This course has been very beneficial to me and my professional life will improve greatly as a result. One of the most important take-aways for me is the art of active listening. I constantly find myself listening and self-correcting during conversations when I wander off in my thoughts. If I think of something during the conversation, I let it go - this is a hard thing for me to do - but I do it - it does not matter if I remember what it was or not. What matters most is that I listen.
However, now I am more aware of leaders who don’t learn or want to learn thinking they have nothing else to learn. This is very distracting to me. Knowing I cannot change people’s leadership styles, I will keep my interactions with them as objective as possible and not criticize their weaknesses. There is only one person that comes to mind in this regard but I am working through it.
Through the many case studies we evaluated (Costa Concordia, Xerox, GE, LL Bean), I have also learned that learning together as a team, double-loop learning, probe and learn and after action reviews are critical components to exploring what could be better for the future and how to plan, adjust my sails during the process, implement to the best of my (and team’s) knowledge, assess and institute change whenever needed.
This was one of the best courses during this degree program.
I am so happy to read you are taking away so many things, Diane. And, I appreciate your feedback about the course itself. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems with a course like this is it does put a circle around the mismatches between us and our leaders, when our leaders fail to live up to our expanding view of the critical leadership role in thriving, learning organizations.
To be proactive, keep doing the best within your own team to learn and develop, and to help them do the same. Use the ORID questions (and you will find many more questions exist under each category in a quick GOOGLE search), to pull forward missing pieces of the learning cycle. In other words, listen intently to what is being said and not said in meetings. Ask a question if you see some category completely missing (my guess is this will be in the R or I categories).
Stay true to your ideals. Keep learning!
Thanks so much for your feedback. I truly enjoy my job(s) and all that come with them. I am lucky to work with an amazing leader but also a leader that is willing to listen. Best regards, Diane
Delete