Writing about Flying and Learning

Complete the exercise at the beginning of Chapter 10 and use the scoring table at the end to assess your responses. Reflect on what this assessment means in terms of you as a leader and your relationship to your followers. Has your thinking changed over the course of the past six weeks, if so; why, and, if not; why? What is the significance of this assessment in the context of your future leadership goals and objectives? How can you apply what you learned in your assessment to strategy? This was actually a sort of fun exercise.   I scored eight times in Strategy 3, seven times in Strategy 4, and one time in strategy 2.   Based upon the foursquare model as shown by Obolensky (2014), I seem to be more a practitioner of S3 and S4 strategies.   S3 strategy is described as Involved, meaning that the leader does not know or chooses to hold back to allow the others to discover a solution (Obolensky, 2014).   S4 strategy is that of Devolve, ...

Who Needs Leaders? Play the chaos game with a group of people (see Complex Adaptive Leadership (Obolensky, 2014) Chapter 6, or watch the above video. Create a reflection blog on what this exercise meant to you and how it impacts your understanding of chaos theory; include the implications that this has on strategy. The title of this assignment is very Monty Python-esque – Who Needs Leaders? We Don’t!   So, what do we do next?   The exercise demonstrated by Obolensky was a great visual analog to how the activity of business operations may seem chaotic, but in the end, a result is achieved.   And it’s achieved without direct control over every movement.   A few items come to mind upon reflecting on this display.   Will/Skill are needed.   Although relatively simple directions were given, employee skill and effort are compulsory to actually execute a plan.   As Obolensky (2014) states, employee will/skill is often g...

Blog A633.4.3 Reflecting on the previous exercise and this week's readings, why do you think the shift in leadership is occurring and do you think this is indicative of what is happening in your organization.  List three reasons that support or refute this position. If so, how would leadership dynamics have to be altered to accommodate and promote these types of changes? What are the implications on strategy?   The shift in leadership attributes may be attributed to vast amount of information/data/strategy that potentially occupies a leader’s scope or work statement.   As such, the outmoded idea of leadership as being an “expert in all fields” in such a rapidly changing environment may be too challenging for even the brightest and most talented.    Instead, there’s a recognition that leadership in the current environment requires quick learning and an ability to synthesize vast information into coherent strategy and execution.   As such, ...

Find a company which reflects Morning Star and St Luke’s image of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and reflect in your blog what the implications are for you and your present organization (or any organization you are familiar with). Identify what you believe are appropriate actions to move your organization forward. Watch this Martin-Reeves Video and discuss the implications of strategy on your organization.  Why strategy, why now, and how could this discussion positively impact your organization? The title of the presentation reminds me of the song Just Dropped In (To See what Condition my Condition was in).   I ended up answering the second blog assignment first.   In there, one will find some remarks as to the reasons my current employer has taken its present path on strategic development.   Reeves (2014) reminds his audience that at the end of the day, one cannot lose sight of the end goal, or in other words the product or service, that the strateg...

Blog A633 3.4 – Reflect on your own organization's strategy or an organization that is familiar to you.  How has it evolved over time? Discuss each stage of development and how feedback and strategy formulation have changed over time. Consider the next steps in your company's evolution and describe what it will look like in 10 years and where you will be. I have begun to see a shift with Boeing Training & Professional Service, ever so slightly, in terms of feedback influencing strategy formulation.   While there’s general acknowledgement and agreement that we “need to be nimble” and “evolve”, the structure and mindset of leadership is not always in alignment or receptive to such demands.   Based upon Obolensky (2014), Boeing is still finishing it’s conversion into a cross-functional matrix from the functional silo’s model.   However some smaller or specialized groups remain in a silo structure due to specialized or classified nature of the work ...

Based on this week's reading, reflect on complexity science and theory in organizations and the butterfly effect (Obolensky, p.66).  Identify 2 examples where “small changes yield large results” in your organization. What are the implications of complexity theory for you and your organization and how can you use this to drive improvements? The two decisions that yielded large results were the moving of simulators from Seattle to Miami and the decision not to roll-out a new software program before it was ready for use. Oblensky (2011) states that small changes can yield large results.   The moving of ten full flight simulators may not be considered a “small change”, but it was to Boeing in the overall view of aircraft production and sales.   In this case, while the terms small and large may be relative, the results of these changes are still felt today.   This may expand the term of large to include length of time.       The move...

Chapter 1 of the Obolensky text begins with a reflective exercise. Create a reflection blog that responds to the questions asked in this exercise. Additionally, while we live in a world with more information about leadership and leadership practices why is it that we have an apparent gap in the quality of our leaders and how do you think we can close this gap? Obolensky (2014) poses three questions for us to consider.   A) Has your attitude to leaders changed in your life, and if how so? B) If we take as a starting point the attitude toward those in authority/leaders as held by our elders through generation until today, is there a changing trend?   If so, what is it? C) Why do you think this has occurred.   From a personal standpoint, my attitude has changed greatly as I have progressed and experienced leaders through various stages of life.   To start, I have a better appreciation of how those in leadership positions must handle and process all the i...

In this video, Prof. Baba Shiv of Stanford University speaks to the importance of emotion in decision making, particularly as related to confidence. After watching this video, reflect on two situations; one, in which you were extremely confident of the outcome and what your attitude was towards the subject; and second, a situation in which you were less confident or not so confident of the outcome. Based on this module's readings and this video write a reflection blog detailing the situations above and describing the role emotion played in decision making. Include what emotional reactions you experienced for each scenario. Shiv (2011) discusses emotion can influence the wanting system in the brain, or the release of dopamine from the brain, that comes from potential decisions and the subsequent benefits and effort that is to be expended.   From a personal standpoint, I can confirm Shiv’s assessment, as I was highly motivated in the role of purchasing new flight planning ...

Create a reflection blog based on critically thinking about how the Cynefin Framework can benefit your decision-making. Consider the chart on page 7 of the HBR article A Leader's Framework for Decision Making and discuss decision-making in multiple contexts; include two specific examples of decisions in multiple contexts that you have made. Detail the considerations from the various contexts that influenced your decision.  Critically assess the Cynefin Framework and describe 5 ways it can provide an improved context for decision making. Based upon the above video on Cynefin Framework, reflect on the 3 ways each quadrant of the Cynefin Framework can facilitate decision-making using examples from your own experience. The Cynefin Framework has been a revelation to me in the short time I’ve been exposed to it.   Immediately, I think of how this methodology can be applied to a very large problem and issue that we’ve been faced with at work, that is the proper integration...

Reflect on the role of collaboration and getting to resolution in the process of decision-making. Rarely, if ever, do our decisions affect only ourselves. Consider the importance of getting other stakeholders involved; how can they help you make a better decision for all?   Recall a specific situation where you are faced with making a decision; within the context of the information in this module’s reading, describe the process you went through and the outcome you were seeking. How did stakeholder involvement help you make a better decision?  If stakeholders were not involved, could they have been? Would that have led to a better resolution? Did you achieve your objective(s)? Identify 3 ways you may use this learning experience to make better decisions in the future. Perhaps the most relevant situation has been our involvement with recent church activities and fundraisers.   Although seemingly low stress and fun, having been tasked with running the bar during...

As you have read, much of Levine’s work depends upon having a keenly developed ability to listen. Often, we are so busy developing our own stories, we fail to listen actively to that which we are being told, intent only on verbalizing our own personal stories. Think about the last time you “really listened” to someone else and gave them time to “get their story out”. How different was that experience from your normal communications? What did you learn? Record your experiences in this RB. If you are unable to recall such a situation, find a time/place this week to practice active listening and report on that. Listening is a skill that is perhaps the most misunderstood in today’s business culture and culture at large.   Headlee (2016) provides some great points of what are common mistakes that people are likely to make while trying to listen.   Among the major points given are recommendations to not pontificate when responding or conversing on a topic, or not to launch i...

In the Hoch text, based on Irwin and Baron's discussions on Protected Values (PV) (pgs.251 ff.), reflect on three of your major protected values, support those values with at least three major beliefs and show the pros and cons of each belief in terms of trade-offs you are willing to make to support or not support that belief. How do these Protected Values potentially affect your own decision making? Do you feel as strongly about them as you did when you began this exercise? Irwin and Baron’s discussion in Hoch (2001) highlights an often-understated aspect of values, especially when considered in public policy terms.   They state that the “cost benefit” analysis can be challenging to determine how relative importance can be assigned to PV.   Sowell (2015) confirms this notion that values are not simply “put” upon items or objects, that in fact a cost does exist when determining relative importance.   The amount needed to obtain education, training, resources needed...

During the course of negotiations, people often misrepresent information to gain at least a temporary advantage. For example, a seller may fabricate existence of another interested buyer or a buyer may misrepresent the price and availability of an item from a different vendor. Reflect on deceptions in negotiations and describe four ways to reduce your vulnerability to deception during negotiations. Relate an example of a recent negotiation in which you were misled and one in which you may have overstated a claim. In the case of the overstatement, how far would you have gone, or did you actually go, to leverage your position? The best example I can provide is when I was forced to sell on order car of ours.   I wanted to ensure it was sold to the right type of person, one who had experience in working with cars or who didn’t need to rely upon this as their primary source of transportation.   In the course of fielding several calls, I would make sure I would ask for wh...