The demonstration of AL last night caused me to realize that I have been focusing on the Capstone project and stressing about data collection/dates/getting things done for the course and for our client. I have not been focusing on the experience of Capstone and focusing on the learning and how I am changing. Part of my stress on dates/meeting course milestones is in part due to my experience in Consulting skills. Reflecting on my Consulting skills course, I truly learned how important it is to identify the clients correctly and who has decision making power. I also learned that Consulting skills in real life is not going to go as smoothly as Block/Schein present in their texts.
After last night I am really focusing on the learning and the experience of Capstone.
Something that I have learned is to trust our gut. We were talking last night about surveying the volunteers at our client’s organization. We had planned to design a Survey Monkey survey and ask the volunteers to complete. Dr. Carter joined our conversation and provided guidance on survey data validity/reliability and alternatives to surveys. She suggested offering some sort of prize for completing the survey or holding a focus group with food.
I knew that the volunteers for our client have lives outside of their affiliation with the organization. It would be difficult to get people to a focus group at the same time. Karen’s conversation with Michael confirmed this. In a way, I feel like we wasted time last night talking about a focus group – we should have been focusing on our survey questions.
I also realized that we need to be flexible in dates. We are anxious to get started and have some tangible data and something to build a mid-point meeting around. We were trying to push the survey through to make it by the mid point meeting date provided in our syllabus. We need to provide valid, useful data to our client, perhaps a week or two later than our course milestones versus wasting their time with a mid point meeting with unreliable data just to have a meeting.
Last night we also reviewed the results of our team survey. It was an awkward conversation and I felt that missing one member of our team did not help the situation. I think we really needed to have everyone present – and maybe we should revisit when all members are there next week (hopefully). This difficult conversation allowed me to practice participating in difficult conversations and work on articulation of my ideas in a more tactful sense. I can sometimes be blunt and that is not always appropriate and I know I need to work on it.
The dialogue on survey results also made me reflect on how I participate in the group and how I am perceived by my group. Like in the Johari Window – it gave me insight on my blind self.
Also during the Capstone experience I am learning about my teammates and working in a new team. I think things are going well so far and the groups and teams course really prepared me well. It will be interesting to see the team survey results later in the semester.
The slides with coaching guide questions are an valuable resource. We used those to guide us in our reflection last night. It is very hard to pick up this new habit of questioning reflection at the end of our sessions. I think this is in part due to my action oriented personality. It is crucial that we ensure that each team member have the opportunity to express her/his understanding of the problem and plans to move forward so that the team is all on the same page.