This course has broadened my understanding of change management theories and methodologies and also reemphasized the importance of project management. My perspective has not changed significantly, but my knowledge base has grown, and my views toward leadership have somewhat evolved. I have a deeper appreciation for the theories that underpin change management and project management, and the course provided a good reinforcement for the work I am already doing as part of my daily responsibilities. Since I started working quite a few years ago (:-)), the tools have changed significantly, but the pillars of leadership, branding, learning, professional development, public relations, re-envisioning of learning spaces, two-way communication are still valid frameworks (Sheninger, 2014). Leaders must be prepared to adjust and modify the pillars to fit their environment. Adaptive leaders change their behaviour to address different situations (Yukl & Mahsud, 2010, as cited in Khan, 2017, p. 2) and they require a different set of leadership values. Huggins (2017) emphasizes the value of distributed leadership to enable my colleagues to be both a part of the change and the leadership to increase organizational capacity, as well as intellectual and social capital. I believe team input strengthens the decision-making process and makes stakeholders and team members feel more involved and valued. Consistent reflection and evaluation of team members and stakeholders can help to optimize organizational performance (Castelli, 2016). By reflecting throughout the process of change, implementation problems can be addressed quicker than they can by post mortem reflection, which in many cases would come too late in the current fast-paced change economy. Managing change in a leadership role of any kind is significantly harder than it is seen from outside.
I used a real-life project in the final assignment what I just started. Using a hybrid change implementation guide based on my and one another team’s tools, enabled me to streamline some of the processes and add steps what I had not previously thought of.
In my current position, I do not have any access or information on the institution’s use of academic and learning analytics. The information that can be gained from big data is fascinating, and the examples, ideas and cases presented in Sclater, Peasgood & Mullan’s (2016) article on learning analytics, as they present inspiring perspectives on how data can be used to boost engagement and outcomes.
Overall, I look forward to applying what I’ve learned in LRNT 525 into my daily work.
Collage is created by the author using free photos from Pexels.com.
References
Castelli, P. (2016). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236.
Huggins, K. (2017). Developing Leadership Capacity in Others: An Examination of High School Principals’ Personal Capacities for Fostering Leadership. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 12(1).
Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or Transactional Leadership in Current Higher Education: A Brief Comparison. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3).
Sclater, N., Peasgood, A, & Mullan, J. (2016). Learning analytics in higher education: A review of UK and international practice. Jisc. Retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/learning-analytics-in-he-v3.pdf
Sheninger, E. (2014). Pillars of digital leadership. International Centre for Leadership in Education.
Thank you for sharing, Beata. I too felt that this course did re-enforce some areas that can be highlighted as strengths of mine and other highlights of opportunities! I agree with your comments on team involvement allows for an organization to operate at its best. I am a very big team player, probably my athletic background, and I lead this way, where our team makes decisions together. I have reflected quite a bit about for some colleagues that have a perception that team leadership is not a strong leadership quality. It is an interesting shift of a generation maybe? Or perhaps it is the rate of change that is occurring that we need each others’ strengths to adjust? Or a blend of the two. Good luck with your project that you are hoping to implement, hopefully, the streamlined process adds some value to your change process. Danielle
Interesting comment on the team involvement in decision making and leadership.
I admit I am coming from the “dark side” where tried to keep everything under control and trusted only myself with the solutions. The last 10-15 years has shifted my views significantly. It might not be generational, but also experience or cultural and historical background. As you mentioned your team sport athletic background led the way and guided your views on shared leadership. My perspective was shadowed by my cultural context. Working with students during the last seven years presented more excellent examples and learning moments on how to involve and integrate different perspectives, different talents into the decision making process.
Hi Beata, you made some great observations in your post. I especially agree with your belief that involving team members in decision-making makes for a stronger team dynamic. In my experience, it also results in a more informed overall decision. I connect that observation to increasing the data you are bringing into the decision-making by involving more people and therefore, more information (or data). This relates to the data-driven decision making mentioned by Marsh, Pane and Hamilton (2006) and it would be interesting to explore together whether their findings on learning professionals not using internal data as much as external data correlated with either of our contexts.
As we’ve established that we live close to each other, I hope we can get together in April. Perhaps we can discuss learning analytics and how our organizations are looking to use them to benefit learners. I have a data analytics background and am highly interested in this topic for my final research paper for MALAT. Hope to keep in touch and talk soon – I will reach out to you after the course to see if you’d be available to meet up.
Best,
Nicolette
References
Marsh, J. A., Pane, J. F., & Hamilton, L. S. (2006). Making sense of data-driven decision making in education.
I agree with you Nicolette on the importance of increasing the (quality) data in the decision making process. Even nowadays, many instructional choices are often based on intuition, teaching philosophy, and personal experience. These are valid sources of information and should not be ignored. However, it shouldn’t be teachers’ only compass when it comes to instructional decision making.
More than happy to get together; let’s finalize it in our Slack channel.