I am reflecting back to my XB class each day following class, emphasizing the positives and calling attention to issues they may wish to address in the future. The class meets once per week for 160 minutes. Below is my reflection on yesterday's class.
I liked the fact that each presenting group involved all its members in their presentations. Over the course of the semester be sure to let each member try various roles. I thought the Diad Group had an outstanding presentation. They brought in outside material and communicated their concepts in ways that elucidated their concept and held the group's interest. The Directing Group had a good idea--modeling an ideal presentation and demonstrating how one might keep the group on track--but the implementation perhaps did not communicate as well as they expected. That's OK. I try a lot of things in my classes. Some work; others don't. The ones that work, I keep; the duds are revamped or discarded. Business or product success rate is under 20%. If you try a new idea and it fails, try to figure out what happened and learn from it. Ask others in the class about what happened and their suggestions for improvement. Get help from one of the groups in the class. Playing it safe by repeating or paraphrasing the XB manual won't gain points with this class. Another lesson yesterday that I learned the hard way many years ago: If possible, before your presentation, check out the technology to be sure it works for you. The principal challenge in any organization is communication. That challenge is primary for XB. We don't have all the lines and means of communication sorted out. I hope you are offering suggestions to the effectiveness group or communications group. If you have a suggestion, first try it out on your group, then approach other groups to gain support. Springing an idea on the whole class without first warming people up to the idea is not likely to be well-received. You will get the same response in the work environment--the cold shoulder if an idea is not floated in advance. Discussion with a few people not only will test the waters for receptiveness, it also allows for change and improvement. When you have refined your new idea, mobilize support informally. At the end of class the Individual Group rose to get you to think about observing without judging. A couple of people rose, and some of their statements were value-free; but others were value-laden. This occurred at the end of class and people were not ready to engage. At some point next time Planning may wish to let Individual clarify the value judgment issue and perhaps have an opportunity for practice.
From: "Robert B. Cunningham" <rcunning@UTK.EDU>
Subject: Memos to class
The group reflections this week have generally not been very good. You are telling me what happened, or what I already know. If I already know it, why tell me again, unless you are putting in some evidence that links to a reflection? If nothing is happening, if you are not learning something either from what is not happening or from your reflection about this within your group, this is not good. Who is responsible? I am not blaming, but suggesting that the XB organization needs to think about its productivity. We are all responsible for that. If you are wasting time, the organization is not being effective, which reflects on all of us. Back-up systems need to be in place for unforeseen contingencies so that you don't waste time. Productivity is important an organization, public or private. Our product is learning. Our process is creating an effective organization that creates learning. If you can't tell me what you are learning, then the organization is not doing its job. A start-up organization does not produce a lot of product. It spends a lot of time figuring out a process to deliver the product effectively, and during this time is inefficient. That occurred during the first part of the semester. Now you are moving to the second half of the semester. People in XB now know fairly well how the parts of the organization fits together. If you don't, you can find out. When a group is not pulling its part of the load, then that group needs to be told. That can be done either confidentially by you or your group, or you can communicate through the Diad group. Either way is fine. Now we should be getting efficient at delivering product, and if we don't, everyone is less well off. Your thinking should have changed a bit regarding your role in this class. Each presenting group should tell the class something that the members of the class do not know. You should cover the questions that are asked by the reading groups, and go beyond what is in the manual. I will give some ideas to each group. If you are ready for ideas, and I haven't yet contacted you, please contact me, or, if you like, come by. If a group has already submitted its weekly memo, and wishes to revise in light of the above, feel free. We haven't talked much about leadership in here. Those of you who have taken on the role of group leader are learning a lot. Here are a couple of comments on your role. The more you do, the more others in your group come to depend on you, and the more you have to do, and the less they are willing to do, and the more they are critical of what you do. You must take extra care to be sure to do 20% more than everyone else, but no more than that. Your job is to make the group effective. We don't need heroes, we need effective groups. Figure out how to do that. Blaming isn't effective. Look to the future, set goals, figure out how to achieve them, set measured, specific steps, and report on your progress. If you end up in an unexpected place, figure out whether it is better or worse then you aimed for, and where you go from there. Mistakes. Roger emphasizes in the XB manual that people make mistakes, and the more mistakes we make, the more we learn. The only real mistake is not doing or saying anything. Then, everyone loses because nothing happens, and we go merrily along pretending that we are students, pretending that we are doing something, when we are doing nothing at all. Positive mistakes occur when someone says or does something that upsets someone in XB. That gives us some energy to respond, and to learn. That's why I'm not overly upset when I do something stupid. I don't do it intentionally, but I can manage to do it without trying very hard. For example, in the early part of the semester I changed my mind several times about what memos to send, how to handle the memos, and what was to go where. Nobody called me on that, and they could well have done so. Instead, some people criticized effectiveness or some other group. People are less willing to confront people they assume are authority figures. However, by not challenging an authority figure, you are not allowing that person to learn and grow, and you may be storing up your own frustration that may blow out onto some person that may just be at the wrong place at the wrong time, which doesn't direct energy at the problem. Confronting a boss is important, and there are more and less effective ways to do that. Even if you don't do it well, confronting is good in that it allows you to test your boss, to find out what kind of a person the boss is, and to learn whether that boss and that organization is a place where you want to spend significant time and energy.
--Bob Cunningham
To: XB-UT
From: Bob Cunningham
Date: 9-22-00
Your attitude remains great, but some grade concerns are beginning to emerge. This class is designed to simulate an organization in its start-up phase. The start-up stage of the organization life cycle is inefficient--whether a public or private organization--because the organization is learning to design, develop, and distribute a product. People have to learn to work with each other in the organization, to find effective processes for developing and creating the product, and to communicate effectively with each other. People have expectations -- sometimes uncertain, and at other times unreasonable -- of what others can and should do. As the class euphoria wanes, the enthusiasm must be constructed upon the foundation of an outstanding product and well-functioning organization, upon respect for what you and others are accomplishing.
Roger has warned you in the XB manual that the organization makes mistakes. First-time mistakes are OK, expected. At the same time, you are expected not to continue to make the same mistakes. You should learn from yourselves and your colleagues. The product of XB is learning, learning about organizations, so that you as a human resources manager can know how an organization operates in order to advise the CEO on how to structure the organization and how to recruit employees into positions where they will be effective.
One acquires learning in PS-440 from
a) the readings in the manual,
b) the presentations in class, and
c) all the activities involved with organizing the class.
Everyone learns something different in (c), and that is assessed in various memos throughout the semester and in the final test. Everyone is to do (a), and that is assessed when the reading groups send their memos to the presenting groups each week, and when the presenting groups send their replies. (B) is a bit more subtle, and perhaps more important. (B) is the primary product of this class; it is what you deliver to others in your class presentation. (B) is assessed when groups and individuals tell how other individuals and groups assisted their learning, and describe what was helpful to them in understanding how organizations work. To convince your classmates that you are contributing to their learning through your presentations, you need to have them come to realize something they did not previously know, or they need to see something old in a new light. Telling people what the book says won't cut it. Everyone in class should have read the book by the week before, and should have sent their comments and questions to presenting groups. Repeating what the book says doesn't create a favorable impression of your contribution among either classmates or me. We know that information already. You have to contribute something new, either by communicating additional information not in the book, or by communicating the principles from the book in a different way so that they become better fixed into one's mind.
Presentation style: Pace and timing are important. What is communicated is what is received, not necessarily what is sent. Presentations are often rushed. This is understandable. You are a bit nervous and do not want to waste time. You know the material and want to communicate it quickly. Whoa!! Make sure the class REALLY understands, not just nods or says nothing. TAKE YOUR TIME. For example, the directing group had a useful exercise in classifying statements onto various steps of the decisionometer. Much more time could have been spent in seeing how the statements could be interpreted as being at various steps rather than assuming there is a single right/wrong answer. It is more important to see multiple conceptualizations than to arrive at the same answer as the authority figure. Appreciating multiple conceptualizations is difficult, and it is a challenge to be presenting and to respond effectively to audience questions. I am here to help you think about new material or new ways to present, but you do not have to check in with me.
Yesterday, "group" and "directing" communicated some different material, and communicated it effectively. One group dropped by to see me, the other did not. Whether you drop by to see me is up to you. The product of this organization is LEARNING. The customers/clients are members of this class. Each reading group and each presentation group makes a distinctive contribution to the end product. The product can probably be produced without your contribution, but probably not as efficiently. You need to make your contribution and to be rewarded appropriately for what you give. If you think that your group can contribute more effectively by doing something else, discuss this with effectiveness, and change will be considered.
The goal is a Human Resources information product beneficial to the class which is high quality / low cost. Reflect on this in your memos. A usual critique of organizations is that they shuffle paper for the sake of shuffling. Let us not catch that disease. Critique inefficiency or wasted communications. Figure out a way to capture and transfer information efficiently. At the same time, every system needs back-up to be retrieved when a system fails, or to come on line if someone fails to deliver on commitments. I look forward to meeting with the group on Sunday evening at 7 in the library. -- Bob Cunningham
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