Numerical Score 96/100
It seems like yesterday I was looking over the course guidelines for 5304, Leading Organizational Change. These past eight weeks flew by, but I extracted a lot of information from this course. I feel more confident about my innovation plan now that I have my foundation in place. This course was significantly different from the first two and I had to adjust. Out of the gate for the first assignment of my “Why” Statement, it had forced me to look innately to uncover what it is that I really want to accomplish within the realm of education, which is to advance the culture one learner at a time. The hardest thing about the “What is your Why” assignment was simplifying it. I was asked to condense the reason why I started this masters program and the reason why I continue to trudge forward with it. This was something I could literally write a book about, but I was asked to sum it all up with one sentence, by far one of the hardest things I’ve done in this course.
Ultimately, I would like to produce content that will give my students a context shift, converting them into life-long learners. I understand that this isn’t easy and it’s actually a twofold task. First, I must do my best to pool like-minded colleagues to help me push this initiative forward, second I must lead by example and model what it is that I’m asking of my students.
Thanks to this course I’ve discovered my “Why” and the importance of leading with it. Pioneering your own innovation plan is no easy task, but having the reason in which you started to recalibrate you in times that are uncertain is awesome.
Furthermore, formulating the Influencer Model was next up in this course. I feel with this assignment we were given the cheat code for reeling in like-minded individuals. A strong component of the influencer model was the six sources of influence. As an individual who aspires to lead change you must combine at least 4 of these sources of influence, which will in terms increase your success rate up to 10 times. I learned that some long standing bad habits are almost always influenced by other humans who either encourage or enable the wrong behaviors or discourage or disable the right ones. I also learned that one can harness the power of social pressure by finding strength in numbers.
The vital behaviors are a significant component to the Influencer Model as well Mine looked like:
1st Behavior: Colleagues build e-portfolios themselves.
2nd Behavior: Integrate e-portfolios into curriculum.
3rd Behavior: Team will hold each other accountable with regular meetings.
Finally, I’ve distinguished the difference between both the influencer model and the 4DX Model both are very effective. These two practices are implemented primarily to propel an organization to their desired goals. The 6 Sources of Influence and 4 Disciplines of Execution can work together in harmony to create ultimate change.
As far as my learning community goes, I’m very fortunate to be in a group with Jermecia, Ana, Allyson, Nitra, and Lina. We’ve eaten the elephant one bite at a time throughout our short tenure in school. Oftentimes, we get flustered because we look at what we have to do and how much further we have to go. Although we haven’t arrived, collectively we’ve embraced the power of “yet.” It’s so much easier to uphold the growth mindset when you have accountability partners or people who share your sense of urgency.
In my learning community we’re constantly communicating, whether it’s via google docs, where we post course schedules, partially completed assignments that we need critiqued, examples of past assignments, book recommendations etc. If it’s urgent and we need immediate feedback/feedforward we communicate in our group chat. This is where questions and concerns are raised. We even got to the point where we share our individual successes because we feed off of each other. We’ve become so accustomed to one another that we even share personal stories. It’s all a part of team-building.
As far as my individual role. I try to make myself accessible to everyone of my team members. It feels good to clear up any misconceptions my group may have had on class meetings and assignments. I’ve embraced this because it gives me a chance to test my competence on the many topics we discuss. I also love the trust that my team members have in me. Most of the time before they submit their assignment they ask for opinions and I don’t do that lightly, so I meticulously analyze their work in hopes of optimizing it, whenever that time comes.
When it comes to things that I need to improve I will always say my organizational skills, I’ve come a long way, but as I grow and take on more responsibility and my assignments get tougher this becomes more of a priority.