrative patterns to get things done in the world (Denning, 2011, p. 237). 

Interactive leadership engages in active participation. These dimensions impact the way the future can be led as more leaders understand what it takes to be an interactive leader. 

             Working with the world rather than against it, means to me, to transform thinking and behavior to be congruent with passion to connect with others to do the same. For example, as a team leader in training, consistent training reviews are unfamiliar to working group, and rather than forcing it on them, work with them finding the source of reluctancy. Oftentimes, the controlling mode of management as described by Denning (2011) weakness is that it pursues its goal under the pretense of providing impregnable certainty and strength (p. 238), seen quite often as empty promises. But instead of stopping to have a conversation about it, connect the value and care to understand individual group struggles that relate to the entire group and work to unravel the frustrations applying training techniques and referencing resources for other to visit as needed. For future, I would take Ken Blanchard’s advice to review the change in an organization causing stress and that people would not hear the benefits of such change because they have concerns that are more important. Blanchard suggest sharing the information knowing you have concerns, hearing personal concerns, taking questions, and sharing how the change will be implement (00:54-1:50).

The dimension of interactive leadership not depending on hierarchy authority is something all leaders should remember that it goes beyond a title to be a leader.   

           Anderson & Anderson (2002) have their own thoughts in the published Beyond Change Management Book, stating to truly transform your organization, you must learn to transform your own mindset’ (Anderson & Anderson, 2002, para. 1). Who is to say every person hired by organization is not already a leader? Keeping an open mind about various forms of leadership styles, such a delegation, supportive and coaching motivate other leaders. Set aside ego, or accolades of what was already accomplished doesn’t help get us closure to accomplishing what could be in the future if we can’t leave what we did stay in the past (especially if it didn’t turn out the way we planned).  

          Reflecting on the past is great but it should’t be a template for the future. For example, when transferring the duties of elected official for an organization, my plan is be an interactive leader by encouraging free thought with known boundaries. Encouraging my successor that people in position both regionally and nationally actions are weighted the same as people in positions locally. To clarify, if you are not getting the support you need locally despite the discouragement, reach out to those nationality for assistance, giving a concrete example of when I questioned a regional official and consulted with national representative to get support to complete my tasks. I always say people in positions of influence are just like me, people, they just have an audience watching their every move, when I just have those who care about me check in with me from time to time. Having positive thoughts on how my ideas have power, regardless of hierarchy, then I can enlist the hierarchy for assistance or help change the hierarchy and if more people are able to see themselves as shareholders in every aspect of their life, it can reshape the future.

         As Denning (2011) stated a narrative depends on emotional intelligence to work to achieve practical outcomes. In the dimension of understanding different narrative patterns to get things is core of strong leadership to ignite a call to action and even a movement. In today’s society, complacency sometimes describe reality. Schlenker & Pontari (2001) stated excuses enjoy the reputation of being universally condemned while being universally used. Striving to go beyond one single narrative an example of perseverance understand various points of views.

         For example, when troubleshooting issues a work, my group is told to go through another group that filters for issues, and if they are able to solve, if not it gets elevated to the next group, who happens to be the process developers. They do not want employees to contact them directly however, I’m often faced with minimal detail or even dismissive claims from the group in between to get a well rounded answer (dissecting of the issue, potential solutions and ways to prevent it in the future). I’ve relied on personal contacts in the process developers group to review my issues as they are dismissed or single word answers such as to contact another group or ridicule for not taking the necessary steps to resolve myself. To submit it up the group in between, has a transactional leadership approach and most try to avoid them. But one case, I reached out to all my contact, followed their unhelpful advice to contact someone else, and still didn’t get any help. Calling my personal process developer contact, they suggested I write directly to them copying everyone who would normally be involved before contacting them. When I did, I got a response the same day that was satisfying clarifying the issue, with a solution. With limited time to diagnose the issue myself, it would have been tedious for me to see the issue outright because I needed to see it from another perspective to be effective and move along. Challenging the existing narrative I look forward to doing more in my personal life and professional life. In the future, understanding these dimensions will make me an effective transformational leader. 

Anderson, D., Anderson, L. A., & Books24x7, I. (2002). Beyond change management: Advanced strategies for today's transformational leaders (1. Aufl.;1; ed.). US: Pfeiffer.

Blanchard, Ken "Change Strategy" Ken Blanchard Companies  11 September, 2008. Retrieved from https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmK6yY-ZfiE

 (Links to an external site.)

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Schlenker, B. R., Pontari, B. A., & Christopher, A. N. (2001). Excuses and character: Personal and social implications of excuses. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(1), 15-32. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0501_2

Stranger Maybe Danger in a single view

Most of us are taught at a young age not to speak to strangers or "Stranger Danger". As kids, we are sold this one single narrative that all strangers were to be avoided. One parent stated in her blog, “why I let my kids talk to strangers”, I'm saddened by my own inability to recognize the good in people around me and later stated she not suggesting have kids wander in the street, but I do try to allow him to greet the world with uncorrupted enthusiasm (para. 11). Without a doubt, there is danger in the world, but a fear of strangers is a danger in itself to personal development and growth.

Widdicks (2015) found research has shown that only about one-hundredth of one percent of child abductions occur at the hands of a strange (Widdicks, 2015, para. 12). r. For example, it is more likely that my son will be struck by lightning while talking to the fisherman in our neighborhood than to be kidnapped by him (Widdicks, 2015, para. 12). This unfortunate scenario to the one-hundredth does happen in the world today but for us to analyze how we can improve our connection with others we can first analyze what we say to ourselves. 

McKay, Davis & Fanning (2009), suggested to make a commitment to yourself to use descriptive rather than negative label in your internal monologues (p. 206). For example, I try to be more descriptive when someone as me to describe another person rather than defaulting to the common characteristics that could be anybody, such as black, white, short or tall, to challenge myself. I credit my parents for my approach when meeting strangers, and its not like they choose to meet them, its as if they are good neighbors. 

My mom recently taught during children’s church, defining a neighbor, a good samaritans and a christian. As a teacher for most of her life, the easy of conversation was natural, and event everywhere. We would go into a store and pasting by may be a young or old person and we happen to make eye contact with them, with an offer of a smile and greeting to say “how are you doing today”.

In my childhood, up to my adulthood now, I’ve been involved in activities were it was only natural to meet people to execute the activities, and depending on the mood, I would make a comedic expression or start off with making fun of myself and then asking basic questions about a person. 

I practice the art of conversation before asking information questions, lightly prying but not too much because the question is if I choose to see someone again, will the outcome be different? It’s easy for me to talk to a stranger because they don’t yet know me personally, and sometimes sharing information with them is easier than with those you’ve known for a while. 

I learned about myself over the years that I prefer to not work the room with a lots of people because I’m a bit shy. For example, family from up North were in a room, relaxing and talking about there family, they drove down with. 

I came in the room, said aloud “hey everyone”, and introduced myself, then 20 mins went by, I didn’t say a word, just gestured with a smile or laugh. This scene is all to familiar when I’m in a room with more than three people, I don’t really know too well. Reading McKay, Davis & Fanning (2009), I would have to say some of it comes from a concern of rejecting, my humor or my personality, I don’t really show my true colors until I’m comfortable, and I’m more comfortable as a friend instead of someone that is attracted to someone else. 

I recall a time, I was attracted to this athlete and my friends helped me get his number and then call him but opposite of what he said he would do, he never called me. I assumed it was me because I wasn’t an athlete, after weeks later he started dating another athlete. My friends confronted him a little but I was find with the conclusion that we will just never be around each other. To this day, I don’t really have high expectations meeting strangers, because I’m comfortable with the ones I have became friends in my life. One of my college friends told me “ I don’t need any more friends” in conversation. I thought thats absurd but now going on 3 years later I find myself saying the same thing as more distance grows between my friends and I, such as them having families, spending less time trying to come together as friends, priorities have shifted to surviving addressing their immediate needs. 

I look for ways to bring back the, “let’s hang out as friends” vibe despite the fact, we have personal relationships that flourish without our friends present. I must the abandon the attitude of not wanting friends, to just making contact with those around me, so that McKay, Davis & Fanning (2009), other will feel your genuine interest (p. 209). I want to be able to “work the room with ease” not concern whether I appear to be awkward or not around others, or accepting my personality. 

This is something kids in school struggle with on a daily basis to be accepted and it continues when they are looking for a job, managing their way through the atmosphere of gossip and work culture to try an fit in. People may get discouraged in an interview when told they don’t quite fit in, but as a leader mastering the art of conversation, you wouldn’t have to worry about fitting in, because you analyze and respond for everything to fit around you. This may sound selfish, but internalizing your thoughts will allow you to interpret them and overcome fears. For me, I’m not a very expressive person when it comes to my feelings about something or over affectionate, but I’m very expressive when it comes to sharing my thoughts about things such as incidents in popular media. I take a rationale approach to make such as I don’t see the need in killing animals when they are in their natural habitat, they are just trying to survive. In todays world, more people are avoiding strange suspicion behavior, and not too concerned about stranger as long as they appear to be doing the something similar to what they are doing, especially when trouble occurs the reaction you hear sometimes “they were just going to work”.  If we can reframe how we look at strangers, then we are able to change our approach and make contact with those who we don’t know until later may have a great impact in our lives. 

Analyzing your approach to make contact with others benefits you and the person you are approaching. If we are able to recognize the good in the midst of the inevitable that bad things (i.e death, lost of property, unexpected life alternating) may happen, we will try to improve our connections with others to emphasis the good (i.e new life, fresh start, on the path of making dreams a reality) and drown out the bad. The lessons I take from Making contact the others is reviewing what you say to yourself, reframing and planning rejection, and making a satisfying contact through the art of conversation using methods discussed in the text. I plan to offer past friends an opportunity to rekindle friendship, knowing that I will not get 100% support, build family relationships as many of those who retired seem to have the same thoughts to enjoy life, something I would hope other recognize while working night and day and meeting others without assuming a good conversation will not be the end result, including a new relationship. 

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages, the communication book. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Widdicks, M. (2015). Why I let my kids talk to strangers. Washington: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post.

Adding a Story to a Presentation

A single idea is powerful as Duarte (2010) discussed in her presentation. She believes a presentation has the power to change the world when you communicate effectively through them (Duarte, 2010, 02:16). Thousands of years we are told stories, like Duarte (2010) story is ingested and recalled, get a physical react, however, when a presentation is told then it completely flatlines (03:30) and she explored the reason why. 

She touched some of her findings and quickly jumped on concluding her findings by saying Duarte (2010) the “audience is the hero of your idea”(04:32) and that you are the mentor which is the role of a presenter. The structure has three parts, Duarte (2010), likable hero who has a desire, encounter a roadblock, and emerge transformed (05:23). Then explained the five parts structure, exposition, rising action, climax, family action and unraveling or resolution (Duarte, 2010, 05:35). I recall back in grammar class, talking about the climax of a story. The structure she found to establish what it is and compare it to the future, making the gap as big as possible. Most of us, in my experience at work make that comparison due to problems encountered now explaining what it would be like in the future. For example, during attending a family reunion event, a website was presented, and the idea pitched to submit family photos to make a tree prior to the next reunion in 2 years. After a collage of previous photos were submitted, I was eager to become a part of organizing photos to submit, especially after creating an account earlier this year on ancestry.com. I shared this idea among friends and family but was hoping for a moment for it to matter and now through a presentation from other family members seems like, we all are on the same page. The more we know about one another the closer we can grow to learn and share what’s going. 

The middle of the structure goes back and forth, making the current situation unappealing to what the future could be. I would apply this by speaking to various family members having a goal every 3 months to complete one family at a time. I already started calling members not at the family reunion to give them the website to upload photos. I imagine having the oldest member of the family, magnifying their family then magnifying even more to the branches of their family. I envision a tree would come up behind the family photo, or structuring and hanging from the tree would be names. The design of course would have to be agreed on between those helping to create it but, my idea would be to have names added to the pictures through animation or changing the image. 

Adding variety to a presentation engages the audience, laughing and agreeing. I will try and do this more with training at work, getting more buy in from my peers after having a clear idea for clear execution. For example, the next training I would like to have is about Reports. Simple enough, reporting for what is something I plan to figure out in the next day or two. 

Modeling for the audience to get what the presenter whats to feel is is good technique and insert a story when something unexpected happens. Repetition is good and using metaphor, like the bad check reference Dr. King used at the end Duarte (2010) of the what is and then cashed that check, comparing what currently is to what could be (13:53). Connecting and resonating with the audience are important, something Duarte (2010) did at the end telling her life story that we can change and create. I have so many ideas, and given the amount of time, there are no excuses not to share them or make them reality, unless I don’t want too.

TEDTalks: Nancy Duarte--The danger of a single story[Motion picture on Online Video]. (2010). TED.

Discussion of a High Performer

As Denning (2011) described what sets apart a high performance teams is the degree of commitment members are to one another (p.141). High performance teams have the characteristics of effective communities, a web of affect relationships; a commitment to shared values, norms and meanings; a shared history and identity; and a relatively high level or responsiveness to members and the world (Denning, 2011, p. 141). Basics are required first to make a team, such as a goal and members. Shape expectations of those who use their inputs, rapidly adjust to shifting needs, grow stronger, growing individually, have interpersonal commitments, and as carry out work with shared passion (Denning, 2011, p. 304). 

I apply these characteristics through a group of about 6 people starting back in February, whose goal is to design a manual for a specific team.  The objective os high performance teams and effective comment need to be clear, compelling and flexible (Denning, 2011, p. 149). This working group is mainly comprised of member from that team and a few outside members. To actively shape inputs, we keep a draft uploaded for members to write their ideas after discussion. Usually in a meeting, I restate their thought, and ask a question and then get the team to agree with it or not, then move to the next section. Everyone is flexible and often shift when management questions the significance of the progress so far, and that is usually something the working group sees as out of scope. The shared passion is to gain more support and clearly identify the specific task the team is require and not required to do. This would help with some financial pressures, distribute workload effectively, drive the team toward a common business rhythm and creation of common process training references. 

We each grow individually by sharing knowledge between the smaller group factions, and have interpersonal commitment within those groups, with a goal. For example, one small group goal is to avoid having other teams track items we are responsible for delivering, as a supply operations team. To get to this goal, one thing to do is to spread the work out enough to show a constant pattern of support to discourage other groups from being involved. 

Shared values is important because it connects the group in the temporary time that we have to create something meaningful. Having an idea is powerful, and the will to educate others because work should be done accordingly for the customer. All of us in the group are forward thinkers, having an idea, writing it down and explaining it. Likewise, we have been in situation where it could have been different knowing what be may know now that some in the group has shared their thoughts. 

Eales-White (2012 discussed building a high performance team rapidly using these four key steps; create the right environment, promote group discovery, harness the power of the process and carry out a review (p.424). A statement used by most lean manufacturing lectures, is “is not the people, it’s the process”, and one thing the working group must work is harnessing the power the process for it to stick well beyond our careers. 

High performance teams, require a team of folks and the four patterns to working together; working group, teams, community and network. I recall being a part of a working group for a specific project that lasted for about 2 years, 1 year on my own and the other with a group. This group was responsible for monitoring delivered from the supplier to the main manufacturing assembly and then including me. Having a working group created visibly to the challenges, I had with the supplier and reacting to shifting concerns of the customer. The technology was not up to par and still is in work to find a way to capture shifting needs. Meetings were rarely called it was just including those to help prevent roadblocks to talk with the supplier and map out the progress of supplier deliveries. This project had an incentive to it and successfully completed accordingly to the customer’s needs. 

I recall being a part of a network with the help of Groupon. I would get up early in the morning to kick boxing lessons, and after a successful first session, I was cornered into getting a membership. I loved the refreshing smell of the summer mornings, and then being energized for work, after 2 more workouts but then nothing. I lost interest in the lessons and started to feel little stressed losing sleep. I call this a network because there were many locations to choose from, all though this was a new  facility, I didn’t have to do the same exercise. I didn’t form a connection with anyone, unlike my current exercise routine of attending a family recreation center every Wednesday now.

I paid my way out of this network, but I believe I could've internalized the value of my membership to explore my options before dissolving the network. I feel tough at the time to continue but let everything else discourage me from continuing, such as finances. The results would have been different if I just would have found the value in the other options, and felt trapped. Similar to a positive experience with working groups, if I had a presentation to convey a story of my challenges, I may have shown that I could meet the customers needs without much intervene. Because of the working group, a new team was created that is currently monitoring all activities with some pros but also cons because material must go through more hands causing delays. I find it hard now to get anyone to see how amazingly great I am at completing a project and therefore, gaining a promotion. I’ve seen others be successful off so something I was also apart of and only got recognition at the time of meeting the success, and I’m still trying to figure out how to become a legacy.  

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Eales-White, R. (2012). Building high-performing teams rapidly. Industrial and Commercial Training, 44(7), 424-428. doi:10.1108/00197851211268018