Inspire People: WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH

WHAT:

            This week in leadership class we studied chapter 21 of Adaptive Leadership called Inspire People. I really liked this chapter because it reminded me of the many times I’ve been inspired by certain people. This chapter brought me back to a specific inspirational memory given that Tuesday, April 16^th was the 2013 Day of Remembrance of the shootings on Virginia Tech’s campus. I wasn’t a student yet when the attack occurred, but I can remember staying glued to the news and feeling nothing but helpless. Virginia Tech distinguished professor Nikki Giovanni gave an amazing speech to the VT community regarding the tragedy and I was brought immediately back to it when I read this chapter and we discussed it in class.

Nikki Giovanni

SO WHAT:

Nikki Giovanni’s words embodied most of the principles discussed in the chapter including: Be with Your Audience, Allow for Silence, Speak from the Heart, Hold Yourself and Others Through the Emotion, and Speak Musically. She delivered her message in a way that connected with the Virginia Tech Community and she allowed for pauses of silence that let her words resonate with students. Furthermore, she spoke musically in the sense that her tone was serious and inspiring, and the way she spoke and repeated the words “We will prevail, we are Virginia Tech,” made the convocation something that will never be forgotten.

NOW WHAT:

            I have never been a good public speaker, but after reading this chapter and making connections with some of the concepts to certain speeches that I find extremely inspiring, I will work to add those concepts into my future presentations. 

Staying Connected To Your Purposes

           

WHAT:

           This week in lecture we discussed Chapter 17 of Adaptive Leadership: Stay Connected to Your Purposes. I found this chapter especially stimulating because it helped me to define my overarching purpose: to improve things for myself as well as for others around me. The chapter describes the importance of maintaining complete awareness of your purpose in all aspects of life and thus gives strategies to aid in this task including: negotiate the ethics of leadership and purpose, keep purposes alive, negotiate your purposes, and integrate your ambitions and aspirations. When reading about and discussing the strategy of negotiating your purposes, I was immediately reminded of an inspiring speech I heard during my internship last summer with Deloitte Consulting.

 SO WHAT:

            Anyone and everyone is bound to encounter someone with a purpose that conflicts with their own. As a consultant, you are constantly fighting this battle with the client because they want something done a certain way that makes sense to them, but may not seem the most optimal solution to the consultant. The chapter describes one way of negotiating your purpose so that others support it by translating your purpose into a language that others can understand and will respond to favorably. The inspiring speech that mimics this exact approach can be seen here.

NOW WHAT:

            I tend to use this strategy in my everyday life and especially in my professional career next year as an information technology consultant for Deliotte. If you stop and think about it, it really does make sense to take a minute to evaluate why the client wants what they want and then translate your standpoint and solution in a way that satisfies their concerns and exceeds their expectations. In this way, you are more then likely to gain their support and acceptance. I honestly feel as though the principle of translating your purpose into a way that others understand and can support is a lesson that can be applied to anyone, anywhere, 

Understanding Your Roles

WHAT?

            This week in leadership class, we discussed Chapter 17 of Adaptive Leadership. The chapter is titled “Understand Your Roles” and discusses the importance and benefits gained from getting on the balcony and becoming completely aware of all of the different roles you play. The book highlights the important notion that the roles we play and our behavior in these roles depends on the values and the context of the given situation. It is helpful to understand that the roles you play are constantly changing in order to understand what motivates you to act the way you do in certain situations. This directly relates to my blog post last week about defining your triggers.

SO WHAT?

            I think that it is important for everyone to understand how the different roles you play cause different triggers to come into play or cause certain triggers to be more sensitive. For example, when I am on the soccer field playing the role of a team member, I let my competitive nature take over and I take a dominant role on the field. I can be triggered by the littlest things the opposing team does. However, when I am working for Deloitte next year as a business technology analyst and I’m talking to a client, I need to play a more reserved role because keeping our clients happy is extremely important in the consulting business. In this situation, even if the client does something to frustrate me at all, I will build up shields to my triggers and remain calm.

NOW WHAT?

            This topic also directly relates to our current Community Map Assignment in which we are supposed to map out all of the different organizations we are a part of, the roles we play in those organizations, and how we can motivate positive change within our spheres of influence. After starting this assignment, I was surprised by the amount of roles I play every single day. I play the role of a student, a sorority member, a daughter, a team member, etc. I think the next step is to determine how you are triggered differently when you play different roles. Doing so will help you lead change effectively and anticipate certain triggers in certain situations allowing you to respond in a more productive way. 

Know Your Tuning

WHAT:
                       This week during lecture, we discussed the idea that everyone person is “tuned” by his or her surroundings one way or another. Understanding how you are tuned as an individual may help explain why you tend to react different ways in different situations. People are tuned a certain way as a result of a combination of different things: childhood experiences, cultural background, gender, and values. I have decided to try to figure out my personal tuning for the subject of this blog post.
                        I found that understanding my triggers was extremely helpful in determining my personal tuning. Triggers are sharp experiences evoking something inside you that completely dominate the present moment. In Chapter 15 of Adaptive Leadership, Heifetz describes triggers as the stimuli that cause your defense mechanisms to kick in, generated by fear and fueled with adrenaline. Understanding what actions trigger your defense mechanisms is an important part of adaptive leadership. 

SO WHAT:
                       After delving farther into determining my triggers, I found that people questioning

my ability to complete certain tasks automatically causes my defense mechanisms to kick in. I become immediately obsessed with proving myself to them, which at times can be detrimental to myself, or others around me. I also found that arrogance of any kind evokes my defense mechanisms. I am extremely bothered when I feel as though someone is making someone else feel as though they are inferior in any way. This triggers me to immediately make the victim’s problems my own and resort to irrational actions. 

NOW WHAT:
                       I think that having a clear understanding of what your triggers are and how they affect you can be very beneficial in everyday life. I can now channel the emotions evoked by my triggers to a more positive solution, rather than the reactions I described before. In addition, being able to control your triggers is a very important part of leading adaptive interventions. If someone understands that they are triggered by conflict, they can anticipate these triggers and act in a more productive way, benefiting everyone involved. 

Service Learning Action Plan

WHAT:

            Last week in class, we learned the basics of creating a Service-Learning Action Plan. I wasn’t sure that I had ever heard of the tool, but after reviewing the worksheet, I knew I had created a diagram similar to the one on the front of the page. As a Business Information Technology major, learning how to visually lay out steps in a system or process is vital step in identifying places for potential process improvement in meeting the ultimate goal of operational efficiency. Last semester, I took a class called Quality & Process Improvement. Our big semester assignment was to analyze a process and look for areas of improvement. For my project, I chose to analyze patient waiting times at Schiffert Health Center. The first thing I did for this assignment was interview Schiffert employees and patients and create a process flow diagram (see picture below) of all the steps patients take starting from entering the front door, just like how the diagram pictured on the Service-Learning Action Plan worksheet laid out all of the steps of working with the local Boys and Girls club to help start a "Triple Play" program. I was a little bit confused at first because I had never really considered or thought to make a connection between the two different subjects. 

Process Flow Diagram for Patient Check-In Process at Schiffert Health Center

SO WHAT:

            After thinking about how a tool like a system diagram could benefit both systems analysts and leaders, I was no longer confused about the connection between the two fields of study. Leaders can make use of system diagrams in order to plan efficient projects and ensure accountability for critical tasks. BIT majors can make use of system diagrams or process flow diagrams in order to accurately understand the different steps of a process to understand where improvements can be made. A visual representation of steps helps in both of these situations.

Sample Process Flow Diagram

NOW WHAT:

            After understanding how these diagrams can be useful in a multitude of situations, I think that I will probably use them as an analysis tool more frequently. Whether you are mapping out certain steps to carry out a new years resolution, creating an action plan to meet a certain business goal, or indentifying the flow of work steps in a service-learning project, flow diagrams can help accomplish the task.

Preserve the Core & Stimulate Progress

WHAT:

This week in class we read Chapter 9 in Good To Great, by Jim Collins. One of the most important ideas in the chapter I think is the notion of preserving your core ideology is a central feature of enduring great companies. However it is not enough to just preserve the key concept of your business, you must also stimulate progress within your company. The book illustrates this idea with the story of Walt Disney. Collins describes how Disney went through dramatic changes over the years - from cartoons to full-length animations, from The Mickey Mouse Club to the amusement park business. The important point here is that through all of these changes the company still strongly embraced its consistent set of core values including "passionate belief in creative imagination, fanatic attention to detail, and preservation of the "Disney Magic."

SO WHAT:

The success of the Disney business illustrates the importance of the idea of preserving your core values while still stimulating progress. Although Disney made an extreme jump from The Mickey Mouse Club to Disney World amusement parks, the company remained successful because people were still able to identify with the Disney brand and saw the new amusement parks as a way for Disney to still instill happiness in children.

NOW WHAT:

I think that after reading this chapter, I really understand the importance of embracing your core ideology while still stimulating progress. After switching my major a total of SIX times throughout my college career, I finally made a decision on what I wanted to focus on in my professional career: IT consulting. While it may sound a bit dry to most, I feel like I can really excel in this area of business. How does this have anything to do with this blog post? I am going to do my best not to stray from this area of profession because I know it is what I want to do. I guess you could call it my Hedgehog Concept in a way.

Rinsing Your Cottage Cheese

WHAT:

Dave Scott

            What does rinsing your cottage cheese have to do with leadership or being a great company? The exact same thought crossed my mind when I read chapter 6 of Good To Great, and came across a section entitled “Rinsing Your Cottage Cheese.” It’s an extreme example of a disciplined action. Through his research, author Jim Collins found that in order for a company to move from good to great, they must have a disciplined culture. The analogy describes the intense level of commitment Dave Scott, a six-time Hawaii Ironman champion, had in absolutely every part of his training. Even though he already burned 5,000 calories a day, he would STILL literally rinse his cottage cheese to get extra fat off. That’s disciplined commitment. Collins uses the analogy to illustrate the importance of doing every little thing in one’s power to reach your goals – like rinsing cottage cheese.

SO WHAT:

            I really think this point illustrates a stark distinction between good companies and great companies. Good companies can be disciplined. They may have a certain framework they follow and certain policies that guide the way they conduct business. The difference between the discipline in a good company and the discipline in a great company is the sincere dedication and willpower to see the discipline as an opportunity to be the very best. Collins uses an example comparing this difference in the actions of Bank of America and Wells Fargo during bank deregulation. While they both realized the need to cut expenses and eliminate waste, Wells Fargo “rinsed their cottage cheese,” if you will, and Bank of America just dieted. Wells Fargo froze executive salaries and shut down executive dining, whereas Bank of America didn’t even consider recommendations made at board meetings, like selling their corporate jet. Great companies confront the brutal facts of their reality, like Wells Fargo did, and they still aspire to be the best despite the circumstances. They take every single action they can in order to prevail, even if that means losing certain perks – like a corporate jet or fancy meal.

NOW WHAT:

            Before reading this chapter, I was definitely one of those people that discounted “the little things” and usually decided against taking that extra little step of effort because I really didn’t think they would make all that difference. However, after reading Dave Scott’s story, I think I’m beginning to understand why rinsing his cottage cheese isn’t all that crazy of an idea. There’s a lot that companies, and even individual people, can take away from this idea. It’s not enough to just be disciplined. You have to instill and reinforce the idea that strong discipline is the key to being great, and only then will you achieve sustained, extraordinary results.