- People want to know the work they do is meaningful.
- People want to be empowered to fix the problems they encounter at work.
- Never underestimate the power of personally connecting with people (your employees and peers).
These were a few of the insights I gleaned from the Business Book Club (BBC) discussion. For our first book we read “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson. The book uses a metaphor, mice and little people in a maze, to represent different perspectives people take towards change. Because the metaphor is fairly open, it enables readers to see different things in the book. This made the book work well as an introductory book for our group. Many people focused on the metaphorical cheese as “what makes you happy at work.” The insights shared at the start of this post came from our discussions about the cheese in our jobs. It always amazes me when people open up and share insights that are meaningful to them.
The group did not arrive at any consensus on a best strategy for dealing with change in the workplace. We all recognized that change happens a lot and quickly. But, there was admitted reluctance as to how quickly each of us adapts to change. There are four characters in the book, Sniff (perceives change), Scurry (takes immediate action), Hem (no change please) and Haw (startled by change, but willing to change). Several people self-identified with Hem, while admitting saw the value in other attitudes represented. Once again, I was amazed by how open and honest people can be in discussions.
Personal learnings I want to hold on to:
Insights listed above. Being able to remember and act on these things as you shape your communications and relationships with people at work is both grounding and inspiring.
I have to fight the controlling teacher-person in me! There were times in discussion where I wanted to step in more. I’m so glad I didn’t! A group needs a chance to become. It can’t develop into a health group with too much input/control from one person. Second arena for this application, book selection. The next group member selected book was not one I would have selected. I’m working with it! More as we go….
After reading Bender Ch. 6 we were asked to discuss how we could use the information presented in either our Ed-Web project or in the Web Conference.
The conversation followed threads on; how to react to students who are quiet on line, the role of the instructor on line and making connections to personal experience. There was some debate about whether, or not it is a bad thing if students are quiet, not necessarily posting a lot in on line discussions. Many felt that this is okay, pointing to personal experiences with quite students who were engaged and actively learning, or with their own personal experiences of being a quiet student. I thought it was interesting that while many people agreed that it is okay to be quiet on line, only Phil H. (the original start person of the thread) specifically state that he would pursue any of Bender’s strategies to bring out quiet students. In retrospect, I should have asked others discussing if their ideas about quiet students meant that they would, or would not do anything different.
Another thread that developed was on the positive role that instructor interaction can play in encouraging students in on line environments. It was generally agreed that instructor interaction is a powerful thing. Some were cautious to make the point that active- caring instruction didn’t mean giving the answers away so that students had to think less.
I had contributed a specific idea to use in my Ed-Web in relation to Bender’s comment that “personal narrative is acceptable, as long as it is accompanied by critical thinking….”(Bender p. 63) The idea was that participant’s in my Ed-Web would reflect back on how their families had come to the US. To promote critical thinking participants would then be asked to compare and draw common themes out of their family immigrant experiences. This idea itself didn’t generate much discussion, but I think it was my best contribution as it represented a specific response to the readings. Eileen K. picked up on that section of Bender reading and noted that Bender made a rather broad generalization in that section, “Education cannot take place without some degree of self-disclosure.” It was great that Eileen brought this up (I choose to recognize her as for this) as I think she was modeling good discussion starting technique…bringing up a quote that reflected an author’s bias, and asking us to debate the merits of the assumption. Her post opened up a new line of thoughts about what is personal in instruction. Overall, I’d say that for a group of largely quiet and private people discussions went pretty well!