Group items tagged

This article is actually an interview of Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, and Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science; both are also organizational theorists. The two discuss how organizations can be more successful if they can work better with uncertainty, and incorporate meditation, derived from periods of silence in dialogue sessions, into their work. They claim that organizations need to accept that change should be accepted as the reality, and that life is a continuous state of change. The two also discuss the concept of "collective cultivation," wherein Buddhism teaches that cultivation is the practice of meditation, study, and service. Organizations not only need to accept change, but they need to collectively work hard and know how to accept this change. Unfortunately, most organizations don't have the tools or methods to support this idea. This interview allows the reader to think more about the concept of organizations and leaders in general, and how we understand them. We can't blame the hierarchy for the way things are, because we put the hierarchy in place. We are responsible for our own actions when we obey the demands of our leaders. If we can change our own views of organizations and the habits that we have adopted to work in them, then we can potentially change the way that they function from the inside out.

What struck me most about this article is their suggestion that we need to change our concept of what it means to be a leader in an organization. Particularly in the Western world, we look to our leaders, in fact expect our leaders, to have all the answers. As a leader, being comfortable sitting with uncertainty makes those you lead uncomfortable with you. The process of action research incorporates many of the same characteristics Senge and Wheatley identify: listening, being open, engaging in dialogue. Actively using action research in the workplace may help us reform our model of leadership.

I thought this article was very different but also very interesting. I like the combination of a business perspective and a religious one. I never really put too much thought into any similarities between the two. The suggestions on an effective leader and an effective organization are insightful. I agree there needs to be more dialogue as well as more reflection in order for things to work more efficiently.

This reminded me of discussions we had in the Research Practices class about how to use notebooks to capture ideas, and I thought it might be useful to folks. "Why I Keep an Idea Notebook October 26, 2010, 8:00 am By Natalie Houston The simple practice of keeping an idea notebook has been absolutely essential to my research and writing over the years, and it's something I often recommend to thesis students and others who are starting a large complex project. I designate a small spiral notebook as my idea catcher. It's not for writing notes from texts or critical sources that I'm using, or for writing formal drafts. Instead, it's for capturing my own ideas, which sometimes can seem elusive at certain stages of the writing process. I teach students several forms for distinguishing their own ideas from those of others in the note-taking process (such as writing a precis or using Cornell-style notes), and I use similar strategies myself. But the idea notebook is for those ideas that occur to you at odd moments of the day - usually when you're not at your desk. Of course, your cell phone, smartphone, netbook, tablet, or other mobile device undoubtedly has one or more notepad or notetaking functions. You could also use Evernote to create an always-with-you "notebook." But personally, I find that that the analog notebook works better for me for this purpose, both for quickly capturing my thoughts (I can scribble faster than I can Swype) and for skimming through old entries. Some specific ways I use my idea notebook include: * Jotting down questions, thoughts, and ideas that relate to my current research or possible future projects. I typically get better ideas while I'm cooking or exercising than I do when I sit down at my desk to think about something. * Noting problems, questions, and doubts I have during the research process. Often I find my way to a solution while writing about the problem in just a few minutes. It's also helpful

This is actually a chapter out the book Social Work with Groups that I found eventually through EBSCO. I'm hoping some of the overall concepts will be beneficial or relatable for some of the group dynamics and communications people are addressing. The article discusses how co-facilitation can be effective if it is well planned and characterized by close communication among co-workers of equal status. The authors of this article describe their experience co-teaching a group work course. They examine the potential of co-facilitation in a classroom setting for role modeling an effective group co-leadership relationship to students and for contributing to the professional development of teachers.

As a research methodology, Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an ideal blend of CCT skills and tools. The author of the article, Couto quoted Freire (1970) in saying that "PAR is a community-based, problem-centered, active learning pedagogy, and it imparts several social problem-solving skills and lessons about participation in democratic societies". The article chronicles efforts by the author to engage students from the University of Richmond in a participatory action research project. The purpose of the research was to better understand needs and issues facing the Richmond Juvenile and Family court system. During the project, students worked with detained juveniles to better understand how the system was affecting each individual. The article provides a clear overview of participatory action research, offering numerous benefits of the process. The author suggests that PAR has the potential to be seen as the "scholarship of engagement" and is spreading in the same way that community service and service learning caught on in the 1970's and 1990's.

This method sounds like it could deliver much stronger learning experiences than typical service learning can because there the students usually remain formally outside what they study, though they learn and gain a lot through personal interactions and experiences. Here they directly engage in situations, working for change as partners, that through the service learning model they generally only try to alleviate and understand. The example is extreme and probably unsuited for most groups, but the methods are intriguing and exciting. The part about the community affected controlling the agenda would be key, as it can be a balance act, trying to have students really learn from experiences and not take condescending approaches.

This article was a good complement to the interview of Peter Senge and Margaret Wheatley (Changing How We Work Together) and Senge's work is also quoted in the article as well. Senge says that learning organizations should nurture new and expansive patterns of thinking, have higher standards for collective learning, and engage people in the team. It would be interesting to see what would happen if higher education institutions engaged in more participatory action research, wherein the students, faculty, and staff had more of a say in the actions of the institution. As it stands now, feedback from students and faculty is sought in some respects, such as in committee work, but many students are too busy to offer feedback to the institution. Instead, there is still a hierarchy of administration that makes the final decisions for actions that affect the students, faculty, and staff.

If you have a chance to read this book, it really gets you to think about how we have structured our work environments potentially to our overall disadvantage. I heard an interview with Schwartz on NPR, was intrigued, so got the book. He talks about four basic human needs: Sustainability/Physical; Security/Emotional; Self-Expression/Mental; and Significance/Spiritual. Schwartz asserts that we need elements of all four in our lives, including at work, to be fully functioning and growing.

"McLeod, M., P. Senge and M. Wheatley (2001). "Changing how we work." Shambhala Sun(January): 29-33"

SInce my project involves getting art educators together to show their work publicly, I am checking into other groups who have done this. I am also interested in looking at how these events are advertised and how they are received by the public and news media.

This was a great team building exercise and would be benefical if working with groups.

I think this is a good example of action research. The article discusses the relationship between stress at work and how it can have an effect on employees' health. It also gives ideas on ways to decrease stress at work thus improving the health of employees.

This is as very interesting article. The action research process is used along side quantitative data collection procedures to determine effects and solutions to employee stress and workplace changes. The article is extensive and I confess I did skip over the details of the subjects involved in order to see the author's results. The inclusion of employee input to determine matters that disturb them, which can be underestimated and overlooked, such as the simple need to be validated in the work they do, or the desire to have more input into decisions, is how the researchers were able to create interventions for change, by learning about the actual areas of stress.

In recent years, Action Learning has gained currency as an approach to developing people by using work-based or problem-based learning. This book introduces theory, research, and practice of the two authors and colleagues (O'Neil & Marsick) who have both researched and applied Action Learning.

This is an awesome visual representation (that I fully intend on showing my boss) that shows the difference between collaborating through Wikis vs. collaborating through email. I feel as though this visual representation shows my entire point I am trying to make with my project, and will be a simple and concise way to show my idea to my boss, who seems to prefer visuals to discussion.

This article peeked my curiosity because I was unsure of how the Wiki worked in the beginning of this course. Now I really like using it. It is also a nice way to communicate important information.

We have used wiki collaboration for some projects at work, and the people that understand how to use it love it, whereas the people less familiar with it find it more confusing and prefer traditional ways like email collaboration. I think people just need to develop a comfort level with it, and then they can see that it is a very useful way of communicating ideas.

University of Maryland cooperative program that empowers communities through community/collaborative work programs. The site promotes and supports land trusts, employee-owned firms, universities, community development corporations etc.

"developmental evaluation" contrasted with traditional: Complexity-Based, Developmental Evaluations... provide feedback, generate learnings, support direction or affirm changes in direction. develop new measures and monitoring mechanisms as goals emerge & evolve. position evaluation as an internal, team function integrated into action and ongoing interpretive processes. design the evaluation to capture system dynamics, interdependencies, and emergent interconnections. aim to produce context-specific understandings that inform ongoing innovation. accountability centered on the innovators' deep sense of fundamental values and commitments. learning to respond to lack of control and stay in touch with what's unfolding and thereby respond strategically. evaluator collaborates in the change effort to design a process that matches philosophically and organizationally. evaluation supports hunger for learning.

This article has helped further define the principles of action research that we have visited throughout the semester. It provides several visual aids that overlap with our cycles and epicycles design. Information here provide important key aspects of the research process with relevance to an area of interest, in this case education. Many valuable works cited throughout help gain a better understanding of the bones of action research as well as its evolution.

By: Dr. Stephen Waters-Adams 2006

The author presents examples of policies that are "bright ideas that have backfired in the real world." Specifically, examples such as random drug testing in prisons, giving juvenile delinquents tours of prisons to scare them straight, and randomised controlled medical treatment trials. She points out that what many of these policy makers are lacking is research on evidence of effectiveness, and that policy makers and researchers need to be in dialogue with each other. "Stubborn ideology," as she calls it, is costing us money.

Jenal Austin December 2010 "Science Rules OK: Running Societies the Rational Way" This article discusses the importance of basing public policy on evidence found through appropriately- conducted research studies rather than on assumptions or "feel good" ideology. Unfortunately, due to the fact that politicians want to come across as confident and decisive, they often prefer a simple evaluation of policies that research may have found to be unbeneficial for society. "Rigorous evaluations are seen as threatening rather than supportive of better policy" and many people view the task as "laborious, slow, and expensive." Social policies are also often seen as harmless when, in fact, there has been evidence showing that poorly researched policies have increased drug use in prisons as well as the number of teens involved in car accidents. Large randomized trails are necessary to evaluate whether or not a program might work on the national scale. It is also important that researchers and policy makers communicate with one another and that governments utilize proven facts rather than clinging to idealistic visions.