5304| 95/100 5317| 95/100
I close the door on yet another set of courses, and can say that these last two definitely challenged me in great ways! For starters, working in different forms of digital media allowed me to tap into a part of innovation that I wasn’t originally aware I was passionate about. Within these courses, I found that the reading material, specifically the required books, gave me an initial foundation that served as main sources of reference throughout each of the courses. While it may not seem that a publication course and an organizational change course would have much overlap, much of what I found myself writing about and referencing for my Publication Course, derived from the projects I worked on during my Organizational Change course.
Similar to previous courses in the ADL program, I collaborated often with the group members I have worked with since starting the program last Spring. Weekly, Angela Upshaw, Rosa Felsen, Herman Bibbs and Myself, meet to discuss readings and resources reviewed from each module, strategize about upcoming assignments, and provide feedback to various components related to the work being done with our respective innovation plans. In addition to those weekly updates, and review sessions, we conversed almost daily, offering words of encouragement and assignment reminders to keep each of us accountable during these busy weeks. Much like the courses before, we relied on GroupMe for daily conversation, Zoom for our weekly group collaboration sessions, and Google Docs when sharing assignments for feedback. Overall, the continued support has proven to be something that really showcases the power of collaboration in a rigorous program.
For my ED5304 course, Organizational Change, the course was a rigorous combination of project based learning, riddle with meaningful application. Beginning first with developing our Why-how-what framework, which identifies the “why” of our organization, and explores the concept of appealing to values, attitudes, and feelings, that can motivate people toward making changes. From there, we built upon that concept of motivation and behavioral change and developed an Influencer Strategy that leveraged different degrees of influence as a key component to initiating change, but also highlighted and vital behaviors that needed immediate action if lasting change were to be achieved. Once those vital behaviors were identified, and the six sources of influence were broken down, that strategy was used in conjunction with the 4 disciplines of execution, which serves as a strategy and a road map to executing change on an organizational level. With the tools gained from 4DX I have been able to devise a thorough plan of action and accountability to use within my organization to help further the implementation of my innovation plan. Once execution became a reality and my organization moved towards continuing those habits, it became necessary to hold conversations that were both crucial and progressive towards our overall goals as an organization. I discuss this more in a recent blog post titled Talking Change | Crucial Conversations.
As the learning continued in my ED5317 Resources Digital Environments course, a course geared towards publication, here I was able to step out of my comfort zone by exploring different forms of digital media. From podcasting, to publication writing and peer-review, I found myself being exposed to a new degree of collaboration. The collaborative efforts that have been met within this course continue to have lasting effects in my professional role, affording me new and fresh ideas for innovation. In the spirit of stepping out of my comfort zone, I also tried working with other classmates for one of the assignments. While I created the podcasts with my original group members Angela, Rosa and Hermann, I collaborated with different classmates on the Peer Review task, centered around reviewing and providing feedback on an original article that was created either individually or with a partner, and was geared towards possible publication either on an online blog site, educational magazine, or perhaps a scholarly journal. For this assignment Angela and Myself, who collaborated together on an EdTech article, worked with classmates Sabine Mixon and Nicole Bright, which proved to be a welcomed change as they brought in different perspectives and ideas, as well as a fresh set of eyes to the articles we reviewed. Overall, I can say that while it was not easy stepping away from the routine I’d grown to appreciate with my primary collaboration group, working with Nicole and Sabine offered a helpful and productive change to my routine.
As I look back on these past 8 weeks, I can say that I gave each assignment and discussion my best effort, being open and receptive to feedback and was comfortable with making mistakes and improving my innovation plan and execution of that plan based on the feedback received.
Throughout both courses, the assigned weekly readings and the suggested articles and videos were a key component in understanding and engaging with the material. To ensure that my engagement to be material was authentic, I completed all assignments before the due dates, and participated in every discussion board post for both classes. I also attended the live Zooms when I was able to do so, and watched recording for those that I couldn’t for both courses. Participating actively on calls was essential to understanding and engaging with the material.
Spring session is almost over and then only summer course work remains, leaving me in excited suspense on what the next set of classes will offer!
References
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The
new science of leading change: 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your
wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press.
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R. & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for
talking when stakes are high, second edition. McGraw-Hill.
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