Change…for better or worse BY: Justin

For the last 16 weeks as I have sought to complete assignments for the leadership class I’m enrolled in at UH Manoa, I have defined my leadership by the sphere and reach of my occupation, both as a pastor at New Hope and as the president of our University of Hawaii Registered Independent Organization, Fuse.  With each assignment, I have taken the time to appraise the church and the club, while assessing my ability and competency.  Today, an unexpected turn of events in my personal life has given me a fresh perspective on life and leadership.  The news received wasn’t dreadful, by any means, but it acted as a strong reality check.  My son, Aaron Ezekiel Smith, who is scheduled for delivery on January 12, apparently  has decided that he isn’t interested in waiting that long and is beginning to force his way out 5 weeks prior to his due date.  With this exciting news, the reality of the joy and hard work of caring for a newborn rushed to the forefront of my mind, affording me a healthy realization of the significance of change.
Whether you are one who the mere word “change” causes a fearful incapacitation to overtake your body or one who embraces the excitement and newness of change, the fact remains that, in life, change is inevitable.  Attempts to avoid change is mere futility, thus developing a positive response to change is key in maintaining an acceptable level of sanity in a world of apparent chaos.  Properly navigating through change will often lead to increased satisfaction and productivity, thus discovering methods of coping with change are critical.  Daryl R. Conner has developed a model that I have found extremely helpful, which he has named, “Five Phases of Positive Response to Change.”
Phase 1 of this model is Uninformed Optimism.  Associated with this phase is a general excitement in regards to creating something new.  The idea seems flawless and spirits are high as expectations skyrocket.  About a year ago, my wife and I discussed the joy of having another baby, and the ideal of growing our family appeared utopian.  Optimism was king as we dreamed of how much joy and satisfaction we would discover.
Phase 2 is Informed Pessimism.  This phase is the reality check.  When things don’t go as planned, team conflict arises, and the excitement and high fives have been exchanged for the perspiration of hard work, doubt arises and the team questions if this venture is truly worth the cost.  I’m well aware that this phase will come following the birth of Ezekiel.  The crying, the dirty diapers, the sleepless nights, and the sharing of household responsibilities will soon cause the optimism to appear as stupidity, and in these moments we must remember that this too shall pass.
Phase 3 is Hopeful Realism.  As the team begins to experience the benefits of change, they find an increased confidence and buy-in, and with an increase of momentum comes a renewed excitement.  The team moves forward with this renewed passion and fervor in Phase 4- Informed Optimism, and each victory fuels and empowers.  As our baby grows, laughs, plays and loves, a glimpse of the dream of the perfect family becomes a reality.  The joy of holding my son close, playing with him, and laughing with him increases my love for him, and the hopeful realism transforms to concrete optimism.  The final phase is Completion where growth and progress continue and the positive affects are multiplied.

I am well aware that Conner’s five phases don’t provide an exact fit for child development as change is ongoing, but Conner’s principles can be universally applied.  I often find myself wholeheartedly diving into change as visions of grandeur flood my head, but when the “rubber meets the road” and the hard work needed to accomplish completion is realized my tendency is to throw in the towel.

As the leader of the Smith family, I have been made aware that change is inevitable, thus properly, and actively, navigating through change is key to our success.   The question isn’t “if” you face change, but “when” you will.  When you face change how will you respond?  Change leads to progress, and an avoidance of change often leads to an unhealthy life.  Live your life to the fullest by embracing the power of change, and you will understand true joy.

 

Overcoming Resistance to Change

With the election of President Obama came a movement towards change: changing views, changing opportunities, and trying to change our country for the better. Therefore, a lot of the spotlight has been shined on change on a grand scale, and many Americans had expectations that these large scale changes would take place immediately after President Obama’s inauguration. But the truth is that change on that level takes time and will happen eventually. In the meantime, Americans should focus on generating change on a smaller scale instead of waiting for a nationwide phenomenon to occur. Let’s start a little closer to home. Think about a situation in which you were dissatisfied with how things were at school, work, or in your community. Did you do anything to change that? Why or why not?

Many people find it hard to initiate change. It could be because personally they are afraid to face opposition or it could be because the people involved are resistant to change. Understanding why people are resistant to change can be the first step towards your goal. As listed in the book Exploring Leadership by Susan Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon, six reasons why people are resistant to change are:

1. Satisfaction: Being satisfied with the status quo.

2. Fear: People fear the unknown.

3. Self-Interest: Even if the change benefits others, it may alter their status or perks, so they resist.

4. Lack of Self-Confidence: Change makes us vulnerable and requires confidence to inspire others to see the possibilities.

5. Myopia: Not being able to see beyond the present.

6. Habit: Habits can be positive, but they can also inhibit change, causing groups to be driven by traditions, customs, and patterns.

I have faced these kinds of resistance in my personal life. I am on the executive board in a co-ed marketing and sales fraternity in the Shidler College of Business. I have been a member for almost two years now and have seen my organization go through many different stages. What the executive board and I have noticed this past summer was that the organization was stuck in a rut: we had a low membership retention rate, members were not gaining anything from the very few events we had during the semester, and we had a very hard time fundraising. This problem has been slowly growing over the past few semesters but nobody did anything about it. So what we decided to do was to get together and start to better the organization as a whole by beginning a restructuring process. Reading the list of reasons for resistance, I noticed why our problem has been growing:

1. Satisfaction: We have been sticking to the status quo for the past few semesters and doing what the other business clubs were doing.

2. Fear: We feared that we would put our organization into a worse situation if we changed things.

3. Self-Interest: We were afraid that new, essential tasks would not be accomplished because it would require members to do more work.

4. Lack of Self-Confidence: We did not think we could totally convince all of the other members to support our decisions.

5. Myopia: We thought that our lack of money would prevent us from doing anything in the future.

6. Habit: We are a fraternity and must follow traditions but we also have been following the examples of the leaders before us and were unsure about changing their ways.

At the end of our meeting we had a long list of things to do and delegated what needed to be done. We decided that if we did not put all of our efforts into initiating change, we would be stuck in the same situation or worse. We did face some opposition from the other members but we convinced them that change was necessary.

It has only been one semester since our restructuring meeting but slowly our organization is changing for the better. With help from alumni and some marketing professionals, we have provided our members with many more opportunities, including a few community service projects. We still need to work on fundraising but that will take a while. Over the summer, membership’s attitude toward the organization was all but positive but through overcoming resistance and hard work, we have inspired our members to strive for more.

Every time you find yourself dissatisfied with how things are, take the initiative to create change, you have the power to initiate change if you truly believe in it. Start small and contribute to your community’s journey toward change and if we all join in we can see large scale effects in our country soon.

 

change we can believe in

Change We Can Believe In

To make true change is something that is very difficult from the smallest groups to the president of the United States of America. There are many attributes that can be associated with change which include;  establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, develop strategy and vision, communication of the change, empowering broad based action, generating short term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change, and anchoring new approaches. These are all important attributes but developing strategy and vision, generating short term wins, and anchoring new approaches are three of the most important. If one can truly understand these three then making change on any level or any organization will be quite easier.

Knowing what you want to do and being able to find ways to make this possible is how any true change will take place. If you issues with any problem know what you want to change when beginning to start is key. There is no real other place to start. Having a vision in mind and being able to communicate this vision effectively will bring others that share similar interest. Expressing this vision will also shed light on the issue, possible pushing others to agree and push for change as well. Developing strategy is a little tougher but just as important. The one pushing the most for change should have some type of strategy about how to make this change. While the one strategy is important for a start the individual must also be open to others ideas and willing to incorporate into their plans because it could be the difference between success and failure.

Next, after fine tuning your vision and developing a strategy for success an individual or group must look for short terms wins. When looking to make change in a structure with in a group, individuals do not always have time to wait for long term goals that you may have developed in your vision. Set short term goals that are measureable and achievable, most importantly, that you can go back and check at set intervals. Having the ability to show change, valid and measureable change, will not only convince others to join your efforts but show that long term goal is worth the continual pursuit that you set out with. One also has the chance to make changes in their vision and goal if their short terms goals are not complete successes. Do not completely change your entire goal but make sure that you are open and willing to adapt when change is necessary to the vision you have.

Finally, a person looking to make change must be able to anchor new approaches in order to continue change. This also means to look for new ways to keep working towards your original goal even when you might not be able to but a generation later can take care of the business of reaching your goal.  A person or their goal cannot grow complacent and be happy with success that it has established thus far. Therefore you must go back and revisit your goals of change and look at how successful that your vision has become. There can always be room for more improvement; you must look for these ways to continually push for your final dream and to keep effective changes that make a difference to the individual or the group they are a part of.  

A person looking to make true changes has an extremely tough challenge ahead of them depending on the change they wish to enact. However, no matter how big or small the change wanted if you look at these principles, specifically these three and change is truly possible. One must make sure to have a vision in mind when starting. This will bring others to your cause and will inspire the change you wish to make. Make a long term goal but make sure to make smaller goals that are achievable on the path towards your long term goal. This will show the validity of your vision and will draw more attention to your cause. Finally, you must look for ways to keep your goals and ideas in mind when time is necessary for you to adapt new ideas to you vision. If you have reached your goals there might be others that are not completely satisfied and you must look for ways to keep these people in mind otherwise they will look to make very different changes in the changes you wish to make. You must think win/win in order to be a success and make the changes that you want and make others happy to your organization.

 

“There are 3 types of people in this world…”- Tracy Nguyen

Source: http://images9.cafepress.com

Source: www.principalspage.com/…/tag/3-types-of-people

During the 2008 presidential election we’ve often see the words “change” and “hope, and the famous slogan “change we can believe in”. However, not everyone can accept change because of many reasons such as: 1) the disruptions of normal process, 2) their sensitivity to irregularities and subtle variations in the normal pattern of daily life, 3) lack of self-confidence, and 4) fear of the unknown, etc.

One of my favorite quotes about fear is: “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…” a quote taken from our 32nd president’s inaugural address in 1932. The only American president elected to serve for more than 2 terms, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Although I’m afraid of changes at times, I’ve found myself adapting to changes more easily now. Many thanks to EDEA360, a leadership course I’m currently taking at UH Manoa. Through the course, I’ve learn so many things about myself. The problems and scenarios given in class made me realized that there are lots of ways to deal with things in life. Sometimes, being confrontational would not be a good idea. A little bit of humor along the way might actually lift the tensions. I’ve also learned that different type of people (orange, green, blue, gold) deal with things differently. I’ve found out more about myself, my strengths and weaknesses. It’s kind of weird how sometimes goals change because life changes you. My goals and the way I look at life totally change just because I realized who I really am.
Recently, I’ve learned a big lesson (and trust me, I’ve learned it in a HARD way) in communicating and leading. I’ve learned that everyone has a different way of communicate and different needs from their leader. My mom raised me up telling me to treat everyone the same way I would want to be treated, and I have tried my very best to do just that throughout the years. However, lately, I’ve found out that that’s not a very effective way to lead people. Some people need different things from you than the others and you just need to do whatever way it takes that is most effective for them.

My mom would often tell me “You’re only as good as your last story. It doesn’t matter how much awards you’re getting, if the work you’re doing now isn’t great, it doesn’t matter, it’s just not good.” So I’m always looking towards to the next thing. Right now, it would be another big lesson, another big change (facing another big fear).
During my first semester in college, a professor told me “There are three types of people in this world, the one who leads (changes), the one who follows, and the duh-duhs. Change is essential. You have two choices: go out there and change the world, or just sit there and let others change your world for you.”

So, what are you waiting for? Why are you still sitting there?

Source: http://img216.imageshack.us/i/coinslogolr3.jpg/

 

Lindsey Kim: Change Can Start With Me

We are now at the end of the semester for our EDEA 360 leadership class at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and we are left with the topic of “change”. In the book that we are reading for this class, Exploring Leadership, by Susan Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon, chapters 11 and 12 cover all the aspects of change and how to understand and strategize for change. But what does that mean for us? And why is it important?

As a leader, we must all understand that change is inevitable whether it’s good or bad. Our external environment and our situations will always be changing. Our job as individuals who will be affected by these changes is to learn how to adapt to the situations and help facilitate the change for the people around us. Change can begin with “me”.

To start off we must understand how change impacts each and every one of us and why people in general are resisant to change. Author J. O’Toole lists six reasons for the resistance to change: 1. Satisfaction, 2. Fear, 3. Self-Interest, 4. Lack of Self-Confidence, 5. Myopia, 6. Habit. I know that when I experienced a drastic change in my work environment, I was hit with all six of these feelings.

I work at a tour company that books one day tours to the outer islands for tourists from Korea and Japan. When I first started back in 2007, we were booking our flights through a company called Let’s Go Travel that was run by a man named Joe. I would get bookings throughout the day from various tour companies and I would fax over the excel files to Joe so that he could book the flights. He had contracts with all the airlines that fly to and from the outer islands and so we booked through him out of convenience. Joe already had a relationship with the airline companies and so he was also able to get special perks here and there. A month into the job, I fell into sync with the routine of things and I got comfortable for the next eight months. Then one day, my boss out-of-the-blue tells me that we’re going to stop booking with Joe and start booking directly through Go Airlines because we were able to negotiate a contract with them. I automatically felt “fear”. I was “satisfied” with how we were doing things and I was afraid that I would have to learn a bunch of new things that I was not comfortable doing. Although I understood that we were going to save money this way, I was resistant because I didn’t want to let go of my “habit” and who knew if we were going to really save money in the long run due to all of the last-minutes cancellations we always had. Joe was able to have the airlines waive the cancellation fees for us but we may not have that kind of pull with Go Airlines. My boss started talking about booking through portals and calling the groups desk in New Mexico for blocks and my head started spinning.

 Eventually though, I realized that this could actually be for the better. There was no way that I could change the situation that was happening so I was forced to try to understand and accept it. There was no point in resistanting the change and I just focused my energy on dealing with it. After learning the new routine and doing it on a daily basis I got the hang of it and made new friends at the Go Airlines groups desk. Through that experience I learned the importance of understanding change and adapting to it. I was also able to talk the other office workers through the change and help them to understand the situational change more clearly after experiencing it myself.

That day, I felt, change started with me and it can begin with each and every one of you. Life is always full of changes and we must learn to go with the flow instead of resisting against it. Change for the most part is good and it helps us all to evolve and develop as leaders and as a team so go out there and change the world!

 

CHANGE: IT IS FOR THE BEST!

Olivia Uchima

“A change occurs at a specific time and involves something beginning or ending” (Exploring Leadership, Susan Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon).  Let’s face it: change is not easy.  Whether the change is positive or negative, chosen or imposed, it almost always causes stress, uncertainty, and general unease.  However to fully understand how organizations change, it is imperative that we first look at how individuals handle change.

In Exploring Leadership Susan Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon mention every leader faces challenges and obstacles in facilitating and managing change, yet change processes are not rule bound, and there is no single tested approach that can guarantee successful change efforts.  Understanding our peers is an important step in any change management approach.  Human beings have natural tendency to want to control their environments, and some also want to be in control.  Daryl Connor comments that the single most important factor to managing change successfully is the degree to which people demonstrate resilience: the capacity to absorb high levels of change while displaying minimal dysfunctional behaviors.

Realizing and knowing what those expectations are, is a part of understanding how to encourage change.  In Exploring Leadership James O’Toole offers six different hypotheses to why people are resistant to change.  They are satisfaction, fear, self-interest, lack of self-confidence, myopia, and habit.  Satisfaction is being content with the way things are.  Fear is when people are scared of the unknown.  Self-interest is when the change is not in their self-interest, they resist.  Lack of self-confidence is how change makes us vulnerable and needs confidence to inspire others to see the opportunities.  Myopia is short-term thinking.  John Lukacs describes myopia this way: when people do not see something, this often means that they do not wish to see it—a condition that may be comfortable and profitable to them.  Habit is when we choose not to change because we are driven by traditions, customs, and patterns.  In this case habits are not positive, but in fact negative.

I am a part of an organization here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa called the Activities Council.  Our mission is to plan and execute activities here at UHM for the students and faculty.  This past week we had our meeting to figure out what events we want for next semester and I showed that I was indeed resistant to change.  I did not realize that I did not want change for my organization until I read this chapter.  My way of being resistant to change was through satisfaction.  I said, “Why do we need to have different events if we have not really done that before?”  I now see that my attitudes toward change can hinder my organization from growing and expanding.

As a leader, we must be able to take risks every once in awhile.  Many people are fearful to take the next step because they do not know what will happen.  Who can blame them?  The unknown is scary.  There was an event that I planned earlier this semester that almost did not follow through because of my advisors’ fear of it not being successful.  They found so many problems or issues with my event, that it made me scared.  But I stuck it out and I told them no matter what I wanted to lead this event.  Sure enough the event was successful!  There were so many students that showed up for my activity, and on top of everything they like it!

Even though change benefits others, it may alter our own status or perks, so we resist.  Personally I feel self-interest is a big reason why people dislike change.  I hated it when the University had budget cuts and had no other option but to cut my major.  This was the one of the top five incidents in my life that took me awhile to accept.  I am still upset at the fact that I must drop everything, my second year at UHM, and transfer schools.  The one thing that I do realize as a leader is that sometimes we must give up something important to us, whether it be power, authority, our comfort zone, etc, in order to achieve a certain result.

Lack of self-confidence is another reason why I am so resistant to changing schools.  This incident has made me extremely vulnerable and scared that I need others to inspire me that it will be just fine when I go away.  Going away to another college, especially since it is in Iowa, frightens me.  I have all these bad thoughts like, “I will not have any friends.  I will be picked on.   No one will like me.  I will miss home too much…” But in an organization or group, we need to be confident enough in ourselves that we can try new things because being insecure can deter our group from something great happening in the future.  The same goes for you and me in our own lives.  The unimaginable can happen if we just work on our self-confidence.

I know someone who is of very high authority in one of the organizations here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa that just cannot see beyond the present.  This person, who is my friend, has so many wonderful visions, but the problem is they are only THEIR visions.  This person chooses not to listen to anyone else’s ideas or visions if they do not comply with theirs.  This leader also does not see the actions/repercussions that follow these visions.  The members in this group are becoming burnt out because of this resistance to change.  As a leader you need to be able to see beyond “right now” if you want anything to be successful, even though it is comfortable and profitable to you.

There are many organizations, including mine, that are resistant to change because of their habits.  Following traditions, customs, and patterns inhibit groups and organizations from experiencing change.  Especially on Activities Council, we hardly change the schedule for the events happening each semester because we know the events that we have planned before were huge turnouts.  The only events we change are the arts and crafts.  By not spicing our schedule up every semester, we could be hindering our organization, but we will never know unless we stop being driven by our habits.  It would probably be more fun for the workers as well as the students and faculty because it is not the same event all the time.

As you can see change is very hard to do.  Our goal as leaders and in our everyday lives is to try and be more resilient to change.  Now that you have the tools to understand change from an individual perspective, you can create change within your own group or organization.  With these six hypotheses: sacrifice, fear, self-interest, lack of self-confidence, myopia, and habit, you also know how to respond to people’s reactions to change.  You may not always feel change is for the best, but in the end it is ALWAYS for the best!

 

To Whom This May Concern

I am currently near the end of my EDEA 360 (Dynamics of Student Leadership) class at the University of Hawaii.  In the class, we are reading and discussing chapters 11 through 12 in the textbook Exploring Leadership by Susan Komives, Nance Lucas and Timothy McMahon.  This chapter focuses on understanding and creating change amongst groups and society.  I found the sections related to the Relational Leadership Model, from previous chapters, the most relevant and interesting.  “The Eight-Stage Process of Creating major Change”, on page 345, seems like a natural progression for the Relational Leadership Model.  Its author, John Kotter, is a Harvard Business Professor and is regarded as an authority on leadership for change.

This entry will be a continuation of my previous entry regarding group project issues in my class ITM352 (Programming Application Systems in Organizations).  This is the introductory programming class for the College of Business major Management Information Systems.  We have to complete 4 major programming assignments called Assignment 1, 2, 3 and 4 (abbreviated A1, A2, A3 and A4).  After completing A1 to A3, we care currently on A4.  A4 is the largest project by far, both work-wise and team member-wise.  Therefore, A4 requires the greatest amount of team work and collaboration.  There was no preset objective for A4, only that we create an original, realistic website that we would be proud of.

I have assumed the role of project manager & lead visual designer for our team, tasked with the responsibility of planning, executing, and closing our group’s project.  The following will highlight how our group worked in relation to the “The Eight-Stage Process of Creating major Change”.

1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency: The major urgency our group faces are the deadlines the professor of the course establishes for the project.  If our group does not perform or fails to meet these deadlines, our group’s collective grade will suffer.  To create an additional sense of urgency to motivate the team, I create a list of milestones and mini-deadlines for each group member.  Due to the larger scale of the project, work had to be divided, leaving everyone with separate objectives.  I tried as best as possible to synchronies the work of different group members so that related objective due dates could coincide.
2. Creating the Guiding Coalition: I created my group mostly through a relational method, either through working with them in previous projects or simply getting to know them throughout the semester.  Although I was critical some team members in my previous blog; I believe it is wiser to enter a situation where one knows what to expect, rather than entering a situation blind.  Because of this, I was pretty certain of the strengths and weaknesses of most of my group before we even started work on the project.
3. Developing Vision and Strategy: We all entered the project with different ideas as to what kind of website we were going to make.  Through a group meeting we settled on making a website where users could share information.  Due to our status as students at UH, we decided to make a website to help students.  We were considered making a website which would help students study, but Laulima already covers that area.  So we decided to create a site that would help students pick out their classes, by allowing users to share opinions about classes through our site.  Overall, this process was very collaborative and trouble free.
4. Communicating the Change Vision: Several vehicles were used to keep everyone updated on changes to the project.  Due to our different schedules, physical meetings were very difficult.  To compensate for this we opted to make use of other forms of communication, through email, instant messaging, telephone calls etc.
5. Empowering Broad-Based Action: Project guidelines were changed several times due to limitations in knowledge and time.  We wanted to work on something simpler we could all do well, rather than something complex that we would all have a hard time understanding.  Through these changes the team became more confident in the overall progression and objectives of the project.
6. Generating Short Term Wins: The milestone format established in step one made every milestone a mini-achievement.  When everyone completed their milestone a part of the project would come to fruition.  Therefore, short terms wins were very satisfying, as progress was clearly visible.
7. Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change: We are currently at this strange.  We are seeking way we could improve our project after we had our group’s presentation.  We are currently seeking improvement advice from third parties and making adjustments as we see fit.  If the deadline was not so near, we could probably further develop certain skill sets within our group to make the project even more expansive.
8. Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture: Hypothetically, if our product made to the final stage and saw actual customer interaction, we would make additional changes.  The people to go to visit websites are cultures in themselves.  Human interaction with websites creates a whole new venue of needs and requirements that the development team would probably have to work on.

Of all the projects I’ve completed this semester, this one is probably the only one that stressed all of the skill sets I learned in EDEA360.  It required the Relational Leadership Model, understanding others, working in teams and finally understanding how to create change.  I guess what I learned from this simulation as a software engineer project manager is how much work the leadership position requires.  Doing things such as gathering requirements, keeping a schedule, planning presentations and constantly explaining the same things over and over can get tiresome.  At times it felt like I was alone in caring about strategic vision of the project, because at time most group members seemed to be only concerned with their individual parts.  In the end, it was satisfying to see our collective pieces of the puzzle come together to form a functioning model of our intended vision.  I would sum this project up by saying it was tiresome yet satisfying.  I never would have thought I would be the one leading this project.  I guess if you try, sometimes you just might find, you get what you want.

Shit matters, even if we can’t figure it out, even if we are ruled by devils, even if my days don’t mean anything.  I just hope I die while hugging, and not in a wine drinking contest”   -Baby Cakes

 

Conflict May Be Just What’s Needed

The four stages Scott Peck has identified in true, authentic community development are pseudo-community, chaos, realization of personal barriers, and group conflict.  These four different stages are common in community building.

Recognizing these stages will help groups plan for interventions within almost a community.  Planning interventions are done by groups of people who try to establish change in social, economic, cultural and environmental situations. When there are problems in the organization itself, how can effective change truly take place?

Empowering members to establish change within a community stems from the understanding of Peck’s stages. Through informal networking, understanding of differences and conflict resolving community developers encourage open participation from its members both in and out of the community. When the problem exists internally, surely the community they serve will thus inherit the same or similar types of problems. Getting members to participate and talk about issues they have on a personal level is important because only then can the group function to its best abilities.

Pseudo-community is a stage where everything seems copasetic in the group but the reality of this term is the community or group is doing its best to avoid conflict. Avoiding conflict can result in issues getting so bad that resolving the conflict becomes overwhelming. I believe community members in Wahiawa realize there is an existing problem with drug abuse in our community, but while attending its neighborhood board meeting, no one stood up to address this problem. This makes me feel our community members seem to ignore what is happening around us. The reality of drug abuse in any community affects everyone who lives in there.

More community members need to get involved, speak up, and complain about this problem so it can be addressed on a larger scale. Ignoring the topic only allows the problem to get worse. Peck’s describes his second stage as chaos. This is when the group begins to move into planning but differences of opinions start emerging. If a groups goals and expectations are not clear, these differences can create progress to be delayed or even halted. Chaos gives a group a chance to work through its problems. It sends a group in a pretty clear direction once the issues have been ironed out.

Confrontation is healthy in groups. It allows for freedom of choice. It allows people to protest for personal and social justice. Confrontation at times helps everyone be part of the wanted change even if it may seem like arguing or fighting at the time.  Conflict in community groups and social issues are a natural part of change and fundamental to a democratic society. Conflict stirs up emotions and it empowers people to stand up for what they believe in. Conflict helps community members to be more passionate about their community’s problems.  Personal experience and values shape conflict. It is extremely hard to maintain a neutral position to any particular issue when conflict is present. 

            In Pecks third stage, the process of personal values becomes important. Values are learned behavior; however like many cognitive behaviors, they can be changed and replaced with new or different ones.  For the new behavior to take place, one needs to look deep within them and have options to their existing behavior in order to change it.  When relating pseudo-community to my example of drug abuse in the community of Wahiawa, I cannot help but to imagine all the community members who are in denial that this problem even exists. Ignorance can be considered a value. I think many people would say we do not need a treatment center in our own backyards. However, the values I believe in are compassion, caring, duty, helping, and public service say we do. People who are in denial or are ignorant to the problem may not share the same values as I do. Values like accountability, authority, community, reputation, and merit support my wanting to address this community issue but the pseudo-community peck writes about stands in the way.  Caring takes action on one’s part. I think many people say they care about drug addicts and certain social issues, but they do very little to help change the existing paradigm of distancing themselves. If every one of us in our class can empowered just one human being, those people will be in a position to empower others. My thinking is if empowerment could only spread across the world; imagine what kind of world this would be?  I believe that it is better to help somebody up when they’re down, so they can pick themselves up to one day do the same for others. Many people are interested in problems that may affect them and their community but they do very little to improve the situation.

 I ask all of you after reading this blog to go out and empower others. Do not fall victim to pseudo-community in your groups, create as much chaos needed to achieve your group’s goals, and never be afraid of the conflict chaos will cause, for it is best to address our differences and allow our groups to function as a true, authentic community.

 

Assessment leads to effectiveness… by Justin Smith

When you hear the word “community” what image arises at the forefront of your mind’s eye?  Is it a neighborhood of two story houses with white picket fences surrounding children tossing a football in the yard, while others ride their bike in the driveway?  Is it a religious group united by common beliefs and practices?

Three years ago, unbeknownst to me, I found myself stumbling upon a community.  One early morning, as I arose from my slumber, I was overcome by an urge to purchase a motorcycle.  I don’t know if it was the suppressed rebel in me, but this desire could only be quenched by the thrill of the ride.  I enrolled myself in a safety class, earned my license, and before I knew it, I was on the road cruising.  It was only a matter of hours before I noticed that, literally, every motorcycle rider that passed by extended their left arm to the ground.  Perplexed by this action, my mind raced with possible hypotheses.  I discovered that my motorcycle was more than just entertainment but was a ticket into a community, and in this community, members greeted one other with this salute.

Are these 3 vivid images depictions of that which can be defined as community?  Community, defined by Komives, Lucas, and McMahon, is “a collection of individuals who accomplish their goals through trust and teamwork…and a commitment to some level of participation by community members.”  Gardner expounds on this traditional view through these eight elements:
1.    Wholeness incorporating diversity
2.    A shared culture
3.    Good internal communication
4.    Caring, trust, and teamwork
5.    Group maintenance and governance
6.    Participation and shared leadership tasks
7.    Development of young people [or new members]
8.    Links with the outside world.

Encountering these eight elements of community motivated me to exam FUSE, a religious club based at UH Manoa, which I am the president of, in hopes of increasing the organization’s effectiveness through these eight spheres of assessment.  The organization has been in existence for 3 years developing a foundation of caring, trust and teamwork (Sphere 4) based on shared beliefs, goals and culture (Sphere 2).  Depth in relationship amongst leadership has directly affected participation and shared leadership tasks (Sphere 6) positively, encouraging and maintaining involvement across the board.  Fuse exists to impact the campus with the love of God through service and spirituality directly linking its effectiveness to the “outside world” (Sphere 8).  The club has seen steady growth and buy-in from the student body, and has consequently implemented a leadership development course (Sphere 7).

With this constant influx of new members, the leadership team of Fuse has struggled with internal communication (Sphere 3).  Although communication amongst leaders has remained strong, the lines between leadership and members need immediate attention.  Group maintenance and governance (Sphere 5) has also been difficult in this season with the steady flow of new members in and old members out.  I believe this struggle will be alleviated as internal communication is established.  Sphere 1, incorporating diversity, is something that Fuse continues to pursue as we seek to expand beyond that which is comfortable to reach the campus without favoritism or bias.

I challenge every leader to use Gardner’s 8 elements of community to assess their group because I believe that as they acquire an accurate gauge of their community a positive impact on effectiveness is guaranteed, and together we can change the world.

 

Setting Goals…important to one’s organization – Marc Arakaki

Establishing goals in an organization is very important toward achieving it and its focus on the over-arching picture. That picture is the organization’s vision and establishing its goals is one step toward achieving its vision. In chapter seven, Parker has proposed a framework used to establish an organization’s goals.

That framework uses the word “SMART.” Every letter in that word stands for a step in the process. The first letter S stands for specific. The goal that your organization selects must be specific and clear for everyone. The next letter M stands for measurable. The goal that your organization uses must be measurable so that your organization knows if they have achieved it or not, and if they are getting close to achieving it.

The next letter A stands for attainable. The goal must be reachable and realistic. If it’s not realistic, then it makes no sense for the organization to try anymore. The letter R stands for relevant. The goal must be relevant to the organization. If the organization is about helping animals and their goal is to fix a building in the city; that is not relevant to the organization. The last letter T stands for time-bound. It’s important for the goal to have a set time frame for when the goal will be achieved. If not, then the organization could be working unnecessarily.

In my organization, we were working on setting goals for our marching band season.  Especially in marching band, it is important to set goals because there are so many steps involved. This is a good situation to apply Parker’s “SMART” framework. I applied Parker’s framework to determine our overarching goal, when are good dates to set as stepping stones throughout the season.

Our goal throughout the first part of our season was when to learn and plot each of our three songs in our Tower of Power Marching Band Show.

This is when I applied Parker’s framework. We decided to set our goal as to plot the first song in two rehearsals; then use the third rehearsal to clean it up. Then plot the last number in two more rehearsals then to clean it up in another rehearsal. Because the second song is a dance number and we don’t march, we just needed to stand still and play music for that. If we were to learn the show in that amount of time, we would have five more rehearsals to clean it up and make it look good for our Rainbow Invitational.

To evaluate if this was a good goal that we set, I first evaluated if this goal was specific or not. I realized that the goal was specific because it stated to the amount of rehearsals when we would get it done. It wasn’t cloudy. It had the exact number of rehearsals and what was to be done. Then I evaluated to see if the goal was measurable. The goal was measurable because in the end we could see if we learned it on time and if we had some time to clean it up. Then I saw if the goal was attainable or not. The goal was attainable because we had experience learning shows before and it was very realistic.

Then I had to evaluate to see if the goal was relevant. The goal was absolutely relevant because we are a marching band and had to learn the marching band show on time. Finally I had to see if the goal was time-bound. The goal was time-bound because it was stated in a certain number of rehearsals. We rehearse on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so it was very clear on when we had to learn the show by.

This is the goal. To have everyone look and move together. Setting and achieving goals will help us to look like that.

It is very important to set goals for your organization and this is a good way to evaluate if your goals are appropriate. This model by Parker really helped me to keep my organization on task and helped us to focus on our vision.

I chose to use this last picture because there are many steps to achieve the goal and using Parker’s framework will help to build the pieces to the puzzle.