Unit 3 Frameworks for Results, Demonstrating Value, Individual Performance Plan and Organizational Structure

Overview

This unit reviews individual performance plans and what is required to work effectively with employees to create opportunities for their future, and help them and the organization move forward together. Individual performance plans are collaborative events where employees and leaders work together to determine best practices for measuring and achieving employee performance goals. It also develops a strong kinship between employees and leaders as they learn to achieve goals together.

We also look at evaluation and measurement. How empowered organizations work to align stakeholder communities and frame results to demonstrate shared value through strong commitment to aligned goals. Evaluation and measurement are central tenets of empowered organizational practice. As we review these practices, you have opportunity to reflect on the practices presented and can determine how to improve those practices to create repeated results and provide stable evaluations of progress.

We also look at the principles and practice associated with the Total Impact Measurement and Management (TIMM) System at Price Waterhouse Coopers. This approach introduces a visually quantitative approach to evaluation and measurement not used regularly by other organizations with their interactions with stakeholders and investors. TIMM is a complex idea for making clear results-oriented reports to assist stakeholders and investors in making the best decisions for their organizational practice and future investment.

Finally, we will review the principles of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a process of review for understanding the values and strengths of team members in the simple through complex work environments we experience. Appreciative Inquiry emphasizes inquiry into strengths, rather than focusing exclusively on fixing weaknesses. Understanding team strengths can meaningfully improve employee and customer satisfaction, organizational cost effectiveness, revenues, profits, and employee engagement, as well as an ability to meet societal needs. By using AI to tap the best potential in organizations, communities, and individuals, everyone can move from a place of trying to deal with weakness to celebrating strength as they work to serve their organization, customer base and personal success more effectively.

Topics

This unit covers the following topics:

  1. Individual Performance Plans
  2. Developing Individual Performance Plans
  3. Reward Framework
  4. Demonstrating Value in Organizational Development
  5. Total Impact Measurement and Management
  6. Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:

  • Describe how Transformational Servant leadership principles intersects with the Service Improvement Flowchart through representative organizational values.
  • Apply the various dimensions of TSL accountability and ethics practice to experiential, case study and theoretical investigations.
  • Compare/Contrast TSL principles with other Leadership Approaches for clarity in understanding results based leadership practice.
  • Analyze organizational structure and leadership approaches to assess impact on organizational best practice for TSL results.

Activity Checklist

Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.

Learning Activities

  • Watch and Reflect: This Learning Activity focuses on value. There are ten videos for your viewing that are all intended to support the way you understand value. Take some time to carefully consider each video and how it ties into the content we have been studying.
  • Watch and Reflect: This Learning Activity will help your understanding of Total Impact Measurement and Management. These two videos explain the concepts discussed in Topic 5. Take some time to carefully consider each video and how it ties into the content we have been studying.
  • Learning Lab Activity: Developing an Individual Performance Plan: This Learning Activity will take place as part of the Learning Lab for this unit. It takes you through the steps of developing an Individual Performance Plan. Take your time working through each one of the steps. Once you have completed this process, you will submit it as part of your Reflective Learning Journal.
  • Learning Lab Activity: Stream/Discipline Specific Measurement Review: This Learning Activity takes place during the Learning Lab for this unit. It expands on the content covered in Topics 4 and 5. As part of this Learning Activity, you will identify some preferable measurements for your stream/discipline/organization and discuss how these measurements are effectively recorded. Take your time working through each one of the steps. Once you have completed this process, you will submit it as part of your Reflective Learning Journal.
  • Learning Lab Activity: Appreciative Inquiry Interview: This Learning Lab Activity will take place during this unit’s Learning Lab. It is designed to help deepen your understanding of Appreciative Inquiry. The exercise provides, insight, reflection opportunity, and action steps to help you understand and practice AI on a practical level within your present organization. Your Facilitator will help organize this Learning Activity.

Assessment

-Unit 3 Assessment: Discussion Question/Reflection Post: The first assessment for Unit 3 will be a post on the discussion forum.Be sure to carefully read through the instructions as you are responsible for completing three separate posts (and responding to your peers). Click on the “Assessment” tab for additional information.
- Unit 3 Assessment: Individual Assignment #1: An outline of this assignment can be found by clicking on the “Assessment” tab. For this assignment, you will be required to watch two videos that explore results-based leadership. After watching the videos, you will be asked to review each organization using the criteria provided in the assignment. Be sure to read through each step carefully. Once you have completed your assignment, you will submit it for grading.

Resources

Important: You need familiarity with core course texts. The course texts listed below are for your daily preparation. Pre-reading course texts, prior to the course start, then re-reading content for each day of assigned reading will deepen understanding of content and allow you to engage materials more completely.

All other text resources for daily reading are available online where you can retrieve them on the Unit page where the reading is required for completion to fulfill learning outcomes for the unit.

Here are the required resources you will need to complete this unit:

  • Delahaye Paine, K. (2011). Measure What Matters: Online Tools for Understanding Customers, Social Media Engagement, and Key Relationships. - Read Chapters 4, 5 & 11
  • Eurich, T. (2013). Bankable leadership: Happy people, bottom- line results, and the power to deliver both. - Read Part 2
  • Friedman, Mark (2005). Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough. How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities - Read Chapters 5 & 6
  • Ulrich, D., Smallwood, N., (2013). Leadership Sustainability: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the Changes Great Leaders Know They Must Make - Read Chapters 3 & 6

3.1 Individual Performance Plans (IPP)

We begin Unit 3 by introducing the idea of Individual Performance Plans. Individual Performance Plans focus on working with employees to create opportunities for the future, to help them, and the organization, develop together.

Individual performance plans, require both employer and employee to commit to a number of things to assist in the process.

  1. Provide a job description for employees to review.
  2. Listen to specifics related to the job description and focus on where the organization requires specific results.

Note: Do not just present a general or vague job description, or have areas where measures are left uncertain or blank. It is important for everyone to be as specific as possible to ensure the process is successful for everyone involved.

It is imperative for Individual Performance Plans to include a job description. The job description is necessary for reviewing specific employee performance regarding results the organization needs them to accomplish and what measuring is required for meeting organizational goals and performance. Using Individual Performance Plans allows employers to be more specific, and dig deeper, with expectations to make sure the things in the job description are focused. Ultimately, the specific details of this plan require clarity and understanding as employer and employee work to develop an effective performance plan.

By following this overview, you allow employees to work with employers to develop a plan for describing the results they plan to obtain in the performance plan, as it describes the expected standards of performance based on company needs.

3.2 Developing Individual Performance Plans

Next, we turn our focus to understanding how we, as leaders, can implement a strategy to effectively implement a framework to create Individual Performance Plans with employees. This section outlines some steps you can follow as you begin the collaborative process.

Initial Meeting

As you begin the process, it is a good idea to focus employee/organizational progress. To achieve this, you can proceed by:

  1. Asking the employee for three to five action points (maximum) to provide a framework for specific goals so you can work through goals to assist with achieving them over the time set for evaluation.
  2. Ask leadership to develop a plan for employees to work towards for obtaining results.

Working together in the meeting, an employee and organizational leader’s can agree upon working on three to five focus points to help them make progress towards collaboratively determined performance goals.

If you match up goals by stating secondary points needing discussion, and working through discussion together, the discussion can include points the employee or leadership missed to identify necessary performance requirements. This allows everyone to develop effective talking points to complete the agreed upon performance plan.

Development Meeting

Following an initial meeting, where performance goals are set, you will want to arrange a development meeting to seek out, and provide insight, into how the organization can help employees achieve set goals. This meeting should be cordial and friendly, creating an atmosphere of support and an environment for growth and development. Do not assume employees are getting to where they need to be, nor assume employees are meeting created agreed upon goals. When you meet with your employee:

  1. List the specific actions you expect the employee to perform as outlined in the job description and to meet the results the organization needs them to accomplish.
  2. Tie the job description to required, and expected, results.

These components allow employees see an important aspect of why they are employed and why it is important for them to achieve agreed upon goals, what they need to do in achieving those goals, and why you are interested in supporting them.

During your meeting:

  1. Adjust targets as necessary where overreaching or excessively optimistic goals are evident.
  2. Remember it’s a discussion – not a directive meeting.

Sometimes when goals are unduly optimistic, you need to adjust targets to keep goals in reach and allow employees to reach them.

It is okay to increase expectations, but remember, awareness of what you are trying to accomplish also requires setting realistic timelines and requires regular review depending on the goals and/or the complexity set - this includes timing for measuring agreed upon goals accurately. Timing can include review after three months, six months, or as far as a year. As long as the timeframe represents a realistic opportunity to meet the goals set. Checkup meetings between hard review dates can also be set to see how things are going and determine progress, even though changes in the plan should not occur until the agreed timelines.

In your meeting, you also need to look at the results metrics. Questions to consider include:

  1. What have you accomplished so far?
  2. What have you done in the past (days, weeks, months) to accomplish our agreed upon goals?
  3. How did you achieve those goals?
  4. Did you experience any hindrances to hold you back from achieving agreed upon goals?

These are important considerations. Clarification of goals and timelines and staying on top of the performance process will help employees, and leadership, ensure goals align with agreed upon timelines and standards.

3.3 Reward Framework

To keep employees and leadership accountable for fulfilling the individual performance plan, tying successful performance to a variety of awards for meeting or surpassing agreed upon performance markers is important, as well as successfully completing measures within set frameworks related to the targets. This can take the form of:

  1. Pay Raises
  2. Positional Title Changes
  3. Creating an Employee of the Month Award.
  4. Formal recognition of employees for meeting goals or helping the organization improve performance in specific ways.

Any one of these is important, but awards need clear presentation times - uncertainty does not build effective performance responses.

It is also critical that you identify rewards clearly. The larger the recognition, the greater the appreciation. Consider how you offer a reward before you go into the IPP meeting. Keep things focused, and clear, through the process. Having employees interpret their own level of reward for performance can be disastrous to the relationship between employee and leadership, as well increase the level of disappointment felt if the reward does not meet the expectations built up in the employee’s mind.

If employees believe they will get a large monetary reward or a brand new something, from a tablet to a car, when only receiving a corporate cup, certificate or plaque, it can be detrimental to the IPP process. Paying attention to rewards, and your communication of what they are, is important in effectively communicating reward structures in the IPP process.

You also need to arrange a follow-up meeting after the initial meeting to review progress and determine necessary adjustments for ensuring successful follow-through of collaborative goals and supports. Arranging the follow-up meeting at a mutually agreed upon time and place will help employees, and leadership, know to anticipate and prepare for it and allow them to work towards this date.

It is also important to design follow-up meetings to review progress. This meeting is not to call out employee behavior, though it can be a discussion point related to fulfilling performance goals. The focus needs to be on reviewing progress and asking how leadership can help meet intended goals, as well as how employees intend to complete those goals, both as a checkup and a check-in to discuss any challenges they face, if falling behind. Use the meeting to determine necessary adjustments and for meeting corporate and personal targets.

Like the initial meeting, it is important to be clear about the discussion and measures you focus on. Do not approach the discussions in the meeting with suggesting you’ll see how it goes. This can lead to employees falling farther behind and the process turning into a retributory meeting versus a developmental one. You want to ensure successful follow-through of goals and supports. Otherwise, these meetings become redundant, making them meetings people are not interested in because nothing concrete comes out of them. Meetings must help improve employee and corporate performance.

This is where an IPP has its greatest strength. Follow-up meetings allow review of progress and determines necessary adjustments for ensuring success and following through to achieve agreed upon goals and supports. This allows everyone in the process to stay on track and feel like they are moving forward, with mutually supportive leadership and employee efforts supporting performance goals focusing on mutual efforts for creating successful opportunities.

Demonstrating value for the future is not a gift - it is an achievement. Demonstrating value by planning and working through a purposeful plan isn’t accomplished by sitting by and waiting for results to appear. It requires an intentional performance plan process, through directive and collaborative effort from employees and leadership aiming to accomplish measured personal and corporate success.

3.4 Demonstrating Value in Organizational Development

Looking at evaluation and measurement, working to aligning a stakeholder’s community and framed results, demonstrates value as commitments to aligned goals empowers organizations committed to these practices. We don’t find success by hoping results meet values. Mission, vision and values need intentional alignment with what we believe. We need to begin by looking at our progress and measuring results, so values align. Measuring and demonstrating our values needs to occur through what we achieve, not the other way around.

Hoping we achieve our values because of what we measure, and report, is ineffective. We need to measure what we value instead of valuing only what we can measure. When we look at practicing values, we need to ask ourselves:

  1. Can we measure results so we report values clearly and effectively?
  2. Can results provide a clear snapshot or picture of where we are going and where we are coming from, so everyone sees values clearly, as we move forward with the results we measure?

We need a clear relationship with the values set. We need to learn to share targets transparently, as a team, and clearly in the public realm. Raising the bar to share targets and develop best practices together creates a positive environment for moving toward our goals and focusing on results. It doesn’t happen by accident, but we share key performance indicators and targets, to outline the path for getting there.

Taking these steps ensures everyone has opportunity to build the confidence necessary to get on track or have a solution for aligning with stated values. Having these discussions transparently, understanding and relying on real evidence, supports our value proposition, versus smoke and mirrors responses.

Setting goals, means we are always acting within our values to stay on track and see the fruit of success. Setting values laden goals is intentional. Not measuring makes sure nothing is on track, targets go unshared, and unexamined values in the process do not help. Nobody looks at what we need to maintain values with the targets and focus on accomplishing those goals within clearly defined values. Ignoring values usually means everyone is keeping effectively measured goals and values close to the chest and hidden away from review. This prevents outside insight into what we accomplish and how far away, or close they are to fulfilling goals inside the espoused values grid.

Letting outside eyes look at what you plan brings a level of critique or affirmation to planned outcomes and organizational values. This leads to everyone knowing what to measure, what to accomplish what measures are established within the stated values. This provides a healthy approach to goal attainment and successfully measuring values practice. Doing what you say you will do, and being upfront about values, practices and goals, speaks not only to what you measure, but your values and integrity as well.

Being transparent and acting with integrity allows you to interpret evidence within a values base by using data related to evidence-based inquiry. This underscores a basic plan for going forward, so we understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it when we look at a result. Values help us make important decisions, such as not inflating possible results, reporting numbers for what they are, and measuring values based on what we say we’re going to do and holding to it.

We need to meet challenges better. If we miss targets, then scramble to create evidence, our values suffer along with targets. Making metrics meaningful and sustainable, we end up using less time on analysis versus doing more to accomplish goals.

Measuring and reporting values laden meanings requires making metrics related to goals so they are meaningful and sustainable. Knowing what we need to do and what we don’t need to do. This is where many people decide on their goal. They are going to meet it, but they do not take care of the values driving them.

Campbell’s Law

Campbell’s Law provides some cautionary considerations when looking at metrics. Take a moment to read through this important warning:

Looking at Campbell’s law, we face an important caution for looking at metrics. Quantitative indicators used for social decision-making, reduces subjectivity. The more subjective, the greater chance for it to succumb to corruption pressures. This distorts and corrupts the social processes intended for monitoring. The warning in Campbell’s Law suggests not abandoning standardized assessments and accountability, but rather doing a better job of protecting ourselves against manipulation and distortion. Holding to the important things is essential to fulfilling valid goals and marking best practices in fulfillment of those goals.

This is something we need to do. Looking at people impacts, we need to ask whether data changes minds, and if it changes minds, we need to ask questions to help make sure we’re not losing sight of the important things. As a learning organization, we need to ask ourselves whether we have the correct attitude to ensure those leaders are focused and productive with clear and transparent evidence based on real time support, not extrapolated, suggested or imaginary. Making sure we do the right thing at the right time is central to effective practice.

A commitment to values and purposeful planning goes hand in hand. It fits well into the process of ethical change and directs goals for organizational measurement to ensure everyone’s focus remains on what is important and not simply on the easiest path for success.

Learning Activity: Hans Rosling Video Series

The Hans Rosling video series helps us understand the importance of metrics and identify what we value. The video series takes about two and one half hours to get through, but as you look at them, you will begin to see why it is important to keep your data clear and understandable, so people do not lose sight of what they are trying to accomplish.

Hans Rosling Video Series - Click to Expand
  1. Watch: Hans Rosling Q & A Video
  1. Watch: Asia’s Rise - How and When
  1. Watch: Global Population Growth
  1. Watch: Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset
  1. Watch: New Insights on Poverty
  1. Watch: Religions and Babies
  1. Watch: The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen
  1. Watch: The Good News of the Decade…?
  1. Watch: HIV: New Facts and Stunning Data Visuals
  1. Watch: The Magic Washing Machine

3.5 Total Impact Measurement and Management

In Topic 5, we will be exloring the The Total Impact Measurement and Management (TIMM) System (adopted by Price Waterhouse Coopers) as an idea for measuring and determining whether it works for measuring and examining an organization.

Looking at things differently, getting the answers we need, and what to decide, is a key metric for Price Waterhouse Cooper. TIMM operates counter clockwise and differently than a typical circular patterned system. They see business as central to what they are doing; therefore, whatever they do with investments or management, deciding where people invest or how they invest, they look at their businesses as a central focus, looking at shareholder and society value for their business. The image below helps to better understand:

Looking at traditional models of value creation, with inputs and outputs linking business to shareholder value creation helps emphasize the business plan and everything the company does. Working without a method to quantify value is foreign to company practice and may not allow managers to demonstrate value back to shareholders. Systems communicate value and result. When value is not there, systems cannot work as intended and the organization floats without effective method development.

As the Price Waterhouse Cooper business model suggests, the business actually reports success as a value to stakeholders and society, so it continues to justify investments and the things the business accomplishes. Some practices relate to how they implement TIMM. Practices include social, environmental, economic and tax impacts or total gross output, while focusing on thoughts and ideas for defining scope.

What’s the Objective?

The objective of TIMM is to gauge long-term sustainability of strategy to determine right choices for stakeholders. Demonstrating what affects the business needs to include time frames. Each part of the value chain is important. Looking at the scope of what they measure may end up measuring everything versus measuring incremental parts adding up to the whole.

The value dimension, how values impact the value chain, requires mapping total impact and understanding each methodology. They need to assess data so they do not just leave it to some number cruncher to send them things that defining value dimensions. Every measurement needs a defined dimension of value where everyone knows what it means and why it is important to collect existing data.

What Information Can The Business Provide?

There is a significant amount of information available within existing corporate systems. Information about employment, tax payments and resource use allows for cost ratio analyses on a number of things. Measurement of the total output and how it is effective for stakeholders and your social values requires sourcing new data.

Data answers the questions about the additional information needed, and how the organization generates it. Additional information sources externally from suppliers for targeted evaluations to define community well-being. How new data affects community attitude by the way we measure total impact.

Measurement management can make a big difference. In the activity below, we ask you to watch some videos so you can begin to see how TIMM can work in your organization. Reviewing the videos will help you to see how the analysis of data and its value impact occurs. A value impact puts an economic and social impact on the values and business assessments over time.

This involves using techniques like economic and process modeling to estimate impacts, valuation and monetizes each. When you are measuring or making something intangible into something with tangible value, you need to measure your progress as you move along. You can not leave it in the theoretical realm through the process.

Learning Activity: Total Impact Measurement and Management

To support your understanding of Total Impact Measurement and Management, take a few moments to watch the following videos. These videos are intended to help your understanding of this new approach to organizational decision-making. Pay particular attention to how it allows companies to take a holistic view of their impacts and contributions across social, environmental, tax and economic measures. This, ultimately, helps organizations optimize their decision-making. Take a look:

Watch: Total Impact Measurement and Management

Watch:Total Impact Measurement and Management

3.6 Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Principles Overview

In our final section for this unit, we introduce Appreciative Inquiry as a process of inquiry to focus attention on appreciating the people, teams and organizations you work with. Before continuing forward, take a moment to understand this important process by reading below:

AI “promotes collective inquiry and design into a future state without inducements, pressure, or influence toward planned change and based on asking focused questions to find the best from people around us.” Appreciative Inquiry refocuses attention on positive core communication, and discovery of what the people we work with really care about.

The principle focus of AI includes:

  1. Affirmative Topics: Selecting an affirmative topic to stimulate new ideas, stories and images to generate possibilities for action.
  2. Positive Core: Focusing efforts and questioning on the positive core strengths of people, teams and organizations we work with. Organizational life is expressed in the stories we share with each other to impact the future positively.
  3. Discovery: Identifying and appreciating the best in the people, teams and organizations around us.
  4. Dream: This is the time to think grand thoughts to creating greater possibilities for people and teams we work with. AI argues, when members have interest in understanding and valuing the positive and best features of its culture, it can guide improvements to improve forward vision.
  5. Design: This is the opportunity to create ideals and achieve a positive transformational future for all engaged in the process.
  6. Destiny: This is where the process delivers on developing a future images, sustained by cultivating a collective sense of purpose. The shared positive image, invites everyone to align interactions for co-creating the future.

As you are probably beginning to appreciate, Appreciative Inquiry is an exploration of what gives life to human systems when they function at their best. There are three qualities that make Appreciative Inquiry distinctive from other principles:

  1. Affirmative - AI focuses on the positive.
  2. Inquiry-Based - AI focuses on learning from others and involving others.
  3. Improvisational - AI processes can take many forms and is evolving to discover what is best.

8 Principles

Appreciative Inquiry brings in concepts from social psychology, specifically social constructionist theory. The following 8 principles define AI:

  1. The Constructionist Principle: Words create worlds.
  2. The Simultaneity Principle: Inquiry creates change.
  3. The Poetic Principle: We can choose what we study.
  4. The Anticipatory Principle: Image inspires action.
  5. The Positive Principle: Positive questions lead to positive change.
  6. The Wholeness Principle: Wholeness brings out the best.
  7. The Enactment Principle: Acting “as if” is self-fulfilling.
  8. The Free Choice Principle: Free choice liberates power.

For more information on the Appreciative Inquiry process, including the process and illustrations contained below, see:

  • Whitney, D., & Trosten-Bloom, A. (2010). The power of appreciative inquiry: A practical guide to positive change. (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (Available through the TWU Library via full text pdf download)
  • Direct link TWU Library

Learning Lab

In Topic’s 1 and 2 we explored the important role Individual Performance Plans play for both employees and employers. Later on in the unit, we also had the opportunity to explore the TIMM model as well as Appreciative Inquiry processes - we saw that these were both powerful tools that organizations can implement to add value to their overall objectives and performance. The Learning Lab for Unit 3 will focus on providing you with some opportunity to practice experiencing all three.

Learning Activity: Developing an Individual Performance Plan

For our first activity, you will be looking at your own job description for your current position. If you do not currently hold a position, or if your position does not have a clear job description, you will need to search for one and use it as the source for your Individual Performance Plan. While you may pull a job description from any resource you wish, it would be helpful if you are using a job description for a position you can envision yourself occupying. If you are struggling to find a job description, try searching the postings at one of these search engines:

To complete this activity and perform your own Individual Performance Plan, follow the steps outlined below:

  1. Take your job description at your place of employment.
  2. List specifics related to your job description, where the organization requires results. Be specific!
  3. Develop a plan to describe how you will obtain the results the company needs. (3 to 5 action points maximum)
  4. Provide a framework for specific goals to assist you with the forward momentum required for achieving goals.

If you recall from the content of Topic 2, this first step would correlate with the objectives of the “Initial Meeting.” Next, you are going to turn your attention to the next step of the process that would take place during the “Development Meeting.” Follow the steps below:

  1. List how the organization can help you achieve your set goals.
  2. List specifics related to your job description and the desired organizational results.
  3. Adjust targets as necessary (where you see them over reaching or excessively optimistic)
  4. Set timelines, result metrics, and the reward framework to keep yourself accountable for fulfilling your individual performance plan.
  5. Have someone you know review your developed plan to help determine the adjustments necessary to ensure the successful follow through of your goals and organizational support for reaching those goals.

Once you have completed your IPP, you will summarize your observations as part of your Reflective Learning Journal.

Learning Activity: Stream/Discipline Specific Measurement Review

Before you begin this Learning Activity, take a moment to review Topic’s 4 & 5 as they will serve as the foundation for this activity. An important theme, in this content, is that it is critical that we know what we are measuring, how we are measuring it, and why those measurements are important. As you might imagine, the field or discipline you are in will profoundly influence what is important to measure.

For this activity, you will focus on your own field of expertise. If you are someone in a job or career, use your organization as the focus of your investigation. Your review will focus on the following question:

Identify the preferable measurements for your stream/discipline/organization and explore how these measurements are recorded and reported effectively.

To help with this, Use the following questions to guide your inquiry:

  • Question 1: What are you trying to measure?
  • Question 2: How are you trying to measure?
  • Question 3: How will you know your measurements are on track?
  • Question 4: If your measurements are not on track? What will you do to bring them on track?

Summarize your observations/findings as part of a discussion in your Reflective Learning Journal.

Learning Activity: Appreciative Inquiry Interview

This Learning Activity is designed to help deepen your understanding of Appreciative Inquiry. The exercise provides, insight, reflection opportunity, and action steps to help you understand and practice AI on a practical level within your present organization.

To begin…

With the help of your Facilitator, each person in the class will be paired with someone else. You will interview your partner using the appreciative interview questions (found below). Each person will have 30 minutes to interview his or her partner and it is important that you encourage your partner to tell their story. To help this process, focus on using your servant-leader listening characteristics - listen as if you had to retell the story yourself! It is important that you save this interview because the information you collect will offer rich data to affirm and build toward our goals and objective for the day.

Note: The questions offered are presented as a starting point, a seed, for meaningful conversation. They set the stage for a new appreciation of one another, the work you do, and the collective work for your future.

Interview Questions - Click to expand

Introduction

Think back to a time when you first came to your organization. What was it that appealed to you? What were your initial attractions and sources of excitement? Is there a story you can tell me about that?

High Point/Peak Experience

Since we have been talking about servant-leadership today, can you think of a time when you felt that you were really a servant-leader for your organization? A time when you were of great service, either individually or with a team? A time when you really felt you were making an outstanding contribution of service with some very uplifting results? Can you tell me your story? What was going on? Who was with you? How did you feel?

Values and Identity

I would like to find out about the things you value most and what the value and identify of this organization means to you. 1. What is it about your work with your organization that you value most? What is it that makes it most meaningful for you?
2. Reflecting on the values that are a part of your organization, how do they engage and excite you? How do they reflect your values and principles?
3. From what you know of servant-leadership, how do the principles, concepts, values and characteristics engage and excite you? How do they reflect your values? How do they reflect the values of the organization?

Shared Vision and the Future

Imagine that tonight you dreamed the great dream of how your organization had become and achieved everything that you had envisions it could be. There have been many positive changes. The deepest hopes, ideals, and aspirations for your organization have been realized. You feel so elated that you want to share the dream with all of us.

  1. What went on in the dream? What do you see happening? What are the images, feelings, things that are going on that make you excited about the organization in this vision of the future?
  2. If you had three wishes that came with this dream that would help bring this dream to reality, what would those three wishes be? How can servant-leadership help bring these wishes to reality?

Assessment

Assessment for this week will consist of a Discussion Question/Reflection Post and your first Individual Assignment - the expectations for each are outlined below.

Unit 3 - Discussion Question/Reflection Post

Each student is required to submit a Discussion Question/Reflection Post for Unit 3. This post should include your thoughts about how the content for this unit ties into your own practice as a leader.

1. Initial Post

Using the readings and materials reviewed thus far:

  1. Discuss what measurements are preferable/practiced in your stream discipline and how these measurements are performed/completed effectively in your experience.
  2. Use the following questions to help guide you:
    • What measurements are important in your discipline?
    • How do organizations in your discipline decide what is important to measure.
    • How will you know you’re measurements are on track?
    • When your measurement is not on track; what will they do about it?
    • How does your organization report measurement effectiveness or failure to the organization as a whole?
    • What does this tell you about the organization and the areas it excels in measurement? Or areas needing improvement?

2. Response Posts

Review the initial posts for this unit and choose ONE initial post:

  1. Ask questions from the chosen post regarding how you see them improving ineffective or already effective measurement practices for the organization.
  2. Outline areas where best practices would strengthen or improve the measurement practices in the organization.

3. Concluding Post

Conclude your posts for this unit by sharing:

  • What you learned about what to measure.
  • What you need to watch for in what is measured.
  • What results are most important in what you measure?
  • Any course questions related to this reflection or the material reviewed during Unit 3.

Refer to the Discussion Question/Reflection Post rubric for more specific information.

For additional information, and to submit your response, please scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the Unit 3 - Discussion Question/Reflection Post link.

Individual Assignment #1

Your first Individual Assignment is intended to help demonstrate how leadership, and focus on results, inter-relate. In order to complete this assignment, you will be asked to watch to videos that focus on the story’s of two different organizations. These videos describe results-based leadership deficiencies in both organizations. Click on each link to watch the videos:

Ultimately, the objective of this assignment is to review both organizations and apply results-based leadership attributes in both organizational contexts (Enron/Wall Street and your own).

Your review will consist of three elements - these elements are outlined below:

Part 1

The first part of your review will focus on how well the leadership/followership and accountability principles we discuss as part of the Transformational Servant Leader model, were followed. This review should take place from both the Corporate perspective, as well as from the Government perspective. Follow the guidelines below:

  • Please rate the leadership of each (a combined rating average for both is allowable), according to each principle, on a scale of 1-5, with 5 rated as excellent and 1 as poor/non-existent.
  • Provide specific evidence in support of your rating. If you do not see clear supportive evidence, indicate why you came to the conclusion you did.

Part 2

The second part of your review asks you to assess the extent to which the systems involved (organizational, social, legal and political) had required supports in place to provide the necessary support to a results-based leader. Use the following to guide this part of your review:

  • Use lectures and Demonstrating Value (Topic 4) session as resource for this section.
  • Provide a minimum of five suggestions for how the company/political leaders could prevent the collapse of one of the companies, and ensure those guilty were held accountable.

In this final part of the assignment, you are asked to select a present or past employer to use as a source for analysis. In your analysis of this employer, you are asked to identify:

  1. Two accountability and two system elements the organization handled well from a Results-Based Leadership standpoint.
  2. Describe their impact on Results-Based Leadership-oriented practices.
  3. One accountability principle and one system requirement most needing improvement.

In addition…

Indicate the most important action needing to be taken by the organization and why.

NOTE: If you want to present this assignment in a format other than a formal paper (PowerPoint, Prezi, video, Indigenous Ways of Knowing), please discuss it with the Instructor prior to beginning your work.

For additional information, and to submit your assignment, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the Individual Assignment #1 dropbox.

Checking for Learning

Before moving on to the next unit, be sure you are able to:

  • Describe how Transformational Servant leadership principles intersects with the Service Improvement Flowchart through representative organizational values.
  • Apply the various dimensions of TSL accountability and ethics practice to experiential, case study and theoretical investigations.
  • Compare/Contrast TSL principles with other Leadership Approaches for clarity in understanding results based leadership practice.
  • Analyze organizational structure and leadership approaches to assess impact on organizational best practice for TSL results.