the four-leaf clover

This past week passed over me quite quickly. I was there, but it seemed like things were happening around me at a different pace and I couldn’t catch up. I felt off. The latter end of the week I was busy with a potential candidate visiting VCU for a second time. This candidate, if chosen, will be my new boss. I have mixed emotions about the many things that will change with this new person.

First, my most selfish reason, is how will this person affect my position and place within the department? I have been at my job now for almost 2 years and have formed a great bond with my supervisor. He is well aware of my first priority, aka school, and is 100% supportive of my education. When it comes down to it, we work well together, and it’s come to the point where I don’t have to ask him a hundred questions a day. Second, I’m anxious to see how a new Director works with the existing people, not only within my department, but within the school. Everyone seems to be impressed now, but how much can you really learn from someone in less than a weeks worth of time total. Third, I know my department needs change. I know that the other faculty and staff see it as well, but it’s still a scary thing bringing someone new into a “family” even when everyone is blatantly aware of these needed changes.

During my adventures of taking this candidate between both campus’s Thursday and Friday, I started thinking about the learning that will have to take place in within my department, the school, and the candidate. They all will have to learn many things, both individually and collectively. How will my organization (my department, my school) learn? Will it be difficult or easy for this new Director to learn about the make-up of the department? How long will it take him to learn those underlying aspects of the department? Will they all be able to truly embrace learning from each other?

All these questions went through my head as I heard this candidate being interviewed over 2 days. It helped me pull together different concepts of organizational learning, and how it really boils down to the individuals. We are learning so much of this from the case studies we are working on, and are realizing that the people within those organizations are the ones behind the changes. One person can’t – or shouldn’t – be able change everything, so I’ve realized that this one new candidate will not completely change my department. Improve is a better word. I hope that he can improve on the attitudes and ideas that are already ingrained, but also add a touch of something new. I suppose time will tell…

I never thought about the important of the contracting step during a consulting project. I had thought of the contract itself, but hadn’t taken into consideration the many clients and contacts involved. The readings this week and the exercise we had to complete helped me pin-point who some of these contacts and clients may be, and their significant roles in the process. As I described in the “Who is the Client” exercise, when I was a student adviser in the School of Mass Communications, my primary goal and responsibility was helping the students – the primary client. I rarely, if ever, considered who my other clients were. I knew who my contact was, the Director of Student Services, but I didn’t focus on her as a contact when I was giving students advice or pointing them in a certain direction. I also never really factored in the importance of parents, professors, or VCU in general, because the way I looked at it, I was there for the student. It was their education and ultimately their decision to come see me in the first place.

If I could go back now and advise, as I hope to one day soon after school is said and done, it will be interesting to see how my advising changes. Will I take into account all of my different clients more often? How much will the unwitting and ultimate clients play a part in my advising? Contracting can be a very complex process. As Schein points out in one of his case studies, it’s important to keep all the clients/contacts in mind and not forget who those individuals are.

On a side note, I found Nancy’s Checklist a great companion to Block’s Flawless Consulting. From what I’ve learned about consulting and contracting thus far, it seems like it boils down to having an open mind and communication. Being honest and upfront with all contacts and clients will help eliminate confusion and problems in the future. I appreciate that consulting can be about both parties learning from each other. Not only does the client look to the consultant for a form of help, but the consultant can learn just as much, if not more, from the clients he/she interacts with. As Nancy’s Checklist #8 says: Have fun!

I normally don’t read the VCU TelegRAM when it pops through my email every morning. However, this past week, for some reason, I decided to open it and take a peek. My hope was to find out information on the free flu shots the university offers faculty/staff each year, but I also came across other “nuggets of goodness” (as Wendy would say) that caught my interest.

8. VCU Work/Life Seminar: “Drive Away Happy – Car Buying Decisions”

VCU Human Resources is sponsoring a brown bag seminar. Virginia Credit Union will present “Drive Away Happy- Car Buying Decisions.” 20 participants/ may bring lunch.

13. Networking with Coffee:

Off-Campus Student Services and University Student Commons & Activities invite all university department and student organizations to participate in a weekly Commuter CoffeeBRAKE – an opportunity to share information about clubs, departmental news or upcoming events. Participants can interact with 50 to 100 nonresidential students.

As we’ve been talking and learning over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to relate the concepts of Nancy Dixon and our class discussions into real-life situations. I was very impressed with VCU when I read the TelegRAM, because it seems to me that they are really trying to implement collective learning and collaboration. This week, since our reading was about the framework of organizational learning, I noticed some themes that could be related to these VCU events and ideas.

Nancy Dixon talks about generating information. She states that this is “encompassing both the collection of external data and the internal development of new ideas.” As I was reading the TelegRAM, I could see how VCU is trying to incorporate external ideas and bring them into the university. As far as the brown bag seminar goes, an outside speaker is coming in to discuss ideas and share information. Car buying decisions may not necessarily be something the participants can use in the work place, but if the speaker shares ideas on decision making processes, some of these concepts may be able to be transferred into the work setting.

I think generating information and ideas can happen in most any setting, and as we talked about last week, some of the most informal meeting places can be the best opportunities for learning. This is why the CoffeeBRAKE event stood out so much for me. I think it’s hard at any university, but especially at an urban school like VCU,  to have unity between off-campus and on-campus students/events/sharing of information. Most students move off campus after their freshman year, so trying to collaborate with them and getting them back into campus life can be a challenge. The CoffeeBRAKE event, which is being hosted by the Off-Campus Student Services and University Student Commons and Activities, is trying to bring together on and off campus students to form a bond and distribute a message.

Nancy Dixon talks about the ways to distribute information through the form of a message. In this case above, through these CoffeeBRAKE’s, messages will hopefully be shared about particular student events, information on clubs to join and regular news about what’s going on around campus. This informal event will also be a great place for students to form collective ideas and learn about new ways to make the campus a more unified community.

I think the most beneficial thing I’ve learned so far about organizational learning is that it can come in a number of forms. If I had read this TelegRAM a few years ago I don’t think I would have thought so deeply into it. I would have said, “oh, that’s a good idea” but never would have looked at what the underlying message is… That we all have something to learn from one another. Our differences and how we share and learn keeps it interesting.

“Difference, as uncomfortable as it often makes us, leads to learning.” – Nancy Dixon, page 95

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Some of this information was taken from the VCU TelegRAM for Faculty and Staff: September 11, 2009.

And class #2 of the semester, Organizational Learning,  is off and running. After the sessions so far, and completing the first couple chapters of Nancy Dixon’s text, I have some new ideas about organizational learning. During our class discussion Tuesday night, one concept stuck in my mind,

Learning is constructed from a collective.

A diversity of opinions is needed within organizations, or any learning environment, to form different perspectives. If the same opinions and ideas constantly rotate around a board meeting or department, how would changes or an increase in knowledge be obtained? I started thinking about my department and the learning that takes place within it everyday…

The concept of learning being constructed from a collective of different opinions and meanings is not being utilized as much as it should. For example, I have 5 different personal investigators in my department, who each have their own labs. Even though the projects within the labs are different, they all have similar interests and the love of research. The downside to my department is they never collectively share their research discoveries or ideas. Each lab acts as “one”, where what seems to be the more beneficial way of collaborating would be to share with everyone.

After our discussion, I realized the lack of a “collective” within my department. What can be done to help strengthen the learning that takes place? One idea I had in mind was holding monthly seminars. Each week the labs get together and have “lab meetings” amongst themselves, but there is never a departmental seminar. I think this would be a great way to share not only research ideas and studies that have succeeded, but also discuss what didn’t work. Students and faculty would benefit from the discussion of information and this would lead into sharing of ideas and experiences… therefore collective learning!

These are just some initial thoughts, and I look forward to pulling ideas from this course and learning as much as possible. (And hopefully helping my department grow into one, instead of many!) I also agree with what Ed said in the last class, that it will be interesting to compare some different departments/schools within the university, and see how we are similar and different when it comes to organizational learning. Bring on the semester!