Final Reflections – Leading Change In Digital Learning

As a small business owner, I wholeheartedly agree with the ongoing program theme that change is constant, and finding ways to anticipate and adapt to changing environments keeps us relevant. In response to our changing world, the characteristics of our target demographic, and the power of technology (Beich, 2007), we are currently embracing innovation by transitioning in-person workshops to online learning experiences for parents and child development professionals. Leading Change in Digital Learning has been a timely and practical learning opportunity. 

Reflecting on our learning journey, my perspective on leadership within my professional context has not changed.  We have always worked hard to align our leadership style with our organizational values (O’Toole, 2009), and they also purposely align with the science behind child development. Which, in turn, aligns more with modern leadership styles, such as reflective or adaptive leadership (Castelli, 2016; Kahn, 2017). I still find that the definition of leadership from our course readings that best fits within the context of leading change in digital environments is from Kouzes & Posner, as cited in Julien et al. (2010), “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspiration” (p. 118). This echoes Workman’s notion that leadership must adapt to different audiences and situations (2012, p. 320).  I also appreciate approaches and models that focus on the needs of individuals and teams since they are the ones who do the hard work to make the vision a reality (Weiner, 2009). Effective leadership and change models need to have a person-centered approach.

Practically speaking, numerous resources have been provided throughout the course that will positively impact our real-world digital project implementation. Most notably, the literature and resources on using analytics to make evidence-based decisions and AI tools to find efficiencies for our small business with finite resources were provided.

My group work on The Insight Toolkit inspired a new focus on data-informed decision-making. It resulted in the planned implementation of a formal feedback strategy to help us identify existing and future ways to capture stakeholder feedback to make data-informed strategic decisions and engage in continuous improvement (Zettelmeyer, 2015, para 4). In addition, both the AI Implementation group project and the Project Management Institute (n.d) resources have inspired our exploration of AI tools that we can leverage to find efficiencies in critical areas, such as marketing or project management. 

Finally, our group work and blog posts always help spark innovative thinking, provide examples of course material application in different contexts, along with diversity of thought – sometimes exposing our limiting views or biases. In my opinion, this is always the richest and most valuable element of the course components.

References:

Biech, E. (2007). Models for Change. Thriving through change: A leader’s practical guide to change mastery, 235.

Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-08-2015-0112

Julien, M., Wright, B., & Zinni, D. M. (2010). Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 114-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.009

Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or transactional leadership in current higher education: A brief comparison. International review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(3), 178-183. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i3.3294

O’Toole, James (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership . The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1). https://scholar.valpo.edu/jvbl/vol1/iss1/10

Project Management Institute (n.d.). https://www.pmi.org/standards

Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(67). https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67 

Zettelmeyer, F. (2015, May 1). A leader’s guide to data analytics.   KelloggInsight. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/a-leaders-guide-to-data-analytics/