A630.9.4.RB - Hiring and Recruiting_ReyesCassandra

·         Does Schmidt's description of the Google Culture make sense to you?

·         Is this a reasonable way to view the work that most people are doing in your workplace?

·         As a leader, does it take courage to have and to implement this point of view?

·         Could this approach backfire?

·         What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

In the video, Hiring and Recruiting, Eric Schmidt describes Google’s culture in a very open and personalized way, allowing us to see the strategies Google has used in the past to be successful with their hiring and recruiting techniques. Schmidt informs listeners that it is imperative that the culture of an organization is determined early on to ensure that the correct people are hired into a company. He states that the recruiting and hiring efforts that are made for an organization make an enormous difference as to who is hired at every level. Schmidt moves on to discuss his frustrations as textbooks tend to generalize this information, and managers rarely implement the necessary actions needed to choose workers who will create positive change within an organization as well as the cutting edge knowledge and drive needed to be leaders in their respective fields.

            When I watched the video the first time, I must admit that Schmidt’s description of Google’s culture did not make much sense to me. Instead of watching the video once and making an initial judgment, I decided to watch the video and few more times so I would be able to obtain an alternate view of what was being discussed. I did my best to critically think about the message that Schmidt was trying to provide his listeners with.  All of a sudden I began to understand why Schmidt was being so honest about Google’s culture. Schmidt clearly understood the importance of the recruiting and hiring process and wanted to share what he felt made Google successful.

            To do this Schmidt informs us that Google concentrates on hiring individuals based off of their academic qualifications, intellectual flexibility, passion, commitment, and intelligence. Schmidt also addresses the fact that Google does not necessarily hire based off of personality or interpersonal skill sets as they may need the individuals who do not meet this mold. While it is important that management ensures there is some level of compatibility between members they must also ensure that the needs of the company are being met. When I finally understood that this is what Schmidt was referring to, I was able to better comprehend his reasoning behind describing Google’s culture in such a way.

            I believe Schmidt’s vision of the 70, 20, 10 business culture is effective as it allows for employees to work hard in the areas they have a passion for while also allowing them the flexibility to research and practice other areas of interests. While this may be an organizational understanding throughout Google, I believe that in other organizations, such as my own, the individuals who control this culture are the direct departmental managers rather than upper level leadership. For instance, my last director was extremely flexible, especially when it came to his employees caring for their sick children. If we were a few minutes late to work he didn’t mind, as long as the time was made up during the day, if we missed a day, he would allow for us to make up the time as long as it was within the same pay period. His flexibility was indescribable and to date I have never had a manager who was so caring and open to other ways of managing his team.

            During our organizational restructure my team and I experienced a few changes in management within a short period of time. When our new director came onto the team we didn’t know what to expect so we left our minds open to the new changes that would occur. Immediately we noticed a difference in management style. There was barely any flexibility and no down time what so ever. Our team was watched so closely we felt stifled and micromanaged. Tension, frustration and conflict began to arise on the team to no end. The team went from feeling like empowered employees to feeling robotic and unappreciated. We understood the need for a structured environment, however we wished there was a way to have a more balanced agreement as to the flexibility our team needed to operate effectively.

The interesting part about all of this was that the leader above our department manager was very flexible and caring and seemed to have more understanding of the teams need for balance than our direct manager. This experience made me realize that every organization implements its culture and vision differently. Some may be able to implement it all across the board while others do not. This I believe is in part to what Schmidt was talking about when he stated that the culture of the organization is based off of who is hired and the importance of the compatibility of the people who are brought into an organization.

            In my opinion I believe that Schmidt had courage to implement his point of view as it wasn’t a cookie cutter way of looking at things. He understood the need for a vision and culture and knew what was necessary to make an organization successful however he also was able to think outside the box and implement a culture he felt would best fit the wants and needs of the organization. While Schmidt’s vision for Google proved to be successful, there was also room for backfire and failure as there is with any organization’s implementation of culture.  

Choosing the right people for the right job is half the battle when creating a culture. Implementation of that culture and instilling it within those who work for the organization is what I believe to be the true challenge. In any business there will be those who challenge the mission, vision and culture of an organization. It is up to leadership to determine who these individuals are so they may be trained to understand and respect the culture of the business. If ample opportunity is provided these individuals and no change is made on their behalf to respect and follow the organizational culture, mission and vision, then it may be necessary for them to be let go as the organizations culture may always be challenged and is essentially put at risk.

            What I took away from this exercise is that if I was to ever start my own business I would want to ensure that my company is run with a strong vision, mission and culture that can be loved and respected by organizational members at all levels. For a few months now my husband and I have had this idea to start a business that we truly believe in. When the topic of discussion first came up, one of the first things that I mentioned was that the culture of the organization needed to be promoted as one of the most important aspects of the company to make it successful.  

As we would be dealing with students, professors, and other educational businesses, I wanted our student population to know how much they were cared for and the importance of their success. I wanted my employees to be understanding and compassionate and to instill a passion within the students who would be using my facility. I understood what it meant to be a student and the need for a place where their successes could be promoted and recognized and where ample opportunity would be given to use the resources necessary for students to be successful in their careers. While this business venture may only be a dream right now, I believe that if it were to become a reality that there would be an enormous amount of room in order for it to be successful. I hope one day I am offered the opportunity to at least promote my plan to someone who could see its full potential.

Cassandra R.

     References

Schmidt, E. (2011, May). Eric Schmidt on business culture, technology, and social issues |

McKinsey & Company [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/eric_schmidt_on_business_culture_technology_and_social_issues

A630.8.4.RB_Build a Tower, Build a Team_ReyesCassandra

 After viewing the above video, reflect on the following questions in a well-written post on your Reflection Blog.

• Do you agree with Tom Wujec's analysis of why kindergarteners perform better on the Spaghetti Challenge than MBA students?
• Can you think of any other reasons why kids might perform better?
• In your view, why do CEOs with an executive assistant perform better than a group of CEOs alone?
• If you were asked to facilitate a process intervention workshop, how could you relate the video to process intervention skills?
• What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

In the TED Video, “Build a Tower, Build a team Tom Wujec presents us with the team building exercise the marshmallow challenge and discusses the various teams who have been successful in the challenge and those who have not. He discusses the difference of team members and skill sets on certain teams which can either increase or decrease the team’s chances of success. The idea behind the marshmallow challenge is to “encourage teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation and creativity” (Wujec, marshmallowchallenge.com). Wujec’s efforts to foster clarity and build team capacity, rapport and prototyping techniques offers organizations the strategic analysis necessary to exhibit the strengths and weaknesses of their own collaboration techniques.

Wujec states that kindergarteners have proven to be much more successful in the marshmallow challenge as they do not try to be the CEO of the group. Business students are said to move forward in trying to find the single right plan in order for the structure to be successful, while kindergarteners concentrate more on the end goal and are able to strategically implement a number of prototyping efforts. I would have to agree with Wujec on his analysis of why kindergarteners perform better on the Spaghetti Challenge than MBA students? I believe that children have a mental and creative freedom that adults lose the older we get and the wiser we become. Children’s minds are pure and have no limits. The opportunities to them are endless because the idea of failure doesn’t scare them. They are motivated and open to the learning process with little to no fear of how they are being perceived or how the other children around them will react to their suggestions, ideas or techniques.

Children have no titles, and they have nothing to prove. They are equals and due to their equality, their efforts in working with one another may prove to be successful as there is no competition involved in who had the best or worst idea, who led the group well, who offered the best alternatives or who made the project a success. With no egos involved, children are able to strategically and effectively look at the task that is being set before them, work on the ways in which to make that happen and sweeps all other unnecessary factors which inhibit their creativity and success under the rug. It doesn’t matter to them who played with the toy truck last and how that made them feel. When a new task is placed before them they are able to quickly adapt to their new environment and work with their teammates to create innovative and successful solutions to the unique challenges set before them.

Wujec moves on to inform us that teams who consisted of CEO’s as well as an executive assistant performed better on the marshmallow project than those whose teams were made up of strictly CEO’s. I believe that the reason for this was due to the team’s diversity. When a team consists of a group of people who complete the same job and think alike, diversity amongst team members is minimal. CEO’s may speak a certain language and communicate in specific ways causing groupthink, however the implementation of one team member who can offer different skill sets can immediately change the team dynamic as a new and improved way of thinking has now been placed into what may have been a stagnant thought process. In order for a group to be innovative and creative and create successful collaborative processes, there must be a combined skill set of team members which offer different ways of approaching and solving issues. In this case the executive administrative assistant offered the group the skill set needed to enhance their thought processes and create more successful and innovative suggestions and solutions.

If I were to facilitate a process intervention workshop, the video would be a great tool as it would allow work groups to become aware of how they may operate and the collaborative techniques that they could use in order to develop and enhance their own problem solving abilities. The video would cover a number of process intervention topics such as member roles and functions and the techniques used to analyze communication processes within a work group in order to make it successful. More importantly the video and the marshmallow exercise would implement group task functions as well as group building and maintenance functions which would assist with the development of team member behaviors which would assist with the work group to solve its task and improve upon the harmonizing and compromising behavior to establish effect ways of dealing with group conflict or tension.

                I believe the video has offered me a clearer understanding as to the importance of collaboration and how to implement and apply the strategies of communication, observation and leadership and authority within specific work groups. It has proven the importance of diversity within work groups and has also shown me that when working on a team there is no room for ego’s, titles, or fear, as these factors have the opportunity to contribute negatively to the success of an organization. I believe that in order to remain innovative, creative and open to new things, team building exercises such as this one should continue to be used in all organizations to prevent groupthink and static thought processes and techniques.

  References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 Wujeck, T. (n.d.). The Marshmallow Challenge. Retrieved from

http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

Wujec, T. (2010, February). Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team | Video on TED.com

[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html

A630.7.4RB Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention_Reyes,Cassandra

With over 30 years of experience at Honeywell, Michael Bonsignore seemed to clearly understand the organizations values and its change of times of where the company was, where it is now and where it is currently going. Bonsignore’s challenge with the merge of Honeywell and Allied Signal was to take two organizations that had different company cultures and ensure that they were able to effectively merge into one successful cohesive business. Bonsignore needed to concentrate on the organizations reinvention ensuring that all members of the organization were able to fully understand the organizational change that would be taking place and the change strategies that would be implemented over time to maintain the company’s profitability, and growth in the years to come.

            When Bonsignore states that he will reward people that look for best practices from both companies in creating a new corporate culture and punish those who do not, I believe he is referring to the difficulties he may experience with some employee’s resistance to change. When there is change in any organization it can be difficult for upper level management to receive approval from workers who are uncomfortable with the change, or who are not in agreement with it. “On a personal level, change represents the alteration of a set of patterns of behavior, defines relationships with others, work procedures and job skills. On an organizational level change means that policies, procedures, sunk costs, organization structures, manufacturing processes and workflows will no longer be the same” (Brown, Pg 144, 2011).

The barriers to Honeywell’s success proved to be issues with the length of time the organization has been around which seemed to have led to some complacency and fear of the unknown. The organizations past success had been taken for granted and therefore needed a revamping of its new organizational structure. In order to continue to be successful Honeywell concentrated on three main factors; the delighted customer, profitable growth and leadership and control. However, it was imperative that they were also aware of those who were resistant to the changes that were being implemented and took care on the steps they would need to take of this would somehow affect their growth and productivity.

With the merge of Allied Signal and Honeywell, I believe that Bonsignore did his best to create a culture where his employees could be accepting of the change and understanding of the new goals of the organization. I believe that he created an expectation of his organization where those who showed they were flexible and adaptable would be awarded for their good faith in the organization and would show those who were resistant to change, that behaviors as such would be unacceptable to the new culture of the organization. Therefore, in order to ensure their success, Honeywell made their workers aware of their cultural expectations and compensated those who were able to meet those goals of cultural productivity.

            Honeywell is currently a Fortune 100 company and has proven to be extremely successful over the years. I believe that as long as the organization continues to strive for product and consumer excellence they should remain a competitor in their respective market. I do feel as though the company culture of any organization is something that will always need to be worked on as times change however, as long as Honeywell continues to make its employees just as important as their consumers, much like Southwest has, I believe they will experience minimum difficulties in resistance to change that may occur in the future.

            In order for any organization to be successful, a number of factors should be taken into consideration which include a global strategic mission and vision that members of the organization can respect. In the past Honeywell had been overly ambitious with their goals and underestimated the task of combining the two merging organizations leading to a demise in organizational productivity, profitability and growth. With this in mind, Honeywell should keep in mind that an organizational culture starts from the top.

Communication is the key to any organizations success as it allows for an open door to collaboration. Bonsignore states that employees want the unvarnished truth about their organizations situation, so they are better prepared for the issues they may face. He goes on to state that employees are “happy to deal with hardship as long as there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that management is being real with them” (Bonsignore, Films on Demand), therefore in order to build a successful company, leadership should continue to take into consideration the driving forces toward acceptance of a change program by employees and work on impacting the organizational culture in positive ways. In order for Honeywell to be successful, he must ensure that the leadership team of Honeywell, for the present and future, are aware of the lifecycle of resistance to change and can identify when they have encountered a certain degree of resistance that may affect the organizations success in a negative manner. They must promote advocacy of change and motivate employees by promoting positive momentums toward change programs.

This exercise has taught me that change programs are taking place in all organizations, all of the time, including my own and that no matter the size of the organization, resistance to change is inevitable. I have learned that while there are basic strategies to change, the frameworks of change all coexist with one another creating intervention techniques that are dependent upon the interdependencies of an organizations sub elements as well as its cohesiveness with one another. Lastly, I learned that selection of the correct OD intervention strategy is imperative to an organizations success as it calls for specific behavioral, structural and technological system integration.

                References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development(8th ed.). Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Films On Demand (2011, June 1). Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention [Video file].

Retrieved from http://digital.films.com/play/GWEU7L

A630.6.4.RB_50 Reasons Not to Change/The Tribes We Lead_ReyesCassandra

After viewing the above presentations, reflect on the following questions in a well-written post on your Reflection Blog.

·         How do you react when you hear colleagues using some of the excuses listed in the 50 Reasons Not to Change graphic?

·         Do you ever use any of these excuses yourself?

·         How can you overcome the thinking that creates those responses to change efforts?

·         Do you agree with Seth Godin’s concept that change is driven by tribes?

·         What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

Once you have reflected upon these questions, list any other questions or insights that have come to you as a result of this exercise.

Due to economic and political pressures, organizations continuously face competition in their respective fields causing them to radically change and reinvent their image, culture and processes. While the process of change may seem simplistic at first sight, the elements and implementation of an effective change strategy proves to be a difficult task. Organizations today are faced with the challenge of effectively managing change within their business in order to maintain their success. When an organization fails to adapt quickly enough in order to survive within their market, they risk becoming obsolete. Therefore, in order to prevent failure, organizations must act quickly and make choices that are favorable and consistent with the pressures of their economic and political constraints while also meeting the needs of their consumer.

            One of the biggest challenges of change is the resistance we experience to it. In order for change to emerge, corrective action must take place. But in order for corrective action to take place, we must first be able to recognize the need for change and understand the benefits of implementing an effective change strategy which will increase the value and life span of the organization. In order to implement change we must first accept it. In the textbook, An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development, Donald Brown states the following of implementing organizational change:

The single biggest reason organizational changes fail is that no one thought about endings or planned to manage their impact on people. Naturally concerned about the future, planners and implementers usually forget that people have to let go of their present first. They forget that while the first task of change management is to understand the destination and how to get there, the first task of transition management is to convince people to leave home. (Brown 2011).

My organization is currently experiencing an organizational restructure to which there

has been resistance by some members who have been uncomfortable with the recent changes which have been implemented. Once the restructure was introduced to our organization, members almost immediately began to list the reasons the change would not work. Most of the reasons discussed included management and departmental acceptance, having the personnel and the equipment for the change, the new changes making current policies or procedures obsolete, and workers believing that the new changes affected their jobs duties negatively, by adding unwanted responsibilities or taking away from them.

During this restructure my department experienced a change in management four separate times in less than three months. I was frustrated and worried about how the change would affect my family and I admit that at first I was reluctant to accepting the changes that continued to occur. I was not in favor of the new changes and resisted them as best as I could. Even when the changes appeared to work in my favor, I was unwilling to accept them as there was a constant fear of where the change would permanently lead me. I was dissatisfied with the change efforts being implemented and the impact it was having on my job, my family, and my overall being. While I wanted to be accepting of the change, the restraints to it seemed to overcome my abilities to recognize the benefits of its execution.

In order to overcome the thinking that created these negative responses to my organizations change efforts, I needed to first step out of my comfort zone. I realized that one of the reasons I was so against this change at first was because I had become complacent in my job. There was uncertainty in change and I was forced to be a part of it without having been asked. In order to become comfortable with this new change, I needed to allow myself to be uncomfortable and to be okay with moving into the direction of the unknown and allow myself to feel the discomfort of everything that was going on around me. The organization was moving in a new direction and I could either be a part of it, or choose to go against it. While I feared the unknown, I made the conscious decision to take things as they would come and move forward with a positive and open mind to new organizational norms and culture that was being created.

Many employees of the organization feared what the changes would bring and it became apparent to upper level management that in order for this change to work, they would need to take the necessary steps to quell the fears of their workers. To do this, managers and supervisors at all levels of the organization addressed the concerns of their workers and allowed for open communication and dialogue about what the changes would bring. They also linked the change to reflect the issues that workers already cared about such as job security and advancement, which made acceptance of the change less complicated and demanding. The organization also made employees aware of the pros and cons of the change proving their knowledge of the possible effects it could have on its workers.

In Seth Godin’s speech The Tribes we Lead, Godin discusses how ordinary people have the power to create change by leading those around them to stand up for what they believe in. Godin states that most movements are created by finding those individuals who are disconnected but already have a yearning to create change, not those who want something they don’t have. He argues that change is created by those who stand up for what they believe in and go against the status quo. Godin teaches us that when culture and curiosity are challenged, commitment to change is provoked and implemented and an effective culture of change is created. Godin’s speech was unique and inspiring and my inspiration lies with my agreement of his vision.

In this week’s readings, I gained tremendous knowledge about the barriers to change and the “restraining forces blocking the implementation of change programs” (Brown 2011). I discovered that conformity to organizational culture and norms threatened organizational success and disrupted the mission and vision of the changes that were desperately trying to be implemented. In educating myself about the importance of change for an organization, I learned that my own fears and concerns were actually prohibiting my organization from moving forward in way that would prove to be effective, efficient and beneficial for my own well being, if I just allowed it. And lastly, I learned that the biggest reward of accepting change would be my own personal growth in having the ability to overcome the resistance to change in the future.

   References

Godin, S. (2009, February). Seth Godin: The tribes we lead | Video on TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

Marker, A. (n.d.). 10 StrategiesYou CanUse toOvercomeResistance to Change. Retrieved from http://opwl.boisestate.edu/wp-content/uploads/news-A_Marker_Handling_Resistance_to_Change_v4b.pdf

Watkins, D. (2011, August 24). 50 Reasons Not to Change by Daryl Watkins on Prezi [Video file]. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/z2v2cvo4t9tc/50-reasons-not-to-change/

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development(8th ed.). Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

A630.5.4.RB_NASA Culture Change_Reyes,Cassandra

·         Why did NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe address NASA employees to describe the plan to bring about proposed changes to NASA's culture?

·         Was he believable? Is it important whether he appeared to be believable?

·         Why did he talk about NASA values?

·         What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

Once you have reflected upon these questions, list any other questions or insights that have come to you as a result of this exercise.

            In the video NASA Cultural Change, NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe speaks to employees on the proposed changes that the organization will be experiencing in the next few months to come. The discussion stems from the Columbia Shuttle accident and concentrates on the safety culture of NASA and the necessary managerial changes that the space agency will be required to make if they would like to continue to see their organization be successful. The topics discussed reflect upon the ineffective strategies, policies or procedures that were the organizations cultural norm and the new steps that have been taken to become a more effective and efficient agency with enhanced and stabilized processes.

In his speech, Sean O’Keefe is direct and honest about the issues that the organization is currently experiencing. He places himself in a vulnerable position accepting responsibility of the negative effects that leadership has had on the cultural environment of NASA. O’Keefe does well in touching upon the pros and cons of the organization and describes the plan to bring about change to NASA’s workforce. In his efforts to bring awareness to the issues at hand, O’Keefe allows himself to be just as much of a student in the scenario, than a teacher. In order to get NASA workers on board he allows himself to take accountability for being just as much the problem as anyone else.

O’Keefe touches upon a number of factors which have contributed to the Columbia Shuttle failure and offers suggestions as to how to better the organization for the sake of creating a safer more effective environment for the space agency. One of the issues discussed in the speech include the ability for all employees to have a respect for one another and the capability for them to carry out the tasks that they were asked to do. O’Keefe states that a survey that was provided to the NASA workforce proved that this was something the agency desperately needed to work on. It was said that there needed to be an increase in the professional respect members of the organization had for one another and that that there was a lack of communication across all  levels of the organization and its counterparts.

Leadership also holds a major role in the successes of the organization as effective leadership practices start from the top and find their way into every inch of organizational practices. It was said that leadership should be stronger and that safety practices needed to prove to be fundamentally imperative as they offer a thin margin of either “great triumph or great tragedy” (O’Keefe, 2004). O’Keefe mentions that in order to build upon success, they must do so as they materialize and employees should remain positive and not be so defeated by their failures. It was suggested by NASA employees that leadership needed to become more involved with what their teams were doing and that upward communication and management employee interaction should be increased in order to maintain more enhanced organizational support.

In his speech as well as his question and answer session, O’Keefe seemed to me to be sincere and believable in his efforts to address both the obvious and obscure issues that the agency was experiencing. He mentioned his own faults and actions that were creating ill feelings and environments among NASA workers and mentioned the consideration of team building exercises as well as team trainings and the redevelopment of NASA’s core organizational values. I believe that it was imperative of O’Keefe to remain genuine and candid in his speech as it allowed for the employees of NASA to feel as though they were free to speak openly about their concerns of where the organization was headed without the fear of consequences. If members are afraid of simply mentioning the possibility of change, then their ability to create change will be impossible. It seems to me that O’Keefe did a great job at creating a safe haven for those who may have feared consequence and allowed for open dialogue on the changes that needed to take place in order for NASA to continue to be successful.

A large topic of discussion for O’Keefe, were the values of NASA and the ability of reevaluation of organizational values that would assist with adding credibility to the agency. I believe that O’Keefe discusses the values of NASA as they create a distinct organizational culture and norm within the agency that is passed down from generation to generation. I believe that the values of NASA help to craft the mission and vision of the organization creating goals for all members to work toward achieving. With this I also believe that values were discussed intently due to the importance of accountability and responsibility all members must take when making imperative decisions within the workplace that can have consequential effects for the members and organizational counterparts.

In listening to O’Keefe discuss these issues, I learned that climate within an organization can be everything. Climate should be encouraged as it allows for those who have a voice to speak up and ensure that their thoughts, feelings and concerns are heard in a constructive environment. All members within any organization have a responsibility to facilitate change and should not live in fear of consequence. In order to create a cohesive organizational structure, all suggestions of the possibilities of the future of the company should be looked upon as opportunities to generate, implement and instill effective, efficient and proactive actions which can help contribute to the overall success and accomplishment of future organizational ties.

Cassandra R.

References

C SPAN Video Library (2004, April 13). NASA Cultural Changes - C-SPAN Video Library [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SACu

A630.4.4.RB_How Companies Can Make Better Decisions_ReyesCassandra

After viewing the video in the previous activity, reflect on the following questions in a well-written post on your Reflection Blog.

Marcia Blenko argues that decision effectiveness correlates positively with employee engagement and organizational performance. How do you think that employee engagement relates to decision effectiveness?

What are some impediments to good decision making?

Blenko suggests that there are four elements of good decisions: quality, speed, yield, and effort. In your opinion, is there anything missing from this list?

What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

No organization can be successful without the ability of its leaders to make good, effective decisions. In order to achieve this, corporate leaders and their counterparts must be able to be consistent with their choices and also take some strategic risks in whatever market or business they are trying to tap into. Like anything else, there are many barriers to decision making effectiveness but if implemented correctly, the choices made by organizations can lead them to major success if they focus on the factors and considerations that entail the necessary examination and adaptation to ensure proper timing and placement of decision making selections.

            In the Harvard Business Review Video, How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Marcia Blenko argues that decision effectiveness correlates positively with employee engagement and organizational performance (HBR 2010). In my personal opinion I would have to agree with this statement as I have been on both ends of reaching a high level of employee engagement and a low level of employee disengagement. In a position I held some time ago, I was extremely empowered and motivated by upper level management. I was told to be creative and take initiative and that it was okay to make mistakes as we learned from them. I had never felt so empowered in any other jobs I had held and it had allowed me to grow in both my personal and professional goals and aspirations. After holding this position for quite some time, I was promoted and was therefore placed under new management.

In this new position I held, the management I received was very degrading and stifling. I was immediately disappointed as I believed the promotion at the time was a step in the right direction for me in order to enhance my creative abilities and implement new and improved strategic changes in my organization. Instead I was faced with a decreased level of interest in my new role as those creative abilities and level of empowerment and engagement were completely stripped of me. I was left micromanaged, frustrated and asking myself why I had ever taken this promotion. It was as though I took a step backwards instead of forward.

“Engagement is an outcome. People choose to become engaged if they have sufficient opportunity and motivation. You can create the conditions so that people to do things because they want to, rather than because they were told to. ” (Partovi, 2013). This was a clear message my management at the time was missing. Instead of being motivated and empowered I was stifled and stripped of all potential abilities to be outgoing, creative, and influential in the decision making processes that were taking place. There are always impediments to achieving desired results. A true leader must be able to recognize those impediments and do their best to ensure that those barriers are kept to a minimum so the organization is able to experience the positive contributions made by staff members.

Some of the impediments to good decision making include a foggy or inaccurate vision of the organizational expectations or goals and non-existent implementations of employee engagement, empowerment, motivation and recognition. If the organization experiences a lack of trust, ownership or strategic planning and abilities this could also lead to ineffective decision making. As decision making can be quite difficult at times it is important that organizations recognize that good decision making is a skill set that can be developed over time. The more and more decisions that are made, the better and better you will get at making them, however it is also important to remember that on this journey mistakes will be made along the way, some of which can lead to organizational distress, which is why it is important to always educate oneself on all factors of the effectiveness of decision making. In the words of Mike Wyatt in his blog 6 Tips for Making Better Decisions:

You cannot separate leadership from decisioning, for like it or not, they are inexorably linked. Put simply, the outcome of a leader’s choices and decisions can, and usually will, make or break them. The fact of the matter is that senior executives who rise to the C-suite do so largely based upon their ability to consistently make sound decisions. What most fail to realize is while it may take years of solid decision making to reach the boardroom, it often times only takes one bad decision to fall from the ivory tower. As much as you may wish it wasn’t so, when it comes to being a leader you’re really only as good as your last decision. (Myatt, 2013).

            In order to make good decisions one must consider the elements of what good decision making is all about. In the HBR video discussed above Marcia Blenko states that her team defined decision making by the quality speed, yield and effort of the decision being made (HBR 2010). While I would agree that each of these elements plays a true factor in the success of decision making, I also feel as though boundary conditions of decisions should also be taken into consideration as almost any decision made will have barriers placed before it and it is important to know how to get past those barriers in order o be successful. I also feel as though feedback of decisions are important because it allows for all factors, opinions, views and suggestions to be considered before a decision is implemented so that the organization can be successful in all of its ventures.

            What I feel I would take away most from this exercise is how to be more cognizant of organizational barriers and decision making effectiveness and my personal responsibility to stay active in building these skills and implementing them as best as I can in my place of work despite the organizational or management difficulties I may face in the future. I think that I am better prepared to prioritize the factors that good decision making entails and better able to reflect upon the pros and cons of any strategic plans put forth in my department or position that I hold now or will hold in the future. I also believe that the video has helped me to think more objectively about decision making skills and the abilities that it takes for leaders to effectively make decisions sometimes based off of the very little information they have. I feel more prepared and inspired to make effective decisions in both my place of work as well as my home life as each environment offers very different aspects and goals of success.

References

D, J. (2009, March 19). 5 Elements of an Effective Decision Making Process : Sources of Insight. Retrieved from http://sourcesofinsight.com/5-elements-of-an-effective-decision-making-process/

Harvard Business Review (2010, October 13). How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Faster [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbxpg6D4Hk8&feature=player_embedded

Myatt, M. (2012, March 8). 6 Tips for Making Better Decisions - Forbes [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/03/28/6-tips-for-making-better-decisions/

Partovi, M. (2013, May 26). 8 tips for improving employee engagement — Let’s make organisations better! — Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/lets-make-organisations-better/eb98c7a48704

A630.3.3.RB_A Day in the Life of the Culture Committee_Reyes,Cassandra

            Southwest Airlines is one of the most profitable airlines in today’s aviation industry. Because of their success in both internal and external accomplishments they have been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the most profitable airlines among its competitors. For 34 years Southwest has been profitable every single quarter bringing their net income to $499 million dollars in 2006. What’s even more remarkable is that Southwest has won the Triple Crown award for five years in a row. This award is given to airlines who are “number one in the most on time flights, least lost baggage and fewest customer complaints” (Cooper, Lopper and Trammell, 2007).

While Southwest offers flights at an affordable rate and works hard to ensure that they are providing top notch customer service to their customers, what makes Southwest so successful has nothing to do with profits, or statistics. Their success has plenty to do with how they treat their customers, but even more so Southwest is successful because of how they treat their own people. Colleen Barrett is the President of SWA and works hard to consistently bridge gaps between departments and employees to ensure that every member of her organization feels appreciated and respected. Barrett’s idea of servant leadership allows for the employees of Southwest to recognize and encourage one another in their efforts and contributions to the organization.

“In today’s organizations, change leaders are seeking to make a more fundamental shift in the capabilities of their organization. They are not looking for marginal improvements; their goal is to reinvent themselves” (Brown, Pg, 62, 2011). In order to keep the Southwest spirit alive and thriving, Colleen Barrett and Herb Kelleher, the founder and chairman of the board for SWA created the Southwest Culture Committee which has become the foundation of SWA’s fun loving spirit and takes appreciation and recognition to a whole new level. Barrett’s unique vision and innovative ways of showing gratitude exemplify the definition of a corporate culture.

Barrett’s ability to implement change is contagious. She has worked tirelessly to strategically create a team dedicated to establishing a positive, productive and rewarding culture for SWA. The Culture Committee’s mission is simple; “to help create the Southwest spirit and culture where needed; to enrich it and make it better where it already exists; and to liven it up in places where it might be floundering” (Cooper, Lopper and Trammell, 2007). Southwest believes that their customers come second to their employees. Each member of the Southwest team puts in their efforts to help promote the feeling of family and cohesiveness that many organizations are lacking today. Instead of members working to tear each other down, like you may see in other competitive organizational environments, Southwest employees do just the opposite. They work extra hard to build each other up. “A corporate culture must achieve goals as well as satisfy the needs of the members if the organization is to be effective” (Brown, Pg, 65, 2011). With Southwest being named number one for Fortune magazines “100 best Companies to Work for in America” (Cooper, Lopper and Trammell, 2007), I would say that they have not only met this challenge, but surpassed it.

While Southwest seems to have truly figured out the element of success for a dedicated culture amongst their members, I believe that other organizations including my own could incorporate just a touch of the culture for change that SWA has implemented into their organizational structure. In order for my organization to benefit from such an enhanced and effective culture, I believe that it should begin with bridging together the gaps between departments and tiers that we currently have. There are a lot of grey areas in some of our current processes and procedures and I don’t feel as though each department understands or respects what their various departmental counterparts accomplish on a day to day basis. I think that sometimes many members of various departments are too quick to place blame or simply overlook all of the duties and responsibilities of their colleagues around them. I feel that if we incorporated various training and “get to know you” sessions we could begin to start to trust one another rather than place blame where it shouldn’t be.

Herb Kelleher has said that “culture is one of the most precious things that a company has, so you must work harder on it than anything else” however the difficulty with culture is that “an organization may also have subcultures with differing or even conflicting corporate cultures” (Brown, Pg 64, 2011). This statement has made me realize that while an organization may do their best to implement a positive cultural environment, they are unable to control the subcultures that may be unexpectedly finding their way into the organizational hierarchy. Therefore I believe that employee support and recognition of one another would be a great change to start implementing into our organizational structure. This would help with creating a more internalized and identified and influential corporate culture that we could all follow. By following a more defined Corporate Culture Index, we could enhance our contributions to “member identity, team emphasis, people focus, autonomy, control, and risk tolerance” (Brown, Pg, 65, 2011).

Corporate culture is defined as the “tangible and intangible characteristics of an organization including aspirations, reward systems, behaviors, assumptions, performance, rituals, communications and heritage” (Brown, Pg, 63, 2011). In order for a balanced vision to take place in an organization, it needs a model for change that is attainable and respectable. In order to accomplish this, I question how Southwest deals with resistance to cultural change or the implementations of change strategy. I question how new strategies are devised and executed in order to ensure their success especially when faced with technological, social and global challenges. I would also ask, what small scale changes Southwest may implement when a large scale change needs to take place but may be inhibited at the time due to certain regulations or policies and procedures. Lastly, I would want to know how Southwest deals with those who oppose change or are not welcoming to it. When commitment to the organizational culture is challenged, what steps are taken to ensure that one bad apple doesn’t ruin the bunch? While I am sure that SWA does experience barriers to their successes, it is clear that what they are doing is working, and their dedication to organizational culture has a lot to do with it.

Cassandra R.

      References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development(8th ed.). Upper

            Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McGee-Cooper, A., Looper, G., & Trammell, D. (2008). The Power of LUV: An Inside Peek at the Innovative Culture Committee of Southwest Airlines. Reflections, 9(1), 49-54. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/ehost/detail?sid=18beacdb-0bd1-4187-a44d-8ae929b6fa39%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=32040287

A630.2.4.RB_21st Century Enlightenment_ReyesCassandra

Change is inevitable. We face it every day and every day we are challenged as individuals, as families, as workers and as a society to consistently move forward with change in the hopes that our contributions to ourselves and those around us are sufficient enough to ensure success in our separate endeavors either to ourselves or to one another. We have not just seen change. We have experienced it and even more so, we have contributed to it. Transformations of change have been witnessed for days, months, and years and will continue to be witnessed for decades and centuries to come. Even if the change that we hope for is not accomplished in the lifetime we live, we move on to the hope that our friends, families and offspring experience this change in their own lifetimes and benefit from the many opportunities it may have to offer.

            Change isn’t a secret. It isn’t a shadow lurking in the dark and it isn’t something we can run from. The only way to deal with change is to take it head on. Allow for it to show its full potential and its expectations of us, so we can then push forward with implementing our own conscious decisions and creative solutions in dealing with the revolutions that organizations, economies, cultures, technology and society will throw before us. We “exist in an ever changing environment and therefore must have the capacity to adapt.” (Brown, pg 33, 2011). But with all of the competition, the negativity, and the challenges we face, how is this possible? How can we ensure success and development, when the challenges and barriers of change are always staring us dead in the face?

            Matthew Taylor’s RSA Video Animation the 21^st  Century Enlightenment tells us how we can do this. The idea behind RSA’s video is to show the history of society and remind us of where we came from and where we have the potential of going. It begins by pinpointing some of our nation’s greatest pioneers and philosophers such as Copernicus, Newton, and Galileo and the ideas and inspirations that stimulated a movement toward a change to better our world and society as a whole. I believe the video is called the Enlightenment because it focuses on a progressive outlook on today’s society and “invites us to return to core principles of autonomy, universalism and humanism, restoring dimensions which have been lost and seeing new ways to fulfill these ideals” (Taylor, RSA Essay, Twenty-first century enlightenment).

            In the video Matthew Taylor states that in order “to live differently you have to think differently” (Taylor, RSA Animate, 21^st Century Enlightenment). To me this is a challenge for society to branch out of our traditional views and ways of thinking and become more innovative with how we approach or see things. Taylor invites us to strategically promote new ways of thinking and challenges us to stimulate our minds into achieving a new level of social innovation that is rarely seen these days. I think that the challenge Taylor sets before us is one to experiment with more ways in becoming proactive rather than reactive to situations and the challenges we face as a society. The driving force behind society’s successes and failures stems from its contributors and to be successful, everyone involved must ensure that they are doing their part to unleash revolutionary ideas, products and creations that have the ability to reform and renew themselves moving forward.

            Taylor moves on in the video to state that we need "to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange" (Taylor RSA Animate, 21^st Century Enlightenment). I think that Taylor means that in order to advance and move forward with becoming innovators and strategic thinkers which will help to advance our society, we must place ourselves in uncomfortable positions and stop being so quick to make choices that are less intimidating and more obvious to us. When we do this, all we are creating are conceptual blocks within ourselves and others which inhibit us from creative problem solving solutions. When we place negative emphasis on things that seem strange to us or that we are uncomfortable with we are creating a conceptual blockage of constancy, commitment, compression and complacency to our ways of thinking resulting in reduced innovation and creativity of ideas.

            Constancy “occurs because individuals become wedded to one way of looking at a problem or using one approach to define, describe or solve it” (Whetton and Cameron, Pg 186 2010). When we do this surviving the changes on our global society becomes impossible as we are not able to effectively manage our social, technological and environmental constraints. While we hold a commitment true to the successes of our past, present and future, too much commitment can create issues as it can also stifle creativity in decision making. “Two forms of commitment that produce conceptual blocks are stereotyping based on past experiences and ignoring commonalities” (Whetton and Cameron, Pg 189, 2010). When we follow through on a “particular point of view definition or solution” (Whetton and Cameron, Pg 188, 2010) we risk individual and societal progress.

            Many different types of conceptual blocks occur on a daily basis in professional as well as personal environments making it that much more difficult for organizations and its members to remain successful in their competitive environments. “Every organization must have enough stability to continue to function satisfactorily and still prevent itself from becoming too static or stagnant to adapt to changing conditions” (Brown, Pg, 34, 2011). My current organization experienced a recent organizational restructure which challenged its place in institutional effectiveness and challenged its employees to move with the change of times. While upper leadership promoted the efficiency of what the change would bring many employees conceptual blocks  of compression and complacency didn’t allow them to see the vision our organization had for us and our students.

            Compression occurs when individuals look “too narrowly at a problem, screening out too much relevant data and making assumptions that inhibit problem solutions” (Whetton and Cameron, Pg, 190, 2010) and complacency occurs because of “fear, ignorance, insecurity, or just plain mental laziness” (Whetton and Cameron, Pg, 190, 2010). It was clear that with the new organizational changes that would be implemented many staff member had their blinders on and were hesitant on accepting them in fear of how the reform would positively and negatively affect them. According to Taylor individuals need to be more proactive, positive and engaged by the reform that society faces. He moves on to state that we should be more involved in the choices that are made, and give permission to our leaders to make positive long term decisions for us. Lastly, Taylor states that society has to be more cognizant on how our own behaviors and actions shape the choices that are made for us. (Taylor, RSA Essay, Twenty-first century enlightenment).  

            I would agree with Taylor when he states that we should spend more time developing empathetic citizens as it promotes an environment of citizens who are more emotionally aware of others as well as self aware of the emotions, actions and intentions. While achieving global empathy may seem impossible, I believe that the positive effects of our efforts are what we make of them. Improvement of more simplified factors such as social and emotional awareness can lead to larger changes in the technical, structural, psychosocial and managerial subsystems we all experience within our organizations as well as environment. Implementation and promotion of these changes can lead to effective sociotechnical systems which can increase the effectiveness of high performance teams within businesses and the global environment. Increased efforts in social values can also lead to individualized effectiveness within civilians, teams, and a vast majority of organizational systems.

            Taylors suggests that “what we aim for can be as important to our well being than what we achieve” (Taylor RSA Animate, 21^st Century Enlightenment). He plants a seed in us to make us work harder, think more creatively and look past the simplistic things in life and of change so we can all be held responsible for creating a more sustainable environment by looking past inadequate ideas of freedom, justice and progress and recreate humanistic ideas of who we are rather than who society believes we should be and preferably create visions of who we aspire to be. (Taylor, RSA Animate, 21^st Century Enlightenment). In order to creatively incorporate solutions to society’s problem’s we must first define them, find alternatives to our global issues, implement positive resolutions and reverse our traditional views and ways of thinking. As an individual we are only one, but as a society we are one of many. In order to execute change we must instill it within ourselves first so we can be ready for it and be accepting of it. One person can change the world with one thought. Imagine what the rest of us could do if we stopped being such pessimists or pragmatists and joined the world of visionaries, and power players.

            This video was inspirational and offered me a number of ideas on how I can make positive contributions to my organization as well as society. In order to do this I will be asking myself challenging questions on the changes I am instilling in myself and how I can positively promote effective actions and knowledge into society on a global level. I have to do my part to research proactive opportunities and engage in positive actions. I have to want to see a difference in people, cultures, norms and other societies so I can know how to move forward in making my own instinctive, optimistic and constructive additions to our own norms and conditions. Lastly, I have to reject negative and pessimistic thoughts and actions and promote environments of tolerant, spiritual and inspirational adaptation. In doing this, I will then be able to make a change not just in myself but in others as well.

Cassandra R.

         References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development(8th ed.). Upper

            Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Whetton, D. A., and Cameron, K. S. (2010). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Prentice  

            hall

Taylor, M. (2010). Twenty-first century enlightenment. RSA. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/33366439?access_key=key-2la2zx82dem8d3i2uzvw&allow_share=true

Taylor, M. (2010, August 19). RSA Animate - 21st Century Enlightenment [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtu.be