When creating my project plan, I identified the following competencies from my coursework I felt I be demonstrating in the its development and execution. In this section I will speak briefly on each - for those of you not currently in graduate school or teaching graduate school, this section may be on the dry side.

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ORGL 522: Reflect on and interpret my community experience

In creating the questions for my project, I reflected on my experience in education as both student-teacher and teacher-student, as well as my front-line customer service and restaurant management experience. As we all see the world through the schemas and filters created by our experiences, I worked to ensure that my voice was present but also to interpret and communicate my thoughts and ideas in a way that would be more universally applicable.

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ORGL 522: Apply effective interpersonal and small group development & communication skills to facilitate healthy community

Any project with this much writing must utilize effective interpersonal communication skills or be doomed to experience skimming. My main goal in the creation of value-aligned interview questions and tips is to facilitate healthy community by increasing the likelihood of individuals experiencing belonging in their places of business and volunteer organizations. When our core values are in conflict with the lived values of our organizations we experience high levels of disconnect and stress - this leads to burn-out, frustration, and both mental and physical illness. By encouraging each other to prioritize and live our values, and ensure we have the tools which will allow us to do so, we are accepting each other as the authentic individuals we are, and helping to hold space for each other's unique voices. If I was to boil down Servant-Leadership into an easily understood core, it would be that individuals who are loved, work to love others and help them gain the skills to continue to do the same.

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ORGL 530: As a servant-leader-in-training, to promote community building, practice listening and foresight, and model a systems thinking capacity.

I believe that communities are created by the individuals who participate in them as well as the individuals who observe them, and those same individuals are affected, even created, by the communities they observe and interact with. Each of us is a member of many communities – our families, our neighborhoods, our jobs, our volunteer organizations, our professional associations, our classes…the list goes on. We bring our unique selves – our beliefs, experiences, hope, dreams, and fears – to each community we are a part of, and through our sharing of ourselves and the relationships we build with the other unique selves, we take part in the creation of community.

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Relationships are the key to building and maintaining community. Relationships are the key determiner of everything from the largest of systems to the smallest quantum interactions which exist, not as independent things, but are only observed as they are in relationship to something else. We truly become adults when we work to be completely open to insights from those around us, allowing us to become more than we ever could on our own

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ORGL 537: Demonstrate a capacity for reflection and applying experience

The second course I took in my ORGL journey was the Introduction to Servant-Leadership. In my self-assessment paper I referred to myself as a seeker. I saw my strengths as my focus on listening and empathy as well as my desire to build community and grow and heal others. I recognized that my need for approval and fear of disappointing those I care about were enabling toxic behavior in others as well as my own growth. Something I have come to understand is that we must remember, reflect on, and accept both who we are (self) and what we are called (role). It is easy to define ourselves by our role – when I take care of my mother, I am being a good daughter. When I sit and listen to my sister vent, I am being a good sister. At work, I am the best manager I can be, and at school, the best student. When we compartmentalize, we open the door to behavioral choices that may feel like the best option in that role at that time but may not be true to our deeper self.  My focus on my role fed into my need for approval and fear of failing others because I was not perceiving how my decisions aligned with my true self.

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In ORGL 537 we discussed how the journey down Scharmer’s U necessitates the opening of our minds, our hearts, and our will. The last aspect was the most difficult for me - the need for us to let go, and let come. I was so sure that I knew jow others would react that I was convinced I would be forced to choose which core value I would prioritize and which failure I was willing to accept. To move forward I needed to accept that I truly did not know how others would respond - to my presented area of "stuckness" or really to any situation. In reading about how conceptual complementarity calls for us to strongly desire a specific new reality, but simultaneously be open to that reality manifesting in its own way, it suddenly made sense. It was okay that deep down my desire is to earn my PhD through Gonzaga and spend the majority of the program on campus, but I have to be open to the idea that the timeline and specifics are still being worked out and will happen the way they are meant to. When we choose to be open to possibilities rather than focusing on controlling and forcing a specific outcome, that is when collective wisdom emerges. One of my favorite quotes discovered in my ORGL journey is from Margaret Wheatley: "Wisdom appears most readily when we are willing to be together in patience, acceptance, and curiosity.”

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I have come to accept that as Parker Palmer says, wholeness is not perfection, but the act of becoming real through acknowledging the whole of who we are. I believe that everyone has a story. Everyone has experiences that make us who we are and effect how we perceive and make sense of the world around us. Adichie (see her video on my Inspiration page) explains that the existence of or belief in a single correct story is dangerous in that it leads to stereotypes, emphasizes differences, and robs others of their dignity. When we truly internalize this, when we accept that everyone’s story is valid, we will realize that listening to and truly understanding someone’s story will provide us the strongest possible foundation for a relationship with them. What makes us really, deeply, and authentically human are the threadbare and beautiful spots in our hearts and souls that come from loving even when it is difficult. As a servant-leader-in-training, I aspire to be a leader who seeks the real in herself and others in order to better serve the needs of my followers and our communities.

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ORGL 537: Identify and practice pathfinding-foresight and its application as the central ethic of the Servant-Leader philosophy

As I mentioned in my reflection of ORGL 537 (see my Zag Journey page), when we are still, we are able to open our heart, mind, and will – and that allows us to gain an understanding of our world which increases our ability to practice foresight. Something I have internalized is that there is an art to knowing when a moment is significant, when that moment is actually a seed from which the future will grow. That it is that unconscious knowing which stems from our deep awareness which provides us the opportunity and ability to take the right action in that moment - this is the practice of foresight. If the question is, how we make foresight a central ethic in our leadership, the answer is to nurture our awareness of self and the world around us. To reflect on what we have learned and on how new experiences and knowledge change our understanding of what came before…while simultaneously remembering the experiences and lessons of the past to inform our future.  

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ORGL 610: Demonstrate decision making informed by applied leadership ethics.

During ORGL 610 we discussed that any single ethical decision involves multiple values which must be sorted out and prioritized, and this process can result in multiple possible solutions, each seen as moral, to the same question or dilemma. There are multiple models that can be used to help us analyze situations we find ourselves in, but in the end, if we are responsible for making the decision, we are then the moral agent who should be held accountable. Rest’s model of moral behavior states that every ethical action is the result of four psychological sub-processes – moral sensitivity (the recognition that an ethical issue exists), moral judgement (our ability to judge what the most ethical action would be), moral focus (our motivation to act based upon our values and goals), and moral character (whether we have the virtues, focus and will to implement the moral action in question).

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Applying for and accepting a job may not, on the surface, appear to be an ethical dilemma, but I would argue that it absolutely is. Choosing to act against our values and goals sets us up for failure as individuals and as organizations.

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ORGL 615: Understand the multiple factors that shape the design, dynamics, and effectiveness of groups.

Thinking about just how interconnected everything is, I think the two biggest factors to contend with are first, not understanding the idea of systems. They are not recognizing the complexity and they way their actions and decisions effect their colleagues and the business at multiple levels. Second, not putting enough focus and effort into creating and maintaining a culture conducive to psychological safety.

 

Within an organization, a shared culture defines what individuals expect from each other, defines how to handle conflict, and motivates through understood and internalized values and practices. In order for a culture to be shared and internalized, clarity is key - clarity regarding individual roles, work systems & processes, values & norms, and the effectiveness of the group. The values and standards which make up team culture must be clearly communicated and enforced. When organizations make  the alignment of their stated and lived values a priority - and communicate them to current and prospective employees - their desired culture is more likely to be nurtured and maintained. Similarly, when we as individuals prioritize alignment between our stated and lived values (including the jobs we choose) we are more likely to find belonging.

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Interventions and solutions regarding group effectiveness so often fail because they are focused on only one issue rather than recognizing and taking into account all of the influences and related concerns just makes sense. To me there is a natural link between storytelling and systems thinking. When we, as leaders (or just as humans) can utilize systems thinking to better understand our organizations and our world, that’s a great step, but when we can then use storytelling to make that knowledge accessible to a wider community, that’s when we increase the possibility of positive change.

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