SIGNIFICANT LEARNING GOALS
COMMON PURPOSE
Common Purpose, a leadership competency in the Interpersonal/Team practice, stresses facilitating conversations within groups to agree upon goals and tactics (e.g., reminds the team of its core priorities as it decides on its future goals), and building a sense of commitment from team members (e.g., facilitating activities and discussions that help team members bond personally). I aspired to build a sense of commitment and facilitate conversations within diverse team to agree upon approaches and goals, which will complement the Group Dynamics leadership competency. Combined, the Common Purpose and Group Dynamics leadership competencies are critical to successful, effective, and efficient team management to reach the project’s objectives, while sustaining and fostering team engagement and cohesion. To measure my progress and determine when the goal is accomplished, I have nominated myself to be a project manager for my three group projects this semester, progress is measured by successfully getting all team members to actively participate and contribute in group discussions, be accountable for tasks delegated, and provide input for decision-making as currently only a few people are regular participators. The goal is accomplished when meetings end with clear cut decisions and next steps, not open-ended discussions that require more discussion in the next meeting. It is also accomplished by organizing a more informal and personal event to go grab coffee, lunch, or dinner to get to know each other on a personal level, be comfortable around each other, and learn about each person’s preferred learning and working styles. Achieving a Common Purpose is important as this goal aligns with my mission. I will periodically (e.g., after turning in a deliverable) obtain feedback from all team members in the three group projects I am in and will implement the feedback gathered from the team in future projects and deliverables. Moreover, my steps to improving this leadership competency will be accomplished by the time I complete my ILC in time for the Spring 2019 certificate completion ceremony.
INNOVATION
Innovation, a leadership competency in the Organization practice, emphasizes valuing continuous assessment and improvement (e.g., What can we do better next time?” at the completion of an initiative), challenges the traditional ways of doing things, balances the need for stability with the goal to improve an annual program, changes processes and structures with purpose and meaning, and questions the need to change something before considering changes. I want to be able to make traditional ways of managing projects, my approach to solving problems, and work processes more effective, efficient, and optimized. I want to accomplish this as it adheres to my core value of agility – it is essential to find new and improved ways to do things to adapt to the speed of change, to experiment with new approaches, and ultimately to find methods to ‘do more with less.’ Progress is measured by attending the iProgram - Innovation, to learn new frameworks, ways of thinking, and practice them on-the-job in team projects, and by devising other ways or using other methods to manage my projects. Successful completion would be how successful I was in implementing those tools in my group. The goal is accomplished when I have successfully leveraged the tools in managing projects and group work, completing all deliverables at least two days ahead of the due date. For each of the three group projects, I will use a different project management tool (i.e., Asana, Trello, Freedcamp) and see if it accelerates the usual way I would manage projects, which is via sending Outlook invitations with objectives, what to do prior to the meeting, during the meeting, and after the meeting (i.e., next steps). This goal aligns with my core value – agility. Using different project management tools for me is a way to continuously improve and change processes, spend time on less administrative and routine tasks, and more time on tasks that require strategic, analytical, and conceptual thinking (i.e., tasks that require more thought, time, and revision. My steps to improving this leadership competency will be accomplished by the time I complete my ILC in time for the Spring 2019 certificate completion ceremony.