the four-leaf clover

It’s been a very busy week and I got a little behind on my writing my post. However, I was thinking back to our conversation in class last week and remembered one topic that had caught my attention. We were discussing our organizational culture paper, and Dr. Carter described an example of using the Future Search timeline to flesh out the culture of an organization. I, of course, started thinking about my current work situation and what a timeline would look if my department drew one out. With a new Director will come culture changes, and it would be interesting to see if a change strategy like this would be effective in my organization. Culture is a very powerful word. I’ve started thinking about my department’s culture and how I’m going to develop my paper. It has forced me to think about the culture I’ve been apart of for the past 2 years. It also makes me think about the culture I may be walking into in less than a year.

Realistically, I will probably look for other job opportunities within the year, and again I will be the new person in an already present culture. This can be a very intimidating place, but I’ve also learned that it can be very rewarding. What will I bring to a new organization, a new culture? Dr. Carter also mentioned that administrative positions may not be able to have a huge impact on an organization’s culture, but I really believe I have played a large impact on the culture of my department. The person in the position before me made the department a very unwelcoming, almost negative place. Faculty and staff in my department would wait and come into the administrative suite after this employee would leave for the day, because it was that unpleasant to be around her. I have heard more times than I can count how nice it is to hear, “Is there anything I can do?” So, I do agree that an administrative person may not have a huge impact on the organization’s culture, but I also know that my department is a much more positive, warmer place because of little things like this. I guess it’s true what they say that “it’s the little things that count.”

I’m looking forward to using what I’ve learned from Dixon and Schein to flesh out the culture in my department. I know I have my own bias’s and thoughts, but I’ve never thought to ask the other faculty and staff what they really think or how they perceive things. My department is like a little family, so it’s easy to see when someone is having an off day or is peeved at someone else; however it will really take some good conversation to dig out the underlying thoughts of other faculty and staff. I look forward to seeing what develops out of the conversations with my co-workers, and if anything else, it may be a good therapy session.

We learned through Schein’s text that culture and leadership are intertwined, so what happens when you have a defined culture but very little leadership? This is the situation I find myself in right now. I have explained in past posts that my department has a huge lack of leadership (which has increased even more so since my last post.) My supervisor has not only turned the leadership switch to “off,” but has now moved into the new building, in an office as far away from myself and the other faculty members as possible. It’s quite clear to everyone now how he feels and what his intentions are. So, after our discussion on culture and understanding how it’s learned, I am trying to pin-point where my department stands.

Many things came to mind as I was reading the text and as we were talking during class. I remember when I first came to work here, the culture seemed much ingrained. Many of my co-workers have been in the same positions for 20+ years, so they have seen the School of Dentistry’s culture and climate change drastically. Each dean brings his own ideas on management and teaching practices, and this trickles down through the departments and clinics. The same principles apply to each department, and what each director brings to the table or has instilled in the faculty/staff/employees. It didn’t take me long to realize the culture of the school and the department, because the people I was surrounded by didn’t hide their thoughts and feelings towards the administration. I’m finally to the point, about 2 years later, where I am finally seeing the school through my own eyes and developing my own opinion. I’m also finally comfortable enough to talk about what changes I see that need to happen, and share what I am, and have been, pleased and disappointed with.

We talked about the culture being the memory of the organization. I also think that in a work setting like mine, the culture is also the memory of the department, which makes up the organization. My department has always done things a little differently than the rest of the school because we aren’t as focused on the clinical/teaching aspect. We solely do research, which either intimidates or confuses people. However, with the search for the new Director, everyone in the school seems to be invested in who this person will be and what he/she will be able to do for them. The rest of dental school is finally interested in our culture and climate change and what it will do for the organization. Are the faculty who have been around for 10, 15, 20+ years anxious about this new person, and how he/she will change the culture? It’s so different from the time I stepped foot into my position, where no one outside of my department seemed to care or invest interest in what went on, to now everyone wanting to know what’s going on, what will this person do, what will change?

I’ve walked through the school before and thought to myself, “if these walls could talk…” This makes me think about the memory of an organization – the memories and history of the dental school that make up the culture. Culture is a powerful word. Memory is a very powerful word, too. Understanding it completely seems impossible. I wonder if 20 years from now, if I walked back through the dental school and my department, would the values, beliefs, assumptions that make up the culture be the same?

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 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!