A633.5.3.RB - Reflections on Chaos

This was a very intriguing exercise to watch. We actually wanted to do try it at work but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to perform it to see what kind of outcome we would get.  I think it would have most likely come out the same way.  Watching the participates when the narrator was explaining what needed to happen it interesting to see as they weren’t too sure themselves how it was going turn out but in the end they were surprised by how fast they were able to work together to get the end result.  And this was done without communication between participates!

I think this was a great example of how you can take a very complicated problem and simplify it with a few simple clear cut rules where everyone can understand exactly what they are supposed to do.  It seems that the more complicated the task the easier it is for us to follow as long as there are clear instructions.  This exercise was proof that it can be done.  The doubt was there but once they started moving and keeping track of their perspective person they found they were able to accomplish what should have been a difficult task.

The last question he asked, “What would have happened if we had put one of you in charge?” got everyone laughing because they knew it would have been chaos and would have taken much longer than the one minute took.  This got me thinking about a retreat we attended a couple of years ago for all of WW-headquarters.  There were 120 people there and we were broken up into groups by numbers so it was random.  There were 4 groups and a team lead was chosen for each group.  I was chosen as our group lead and was able to pick one person to help me. 

The purpose of the exercise was to come up with a slogan of how we could retain our students.  As a group we decided to do a commercial titled “We are Worldwide”.  Someone suggested we line up in the shape of a W to represent Worldwide so we were trying to figure out the best way to line up.  One of my coworkers wanted to help and jumped in and started ordering everyone to line up and gave all these very confusing instructions and this in turn made everyone frustrated. 

This was supposed to be a simple exercise and it was becoming very complex very quickly.  I stepped in and got everyone to quiet down, thanked the coworker for her suggestions and stated that we were going to walk in and line up in a specific order.  This was quickly understood and everyone was happy except the coworker who didn’t get to do it her way.

So a simple exercise became very complicated because of too many instructions and a complex exercise with a few simple instructions became easy to follow and complete.  These examples go to show how hard we can make something or how easy we can make it when everyone works together instead against each other.  In regards to strategy it shows that it is better to keep it clear and simple and try not to put too many people in charge to confuse the problem but also give the followers the chance to show that they can get things done without having a boss loom over their shoulder.

A633.4.3.RB Changing Dynamics of Leadership

The shift in leadership is happening more and more today as we see many organizations that are restructuring themselves, kind of reinventing if you will, to be better than before.  I believe a lot of it has to do with more and more people who work the front-lines on a daily basis standing up and saying enough is enough.  More employees are becoming frustrated with their organizations because the people who were picked to lead them don’t know the solutions to most problems.  This leaves the lower level employees wondering what the heck happened to knowing and understanding the job at hand no matter what that job may be.

Some companies deal with this by hiring and promoting from within their organization (I have seen this in some restaurants).  This way a manager knows how the organization works from bottom to top and can actually come up with solutions instead of playing that charade of hoping no one asks them a question they can’t answer.  Having someone who starts out at the “bottom” and works their way up can actually help upper management get a better grip on what is happening in their own organization. 

There has to be open communication from the top down and from the bottom up.  We have to ask questions and not bluff our way out of it with some ideal of what we think is the right answer.  With more organizations becoming more complex we have to be able to adapt and change by asking questions, blurring that line a bit between leaders and followers and understanding how stay in the know instead of getting lost in the management mentality .  Getting feedback from your followers lets them know that you want their suggestions and thoughts of what works and what doesn’t.  Leaders can’t hide behind their big desks and expect their organization to run smoothly.

One way to do this is to be the example of what you want.  If you expect your front-line workers to know how to perform certain functions you as the leader need to know how to do this as well.  For example, at the other campus the assistant directors do not know how to perform verifications in financial aid.  They set the standard though for how long it should take to do based on feedback from a few individuals without actually having done a verification themselves.  How can the followers rely on their managers to help them when they don’t know the answers themselves?

In my organization there has been a lot of changes recently that I feel were made to better serve the student as well as the organization itself.  Restructuring and putting different people in charge of different areas will have a positive impact overall.  Within my department we also had some changes.  A big part of that change comes from the fact that my director is that type of leader that everyone wants to be like or are jealous of because of how well his department is run.

He started as a counselor and worked his way up to director and will be moving shortly to another position where his talents can be used to propel our organization ahead. He leads by example and never says he can’t help us.  He makes time for us and our problems whether they are personal or work related.  He doesn’t yell when you mess something up he asks you how you would fix it and how you can make it better next time.  He empowers his employees and there is open communication.  He also gets our feedback and asks us questions.  These are the things that help make a good leader great.  
He also asks what challenges we each face and what we think can make it better.  By getting to know what our frustrations are and how we are thinking we can make it better he can employee those ideas into realities.  For example, we send out many emails explaining changes that happen and we follow it up with training so that the counselors can get the information shown to them in a training setting where they can feel they can ask questions and get clarification as needed.  All these things are what will make a good organization better and help everyone embrace changes for the better.

A633.3.3.RB - Complex Adaptive Systems

When I first read about Morning Star I was very impressed and a little jealous to see how well this company seemed to do without “managers”.  Of course as a manager my first thought was “well there goes my job” but as I read deeper into the article I see how complex and dynamic this company really is.  Everyone is held accountable here not just management.  Most organizations including the one I work for have management and directors to look up to lead and direct and let’s face it be the “fall guy” if needed.  Someone has to be to blame when something goes wrong don’t they?

The approach that Morning Star uses is that everyone is empowered they are not employees they are colleagues.  Everyone has a say in pretty much every aspect of the company from writing their version of a mission statement to ordering supplies to helping with the hiring process.  When everyone feels that they have input into the company people may take more initiative and take more personal pride in their job.

 I read this article a couple of times and tried to put my organization in place of Morning Star to see how it would fare.  First so many of us are used to being lead so I think that would be a big adjustment and I believe that many people would quit because of this.  Change is not something most people can deal with and I was surprised by the number of people who quit when Campus Solutions was brought on board.  If our organization ran closer to this model I believe we would see more loyalty, more innovation and more accountability.  It would be our company not just some place we work for.  People would take more pride in their work. 

I do believe that there are many people to whom this is just a job, it is somewhere to go and collect a check at the end of the day.  The biggest challenge would be to get out of the mindset that we all are used to.  Within my department we are a team yes and there is a director and managers but input is gathered from everyone and everyone’s thoughts and ideas are heard.  Because of the complexity of our organization I don’t think that we could go all the way and adapt Morning Star’s concepts however we can definitely implement some of these things to improve the company. 

I think it would a good start to have everyone write down a personal mission to see where we are as an organization as a whole.  What do we stand for?  Do we want the same things for our company?  It may be very surprising to see the results of this but it would give the upper management an idea of where we need to go in the future.    Encourage stronger skills and creativity among everyone not just management.  These seem simple but I think they are a good way to get everyone to think outside the box.  We have to look to the future and take it to the next level without fear of change.

A633.2.3.RB. Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is something I heard about many years ago.  I didn’t really understand what it meant other than it was part of a chaos theory in that if a butterfly flaps its wings in Hawaii there will be an earth quake in South America or something similar to this.  There was also a movie called The Butterfly Effect (2004) where the main character Eric has the ability to change things by focusing his mind he could go back to a time period and make subtle changes.  When something bad happens to his friend he tries to go back to change just that one thing but instead it changes everything.  Each time he goes back to fix what he messed up he made things worse.  The premise of the movie is, change one thing change everything.  In this case every small change made cause many bad things to happen.

            In the text when talking about the butterfly effect we learn that making small changes within the organization can have great results.  So unlike the movie where one small change caused more chaos, making a small change within your organization can yield very big results.  A prime example of this is when we decided to go with a call center to answer our toll free number back in 2010.  By simply routing our calls to one central location that was open 24/7 our enrollment went up, customer satisfaction went up, and more financial aid was paid out which made upper management very happy.  Just one change created vast improvement within the whole organization because the issue of not being able to keep up with the call volume we were losing students, enrollment was not where should have been and the stress level of the counselors were going up because the pressure to handle so much was getting to us.

            Another example of one small change having a big impact was when Worldwide take over the Veteran’s Affairs component that the Daytona Beach campus had been handling for years back in January of 2012.  Within a month of taking over the VA, the number of students who were able to get answers such as when paperwork was processed went through the roof.  VA students can now rely on quick turn around on paperwork and even a quicker time frame for getting their refund.  By being able to come together and work through issues that we were having with both of these changes, we made a difference in not only our department but many other departments across our organization. 

            By implementing the complexity theory into our organization we can learn that we may not always have the same views and may even work independently of each other but the goal is still the same in the end.  We can also use the Wu-Wei approach by observing without taking immediate action and actually learn a lot about our followers and our customers.  It can also be used to show that it is ok to let go of certain control and the fear of chaos reigning will not be an issue in most of the cases. 

            We continue to make small changes for the better of the customer (the student) and the organization as a whole towards a vastly changing future.  By adapting and embracing change and understanding the complexity instead of being afraid of it we can propel ourselves to the next level.  Right now there are many changes happening within our organization that will put into place a better strategy for the operation as a whole.  Some changes may not make sense at first especially to those who have a hard time embracing change but as it is being implemented everyone will learn to adapt to change as well.  I can’t say it enough that if we cannot learn to do this one factor and that is to adapt we will be left behind in many ways.  You can’t stop progress.  It will happen with or without us.