ORGL 600  Foundations of Leadership  (Spring 2022)

This was one of my favorite classes. When I think back to the person I was just two short years ago, I am slightly awe-struck at how much I have learned, experienced, considered and changed. This class was where it all began. Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed was a significant turning point in my understanding of  leading others and the damaging effects that toxic leadership can generate. The concepts presented were simultaneously jarring and challenging. However, it wasn’t until I watched the Sally Field film Norma Rae as part of one of the following modules that concepts about oppressed people being fearful of freedom, ignorant to their own oppression, and participants in their on-going dehumanization that the lightbulb fully turned on. It was an A-ha moment that helped me fully understand the behavior Freire writes about not just on screen but in my own organization and life.

I also loved learning about the Five Frames – it was such an important foundational understanding that informed my drive to learn more in the change leadership concentration. Michael Carey's Heraclitean Fire also helped explain the importance of gaining an unembedded view to be an effective leader.  Click the below image to view Artifact: Ignatian Questions Journal

COML 504 Organizational Communication (Fall 2022)

I really enjoyed learning about the foundations and strategies of Organizational Communication. It prepared me to do a full-fledged Communications Audit on a recent program launch at my organization. The audit was a lot of work, and I was very proud of the work-output.  It was especially helpful to garner early exposure to The Seven Principles of Systems Thinking and how interconnectedness of parts and the entire create a wholly unique overall system.  Further, this was an important opportunity to be reminded n real time how Systems Thinking cautions us from trying to find a single variable that is responsible for any one success or failure but rather to look to the system as a whole to cultivate insight.

As I look back, the most impactful learning occurred via an assigned article in an early module that used the culture and organizational flow of a ballpark to demonstrate how there can be vast differences in interpreting the same exact message based on your role in the ballpark and your past experiences there. To further complicate the process, it also discusses the variety of lenses that the author observed while researching baseball park employees: a romantic, critical, or functional critical perspective philosophy.  Select below image to view Artifact:

ORGL 530  Servant Leadership
(Spring 2023)

One of the highest levels of Development places the servant-leader in a position to take his or her organization or followers on a journey from dark to light, from ignorance to clarity and from oppressed to valued. Conversations in Leadership by Shann Ray Ferch sums up this experience in a way that resonates: “a leader has to take his or her community, or his or her organization…through a rough passage of truth telling to get to the other side, to get to the place where we can all acknowledge that…we’re all broken, we are all works in progress, and we need each other to help put the pieces together, to make something better happen in our world."   Using the Nelson Mandela biopic Invictus, The Six Stages of Leadership Development were concisely contrasted and easy to digest.

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I, too, enjoyed reading Finding Leo by Philip Mathew, which was inspired by Dr. Spears ‘Ten Characteristics of Servant Leaders,’ and profiled servant leaders like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and Ghandi, among others.  Click on below image to view artifact presentation of Servant Leader Formation:

ORGL 517 Organizational Change & Transformation (Summer 2023)

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This on-campus immersion asked the class to divide up and dive into the multitude of Organizational Change Models out there - includng Quinn, Nadler-Tushman, Kotter, and McKinsey 7S models.  The Kubler-Ross Change Curve (which asks us to remember how deeply change can affect our organizations; seeing change as a loss) and Prosci’s ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement) model were two that still resonate today. However, for me it was all about SATA. This model and project allowed me to utilize what we were learning real-time in my professional setting, and it WORKED!!  Also, as change agents we can often forget that what is clear to us is not necessarily clear to others who have not been directly involved in our initiaives.  As a result, the need for on-going clarity reinforcement is a tremendous take-away.  Select the image below to view the SATA analysis artifact:

ORGL 615 Organizational Theory & Behavior (Fall 2023)

My main takeaway was the concept of Systems Thinking. Systems Thinking, and the way we can all work in diverse types of teams and create powerful processes to improve and succeed, was reiterated through course readings and the virtual ascension of Mt. Everest with teammates. It was a fantastic opportunity to view feedback from the experience (What team processes were effective and well-received? What failures occurred? What might the team have done differently to improve the process?) and adapt that thinking to our professional teams.  The PDF of one of the chapters of our required text, Systems Thinking Basics: From Concepts to Causal Loops  is my artifact - this along with the Systems Thinking Labs were both challenging and valuable reminders of my 615 experience.  Select the image below:

ORGL 605 Imagine, Create, Lead
(Summer 2022)

What resonates the loudest and most clearly, was the artifact exercise
lead by Dr. Tran. It was an emotional experience that spoke volumes about what motivates us as leaders and how other perspectives are so important to seek out via dialogic communication and development.
 

My artifact was a St. Anthony medal that my Grandma, an immigrant from Italy, used to wear. My grandma’s experiences in this country, the obstacles that she overcame, and the way she treated everyone she encountered taught me a lot and informs my leadership style today.  Click below to see the artifact I used for my immersion oral presentation during Dr. Tran's section of 605.

ORGL 522 Leadership & Community    
(Fall 2022)

I learned the importance of listening more than talking. I saw firsthand how leaders can build community with selfless acts of hospitality, humility, and kindness. I spent time practicing Lectio Divina, a morning reflective exercise that helps me better process information and be intentional with my actions. I also saw firsthand how listening and making space for the marginalized to share their gifts and experiences pays high dividends in galvanizing community relationships and changing the way we relate to each other and to ourselves.

Peter Block’s text Community continues to be one of my favorite texts. He discusses Stuck Communities that are mired in propagating fear, finding fault, and promoting self-interest. However, he also shares that communities can be resilient when its members are engaged and free from oppression. Block calls it “the power of connectedness."   Select the image to view Artifact: Final Paper

ORGL 610 Communication & Leadership Ethics (Spring 2023)

I was completely compelled by this class. Ethical Decision Making, Theory of Basic Values, Ten human values, Change Agents, the Value Relations circular structure, Standpoint theory, Potter’s Box, and Rest's Four Component Model (moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral focus/motivation, moral character) were all compelling concepts. To further apply these concepts, we had various case studies to clarify the practical application and  bi-monthly community check-ins with Dr. Hoover to assist with synthesizing burgeoning concepts and questions.  Please select the image below to view the final course assignment, "Caring and Doing:"

ORGL 516 Relational Dynamics & Organizational Development (Fall 2023)

I loved this class and found that it filled in a lot of concepts that I was already familiar with from the 517 immersion. Human Centric Change concepts and the Change Agent Strategy (CAS) project were especially important in reinforcing key concepts. I also bought in wholeheartedly to the concept of Intentional Change Theory (ITC).  At its conclusion, it was clear that human-centric change must be the north star of any aspiring OD practitioner. I also have quote from this class on my bulletin board: “When you walk into a meeting, imagine everyone doing their best with what they have. Then deal with the people the way you find them.” (from Donald Anderson in Organizational Development: The Process of Leading Change). It’s a powerful reminder of how we must reframe our thinking to be inclusive and promote equality among those we lead.  View Change Agent Strategy (CAS) Assessment via clicking on the below image:

ORGL 515 Leadership and Human Potential (Spring 2024)

Dialogic Organizational Development including  techniques like Appreciative Inquiry, Design Thinking, and Liberating Structures were all big topics and a main focus of the last two months. Appreciative Inquiry was especially appealing to me. It is a humanistic approach that values the best in all of us. I also love the equity and inclusivity of the aforementioned techniques. The fact that Liberating Structures decries top-down, prescriptive, hierarchical change initiatives as ineffective and unable to affect long, sustained change made me fall in love with it on the first date.

Design Thinking was the concept I had the hardest time fully grasping and applying, so the A that Dr. Haught gave me on that assignment made it an even sweeter success (and is my attached artifact). 

This was also the class where I became the most proficient at using the Foley Library to augment my understanding of the module topics.  Click image below for artifact: