A633.5.3.RB - Reflection on Chaos

The chaos game was very surprising, to say the least. Initially when I thought about it as the facilitator was explaining the instructions I couldn’t have imagined that the team would have been able to do it any faster than 5 minutes. The instructions were simple, but given the variables and how many people there were, it seemed impossible to do in the first place, much less in under a minute.

What this means to me and the impact that it has on my understanding of the chaos theory is that if teams are given clear instructions and parameters to work within, the outcome of their work may be quite surprising. However, I can relate to this chaos game and the results of it, as the manager that I have now leads using a very simple approach: educates, sets clear expectations, and holds people accountable. The educating and setting clear expectations part of his leadership approach is very similar to the facilitator giving the instructions to the members of his team and setting the parameters by which the game will be played. What makes this even more interesting is that my peers are given instructions and expectations, just as I am, but we are all driving business metrics and focus areas while working with one another and staying consistent with how we lead our teams. Much like the players in the chaos game have to adjust when their focus areas adjust, we also have to do the same with the multitude of variables in the workplace. The funny thing is we manage to work on our own, meet the goals, and do it in a timely manner without someone taking the role as the lead.

The implications that this game has on strategy is that is forces leaders to take a different approach with the way that we lead our teams, especially in today’s workplace where the dynamics are much different than they were just a decade ago. It also means that strategy on the lower levels of organization has been proven to be successful, and if left to figure something out, employees will tailor the strategy that they have based on the parameters and instructions given to them from their leadership. I am positive that not everyone in the game had the same strategy in mind when starting, and some of them took a different approach to ensure that they met the goals while following the parameters and instructions. I think that is why organizations are performing at a higher level now, because leaders are acting more as coaches and facilitators, rather than micro managing every little process and move made by an employee. The authoritative and direct approach to leadership is still present in today’s workplace, but the more cross-functional and flat organizations are slowly taking over. 

A633.4.3.RB - Changing Dynamics of Leadership

Leadership is becoming more and more dynamic every day. In today’s workforce the role of a leader is much different than it was a few decades ago, mainly because of the changes organizations are going through to stay competitive and keep employees performing at a very high level. I believe the three biggest contributors of this revolve around change: change in organizational culture, change in industry competition, and change in the workforce.

Employees expect organizations to support them in different capacities today, and different motivational factors have to be used to keep employees performing. The change in the makeup and structure of the workforce, along with the need to support a healthy culture are helping to drive this change in leadership. Organizations are becoming diverse enough that leaders have to formulate strategies to satisfy the needs and wants of their employees while meeting the goals of the company. In addition, several industries are becoming competitive, forcing additional responsibilities and unique roles on leaders today. This places leaders in positions of constant change within their organizations. My organization is certainly going through changes like these right now. The retail industry is highly competitive, so leaders are being tasked to take on larger, more integrated teams, along with the entire organization going through constant change in processes and practices.

Leadership dynamics have to be altered to help facilitate and promote change within organizations. This change could come in the form of structure and leadership responsibilities, or it could be in the form of compliance practices for the USDA. Either way, leaders in any capacity will be tasked to help lead employees through this change, from the bottom up. In addition, the ideas generated to drive the strategies needed to help organizations stay competitive will come from lower level employees. This is because they have the continuity, consistency, and knowledge to drive the business forward, and do it in a time frame that the organization needs.

Strategy is going to be absolutely necessary for this change. For example, a change within an organization could represent something significant for employees, so the strategy needed for communication, processes, involvement, etc., could be different than what is was in the past, based on employee culture, tenure, and acceptance level. The ideas could be generated from the bottom level of the organizations, but the strategy behind the ideas has to come from the leadership level to be successful.

A633.2.3.RB - Butterfly Effect

The butterfly effect is something that has fascinated me since I started in a leadership position several years ago. I remember making a small change to my daily routine and seeing the impact it had on employee satisfaction and organizational culture. Because of this, I am a firm believer in testing small changes in the workplace to prove their overall effectiveness.

In a recent experience with the butterfly effect, the team that I work within posted a tracker on one of the organization’s folders to hold managers accountable to certain routines and practices. This was never posted to a public place before, and before it was posted the building was being scored “red” in several areas of operational effectiveness. Since posting it to a place where the results are pronounced and made public, performance has improved by 8% in the last 8 weeks and engagement and performance with the building’s compliance practices have improved by 5%. The small change will continue to help in these areas and also help with accountability.

In another recent example our team initiated a new process that would help with quality within our building. It represented a small change for those actually doing it, taking an extra 15-30 minutes of their time throughout the day to help complete the process with the help of someone else from another department. This small change has helped decrease the amount of defects per million by 9% in just one week, without the team members ever really thinking about the small amount of extra work put into it every day.

The complexity theory represents competition and progress within my organization. For example, the routines we build, the processes we establish, the culture we maintain, and the reputation that we have all stems from the complexity theory. What appears to be chaos and complexity to some is actually everything the company wants it to be with order to it. This complexity is what helps with strategy within our organization as it forces us to take necessary steps to stay competitive. The complexity of our industry and the customers we cater to causes us to think outside the box to maintain our success. If we use the complexity theory as a gauge of how to drive performance, we will constantly be looking to evolve and change into something better, through culture, processes, practices, and strategy.

A633.1.2.RB - Leadership Gap

Before joining the workforce in a professional capacity, I knew very little of the term leadership as applied to the workplace. I assumed leading people was a skill that could be learned through school, much like the skills and knowledge that an engineer develops in an undergraduate program. I was sadly mistaken shortly after being thrown into a leadership position while in the military in a war zone. I soon realized that leadership was something much more difficult than I could have ever imagined, and I feel the same way about the topic today. I have a deep respect for those who can empower others to do something greater, making themselves and those below them better at what they do.

There is a changing trend in the way leaders are viewed. In today’s workforce it is not strange to see young leaders in roles with great responsibility. This is because of the dynamics of leadership roles and the education programs that support these dynamics in the workplace. This was not as common even a decade ago when the workforce had less formal education and managers earned their position through years of work in lower level positions. The responsibilities that leaders now have are much more involved in the operations, the people, and the development of others. A narrow job description for leaders in today’s workplace is absolutely the exception and not the rule.

I think that this attitude toward leaders has evolved because the role of the leader has changed so much in the last few decades. Leadership programs in educational institutions get more attention than ever, leaders are being tasked to develop their peers and those below them, and they are being challenged with possessing technical skills in addition to human skills. I believe that leadership roles are merging and will continue to do so. There are fewer organizations with technical and developmental leaders, as most are migrating toward merging the two into one powerful leader.

I believe there is a gap in the quality of our leaders because the expectations of a great leader are outpacing the actual abilities and knowledge of great leaders. The current workforce of leaders is also mixed between a generation that has a plethora of experience and virtually no education with a generation that has education but almost no real world experience. One way to help bridge this gap would be to ensure each leader across the major organizations is trained consistently with processes and education that have proven to be effective in the leadership realm. People expect some consistencies across leadership, but this does not always happen as every organization is different in what they request from a leader, and these leaders change their style based on this. There has to be some consistency in the way we approach and lead our workforce.  

References:

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2009/ca20091214_346828.htm

A634.9.5.RB - A Reflection of Learning

The course proved to be very beneficial in several ways and offered dozens of lessons that can be applied to my professional and personal life. The three lessons that I thought to be the most impactful were ethical relativism, moral speculations, and slippery slope arguments.

Ethical relativism helped me understand the implications of adopting one moral code, and highlighted the moral and ethical differences between cultures, religions, countries, etc. It helped me become more open minded toward the subject and offered insight on the arguments for or against relativism. Learning about moral speculations and the factors that alter our moral expectations were also new material which could help me better evaluate and understand people better from a moral standpoint, and possibly understand an organization better as well. Slippery slope arguments are something that I hear and say quite often, but arguments that I did not know that much about. The logic of these arguments and impacts they have are quite substantial, and living on slippery slopes could prevent someone from truly living to their fullest potential because it reinforces comfort and safety for an individual.

The topics described above were the most interesting, and in my opinion, the most beneficial in the course. I feel that the course was value added and helped equip me with the tools I need to help lead others in and out of the workplace from a moral standpoint. I also feel that it will help me understand others better and make more moral and ethical decisions because I have more knowledge and understand the impacts better. I think that real world scenarios and training would prove to be very beneficial for the students of this course, but that’s easier said than done in an online environment. I think that more team activities would help to promote learning as students have different opinions about the subject, and merging these opinions into something productive and positive is somewhat challenging. Overall, I thought the class was helpful and value added. I fear that courses like these could be offered more with the workplace transitioning from managers to leaders. 

A634.8.3.RB - Gun Control: What is the Answer?

The ethics behind gun ownership, in my opinion, revolve around the individual. I do think that individuals should have the option of owning guns. The reason being is that guns are purchased for several different reasons, with hunting being a very popular one. With that being said, would it be ethical to prohibit the sale of hunting guns because of what people may do with the rifle that does not involve hunting? I don’t think so. In this country we cannot prohibit the sale or use of something because of the fear associated with misusing it. And I don’t think it would be very practical to prohibit the sale of certain types of firearms either, as they can all be used for different activities. Handguns can be used on the range for fun or in the home for self-defense, rifles can be used for just about anything, semi-automatic firearms are a bit more aggressive but can still be used for recreational purposes.

The argument that guns should not be legal because they can be used the wrong way can be applied to other laws in our country. For example, alcohol consumption is legal for anyone over 21 years of age, but alcohol poisoning can kill a person and drunk driving has proved to be a problem in our country (Banks, 2013). Just because someone can kill someone else while driving drunk, or even kill themselves from alcohol poisoning, does that mean we should ban alcohol consumption?

Arguments for gun control include making our country safer, exercising a right that was established more than a century ago, and creating security and comfort for families and individuals. Those who argue against it state that guns create more homicides, assault weapons are not used for sport, and most gun incidents involve firearms that are sold legally. There are too many variables that play into both sides of the argument. There is no data out there to support the claims from either side because the laws in our country have never been consistent enough, or followed enough to support these claims. It is hard to say whether or not gun control will make our country safer. A good example may be to look at countries that do not support gun use and their crime rates. However, these countries enforce strict punishments for broken laws, which is the opposite of justice system because some states have very relaxed gun laws.

Only the individual will know if they are truly buying a gun for its intended purpose, whether that be hunting, self-defense, recreation, and so on. No legal gun sales are made with the intention of selling a gun to an individual for the purpose of harming another individual, just like no alcohol sales are made with the intention of the buyer driving drunk and causing bodily harm to someone else. There is also no accurate way to track the safety of the arguments for or aginst gun control. The ethics lie solely on the individuals purchasing them and selling them, not on those controlling the sale or prohibition of them.

References:

Banks, J. (2013). Gun control debate: the argument that every gun owner needs to start making. PolicyMic. Retrieved from http://www.policymic.com/articles/72067/gun-control-debate-the-argument-that-every-gun-owner-needs-to-start-making

634.7.4.RB - Ethics and Behaviors

Target has several values that it embraces and promotes in the work place, with some of the biggest ones being diversity, a friendly work environment, and community involvement (mission & values, n.d.). These values are what drive everyday business decisions and keep a team of more than 360,000 team members happy and challenged.

Diversity is very important at Target. The organization values differences in the workplace and ensures that every team member, regardless of race, religion, gender, etc., feel valued. One of the biggest ways they promote this is by organizing diversity teams in each store, distribution center, or headquarter unit to celebrate the differences of each team member. A month ago one of the managers organized an event where we celebrated breast cancer awareness month through team member involvement in community events, along with smaller events inside the distribution center like “pink-out” days.

A friendly work environment is key to success at Target, so they typically go the extra mile to ensure team members are treated with respect, given a chance to succeed and develop themselves, and have fun while working. Our building held several events throughout this past year that helped the workplace more enjoyable, like dunk tank challenges with the executive team, holiday meals, and bowling and basketball tournaments. These events promote friendship and relationships and allow the teams a chance to connect on a personal level, something that is rare in a lot of organizations.

Lastly, Target is extremely proud of its community involvement. They donate 5% of their earnings to the community in some fashion, and thousands of volunteer hours across the country. Target affords employees time to volunteer and coordinates events through local partnerships to allow team members the chance to give back. Some of the programs include 5K and 10K walks and runs that are sponsored by Target, school mentoring programs, educational assistance to local schools, and holiday community programs. My manager is involved so much in the community that he has received several awards for his efforts for the county where are building is located, and is next in line to be the president of the local chamber of commerce.

References:

Missions & values. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corporate.target.com/about/mission-values