Leadership Style Assessment Tools - who knew!

So the big question but out by many of my peers in their seminar work for Organizational Leadership was:  "What's your leadership style?"  And to find that out, we embarked on several quizzes, questionnaires, surveys, assessments, etc. to find the very answer to that query.

On of the first tools we looked at was the Myers-Briggs score or MBTI.  This one looked at what are strengths are in leadership according to how we perceive things and make decisions.  Are you more introverted or extroverted?  A feeler or a thinker?  Perceiving or Judging? Sensing or intuitive?

What's your score/personality type?  I happen to be an INTJ.

Another leadership tool we embraced for some self-exploration/evaluation was the Emotional Intelligence test which looks at our soft skills and we relate to people.

What's your EQ?

Next, we can explore Effective Intelligence, which looks at how people think, thus how people work together based on how they think.  Colour based, green (creative), red (structured), blue (values-based), many people fall into more than one colour, but typically have a dominant thinking colour.

What is your effective intelligence primary colour?

A other ways of looking at leadership style is to consider what quadrant you fall into, whether it's coaching, directing, supporting or delegating.  Take a look and think about where you might place yourself.

Entrepreneur.com has another interesting quiz on leadership style if you want to check this one out:  http://www.entrepreneur.com/quiz/leaderstyle 

There are many avenues out there in terms of exploring your leadership style.  May theories that one can draw on as well.

I will talk more about some of those leadership theories and styles, ones that strike something with me in future posts.

What's your Leadership iQ? How about emotional iQ?

Things are in the swing again for me at OISE, after a semester off to transition from maternity leave back to full-time work, now the focus is on Organizational Leadership. I'm going to start with a reflection on Leadership in general.

I know, I know, what a monster of a topic. Especially when your tasked with picking ONE leadership book at Chapters. The section on Organizational Leadership is HUGE.  I did some research online, read some reviews and narrowed it down to about 5 books, but when I got to the store, it expanded again to 10.  After flipping through each, reading a chapter here and there, I finalized my top two--yes, its true, the indecisive-me had to purchase two books and bother very very different.  The first, Servant Leadership:  a book exploring the true human (kind) side of leadership through caring.  The second, Open Leadership, about using social media as a key component to leadership.  Will keep you posted on both reads as I make it through them.

In the mean time, looking at various leadership types and styles, has been an interesting personal journey.
In the next post, I will dig a bit deeper into some of the tools we used to analyze our leadership traits.

What is Change?

So my current studies this semester focusses on Organizational Change.  We were tasked with finding words that we associate with change.  Here are a few that I came up with, see what you can add:

• future
• new
• restructuring
• downsizing
• different
• apprehension
• goals
• exciting
• conflict
• learning

Of these words, we then had to sort them into two different categories:  positive and negative.

Some of these words, I felt could go either way and so I explained this. For example, the word restructuring, could mean something positive where the organization is changing to better compete in the marketplace, and on the other hand may be viewed as negative if it means job loss for some in the organization. 

What words did you think of?  how would you categorize them and did you tend to think of more positive or negative words?  If we think of more of one type, does that mean it's a reflection on our personal outlook on life?  This may very well be the case, but I also think it can be quite random.  And if you're like me you pick words that fit both sides of the coin, then perhaps it depends on the type of day you're having that makes you lean one way or the other at any given time.  

Let's consider now the term organizational change management (OCM), I've just read an article that discusses the possibility that there are alternatives to standard OCM.  The frustrating thing for me is that it suggests there are alternatives, but doesn't actually go into discussing these in depth.  What is up with that?  Why make the reader frustrated at the end.  Sure, I can take some time to forcefully think up some alternatives, but give me a bit more to go on.  Motivate me by actually talking about what your talking about.

Ok that's my rant for the day.  But, OCM like any other practice was once informal and happened just because, well, everything changes and nothing stays the same and so inevitably, organizations deal with change on small to large scales.  So now that OCM is more a formal business practice and people are making a profession out of it, then we consider that other side of the management coin, like what if we don't manage organizational change? What if organizational change management which can be proactive and reactive, becomes obsolete because its so common everyone at every level manages the change?

I don't know, I'm just throwing this out there again, looking for alternative thinking.

I'll leave you with that for now.

Workplace Learning Opportunity Cost for Mothers - POLL

I've often wondered what the opportunity costs of learning are for mothers of young children and pregnant women.  Do employers truly see women at par to their male counter parts in the workplace or are they more often overlooked for opportunities for learning in organizations.  Do employers think twice about making an investment in a woman of child-bearing age because, she will soon leave on maternity leave for up to a year, miss more work due to family responsibilities and appointments, or perhaps not return to work full-time to parenting?

If you're a mother, or soon-to-be mother, please take this poll and share your opinion: http://poll.fm/2j2df

Thanks so much--feel free to post your comments on this topic as well!

Adult Education FAQS - Adult Edu Jobs

Adult Education FAQS

Came across this very informative article on what prospects are out there for Adult Educators in the marketplace today.

Click the above title link.

Adult Education FAQS

Adult Education FAQS

Having worked in the Health sector for a decade, and more specifically in the area of adult education, I've come to realize the vast applications possible from both the health client perspective and health practitioner perspective. My particular focus has been in e-learning - transferring knowledge from the haves to the have-nots from an access medium in professional practice.

We see access to adult eduction in the health sector as seamless at times, where information is passed on both informally and formally, however there are parts of the population, (health workers) who still do not have access to the most current knowledge and application. E-learning has come a long way in my experience over the years to assist in addressing this gap.

For those working in rural and remote areas, education comes to them, versus having to leave their communities, travel far distances, incur great costs to receive information.

Of course, Adult Learners learn in various styles and e-learning may not be the ideal for some who are kineastetic, spatial, musical, or tactile learners. The hands-on application of learning, may need to be built in as part of the program transition in the community.

I therefore suggest that a blended learning approach to program planning be adopted for these learners to lessen the barriers perceived.

E-learning itself has evolved to accommodate more learning styles over the years with the incorporation of multimedia and social media sources. No longer is it a static textbook on screen with a testing component, but a more diverse display of the learning materials through text, audio, video and network interaction either in real-time or post-time. Moreover, adult learning can be a more rich experience over the internet perhaps even than in the classroom given the program planning for diverse learning, access to technology and bandwidth availability.

PPE Reflections

As my course in program planning and evaluation is coming to a close and I'm wrapping up the final assignment - a program and evaluation plan for 'creating workplace sustainability' - I've had the opportunity to reflect on some key areas that really engaged me and have me looking forward to implementation in my professional practice.

Graphic Models - i.e Flowcharting:  This allows for a bigger picture overview with out too much detail.  I found that this was very helpful in illustrating exactly how key elements of the program plan are connected and how it all comes together towards the program goal. Here is an example of ours:

Logic Models - yes, another model (can you tell I scored higher as a visual learner):  This model helped me to understand what ingredients need to go into baking the pie and what feeling I anticipate people having after eating the pie.  So essentially Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes along with Assumptions and Intervening Factors - all of these elements were essential in making sure key considerations in program plan were covered.  Here is our example:

Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligences - when creating learning objectives/outcomes:  I realized the importance of being aware of the various types of adult learning styles that may be present in any give program execution.  Going through the motions of trying to build a program that included activities for a variety of styles and intelligences turned out to be a more challenging task than I anticipated but a very worthwhile one in order to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

Experimental Design - planning the Evaluation piece of the plan:  Again, building this process allowed me to have an overview of how the program could be evaluation - when to do the evaluations and how (what tools) was key to the Experimental Design.  For example in the plan I was building we ended up with the following (pre, post, post, post):

Now, having the funding and senior team  or sponsor approval for this is the work that still has to be done, but in an ideal world - these are the points where data collection would be needed to give the best idea of program success and guidance for future planning.

Data Collection & Analysis - in general:  this is a HUGE area of learning for me, and will be an on-going study as there is such a variety of tools and techniques to use and deciphering what is appropriate to each program plan is the challenge - a good challenge but definitely requires more study on my part.

The Program and Evaluation Plan - pulling it all together:  the way the course was structured, where each element of the plan came together as we went along to a culmination of the pieces worked really well for me in terms of really seeing how the plan is built and learning how to incorporate each piece along the way.  This type of instructional design is something I really appreciated and made the final program plan much more fine tuned by the end for handing in.

So, this was a relevant course to my professional practice as a project manager in e-learning.  I look forward to building on the knowledge gained and putting it to work in my next project plan!

Becoming an Interview Expert

The experience of expanding my expertise in an area of program planning and evaluation, seemed daunting at first thought.  How could I dig deep enough in to my chosen topic of interviews and observation methods of data collection tools in just a matter of weeks?

The truth of the matter is that I'm not even close to being an expert, but I have gained a whole lot more insight through the exercise.  I chose to focus increasing my knowledge on this particular area in program evaluation because in my role as a Project Manager, I've often spent most of my time upfront planning the project, scope, charter, quality management, etc. However, the program evaluation, typically fell tot he wayside primarily because it wasn't planned for up front with its own set of deliverables/outcomes to meet.

I certainly needed to learn more about conducting a program evaluation and more specifically:  data collection tools - how to gather the information needed to measure success in a program or to meet a particular hypothesis.   I honed in one particular method, Interviewing.

Perhaps the most time-consuming, costly and hardest to record, it is all the method that could produce the richest, most detailed and clear information.   Knowing that there are structured and semi-structured interviews. Interviews that can take place in person, face-to-face, over the phone and even over the internet with chat and video conferencing applications!  So, as you can see....the method of interviewing for data collection is an exciting one...and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Observation as another method of data collection is also quite exciting I found, but that will require another entry here.  Checklists, scripted description, anecdotal description or unstructed observation - again another rich medium of gathering insightful data!

Evaluation, Stats & Pizza

The "Pizza Exercise."  This was an exercise undertaken in my PPE class to aid in understanding program evaluation stats and analysis...what are the different kinds and what can they used for: Paired-t and student-t tests, mean, mode, medium, etc.

Which pizza is best?

Now if only this exercise included real pizza, that would have made it a whole lot more fun!  Nonetheless, it was still effective in demonstrating data collection and translation into useful statistics for reporting.  Comparing two pizzas with with the same topping, "pizza A" and "pizza B," I learned that degrees of freedom  for the tests means (n-1) sample size and that this is a standard sample size number calculation.  Another thing, that I gleaned from this exercise was the importance of noting variables for experiments.  For example, if participants ate two slices of pizza A and then two slices of pizza B, eating the first two slices may influence how much of pizza B they eat because they could be full after the first set.  Or other influencing factors could be time of day of consumption, people who don't eat pork, how hungry people are, etc.

 I can't say that I feel exactly confident in using stats and data analysis in program evaluation, but I don't feel so left in the dark anymore.  This is certainly something I will need to dig a little deeper into for my own projects at work and for programs that will be designing.

Triad on Data Collection

As part of our PPE class, we embarked on a project to plan a program for the real world.  My partner and I are currently planning a program called "Creating Workplace Sustainability" for KPMG, where she works.  The initial idea for this program came from the "Going Green Campaign" at Saint Elizabeth.Health Care, where I was the project manager.

Similar to getting a project started, a program requires similar elements such at, approval of budget, concept, and resources from a sponsor and commitment to the life of th program.  Essentially, this program has 6 modules/topics which office staff choose to register in.  If staff take all six, they get a sustainability certificate and could be eligible to become a program leader.

 The area that poses the greatest learning opportunity for me is program evaluation. Our experimental design consists of data program data data data.  We ago to test the idea of this design out in class by doing "triads."
We broke into groups of three, where each person gets 15 min to introduce his design tool (s) for feedback.

This exercise allowed objectional feedback to be given on each experimental design and tool.  This is definitely an exercise that I will note and perhaps try again as a program activity.

Logic Models & Family Vacations

Before learning about logic models in my Program Planning & Evaluation in Adult Education class, I would have never thought to make a connection between them and family vacations.  What do they have to do with each other?  Well this was the exercise in class that helped me really understand how to build a logic model in a practical way.  The team I was in was given the task of planning a family vacation using a logic model of inputs, outputs and outcomes.  After a team brainstorm for 10 minutes, here's what we came up with:

During the exercise, I was unclear between Outputs and Outcomes and through class discussion and more elaboration through my peers' thoughts, I realized that Outputs were tangible and Outcomes were intangible and so, when defining our Logic Model for my program plan assignment, it became a less daunting task and actually helped to clarify the plan my partner and I are building.

I look forward to putting logic models to further use in my work and home planning!

Welcome to the "Gallery"

Let's take a walk through "the gallery" shall we?
By this I mean, an idea and feedback gallery.  But similar to an art gallery, this exercise has participants browsing  ideas or questions or categories posted on walls (typically on flip chart size paper).  In class we used the gallery for acquiring feedback on learning outcomes for programs we were creating a plan for.  I had never encountered this exercise before, but found the feedback gathered through the process very valuable.  People visited each paper posting with marker and post-it note in hand, jotting down questions, suggestions and constructive criticism.  At the end, the owners of each program were able to gather the paper with feedback and work on improving the content posted.

This type of exercise included visual and tactile learning styles and kinaesthentic, linguistic, intrapersonal, and visual multiple intelligences, which seemed to appeal to the majority of the 26 participants of the class.

I'd like to try this gallery exercise out in the workplace setting for a program or project to see if it has the same affect and outcome.