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A publication to enhance organizational leadership.
Citation preview
1
Leadership
for the 21st
Century
Emotional Intelligence, helping you lead effectively in an
ever changing organization.
Volume 1 April 2014
Innerworks
2
A word from
the Editor in
Chief...
Editor-in-Chief Lynn Hovde
Editorial Director
Ambra Dodds
Creative & Design Director Beatrice Gray
Illustrations and Humor
Denise Larue Sandra Vilas Ambra Dodds
Senior Editor
Heidi Simmons
Contributor Lorena Medina
Jennifer Marzocca
Contact Information
Brandman Publishing
(877) 494-7052
www.brandman.edu/Start-Now
(877) 494-7052
Innerworks
T echnological advances are creating a world in which change is occurring at
such a fast rate that it is hard to keep up unless one applies full effort, has the vision
to look ahead, and the innovation to bring that vision to fruition throughout action.
Those within an organization will want it to grow and prosper. Continual prosperity
requires continual growth. Thus, whether an organization is new or old, successful or
struggling, developing new processes and strategies should be of the utmost im-
portance.
One should study organizational theory and development to understand how to
produce effective organizational change. Organizational change is only transforma-
tional when a leader is innovative, current, visionary, and in tune with clients, staff,
and stakeholders. It is through an understanding of human behavior and social dy-
namics that a leader can harness the creative and driving energy for positive change
and best practices. Although change is the only constant, it is the way in which
change is managed that can produce transformational change.
Today's leaders must understand different theories in order to ensure a broader
foundation and greater potential for an organization’s successful change process. The-
ories of organizational development will keep a leader updated, and in the know on
best practices, strategies, and resources for organizational effectiveness. Just because
a theory fits one organization does not mean it will fit all organizations. By under-
standing multiple theories one is able to customize a theory that will fit one's needs.
Thus, not only are the needs of each organization different, but the needs within one
organization are constantly in a state of flux.
In Innerworks, we have focused on emotional intelligence as an important aspect
of transformational change within an organization. People are faced with various
challenges that impact attitudes and abilities, and those attitudes and abilities can im-
pact an organization. Understanding how everything is connected is important for
personal and organizational growth.
Not only is it important for leaders to embrace the concept of emotional intelli-
gence, but all of the stakeholders within an organization should be given an oppor-
tunity through assessment and training to develop their emotional intelligence. Emo-
tional intelligence includes becoming aware of one's emotions and reactions to others,
managing conflict, remaining positive when challenged, listening to one another, un-
derstanding other perspectives, and working well with a team. Emotional intelligence
is what empowers individuals within an organization to work together to move it for-
ward in new, ever-changing world--the 21st century.
3
contents
26
12
18
44
4 An interview with Dean Vogel by Ambra Dodds & Heidi Simmons
10 Book Review:
Emotional Intelligence By Jennifer Marzocca
12 Environmental Scanning:
Do or Die! by Beatrice Gray
18 Action Research by Lorena Medina
22 Collaborative Inquiry:
Enquiring minds want to
Know by Denise LaRue
26 An Interview with Organiza
tional Psychologist, Ernie
Mendes, PhD by Denise LaRue & Lorena Medina
30 Internal Consultants: The
untapped resource by Ambra Dodds
34 The High Road by Sandra Vilas
38 OD Intervention in the
educational field by Heidi Simmons
40 Decision Making by Lynn Hovde
42 Don’t B.L.U.F. Me By Jennifer Marzocca
44 Flipped Classroom by Sandy Vilas
4
22
“Two roads diverged in a wood
and I took the one less traveled
by. And that has made all the
difference.”
Robert Frost
40
4
Interview with Dean Vogel, President of the California Teachers Association By Ambra Dodds and Heidi Simmons
IW: What do you feel has been the biggest chal-lenge you have faced in becoming CTA president? DV: The hardest part for me, I think, is a personal thing. There is an aura about being the president of CTA. If I’m in Sacramento and I’m in a restaurant where lobby-ists and political people are, they all know who I am but I don’t know who they are. So there’s always this eye on me. I always think of myself as a kindergarten teacher from Vacaville and so what. I guess what I want people to know, even with our own members, is if I’m walking down a hallway and someone says, “Oh my God, there’s Dean Vogel,” it’s almost like there’s something different about me. There’s just this-- aura is a good descriptor--and I have never found comfort with that. And the other thing is, I’m your spokesperson when I’m sitting with the governor or when I’m talking with legisla-tive leadership. The kinds of things that come up are policy considerations around what teachers want and so the pressure to say the right thing and be appropriate is very great. When you’re representing over 300,000 peo-ple, you’ve got to listen really carefully. It’s a highly emotionally charged political job. I never set out to do political work, even though being part of a school is kind of political. I find myself saying and doing things behind the scenes that I never imagined I would do or say that are political. IW: You have held many positions within CTA. You have been with the organization as it has grown. There have been numerous changes under your leadership. Do you see yourself as a transforma-tional leader? DV: Transformational in the sense that I learned about CTA like you did. I was aware peripherally when I was in a building and getting involved with my local union. When I got to state council, I thought, “Gee this is a bigger thing than I had anticipated.” I was in my second year as a council member when I got elected to the CTA Board, and I was one of those disillusioned people be-cause I really felt that what the organization should be focused on is what is happening in classrooms. I was an instructional leader in every building I worked in be-cause I focused my time and energy in the pedagogy and the teachers that I gravitated toward were the in-structional-leader types. I was always involved with stu-dent teachers and always involved in building better practices, and I felt that CTA was not really paying enough attention to that. So once I started getting in-
volved more, like on the board, I really felt that CTA needed to change. I spoke up a lot at board meetings about how we needed a different focus, and I was told that I was naïve. I was told, “You’re a state-wide leader now and you’ve got to have a different set of priorities.”
What I learned is that when you become president of CTA you are really in charge of everybody. Transfor-mational in this sense--what organizations do to keep themselves strong and safe and vital is they take a pret-ty critical look at themselves and they make adjust-ments, and if you don’t do that, you get very rigid and stuck in your ways. That’s what we had become. We became very rigid and stuck in our ways. So I came along and I said, " We’ve got to take a more critical look at ourselves." If you want to transform an organization, one of the very first things you’ve got to work towards transforming is the culture. We have to know that it’s ok to argue with one another, it’s ok to be critical, it’s ok to question authority, and it’s ok to question leadership. What’s not ok is to be rude and disrespectful and bellig-erent. Differences of opinion and differences of ideas are necessary if you want to move to the next best place. What you need in order to be able to do that is, you need a leader who will bring people together and help people learn how to do that, how to maintain their sensibilities while their disagreeing over issues, and I think I do that really effectively.
IW: CTA recently undertook a program to improve communication. Would you explain how you deter-mined that to be a necessary project and the steps you took to implement the change? DV: About four years ago, state council rose up and said to the president before me, "We are tired of being told what to do. What we want is to do things differently and we want to start with CTA developing a strategic plan. We want CTA to be more thoughtful and more proactive in the way we do our business rather than just reacting to everything that happens." And what I did was I appointed a group that was very diverse. It includ-ed probably about 100 people representative of the diversity of the organization. They were diversified eth-nically, demographically, and in age, gender, even tem-perament. After an RFP was sent out, the board hired the Labor Education Resource Center from the Univer-sity of Oregon to come in and help us facilitate. We spent a year-and-a-half investigating. We touched about 30,000 members and developed these threads of focus, taking the profession back, or transforming the profes-
Innerworks April 2014
5
sion, advocating for public education, to keep it safe, building an organizing cul-ture, engaging the community, and or-ganizing unorganized workers. The fo-cus really was, "If you’re just trying to be the best second grade teacher you can be, say in Fresno, the question is, do you have as much right, as say, the president of CTA to have a say in what we do?" The answer is yes. That begs the next question. So how does that second grade teacher actually access the policy? Theoretically, it happens through state council reps. But, in reali-ty, it doesn’t work. Most of our people don’t know who we are. They don’t know what we do on their behalf. The only thing they know about us is when they look at their paystub a whole bunch of money goes to CTA, so we’ve got to figure out a way to bring us all back under the same tent. That’s what was really driving this. It doesn’t matter whether you are staff, or board, or you’re just trying to be the best second grade teacher you can be. We’ve got to learn to come together as one and figure this out. The thread that was running through everything was that we don’t know how to com-municate with one another in a way that will make us feel like we are connected, so we’ve got to figure out how to do that. IW: A follow up to that question, how will you know if that change has the impact you desired? DV: That’s a really good question. One of the things we did at this last meeting was appoint a group we are calling the Strategic Plan Coordinating Work Group. Their job is to going to be on the ground and all across the state, and there are going to be hubs of activity very much like when we repurposed state council for the election. We had hubs of activity. We will have hubs as centers, where we are going to pick a focus. Let’s say we are going to work on community engagement, and then we are going to start looking at what is hap-pening in various locals. One of the things we know is--and I’ll use commu-nity engagement as an example--sometimes there are existing structures within CTA that are actually problematic because they are in the way of us doing the right kind of work in the community. We’ve got to be able to identify what they are, and we either have to be able to change them or adjust them or elimi-nate them, and that is going to take some doing. Another thing is, there could be some kind of need for a struc-ture that we don’t even have yet. An example is that all of CTA communica-
tions, up until just most recently, have been CTA to chapter president and then chapter president to membership, and chapter presidents typically communi-cated to membership through rep coun-cil. Yet, we only bring presidents togeth-er once a year. Maybe we need a differ-ent kind of a structure. Instead of having a president’s conference once a year in summer, maybe we need to be bringing presidents together periodically. This is just an example of a structure that we don’t have that we could have.
I read this book a while ago called Sacred Cows Make the Best Cheese-burgers. It’s really about organizational change where you get into a rut be-cause you believe, “Well we’ve always done it that way and we are fine, I mean look at us.” You get kind of drunk on your own news clippings and you forget
that some of the stuff that you are doing is kind of a pain in the neck for everyone else but you just keep doing it. So we’ve got to be willing to take a critical look at ourselves and take the risk of changing some of the stuff.
IW: Can you describe positive and negative effects of social media and how they work with CTA? DV: I’ve got a Facebook page that I keep up myself. I look at it every day, usually in the morning and at night. One of the very first things I do is look to see where I’ve been tagged by somebody to see if it’s either an inappropriate state-ment or inappropriate picture or if it’s something that I don’t agree with. Be-cause the level of understanding of what Facebook is varies, you could post something and tag me and it, and it shows up on my Facebook page and I don’t even know anything about it. Then somebody else who looks at it thinks I put it there. So I regularly clean it. Peo-ple who don’t do that put themselves at incredible risk. Another thing is that I don’t post anything, ever, if my grandma couldn’t read it and feel ok about it. I’ve seen people post things that are just so inappropriate or disparaging about peo-ple or students because they approach social media as a private communica-tion and it’s not.
Another thing that is really interest-ing about social media is it can be a phenomenal mobilizing tool. I’ve been doing all of the organizing work neces-sary to get people to a certain event, and I’ve put hours of time in. Let’s say I’m working with a group of about ten to fifteen people and we need 300 people someplace on Wednesday. So three to four weeks before, we start talking to everybody and doing the work that we have to do face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, touching as many people as we can, helping them understand how seri-ous it is getting commitments. Then, about a week before, we send out on social media, “Hey don’t forget this; get your calendar,” and two days before, and the day of. Basically we are using social media--we can be using twitter or text messages--to alert you to get some-
where. The opposite side of that is some people believe it is a sub-
stitute for doing the footwork. They think, "I really don’t have to meet with you and talk to you face-to-face be-cause I sent you a text message." Some people see it as a shortcut to the relational work you’ve got to do if you want to organize, and that’s the real danger of
it. Organizing is about building relationships, it’s relational, and
it’s hard to be relational in a two-dimensional or one-dimensional way.
IW: How do you determine your ef-fectiveness as president and how do members provide feedback to you from various levels? DV: What I try to do is give it my best. I take my marching orders from council and the board. Typically what happens is we have state council and then after state council we have a meeting. In that meeting, we debrief what happened and we look at all the directives that came from council. When I say we, it’s the officers and the cabinet, and it’s the executive director and the deputy in chief of council, and the controller, and the political director, and the communi-cations people, and we look at what we have and we make some determina-tions about it. Then we have to actually operationalize. We lay it in front of the board and we say, “Ok, what do we have to do?” And in all of that, what we have to do has certain directives to me, that I’ve got to do, and I try to pay enough attention to what’s in front of me and give it my best. When I’m not right, you know, as I’m going to hear it from the people who are close to me be-cause I’ve trained them to tell me.
When I became president of CTA, it wasn’t appropriate to challenge the
“If you want to transform an
organization, one of the very first
things you’ve got to work towards
transforming is the culture.”
Dean Vogel
6
president in a meeting. If you were in a board meeting, you were not going to challenge the president, and if you were in a cabinet meeting, you were not going to challenge the president. When I got elected to president in Feb-ruary, even though I didn’t take office until the following June, I was invited to the retreat that the cabinet goes on, to tell them what they were in store for. I told them, “The first thing you’re going to learn how to do is argue with me.” It could be that the best and the brightest in this whole organization sitting around this table, but I just don’t buy it because I know, I’m not the smartest person I know. So if you guys rely on me and the only thing we do is whatever I think, where we are going? We are in deep trouble. What I want is, when I put something out, I want to be pushed on it. I want differences of opinion, I want us to be able to argue with one anoth-er, and I will teach you how to argue.
I did the same thing to the board. Before I was president, it wasn’t un-common for the second day of the board meeting to have six or seven people coming in with their carry-on luggage getting ready to leave the meeting early to catch an airplane. Sometimes, we’d have four or five peo-ple gone before the meeting ended. I had always--when I was on the board and when I was an officer--calendared four days for the meeting: the day be-fore, the two days of state council, and the day after. That’s the board meeting. I told the board, David—the president before me—was really good to me. Even though there were some things he did that I disagreed with, he was kind and gracious to me, and I asked him if it be ok for me to meet alone with the board without him—you know, be-cause I was elected president but I wasn’t president yet. I wanted just the board people that were going to be with me. And what I told them was, "I expect you to give me two full days of a board meeting. Work hard, and if you’ll prom-ise me that you’ll stay in it, I’ll give you more work than you can handle." What I started doing was, instead of trying to cook the issue, like in the meetings I had been in before, we’d be asking ourselves, "Geez, we can’t even agree on this amongst ourselves, how are we going to show it to the board?" I would say, "Well, if we can’t agree on it, let’s put it before more people. Let’s teach them how to argue like we are learning how to argue and how to be critical." So, what I have now is a board that is really willing to work, and they’re learn-ing how to argue with one another and how to take different positions with one another, and they’re not personalizing it. When you’ve got people who argue
with one another, but do not get mad about it, that’s a real gift. And that’s all part of the new way.
IW: It’s interesting to hear you say that. People do not like to argue. DV: Yeah, there is a certain tension that wells up in you. Like, if I know that if I start arguing with you, you are going to get weird, you are going to get tense, you are going to get mad, you are going to get belligerent, or whatev-er, then two things happen. I either stop engaging you or I do but I lie be-cause I become more of a yes man. And so once I understand that it’s ok for me to have a difference of opinion, I am really open. During council, people understand that they can come to a microphone and they can have a differ-ent view than what’s coming from the side podium but they are still going to be treated respectfully and they are still going to be given their opportunity. The great thing about parliamentary proce-dure is that it, basically, is built to pro-tect the voice of the minority opinion, and we have always role played that , but we haven’t really practiced it. And what we’ve been doing is, we’ve been practicing it at every level. And so, I find comfort with the tension of differ-ences of opinion. I can all of the sud-den start feeling comfort in initiating differences of opinion. IW: When working with the CTA board, do you employ specific team building activities, and if so, can you tell me about a couple of them? DV: So, this isn’t so much team build-ing. I’m going to talk theoretical. There’s a great book right now. I think it’s a couple years old. It’s by Andy Hargraves and Michael Fullen. It’s called Professional Capital. The idea is that if you’re really building, if you really want to work, if you really want to be cohesive as a team, what you’ve got to do is, you’ve got to get to the point where when you’re at that professional level, you’re at that level of all for one and one for all. The way you get there is you start building social capital, which means instead of just being with you when we are in a meeting, I start spending time with you outside of the meeting. I start treating you as if you are somebody I’m invested in some-how, and to the degree that you start believing that I care about you. I care about how you feel and how you think, and even if it’s different than me, I val-ue your right to be different. When you get to that point where you understand that’s what I’m putting in front of you and you start doing that with others,
this incredible thing happens. People start opening up.
Let's pick an issue that we are working on. There’s stuff that you know about it that you don’t want to tell me. You’ll tell me some of it but not all of it. You’re holding it for some reason. Whether you’re holding it for leverage or you’re holding it because you want to be the one who gets the points for it, you know whatever that is, and I have that same thing. We get to a point in a relationship where you are just willing to say all of it, and me too. We are will-ing to just put it all there. That is trust. And when we get to that place with one another, then we can do anything. We can go anywhere. So the real question you are asking is, what are the things you do to get to that place? One of them is, you can’t build trust in people unless you give them opportunities to be trustworthy. I’ve got to be able to ask you what you want to do. I’m the president. I can put you in positions to do things that you really want to do. Talk to me about what you really want. If you tell me a bunch of stuff and you never hear from me again, that’s trou-ble. But if you tell me some things and I actually put you in that spot and you start building, here’s a good example.
I had a board member, who was a diehard conservative. Her first assign-ment as a board member put her in a liaison position with a committee where she had to move things around. There weren’t really any set and fast rules. You had to be able to think outside the box. What the board member tried to do was figure out some rules and then not deviate from them. It was a disas-ter. She was hating her time there. She was always tense and it was always icky. I had this other committee where the whole thing was bound by rules. It was structured and strict, and there was no leeway; you couldn’t fudge. You followed the rules, and if you didn’t it was a violation. And that is where I wanted to put this board member. I went to her and told her—I couldn’t have been more honest with her—I said, “Look, here’s the thing. You’re one of those follow-the-rules-at-all-costs kind of people. And by god, when somebody is over the line and breaking the rules, you don’t have any worry at all about just coming right out and tell-ing them so and that’s what I need. I’m trying to build this other committee that is good, and I need somebody with your temperament and stabilities doing that. I want to pull you off of this com-mittee and I’m going to put you in this other committee.” And she didn’t want to do it, and I said, “I know you don’t want to do it, but I want you to trust me. I want you to just do this, just try it, and
Innerworks April 2014
7
if it’s just awful for you, we’ll reconsider next year.” And of course, she loved it. She’s been at it for three years now and she’s good. I saw something in her that she didn’t see in her-self, but once I gave her an opportunity to find it, she found it and she found her voice and she has excelled and she’s been awesome. You know, we’ve got to be willing to do that.
IW: That brings me to my next point, are you familiar with emotional intelligence, and if you are, how do you use it in your role as CTA President and in finding future lead-ers? DV: We are a member-driven organization. You don’t apply to be on state council. You’ve got to somehow get some kind of a sense about it and get here and get elected. I like to think back to the school building. You can walk into some teachers' rooms, and you see them teaching, and you say, "Whoa, I wish I could do that." They are so good, it’s almost scary, and you just can’t imagine how they can do it. Some of those peo-ple just have this gift and they don’t know it. It’s the same thing in leadership. Some of the people that are going to be the leaders in this organization—say ten years from now—they’re not even building reps in their local. They don’t even know it. But they have that innate intuitive ability to lead. So folks like us, we have to tell them. We have to help them un-derstand that they’ve got something.
CTA does this crazy thing with me at conferences where if you register early, you get put in a raffle to have lunch with me. I said that was an awful idea, but the conference center disagreed. I’m thinking back to before I was on the board, and the last place I wanted to be, ever, was sitting with the presi-dent. I wanted to sit with my pals. I said, “People aren’t going to want to sit with me; they want to sit with their friends.” They said, “No, you’re different. Trust us. This is going to work.”
Well, at the last Good Teaching Conference, I’m at this table, and there’s this woman, maybe in her fifth or sixth year, and she is just going off on something. Let’s just say for argu-ment sake it was standardized testing. She was just saying all kinds of stuff and what she was actually saying, what was coming out of her is all the stuff that I have been saying over the last month-and-a-half in some of these back rooms in Sacramento, and all I could think about was "She has no idea how smart she is and how articulate she is." When she finally stopped to take a breath, I said, “So what are you doing in your local association?” And she said, “What do you mean?” And I asked her if she did anything in her local. She said, “I
teach third grade.” I said, “Look, I want your name and your phone number and your address. I want all of your contact information.” And I gave her something to write it down on. I filed it away because that is somebody who doesn’t know what she has. She doesn’t know the gift she has and the oth-er thing is she was quick on her feet. So one day when I’m talking to the governor and he says, " I want to hear from a teacher," and I bring her to Sacramento, and I bring her in front of him, and then all of the sudden she wakes up. Putting people in positions where they can find that gift in themselves is a very big deal.
IW: One common problem solving process is called col-laborative inquiry. Does CTA use this, and if so, can you give me some examples of how? DV: Yes, here is an example. One of our members emailed me last week with an issue and said, "I’ve got to get you to do this," and I said I would take a look at it. The first thing I do when I look at something is think about who is connected to this. I also wonder how many different levels in the organiza-tion I can put it in front of and get some feedback. We call it doing our due diligence. I want to get input from a number of people, and then I want to have enough information to actual-ly look at it, but I don’t want to be looking at the information by myself. So I get something from you and I get something from that department and I get something from legal and I get something from political, so now I’ve got all the data, and if I’m the only guy looking at it, we are still in trouble. So maybe it’s Eric (CTA vice president) and I who are looking at it, and may-be Joe (CTA Executive Director). There’s going to be some kind of an opportunity for a consensus around where we are going to go with this issue, and once we get there, I can get back to this person, and what I like to do is get that done rela-tively quickly. It can’t be something that happens in a month.
I saw the person who emailed me on the escalator when I was running from general session today. I had to be on a con-ference call at 1:00 and we didn’t finish general session until 1:20, so he’s calling me and he wants me to stop, and I tell him, "You have to follow me, you have to walk with me," and he came, and he was giving me all the stuff, and I said, “By the time we leave Sunday, I’ll have your answer.” That’s be-cause since I got his email last week, now I’ve got four or five people giving me their best thinking about what we are going to do.
Innerworks April 2014
9
Cartoon © Randy Glasbergen, used with
special permission from
www.glasbergen.com
10
It doesn’t matter what you currently know
about emotional intelligence (EQ) or in what
capacity you are employed. Emotional Intelli-
gence 2.0 is a must read for anyone who inter-
acts with people in any capacity on a daily
basis.
In today’s society, regardless of the gener-
ation, there is a definite gap between how
people manage their emotions and know
which emotions they are feeling in any given
moment: 36% of more than 500,000 people
tested were able to accurately identify their
emotions as they happen (Bradberry &
Greaves, 2009).
The authors’ approach to the content was
found to be effective and entertaining. By
walking the reader through a brief introduc-
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Book Review by Jennifer Marzocca
tion about EQ and providing an easy-to-
understand explanation about the common emo-
tions people experience when interacting with
others, readers should feel as though they can
relate and actually learn from the content.
What makes this book such a valuable tool for
leaders is the care the authors took in explaining
the four skills needed to improve EQ. In addition,
they provided an assessment tool to gauge the
reader’s current level of EQ and followed up with
strategies for readers to utilize for further im-
provement in the areas they may need to work
on.
This is the sort of resource that is beneficial to
revisit as needed, especially the chart that dis-
cusses the five core emotions along-with relative
intensity of feelings.
Within the field of Organizational Development,
improving one’s emotional intelligence not only
improves the individual relationships, but can im-
prove productivity, thus adding to the organiza-
tion’s success. Any organization that seeks to im-
prove their productivity
will benefit from making
this tool available to its
leadership.
References
Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009).
Emotional Intelligence
2.0. San Diego, Calif.: Talent Smart.
“This book can drastically change the way you think about success.”
Bradberry & Greaves
13
Environmental Scanning,
Do or Die! By Beatrice Gray
Innerworks April 2014
In today’s competitive market,
managers and executives spend
time and money searching for the
next big innovative opportunity
that will set them apart from the
rest. On the other side of the
coin, they are also searching for
the potential threats to their suc-
cess that may be lurking around
the corner. Management Study
Guide (MSG) experts define this
process as Environmental scan-
ning, “possession and utilization
of information about occasions,
patterns, trends, and relationships
within an organization’s internal
and external
environ-
ments” (2014).
Environmental
scanning is an
important pro-
cess that can
help an organi-
zation identify
competitors’
moves and ac-
tions. Environmental scanning
can provide key information that
will improve the organization’s
financial and innovative perfor-
mance and early awareness of
changing conditions. This fore-
casting and analysis will create a
trustworthy prediction using quan-
titative and qualitative information
for finding opportunities leading to
success and threats that could
doom an organization to failure.
The theory behind Environmen-
tal scanning is described by Mor-
rison as simple as “scanning for
planning” (1992). There are two
types of scanning, internal and
external; these factors drive the
data when collecting, analyzing,
and strategizing.
Internal scanning focuses on
the organization’s existing and
potential clientele, customers,
employees or stakeholders. This
includes their vision, mission,
strengths and weaknesses. This
information can help an organiza-
tion determine the self-awareness
and management of emotions
between management, employ-
ees, and stakeholders. Emotional
intelligence is a key factor in the
success of an organization as is
brand awareness, organizational
structure, and the organization’s
natural resources (task environ-
ment).
External scanning looks at
your present state of social, eco-
nomic, technological, competitive
and regulatory factors and pre-
dicts the future by viewing and
searching the current industry,
the national environment, broader
socio-economic events (macro
environment) to create a sustain-
able competitive advantage with
the new knowledge. Gaining the
new knowledge will require strate-
gic planning.
Strategic planning uses for-
mal and informal methods of
scanning. An organization will
need to decide the level of com-
mitment it will choose, continu-
ous, periodic, or regular scanning
before they can determine if their
methods will be for-
mal or informal. This
will then determine
the type of scanning
you will use. Formal
and informal scan-
ning involve planned
(surveys, interviews)
or unplanned
(observations,
trends) efforts in col-
lecting data, analyzing it, then
creating an action plan that will
ensure organizational success in
the future. “New knowledge is the
key resource for creating a sus-
tainable competitive ad-
vantage” (McEwen, 2008). This
new knowledge brings with it re-
sponsibility.
One thing to consider, new
learning will change the mindset
of the individual, and the organi-
zation. Dissemination of the new
information is most successful
14
when involving others in the scanning and interpretation of the data. McEwen (2008) describes two types of
learning; “Single loop” and “Double loop.” Organizational adjustments will depend on whether the expected
or necessary changes in behavior are minor (single loop) or radical (double loop). It is through old
knowledge (tacit- intuition, explicit-formal data and cultural-assumptions and beliefs) that creates new
knowledge. However, training is necessary for best results, “There is no organizational learning without indi-
vidual learning” (Grant and Spender, 1996).
The methodology for collecting, analyzing and strategizing requires training in the scanning and structure
of scanning. The best results require
the Involvement of various stake-
holders to gain differ- ent viewpoints
and perspectives. This feedback
will increase the suc- cess in the pro-
cess by providing built -in accountabil-
ity systems. Finally, organizational
success will demand that the team
determine and agree on the level of
commitment of the environmental scanning in order to sustain long-term organizational success.
References: McEwen, T. (2008, January 1). Environmental scanning and organizational learning in entrepreneurial ventures. Retrieved
from https://brandman.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-6060590-dt-content-rid-6395361_2/courses/OL-201422-EDOL-
707-BN1/Environmental%20Scanning%20and%20Organizational%20learning%20%28McEwen%29%281%29.pdf
Minnesota Management & Budget. (2014, March 6). What is an environmental scan? [Web discussion]. Retrieved from
http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/stage3.
Morrison, J. L. (1992). Environmental scanning. Retrieved from https://brandman.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-6060590
-dt-content-rid-6395359_2/courses/OL-201422-EDOL-707-BN1/Morrison%20Environmental%20Scanning.txt
MSG. (2014, March 6). Environmental scanning-Internal & external analysis of environment [Web log comment]. Retrieved
from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/environmental-scanning.htm.
Beatrice Gray is an Elementary School Administrator who leads an innovative team of teacher- leaders seeking to stay
ahead of the curve using the process of environmental scanning. Her school has innovative programs that include an award
winning Dual Language Program, District recognized Response to Intervention model , District recognized Teacher Collaboration
model, and a nationally recognized Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) model. Beatrice is currently a doctoral student
in Organizational Leadership at Brandman University. She is happily married and enjoys spending her free time with her hus-
band and two beautiful daughters.
(877) 494-7052
www.brandman.edu/Start-Now
Environmental scanning is, “A disciplined and constant pro-cess of quantitative and qualitative information collecting, profiling and analysis. It can occur at any point in the strate-gic workforce planning process and provides a structured view of the internal and external environment of the organi-zation. It is a decision framework that provides a pivotal view of the future” (HCI, 2010).
15
Emotional Intelligence Wordsearch
T A G X J L B Y U O L A W S L I S T E N I N G A O T D H F S Y K W G X R
R L H P N W O P E N D O O R A A C T I O N P L A N E T K S P V N U I T M
I A F U R W C L J A E T O C F Q D N I G S K N Q E N M E Z V I D H T R G
P U B T C O M O L N G T Z I B T V V L O B V Q J E J N Q Y J S X Z C E N
P G L Y E G B T M E Q C Y K K Z F S T R E S S M K E M P N P U T C C L Q
L H I O D L D L W P I Y C C C U Q S U E J P E C R G Q B U S A T Q F A S
E N F M H Z G W E X E E V V Q S H I E Q J G F A D I R E C T L D D E T P
E K K Z A S G A D M H T P B L J X I Z T A T W V G T N R H G I V D E I X
F A V E X I U J K T S I E A X L X E X N Q A B M E N T A L P Z R W L O W
F M L I G S D C A Z V O O N U S A U A D L D T T Z A S S T X E N E I N I
E P C J I I X E C D W G L X C J I M W A K R C S T J Y G B D N C G N S B
C I H B X S R R N E L U X V I E F T I K O L U O K Z C V W P N S N G H M
T C F R U B M B D E E A V E I L X C U F M O N R M N V K B E I W Y S I S
U O V B R E E D H L X D L R E N O R M A I Y A K T M A C G R X M N L P U
V N N M D S X T N W W L I S K S G O Y R T U F S Q J U I I K P V V F M E
Z S R T G W Z F Q K B D D N E A C F U V P I U J R C L N A S T W D G A D
N T F Z L C U L T U R E E R G S B C R X U R O Z J L X S I C X K Y R N P
S R Y L S N Z P K A A U C E I A W J I F T E N N E A R B S C G X E R A P
M U A F T D T L V R P U I D D G L F S C S G G T A E W Y D O A O I Z G H
O C X A Q L A P V W S W S P H B S Q H A W K N Z G G R E E T X T A T E Y
Y T O E M I A R L N M X I R E E B T I I Z I I G Z K V Z M S F Z I L M S
C I U Y C X S Z O G J Y O Z R R S W L P L C I K E O S Q Q C T T T O E I
O V W O C M K T T V P V N E F W S X P A N R K K W E A F J M A B H V N C
N E S S K V T R E I T U S B S E U O N J T V V W I L J P N O R P F R T A
V J A C F U J Y P M G O R U L S E O N H D K S G R E K J P M U Y U B V L
E O C C B W K H P R A C T I C E I D H A B Z E P P M I P X R N R J O P L
R L L K R O J Y Z Z D W L Q I T F O B A L T E O I O F A F W A D N L W Y
S X O A R D L L C B M N G H O B W P H A A I S L I T A T Q L S I U A K E
A V U T F F S J M O I M F M Y J G Z T R C C T E F I B I R M Y I S S L Z
T A C G R E M Z O H S U E H M T E V T Q U K W Y S O Q E N E E F F A J K
I L R I A H B O O H E K Z V H N D S Z B W Q S P C N U N J R D N M T L M
O U F E T N H R D S D M L I M I T A T I O N S T O S W C C V O E T W D L
N E P Z B O D Y L A N G U A G E F S T P H W V K G C H E Z T W F R O S R
P S H L V U X H W X Q U E S T I O N J P U P P G A T G D D N W E E E R J
C L D W T F D S E L F A W A R E N E S S W E P B J O S V P O J Y Y D J J
D U H E Z G H O Z V V A G R R A H P E R S O N A L S D J S H U Z Q Q Z S
action plan
appraisal
body language
breathe
buttons
communication
competence
constructive
conversation
culture
curious
decisions
direct
discomfort
emotional intelligence
emotions
feedback
feelings
goals
greet
hawk
journal
laugh
limitations
listening
mental
mentor
mood
open door
patience
personal
personality
physically
practice
problem solving
question
relationship management
ripple effect
self awareness
self management
situation
social
social awareness
strategies
stress
succeeding
triggers
trust
values
visualize
17
Professional Development
Presenters: Heidi Simmons & Ambra Dodds
How to Apply Technology in the Classroom
Are you interested in learning how to apply the technology in your classroom? Come spend the day discov-
ering a digital classroom can help students become successful learners. Students can learn how to create
products and interact through their own personal websites. You will leave with a list of digital websites for
immediate implementation in your classroom.
June 2, 2014 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: Corona Norco Teachers Association Office Building
The
Digital
Classroom
18
Action Research: Innerworks April 2014
A Collaborative Theory to Solving Educational Issues
By Lorena Medina Are you in a position to make decisions or to take
action in your organization? Do you see issues in edu-cation that need solutions, but you don’t know how?
Would you like to find solutions through an empower-
ing experience? If so, then Action Research is for you.
What is Action Research?
Action research sounds like your stereotypical re-
search with number crunching and interpretive re-sults, but in fact it is not. It was first introduced by a
social psychologist and educator Kurt Lewis in the
1940’s. He used this term to capture the idea that practitioners could solve problems by translating data
into practical, actionable knowledge. Educators gather
data relevant to their organizational needs, intervene in their processes, and evaluate their results
(Anderson, 2012, p.20, 95).
Action research is a collaborative process for work-
ing
Figure 1.1 General Action Research Process
together with members in your organization through a series of purposeful and thoughtful activities while
dialoguing in an effort to identifying the issue and
making decisions that will lead to a desirable outcome. Action research is “learning by doing” (O’Brian, 2001).
They generally follow a cycle (Figure 1.1) “where an
initial problem prompts diagnosis, planning action, tak-
ing action, and evaluating results. Once the results are
evaluated, the cycle begins again (Anderson, 2012,
p.98). In this model, both theory and action are close-ly blended.
What Does It Look Like In Education?
Educational action research can be engaged by a
teacher, an administrator, or a group of colleagues that share a common issue. It has become very popular
in the education field over the years. The focus is
mainly on the development of curriculum, professional development, and applying learning in a social context
(O’Brian, 1998).
Practitioners have adopted the general action re-
search process and added a couple of steps to allow teachers and administrators to look at their organiza-
tional issues and create a changes within. The educa-
tional action research cycle includes seven steps (Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 Educational Action Research
Led by a teacher or an administrator, the first
step is a series of reflections in selecting a focus/
issue and creating research questions to address the issue. This is a discovery stage that identifies the
educational issue to be examined as well as member’s
values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives.
The second step is assessment and framing of the
issue. Teachers and administrators collaborate to
19
identify the current issue and formu-
late research questions meaningful to guiding the inquiry.
Third step is planning and design-
ing. Together the group collabo-
rates in triangulating qualitative and quantitative data on the issue.
Trends and patterns are identified.
Possible solutions are identified and explored that align with the needs of
the classroom or school. This infor-
mation can be obtained from the stu-dents and teachers on that site. This
step is ongoing, even as practitioners
move on to the next steps. All mem-
bers are engaged and dialogue about the best practices as they develop a
detailed plan to put into practice.
Step four is Implementation. The
intervention or plan is carried out to solve the issue. Data of the outcomes
and process are obtained by all mem-
bers, all along.
Analysis is the fifth step. The new results are evaluated for an
emerging phenomena. Practitioners
debrief and look for a connection be-tween the educational solutions and
the advancement to resolving the
issue.
After analyzing the relationship, practitioners can evaluate the pro-
cess. Teachers and administrators
talk about what worked, what was missed, what could have been includ-
ed or changed.
The final step in educational action
research is dissemination. Teachers and/or administrators look at the
outcomes. A decision is made on
whether the intervention worked or not. If so, implementation continues.
If the implementation of the plan
was not successful, one returns to
the planning and designing stage.
What Will I Get Out of It?
Applying action research is worthwhile for educators for several
reasons. Teachers are solving issues
in their own environment while help-ing their students succeed and trans-
forming knowledge into something
meaningful. Reflecting on the issues that impede teaching allows teachers
as well as administrators to grow to-
gether and gain confidence in their job. Teach-
ers get to
work with other col-
leagues on
issues that affect not
only one but
many stu-
dents. This collaboration allows them to dialogue with others on teaching
styles and teaching strategies. The
contributions to questioning, planning, and asking action are both inspira-
tional and motivational in creating
change within the organization. It allows teachers and administrators to
open the lines of communication and
have a voice while reflecting on their own practices and learning from col-
leagues.
If this sounds like the changes
you would like to see in your organi-zation, take action.
References
Anderson, D. (2012). Organizational de-
velopment: The process of leading organ-
izational change (2nd Edition). California: SAGE Publications.
Ferrance, E. (2000). Themes in education:
Action research. Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown
University. Retrieved from http://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/sites/
brown.edu.academics.education-alliance/files/publications/act_research.pdf
O'Brien, R. (2001). Um exame da abordagem metodológica da pesquisa ação [An Overview of the Methodological Ap-proach of Action Research]. In Roberto
Richardson (Ed.), Teoria e Prática da
Pesquisa Ação [Theory and Practice of
Action Research]. João Pessoa, Brazil: Universidade Federal da Paraíba. (English version) Available: http://www.web.ca/
~robrien/papers/arfinal.html (Accessed 20/1/2002)
Sagar, R. (2000). What is action re-search? Guiding school improvement with
action research. Retrieved from http://
www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is-Action-Research%C2%A2.aspx
University of South Wales (2008). Edu-
cation action research: An overarching
methodology for articulating HERG re-
search activity. Healthcare Education Research Group. Retrieved from http://herg.research.southwales.ac.uk/process/
Lorena Medina has
been teaching for
the last 15 years.
She taught every-
thing from 1st grade to 5th
grade. She has a B.S. degree from
Cal State Fullerton in Child and
Adolescent Studies and a M.A. with
emphasis in Curriculum and In-
struction and Technology from
Chapman University. She is current-
ly a doctoral student of Organiza-
tional Leadership at Brandman Uni-
versity. She has been married for
almost 14 years and has two boys,
ages 9 and 12. She enjoys family
trips, reading, drawing, and sing-
ing. Life is too short to let it slip by.
21
Transformational Leader/Emotional Intelligence
Crossword Puzzle
Across
5. a person who takes responsibility for moving the team forward
8. your ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior and motives in order
to improve the quality of your relationships
9. involves controlling one’s emotions and impulses
10. uncompromising adherence to right moral and ethical conduct or principles;
honesty
11. your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and
tendencies
12. the ability to sense, understand, and react to others; emotions
13. state or instance of being accountable (something within someone's power)
14. the ability to read one’s emotions and recognize their impact while us-ing gut feelings to guide discussion
Down
1. deserving of confidence or reliance on the strength of a person; reliable
2. taking serious attention to; devoting; protecting; having concern for
3. identification with the feelings, thoughts etc. of someone; sympathy
4. truthfulness, sincerity or frankness; freedom from deceit
6. the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your
ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships
7. the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict
( Solutions on page 33)
22
Collaborative Inquiry: Enquiring
Minds Want to Know By Denise LaRue
Collaborative Inquiry (C.I) has
many variations. At the heart of
them all is the realization that in
order to prosper, organizations
must continue to keep pace in a
rapidly changing environment. It is
evident the old “top down” meth-
ods of management are no longer
sufficient. In order to grow a com-
pany it has become essential to
“grow it’s people.” Workers today
are no longer content to have a
paycheck as the only incentive to
give a job their all. Today’s work-
force wants more and today’s em-
ployers do, too! So, how can an
organization navigate change?
How can we attract and keep the
most talented individuals? Moti-
vate and innovate? Competing
methods share several key features
including: collaboration, contribu-
tions, critical questions and con-
nectedness. How do we know
which one we should devote our
time and resources to? The Thin
Book of Appreciative Inquiry by
Sue Annis Hammond (1998) was
written in response to just such
questions. Appreciative Inquiry is
generative, continually being rec-
reated by it’s users and is a thought
process not a “fad of the month
training,” according to Hammond.
The first step is to stop looking at
the organization as “something
broken and in need of repair.”
Hammond says focusing on prob-
lems only amplifies them. She sug-
gests, if we focus on what we do
Many Methods, What’s
the Scoop?
right, we amplify the things that
are good in our organization. As a
public school employee, I was
relieved to hear someone say fo-
cus on what you are doing right
and do more of that. In light of
continual public school bashing,
that was a refreshing change of
pace. There truly are pockets of
excellence in most organizations,
mine included. In fact our district
motto is, “Excellence on Pur-
pose.” It’s time to fill all of those
pockets and infuse the entire sys-
tem with “best practices.” Then
we can all be excellent on pur-
pose! Easier said than done. How
do we do it? What about the nay-
sayers? What would that look
like in practice? We are trying to
align our behavior to successfully
implement the new Common
Core State Standards, but we are
still a way off from any collective
impact. But at least with Appre-
ciative Inquiry we are paving a
pathway.
23
Take a peek at the following example.
To move an organization
forward it has to be a
group effort, and the
group has to choose a top-
ic to focus on that is worth
being magnified by our
attention. The topic then
guides our questioning
about what works in our
teams. To accomplish this,
Appreciative Inquiry
moves through four phas-
es: (1) Discovery: Where we figure out “What is Working.” To replicate
successes people have to recognize what their organization does right. (2)
Dream: Envision “What Might Be.” We look at where we want to be, say-
ing, “We can do that!” (3) Design: Dialoguing provocative question
about “What should be” that are grounded in reality. (4) Destiny: People
are more comfortable moving forward into the future (unknown) if they
carry forward the best parts of the past (the known).
Collaboration is becoming the standard. Appreciative Inquiry is a proven
technique to transform an organization. Hammond calls it a future that is a
collage of the Bests.
Reference
Hammond, S. A. (1998). The thin book of appreciative inquiry (2nd ed.) Thin Book Publishing Company
Innerworks April 2014
Denise LaRue teaches elementary education and aspires to be a principal. Denise has a Master’s Degree in
Educational Administration and says her biggest joy in life is her grandchildren. Denise lives in the wonder-
ful little horse town of Norco, California with her husband of over 40 years, John, and four obnoxious dogs,
Freeta A. Goodhome, Tecate, Freckles, and Jordan.
Why Collaborate?
24
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Quilcene, WA 98376 360-765-3994
Photo by Richard Wille
26
An Interview with Organizational
Psychologist
Ernie Mendes, Ph.D. By Denise LaRue and Lorena Medina
We were first introduced to Dr. Mendes when he was a
keynote speaker at Brandman University’s 2013 fall immer-
sion. Later, he was hired as a professional development con-
sultant to help our elementary school with the transition to
Common Core, Positive Behavior Intervention Support and
focus on Student Achievement in support of our district’s
Local Control Accountability Plan. Dr. Mendes’ background
in Emotional Intelligence, brain based research, and Organi-
zational Development philosophy led us to seek him as an
interviewee as a Transformational Leader.
Q: Tell me about your background and current
position?
I’m a professional development trainer, organizational
consultant and keynote speaker. I have been providing train-
ing and development since 1988, working for teachers, clas-
sified staff, principals, and superintendents. I’ve trained
managers, scientists, researchers, law enforcement, engi-
neers, sales and marketing professionals, corporate trainers,
corporate officers, business owners, and other leaders from
companies such as: General Atomics, Genomatica, Synter-
act, UCSD Rady School of Management, Georgia State Uni-
versity Health Center, El Paso Educational Leadership Or-
ganization, City Planning Departments, Internet Technology
Companies, and Engineering companies. My professional
background includes a combined 23 years as a secondary and
post– secondary educator and 11 years as a licensed psycho-
therapist in private practice.
I have a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology. I was one
of the first to do a doctoral study on Emotional Intelligence
(EI). I studied The Relationship Between E.I. and Occupa-
tional Burnout. My book Empty the Cup Before Y ou Fill It
Up provides practical activities to build effective relation-
ships at work and in a classroom setting using EI theory and
neuroscience. My book Engage 4 Learning uses four main
brain systems to engage Kindergarten through Adult learn-
ers in the classroom and in training settings. I present na-
tionally, regionally, and locally. For more information visit
erniemendes.com
Q: What do you value most about being a leader?
The opportunity to make a difference.
Q: The educational system is going through a number of
changes or challenges, which do you feel are the most
significant?
The educational system is always going through a num-
ber of challenges and changes. Right now Common Core
Standards seems to be at the forefront for many districts.
Besides the curriculum piece, the safe schools and student
support services area continues to provide mental health
services and research on the impact of trauma on student
success. Initiatives in our education system are always try-
ing to close the perceived gap between other countries
achievement scores and the U.S. Some argue that the U.S. is
still the most creative country in the world and attracts those
from other countries who want to pursue thinking outside of
the box. Others argue that based on standardized tests,
American schools are always lagging behind in math and
science.
Q: From your observations, to what degree do the peo-
ple in the organization understand and buy into the need
for this change?
To varying degrees. Regarding Common Core, some say
they have already been teaching “this way,” so it is no major
change for them. For others, they feel it is quite a change in
how they approach the classroom–going deeper in subject
matter and facilitating learning rather than inputting learning.
27
Q: If low degree, how have you helped them understand the case for this change and engaged them in ways that are energiz-ing and inspiring, rather than threatening?
Showing them practical ways to begin implementing these changes and to start with making connections to familiar practices.
Q: What is in it for the people of an organization to want to make this change succeed?
In education, it is always about people feeling like they are making a difference.
Q: How do you motivate people?
Acknowledge their efforts, successes, and positive assumptions. Demonstrate empathy by communicating how challenging the work of developing young minds is and that non–educators don’t really understand that. Then give them practical, easy-to-implement strategies to use immediately. Give them an experience of the strat-egy. And, provide the reasons and research for why these strategies work.
Q: Do you have an enterprise-wide change strategy for accom-
plishing your outcomes– and your various initiatives– that peo-ple can understand and align behind?
The more simplified and succinct, the better. It starts at the
top. Leaders have to buy into the change itself and have the fidelity
to making the changes work. They need to provide the support and
resources to implement the change. Change initiative should begin
with sharing information: telling, not selling, why the changes are
being made (future trends, strong research, current model weakness-
es, etc.). Second, personal concerns must be addressed. All
change involves loss and loss involves feelings of grief. Particularly
the emotion of fear, which is caused by uncertainty, can be chal-
lenging. People need a place to share their concerns. They need to
be assured that they will have the resources and support to make the
change. Then implementation of change is possible. In the imple-
mentation stage, people need to know where to turn if they have a
problem. It is also useful to know that when change is being imple-
mented, things may get temporarily worse before they get better.
Q: Is there a management philosophy to which you adhere?
Several. “Do less and do it better,” “Validate before redirect-
ing or correcting,” “Be, what you want them to be,” lead by exam-
ple, and “Get the right people on the team.”
Q: Describe a time when you felt the team performed well.
How did emotional intelligence play a role?
Emotional Intelligence always plays a role in leading teams and
within teams. Having self-awareness and other awareness are es-
sential skills, competencies, or intelligences that facilitate team
chemistry and cohesion.
Q: Describe one of your proudest moments in your position?
When teachers and administrators report back how they are
implementing and using the tools I’ve shared with them and the successes they’ve experience as a result. One Sunday night I re-ceived a voice mail from a year-two high school teacher who was
heading back to class the next morning after having been off for a week. The school was reeling from a shooting that left several stu-
dents dead and many others in shock. He shared how thankful he was for learning strategies in my workshops that he could use with
his students to help them cope as they returned to school.
Q: Tell me about some of the leaders who inspire (or in-
spired) you. What made them inspirational?
Jack Canfield co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul and Eric Jensen brain-based learning pioneer. They were doing what I was
doing but on a larger scale– globally.
Q: Why do like helping others?
In the end, that’s all there is: using your skills and gift to assist others to reach their dreams. It’s a vocation.
Q: What do you get out of it?
Satisfaction that I am living my purpose.
MTC
Mendes Training & Consult-ing, Inc.
Contact Ernie directly at 760/994-8880
email: [email protected] fax: 760/944-9468
28
MTC Mendes Training
& Consulting, Inc.
Create more mental and emotional space for learning and working using Empty the cup strategies!
Since 1988, Dr. Ernie Mendes has helped tens of thousands of teachers engage
their students, increase achievement, and improve behavior. He has assisted leaders in building effective teams, and managing challenging personalities.
Through his keynotes, trainings, books, and coaching, Ernie has helped individu-als become more productive and satisfied with their work and their relationships.
Leadership Topics
• Emotional Intelligence & Peak Performance • Resilient Leadership During Times of Change • Brain States at Work—Using your Creative Thinking Power • High Performing Teams • Coaching for Development (Coaching Tools in the Organization) • Executive Coaching KEYNOTE: Take this Job and . . . LOVE it! Tools to Thrive in Challenging times
Copyright 2012 Mendes Training & Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
phone: 760-994-8880
fax: 760-944-9468
used with special permission from the author [email protected]
29
The Future is in
Your Hands
By Beatrice Gray
Recently, the Innerworks team scoured through countless magazine racks in their local gro-
cery stores, libraries, bookstores, and doctor waiting rooms and perused the latest online issues
on their digital readers in an effort to “read” the future! This process, known as Environmental
Scanning, serves to assist organizations find the hottest trends and patterns that consumers find
of value and importance. Organizations must continually stay ahead of their competitors to
maintain and gain consumer’s trust and long-term loyalty to their product or service. When
closely analyzing information, any viable leader will find what could very well be the nuances
and trends that will change his or her organization to meet the future needs. Reading through a
variety of magazines provided our team the opportunity to hold the future literally in our hands!
The following are trends that we as consumers, clients, and organizations find as priorities in
the world today but that also give us a glimpse into the future.
30
Internal Consultants: The Untapped Resource By Ambra Dodds
The Corona Norco Unified School District (CNUSD), along with thousands of other dis-tricts across the United States, is preparing for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). All districts in California will officially make the change to the new standards in the 2014-2015 school year.
CNUSD has been transitioning to the CCSS during the 2013-2014 school year. The transition has been any-thing but smooth. The district has been learn-ing about the standards as they roll them out. During this time, there has been frustration from stakeholders at all levels, including teach-ers. The teachers’ frus-tration stems from them not feeling they are get-ting the training they need.
Education Services, a department within CNUSD, was given the task of educating and training 2,400 teachers. The information and pro-fessional development
provided to teachers at the beginning of the school year received consistently negative feedback from teachers. In response to the nega-tive feedback, the Edu-cation Services depart-ment decided to bring in consultants to help guide them through this transi-tion.
The consultants were recruited from within the 2,400 teachers who were being educated and trained in CCSS. Af-ter meeting with the teacher consultants, the department realized that they needed to increase motivation, improve communication, and en-gage teachers in order to achieve the goal of having all teachers ready for full implemen-tation of CCSS in July of 2014.
By utilizing internal consultants, the district has saved on the cost of bringing in an outside company. Internal con-sultants also save time and have more knowledge of organiza-tional culture and prac-tices. They have already
“If your business
is considering
hiring consult-
ants, consider
starting from the
inside.”
Ambra Dodds
31
established relationships with their peers and have a greater stake in a successful outcome (Anderson, 2012, chapter 5, Ta-ble 5.2 ). External consultants would have needed time to get to know the in-ternal structure of the district as well as what has been done so far.
The teacher consultants have been working with Educational Services for three months. Within that short time, positive teacher feedback has increased from about 15% to about 85%. The con-sultants are still working with the district and that number is expected to increase further.
During the past three months, the consultants have taken on a more in-volved role, including facilitating profes-sional development sessions. The con-sultants report that this increased in-volvement has been a very positive ex-perience.
If your business is considering hiring consultants, consider starting from the inside. You most likely have qualified candidates who know your company and have the knowledge to save you time and money while making the needed recommendations to move your compa-ny forward. According to Rouen, 2012, many companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and Motorola use internal consultants to help their businesses grow. The leading external consultant company, McKinsey & Company, pub-lished an article in McKinsey Quarterly about the importance of formal and infor-mal networks within an organization. Alt-hough the article does not use the term "internal consultant," much of what they refer to can be related to internal consult-ing.
Hire individuals who share your vi-sion, have a good work ethic, and whom you believe will be a benefit to your or-
ganization. Tap into those resources. In-ternal consultants will share your desires to do what is best for your organization. If you believe your organization would benefit from consultant services, why wait? References Anderson, D. L. (2012). Organization development: The pro
cess of leading organizational change [Kindle Edition]. Re-trieved from Amazon.com
Bryan, L., Matson, E., & Weiss, L. (2007). Harnessing the power of informal employee networks. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from www.mckinsey.com
Rouen, E. (2012). Inside job: Consultants don’t need to be outsiders. CNNMoney. Retrieved from manage ent.fortune.cnn. com/2012/01/inside
Ambra Dodds has been an elemen-
tary school teacher for 15 years. She
is currently teaching in Corona, Cal-
ifornia. Ambra has held, and cur-
rently holds, many leadership positions within
her district. She holds an Administrative Creden-
tial as well as a Master’s Degree in Education and
is currently working toward a doctorate of educa-
tion in Organizational Leadership. Ambra serves
on the Corona Norco Teachers Association execu-
tive board as a CTA State Council Representative.
When she isn't working, Ambra enjoys spending
time with her husband and family.
33
Transformational Leader/Emotional Intelligence
Crossword Puzzle
Solution
Across
5. leader
8. social competence
9. self-management
10. integrity
11. personal competence
12. social awareness
13. responsibility
14. self-awareness
Down
1. trustworthy
2. caring
3. empathy
4. honesty
6. social intelligence
7. relationship management
34
The High Road by Sandra Vilas
Stories about unethical leaders seem to cover
the headlines. We know that unethical leadership
can ruin a company. In the 21st century, ethics
plays a crucial role in determining success or fail-
ure. Society is becoming impatient with selfish
and irresponsible actions.
Hewlett Packard made a commitment to ethical
integrity under the leadership of Carly Fiorina.
The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard said of her
six-year tenure, “Some of the most important
choices I ever made were firing people who were-
n't conducting themselves with integrity” (Weil,
2007).
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was caught
covering up what they knew to be factual about
the addictiveness of nicotine. Accepting unethical
choices to increase the bottom line and justifying
it as “not really illegal” creates a climate that ulti-
mately can cause permanent damage to a compa-
ny. Organizations who focus on ethical values
will find success in the 21st century. The issue of
responsibility is fundamental to understanding
organizational ethics. Unfortunately, irresponsi-
ble organizational behavior is all too common.
The underlying cause of questionable ethical be-
havior is often greed. The bad news for those
who have demonstrated questionable ethical
choices is that society is on the alert to unethical
behavior.
One definition of business ethics is “a set of
principles that guides business practices to reflect
a concern for society as a whole while pursuing
profits” (Kilcullen & Kooistra, 1999). The need
for values is more than a legal or moral responsi-
bility; emphasis on ethics training needs to be-
come a focus in all organizations. In today’s
35
highly competitive world, leaders
have many issues to consider.
They must keep up with techno-
logical changes, competitors'
products and services, the effects
of globalization, and opportuni-
ties and threats within their own
industry. Successful organiza-
tions are frequently looking at
their strategies and goals with a
focus on their core values. It is
not an easy task to make room
for an abstract priority when the
primary concern has historically
been the bottom line. However,
to succeed in the 21st century,
organizations will have to decide
how to make ethics a priority.
Ethics must affect decision-
making, and ultimately, organi-
zational culture. To achieve this
ideal, there must be an alignment
process that combines business
ethics with mission, vision, val-
ues, strategies, and goals. Ethi-
cal values are essentially social
in nature; therefore, this align-
ment process will be concerned
with relationships and defining
relational expectations. The goal
of an ethical organizational cul-
ture is the greater good of all. As
a result, people are treated well
consistently and an ethical cul-
ture emerges.
Today’s organizations need to
look beyond a view of ethics as
necessary for safeguarding their
reputation and avoiding bad me-
dia coverage, or as mere compli-
ance with forced regulations. A
great opportunity awaits organi-
zations who see the potential of
ethical values in shaping the fu-
ture.
Rushworth M. Kidder is the
founder and president of the In-
stitute for Global Ethics, an or-
ganization whose research has
identified four key factors in cre-
ating a values-based culture.
These factors include:
Shared core values Accord-
ing to Kidder (2001), there are
five core values found in some
form in every culture worldwide.
They are honesty, respect, re-
sponsibility, fairness, and com-
passion. A values-based culture
will make these core values the
driving force in decision-making.
Common language Em-
ployees need a language of ethics
that allows them to communicate
easily about issues that are sensi-
tive and difficult to discuss. Ef-
fective ethics training programs
provide the common language
needed.
Commitment at the
top Ethics training is insignifi-
cant without top-level executives
who are effective models. To
create an ethical culture, leaders
need to reward those who con-
36
sistently make ethical choices and acknowledge
those who choose to do what is right.
Moral courage Kidder (2001) descr ibes moral
courage as “the quality of mind and spirit that ena-
bles one to face up to ethical dilemmas and moral
wrongdoings firmly and confidently, without flinch-
ing or retreating.”
Ethics, lifestyle and culture must become so syn-
onymous that they cannot be separated. Together,
they impact how people relate to one another in the
home, the workplace, and every part of society.
Many organizations are mindful of the critical
need for ethical behavior and realize there is still
room for improvement. Organizations need to see
ethics as a social responsibility. Taking advantage
of others for personal gain is unacceptable. Ethics
will only find its proper place in organizations that
make it a priority by creating relational expectations
that work for the good of everyone.
Working in an elementary public school, we
have established values as part of our mission state-
ment: “Armada is committed to implementing an
integrated curriculum of academic, physical, and
social excellence that provides an orderly, safe and
enthusiastic learning environment where children
feel able to grow and develop.”
Values direct how a school is run. It is the guid-
ing force of how decisions are made, with admin-
istration leading the charge. Last year, Armada im-
plemented a Positive Behavior Intervention Support
Plan (PBIS), which focuses on proper social skills.
Every week, a new social skill is introduced and
taught with explicit direct instruction lessons de-
signed to build character. It has been through the
focus on teamwork and weekly PLC meetings that
we as a staff feel united. Collaboration and trust
have been established and is reflected onto our stu-
dents. Our values have provided us with clear direc-
tion. As we move forward with all the challenges
that lie ahead as we transition to the implementation
of Common Core State Standards, our values and
ethics will play a pivotal role in determining how
successful Armada will be in the future.
References
Kidder, R.M. (2001). Ethics is not optional. Association Manage ment. Washington: Dec 2001. 53(13), 30-32.
Kilcullen, M. & Kooistra, J. O. (1999). At least do no harm: Sources on the changing role of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Reference Services Review, 27(2), 158- 178.
Weil, N. (2007). 5 things I've learned: Thoughts on leadership, ethics and the 21st century from Carly Fiorina, HP's former CEO. CIO, 20(15)
37
Sandy Vilas is the Assistant
Administrator of Instructional
Improvement and Academic
Coaching at Armada Elemen-
tary in the Moreno Valley Uni-
fied School District. Prior to this position,
Sandy was an elementary school teacher for 8
years, teaching first and fourth grades. She has
earned a Masters Degree in Multicultural Edu-
cation and a Masters Degree in Educational
Administration from National University.
Sandy has been happily married for over twen-
ty years and enjoys spending time with her
husband and six children. Favorite quote,
““Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, in-
stead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”—
Ralph Waldo Emerson
38
Heidi has been teaching elementary school for 12 years in Corona-Norco. She currently
teaches sixth grade. Heidi is working on her doctorate in Organizational Leadership through
Brandman University. In her free time, she loves to travel the world and spend time with her
family and friends.
Who Said What?
By: Lorena Medina
Match these leaders to their quote.
1. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
2. “I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.”
3. “When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”
4. “What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
5. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always
remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
6. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
7. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
8. “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
9. “My Mama always said you've got to put the past
behind you before you can move on.”
10. "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."
Forrest Gump Mark Twain
John F. Kennedy Walt Disney
Mother Teresa Mahatma Gandhi
Nelson Mandela Winnie -the Pooh
Harriet Tubman Martin Luther King Jr
40
Decision Making By Lynn Hovde
In "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost
talks about standing at a crossroads, and
having to decide which road to take. Per-
sonal and organizational life consists of
choices, and decision-makers, like Frost,
look down one
road "to where it
bends in the un-
dergrowth" (line
5). For an organi-
zation, this
means that deci-
sion-makers need
to be able to look
as far as possible
into the future,
and need to be
able to construct
scenarios, antici-
pate problems,
and develop solu-
tions in advance of those problems possi-
bly occurring.
Donald Anderson discusses "decision-
making power" in his book Organizational
Development (2012, p. 281). Decision-
makers create multiple scenarios based on
what could happen. Then they gather data
to narrow down the possibilities. Once the
possibilities have been narrowed in scope,
they develop plans to address future needs.
Anderson talks about how decision-
makers need to embrace uncertainty. In
other words, a lot of work can go into pre-
paring for the future, but a decision-maker
can only see so far and definitely not be-
yond where the road "bends in the under-
growth" (Frost, line 5). Decisions are made,
but organizations need to be adaptable to
what comes their way.
Decision making is a process variable
within an organization. Each organization
has a decision-making style. To assess an
organization's decision-making style, man-
agers or facilitators should consider: what
information is requested before a decision
is made, who is consulted, who can offer
opinions, who
makes the final
decision, and
how that deci-
sion is communi-
cated. Decision
making is com-
promised when
those in an or-
ganization are
pressured to
take action
quickly without
taking the time
to gather suffi-
cient data need-
ed to make a competent decision. Some
collaboration needs to occur to ensure that
the data that is collected is authentic and
accurate.
Anderson states that decisions in an or-
ganization are best if they are "downward,
upward, and horizontal" (2012, p. 25). There
are four kinds of decision-making systems:
exploitative authoritative, benevolent au-
thoritative, consultative, and participant
group. In the exploitative authoritative sys-
tem, decisions are made in a top-down
fashion. In a benevolent authoritative sys-
tem, most decisions are made in a top-
down fashion, but a limited amount of
teamwork is present at the middle levels of
the organization. In a consultative system,
there is some teamwork and suggestions
made at the middle and lower levels, but
the decisions are still made at the top. In a
participative system, decision making oc-
curs at all levels of the organization.
“Two roads diverged in a
wood and I took the one less
traveled by. And that has
made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
41
Innerworks April 2014
Anderson (2012) believes that the
most productive kind is the participant
group. Organizations can construct this
type of decision-making system through
quality circles. Each department within
an organization becomes a quality circle
that reports suggestions and concerns to
the upper management. This style gives
voice to employees who know best about
what goes on in their organization; thus,
there is a connect between their needs
and the organization's needs. This allows
the organization to function better, and
gives employees a voice, so that they
feel more invested in the company and
are more apt to feel valued and want to
participate fully.
References
Anderson, D. (2012). Organizational De-
velopment. Los Angeles: Sage Publica-
tions, Inc.
Lynn Hovde holds an M.A. in English, an M.S. in Teaching, and is a doctoral student at Brandman
University. She has been teaching English at the college level since 1990. She teaches
online, face-to-face, and hybrid classes. Along with teaching English and loving to write,
she teachers swimming and runs her own swim school in the summers. She has been a
competitive swimmer most of her life, and has written two books on swimming: Coaching
the Age-group Swimmer and Simply Synchro. She is currently working on the third and final
book in the swimming series.
Used with permission from [email protected]
42
Don’t B.L.U.F. Me
April 2014 Jennifer Marzocca
Exploring the causes and consequences
of problems within an organization is a complex process that can seem trivial and not worth
the time, money or effort. This article examines a five-step process that allows some flexibil-
ity, depending on the information needed and the amount of time available, until a decision
must be reached.
Gathering data takes time At times it might feel as though you
are on a treasure hunt, and while you
might be anxious for a quick decision for
your client, avoid the pull to meet their
unrealistic and hasty deadline. It will not
benefit the organization by giving them
the bottom line up front.
In order to really discover why and
how an organization might not be func-
tioning the way it could, an effective
change agent will dig into the various
relationships that exist in the organization
and this could take some time, but it will
shed light on the overall health of the
organization.
Just the process of gathering data
can spark some change and possibly
create cohesion among the members in
the organization.
Noolan (2006) recommends a five
step process to gather information:
What approach will work? Consider
the problem and start there (what
kind of information are you looking
for and why?).
Let everyone know. Keep in mind
who – what – where – when – why
while you collect your data.
Get ready to collect. Prepare
your surveys and interviews ahead of
time. Get a list of interviewees,
schedule your interviews and pre-
pare your list of questions.
Gather your information.
Analyze and present your findings.
You won’t want to share everything
with everyone, just your client. Let
them be the ones to deliver the re-
sults to their organization as they see
fit.
You will want to be selective about
the methods you utilize to gather your
information. There are a variety of meth-
ods to choose from such as interviews,
focus groups, surveys or questionnaires,
observations, and other unobtrusive
methods.
Interviews work great when you
want to collect information regarding per-
sonal stories or perspectives of the indi-
viduals involved with the problem or or-
ganization.
Ensure you enter the interview ready
to listen and bring a recording device (get
approval first) so you can refer back to
the interview as often as necessary.
Focus groups, usually comprised
of a small number of people from within
the organization, allow the researcher to
gather personal perspective – with the
added benefit of conversation among co-
workers. Be cautious of the amount of
data you are collecting, you could lose
sight of the purpose for the collection!
Surveys or questionnaires are the
most commonly used tools for gathering
information.
This method is good for seeking in-
put from a large group of people. More
often than before, surveys are conducted
online, offering the respondent somewhat
flexibility for when they respond.
Ensure there is some form of dead-
line to complete the survey or question-
naire so that you receive adequate re-
sponses.
Observations focus on actual be-
havior versus reports or second-hand
information about the behavior.
This method is helpful when the re-
searcher needs to gain a better under-
standing about what people are actually
doing within the organization.
Keep in mind that those who may be
concerned their behavior is in question
could alter their behavior based on the
presences of the observer.
Data gathering is a five-step process. There are a variety
of methods to
choose from.
43
Jennifer served her country for 20 years in the US Navy as an intel-
ligence analyst and currently works in the Law & Justice Center, as
the vault manager, on Whidbey Island in Washington. Outside of
work, Jennifer is an active participant on the Coupeville Boys &
Girls Club advisory board and the vice-president of H.E.R.S., a
501c3 non-profit that serves female veterans. When she isn’t work-
ing or busy with the non-profits, you can find her outside photo-
graphing the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and playing sports with her three children.
Home
Jennifer Marzocca
(360) 555-1212
Innerworks April 2014
A Balancing Act
· · ·
Investment
Does the organization have the time
and money?
Access
Will the leaders in the organization
allow access to the necessary infor-
mation?
Relevance
Are you using the right method for
the problem?
Accuracy
Is there any bias (consultant or cli-
ent)?
Flexibility
Do the chosen methods for data
gathering allow you the space to collect
the information you need?
Unobtrusive measures focus on gath-
ering information and likely do not cause the
information to be altered as interviews and
observations can.
Some examples of unobtrusive
measures that can be useful include histori-
cal data, official documents, databases, and
the physical environment.
Remember, the goal for data gathering
is to expand the client’s view of the problem
so they can solve the right problem for the
long-term.
References Anderson, D. L. (2012). Organization devel-
opment: the process of leading organization-
al change (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.:
Sage Publications
Anderson, L. S., & Anderson, D. (2010). The
change leader's roadmap how to navigate
your organization's transformation (2nd ed.).
San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer
DATA
Collection
This is a good place to briefly,
but effectively, describe your
product or services.
This is a good place to briefly,
but effectively, describe your
product or services.
SID
TITLE TEXT
“Never make
a Permanent
decision based
on temporary
feelings.”
Unknown
44
Flipped Classrooms – Fix or Fad
By Sandra Vilas
Innerworks April 2014
M any schools
and districts
have elected to try the newest
thing in education; flipped learn-
ing. With flipped learning, tech-
nology is used outside of school.
This creates time for additional,
more personalized instruction.
Rather than having direct instruc-
tion or lectures at the front of a
classroom, teachers put their lec-
tures to videos, slide shows, or
audio lessons. These can then be
watched at home or anywhere
else via the Internet or other tools,
such as DVD’s and thumb drives.
With lectures outside of the
classroom, teachers can use time
during the school day for more
individualized instruction, labs,
and projects to encourage and al-
low time for deeper learning. The
teacher now has time to help stu-
dents as they use what they have
learned online. When students
are assigned traditional home-
work, they often do not receive
meaningful feedback on their
work while they are doing it; they
may not have the opportunity to
relearn concepts they struggled to
master. Teachers now are present
to answer questions and monitor
how students are doing, and the
feedback cycle has greater poten-
tial to promote essential student
learning.
Many who question whether
the approach is practical or equi-
table in places where significant
numbers of students or schools
have insufficient technological
resources and whether it really
works better than current instruc-
tional models. Proponents of
flipped classrooms believe that it
is not about having the latest iPad
or Smartphone. At relatively little
expense or trouble, teachers can
burn DVD’s, send materials home
on USB drives, or allow extra
time and access to materials dur-
ing the day for students who need
it.
A high school administrator in
Maryland first implemented
flipped learning three years ago
with one government class com-
posed mostly of students with a
history of chronic underachieve-
ment. This idea was very easy to
45
begin in his class. In the evenings,
students watched videos or partici-
pated in online group discussions.
Instructional time would be more
devoted to one-on-one instruction
and projects.
One semester later, the flipped
government class had better grades
than a traditional counterpart did.
The administrator expanded the
flipped model to 140 incoming
high school freshmen. Again, he
found success. “The failure rate
dropped by 33% in English lan-
guage arts, 31% in math, 22% in
science, and 19% in social studies.
Standardized test scores went up,
as did attendance. Disciplinary
problems declined
66%” (Beitenhaus, May 2013).
Some educators have suggested
that the flipped-classroom ap-
proach may only work in upper-
income, suburban schools. If low-
income students lack access to
computers at home or to reliable
Internet access, flipping may not
be an option. If students cannot
benefit from online instruction at
home, then they need to receive
instruction in the classroom or risk
falling behind. Some fear that in
relying on parents to provide tech-
nology and support, the flipped-
classroom model may exacerbate
existing resource inequalities.
Schools can make computer labs
available after school, and parental
assistance is less critical when
watching an online video than
when solving homework problems.
Even if low-income students
prove to benefit from the flipped
classroom, this change in structure
alone is not likely to produce the
improvement in student learning
our country needs, but that does
not mean this idea is not relevant.
The flipped classroom might still
have an important indirect impact
on the American education system,
as one kind of digital learning.
The use of digital learning will
vary in different contexts and com-
munities. Some students will at-
tend full-time virtual schools, with
the classroom experience occurring
online; most will attend brick-and-
mortar schools that use some ver-
sion of digital learning.
References
Beitenhaus, C. (May 2013).
Flipped classroom, forward
thinking. School Planning
and Management, 66.
Hogan, K. (May 2013). Flip not
flop. Technology & Learning,
10-11.