A630.2.4.RB 21st Century Enlightenment

The title 21^st Century Enlightenment is to give us insight on where we were just a few centuries ago and where we are now.  Taylor explains that we have powerful new insights thanks to new emergences in scientific disciplines and social sciences.  Great philosophers of our past knew that enlightenment meant that we could not confirm to religious doctrines as well as to our own intuition. Just because it seemed right at the time since that is what we were told it was and still in within our power to educate ourselves on what is going on around us….that we must enlighten ourselves and those around us.  We need to become more self-aware and self-sufficient to continue the 21^st century of enlightenment.

In the video Taylor talks about "to live differently, you have to think differently"?  I believe what he was trying to say is that we need to stop looking back at the past and look to toward the future.  We need to be positive and be willing to help each other out as human beings instead of shutting each other out and keeping our faces buried in our phones and other social media outlets.  That has stopped us from being aware of what is going on around us.  Taylor explains that we need to see ourselves and the world in a new perspective, perhaps see ourselves in new a light and then will help us see the world differently.  We need to put out positive attitudes as this will come to us as well.  There is a saying that what you put out is what you get back.  So if we want to live differently (happier, healthier, longer) we need to think differently (be happy with who you are, see the good in others, encourage don’t discourage).  We need to actually make changes in the world and not just talk the talk we need to walk the walk.  We should be approaching the world and life in a more holistic way instead of trying to find a “pill” that makes it all go away or that conforms to what ‘should’ fit into a one size fits all.

At one point in the video Taylor argues that we need "to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange".  I feel that what he is saying is that we should not just go along with the crowd, we should question the whys of things, make our own decisions based on facts not hearsay or fears from the past.  We can have diverse values and traditions and these do not have to fall in line with what is ‘normal’ or right for everyone else.  I had a professor as an undergrad for Abnormal Psychology who loved to tell us, “Question everything assume nothing”.  It took me a couple of years to really understand what she meant by that.  It seems that Taylor may have been saying the same thing here.  We cannot just accept things because that is the way it has always been done or that is what everyone else is doing so that is what we should be doing.  In the organization I work for we are making changes for the better.  We are questioning why things are done the way they are and we are coming up with better and more efficient ways to do it.  Change should be embraced not shied away from.  We cannot be afraid of these changes but strive to understand them better.

With so many advancements in technology we are now sponges of everything that happens around us because we know about pretty much anything and everything in an instant.  Imagine what it would have been like during WWII if we could have seen exactly what was going on in Germany, the things that Hitler was doing to innocent human beings for no other reason than his own twisted thoughts on what the world should be like.  Do you think that he would have be able to do as many things as he did or would have the people raised up in protest to what was happening and yelled loud enough for something to be done? Perhaps.  As human beings most of us naturally want to help as we are more empathetic to each other but we must continue it on a larger scale. We should not be judging each other on who we want to love or marry or the color of the skin of the president.  We should not care what celebrities are doing or what reality show is better.  We need to develop that empathetic attitude more and show each other that we care that real world matters are more important than what is happening on Facebook or Honey Boo Boo or Teen Moms.

At the end of the video, Taylor talks about atomizing people from collaborative environments and the destructive effect on their growth. What is the implication of these comments for organizational change efforts?  We need to start with ourselves and go from there.  Changes can happen with just a few people but the more people you get to make changes for the better the faster it will happen.  Organizations are changing so rapidly to keep up with advancements in every way and we can start with these small changes as individuals and we need to start now.  Putting action into motion creates change now and we can learn from this and grow as well.  I can use these lessons from the video now in my department as far as how to deal with individuals as well as the group.  Understanding how actions and decision affect as a group makes a big difference in how we will interact with each other.  I need to be aware of how these consequences with affect the team and how to ensure that we stay cohesive as a group.

Taylor, M. (2010). The 21^st Century Enlightenment. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtu.be

A630.1.4.RB Board of Directors

In early 2009 it was announced that ERAU was going to implement a new software system (Campus Solutions) by late 2010 that would be more ‘student friendly’ where students could go to find information they needed in just a few clicks of the mouse.  This new software system would change how the students and employees viewed student accounts.  The information would be easy to find, understood by anyone who viewed the screens and would make life a bit easier on everyone involved. 

Students would be able to ‘shop’ for classes and easily add or drop a class before it started without having to go through their campus or academic advisor.  It would give them more options to set up payment plans, direct deposits and view their account history among other things.  A big selling point for this new program would be that more than one person (employee) could be in a student’s account at once.  This would come in handy if you needed to guide another employee on where to find financial aid status, clear up confusion on what classes a student was taking as well as if they owed a balance or had a hold on their account.

With any new change there is going to be pessimists in the crowd. “We don’t need to change anything”, “Things are great just the way they”, “It is not going to make anything better”, “I don’t know how I will be able to handle these changes, I already have this system memorized”, and my favorite, “We just need to win the lottery”.  These are all comments I heard from people who didn’t want things to change.  Change can be scary for sure especially when you are used to things being the way they are (if it isn’t broke don’t fix it).  My department (financial aid) works hand in hand with the main campus of financial aid as we fall under the same umbrella.  The comments came from managers, directors and fellow employees.

The pessimists in this group felt that making a change to the system was not needed and would only cause more issues.  They felt that it wasn’t going to make anything better but perhaps make them worse.  This group didn’t see the advantages of this new program (newer, faster, more reliable, student friendly, set up to catch issues before disbursements went out) they only saw that it would involve more work for them.  Having to learn a new system would take time and they didn’t want to do this because it wasn’t going to change anything so why bother?

The pragmatists in the group felt that change was definitely needed and if it would make things better than why not go for it?  This group saw the advantage of being able to help students and as well the campuses by being able to see what the student or fellow employee was seeing on their screen.  Everyone could access certain areas of the account and see the same information.  This group also saw the potential for fewer mistakes being made that the old system would not be able to catch.  The new system would have better rules in place to prevent disbursements being made when they weren’t supposed to like when students were at their aggregate limits for federal loans, the information would be pulled directly from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) instead of having to check multiple sites to confirm this.

The visionaries in the group saw more streamline processes, more accountability within the department, easier way to track changes made, and more automation!  So many processes were handled manually taking more time away from the student.  This group also saw the advantage of being able to see the actual information on the Free Application for Federal Aid (FAFSA) that a student submitted.  It would make working on verifications easier, quicker and would give a more overall snap shot of the students’ situation.  It would also give an overview of the students account as far as what program of study they were in, what classes they were enrolled in and what track for financial aid they were on.

The power players (upper management) saw this as a way to get more students in the door and more funds paid to students in a more timely fashion.  It also would bring ERAU up to speed with other schools who were more student driven in how classes were chosen by giving the student more control over how they handled their account.  And lastly the crowd in this group just wanted to know what they needed to do and where they needed to go.  They were going to follow the group and would do what they were told no questions asked.

To bring these groups together so that changes would be as smooth as possible several trainings were set up once all the systems were tested.  My new director was part of the project to start with and I was brought over toward the end to test various components of the new software.  I had to test the verification process and write a manual for the Daytona, Prescott and Worldwide campuses on how verifications would work in the new system.  The core group performed several tests and pre training trainings to ensure that we were going to be giving out the best information that everyone would understand and be comfortable with.  The first training was an overview and there were lots of people who had a negative attitude because they didn’t want change.  Many people admitted to just being afraid of messing something up.

Before we began that first training session everyone was given a chance to get their fears and frustrations out.  What did they think of the new system?  What were their concerns?  The biggest one was why were a lot of things being taken away from them as far as access went.  This got the ball rolling with everyone being able to ask questions and we got to see it from their point of view.  Once everyone got to express their thoughts and get the negative parts out we were able to answer all their questions.  Did it alleviate all their concerns?  Not all of them but it provided them with a better understanding of why the new system was coming in and the advantages to what it would do for them.  After it was explained that access was limited in the new system because levels of securities were assigned by processes not screens most everyone was ok with that.

Several trainings were held and we still have refresher training every few months as new batches are added to the system.  These batches are put in place to improve the system so it is important to share these changes.  There was only one person from the other campus who decided to leave because the new system was too much for this person to handle.  They were not able to wrap themselves around the new concepts no matter how much training was held.  The biggest hurdle to get over was that the change was happening whether they wanted it to or not so they were going to need to embrace it and learn it if they wanted to be able to make it.  Training is always an option and now that we are two years in (one full year in financial aid) everyone is more comfortable with the new system and how it works. 

Sometimes being a pessimist can be a good thing because we can see why something may not work and we can fix it before it becomes an issue.  The flip side is that this group of people can bring down a department with their negative attitudes and it does affect others.  It is best to understand why they feel the way they do and work through these issues and show them the way to the pragmatic side of thinking.