Bertha Lucia Fries

April 1, 2008
BLF Self Assessment.pdf

I. "MY SYNTHESIS PRODUCT SHOWS THAT..."

A. I can convey who I want to influence/affect concerning what (Subject, Audience, Purpose).

I have achieved:

• Title: The New Creative Responsible Leader. Developing Leadership Capabilities
• Audience: The Leaders of the organizations (public, private, non-profits, community) are the ones that have to lead the changes in society, because they have: people that follow them, infrastructure, and power to make changes in the workplace. The leaders also are the ones that are (should be) thinking about major issues, like the environment, social capital, poverty, etc.
• Why? Because the context is changing at accelerating speed.
• The leaders, organizations and families must do the same
  • Not due to philanthropic sentiments
  • Not due to ideological beliefs
  • Not due to religious faith
  • Not due to philosophical imperatives
  • But simply for logical and pragmatic reasons
• Single-paragraph overview: to suggest a framework for designing, planning, and assessing initiatives for enabling Globally Responsible Leadership.
  
  I have struggled with:
• During my Synthesis process my purpose was twofold: researching for the Synthesis and for the VIAGlobus2 Internet portal I co-founded and was working on. Both the Synthesis and the portal have a common objective: to enhance the awareness and enable the collaboration of leaders and stakeholders in general, for creating innovative and globally responsible leadership and organization. What makes them different is the scale and the tools each uses.
• As a management consultant (1990-2004), I have used processes and methodologies for integrating into the strategic direction of organizations the concept of values in action for global responsibility.
• The framework I discuss in my synthesis paper can be used by organizations as a compass to pointing the North of a transformation process involving different stakeholders to assume global responsible leadership.
• I struggled with what to include and what to exclude in my Synthesis.

B. I know what others have done before, either in the form of writing or action, that informs and connects with my project, and I know what others are doing now.

I have achieved:
I learned through my research that the available information is quite fragmented. Whereas the frameworks I suggest are contextualized, inclusive, and systemic. This is important because big problems and issues are inherently systemic, and cannot be comprehended with fragmented information nor solved with fragmented solutions.

Following are three frameworks along these lines:
1. Global responsibility is contextualized 2. Global Responsibility is inclusive. It integrates the prevailing leadership models/approaches 3. The framework includes the unique attributes of the new leader in four key domains of reflection (thinking and acting in boundary-less space and time; thinking ethically and acting consistently; thinking and acting as a globally responsible citizen; and thinking and acting in extremely innovative and creative ways); and four key domains of action (setting direction, mobilizing individual commitment, building individual and organizational capacities, and modeling personal attributes qualities).

C. I have teased out my vision, so as to expand my view of issues associated with the project, expose possible new directions, clarify direction/scope within the larger set of issues, and decide the most important direction.

I have achieved:

• My overall vision for my project was to enable stakeholder collaboration for building innovative globally responsible leadership and organizations that are highly profitable, ethical, sustainable. and meaningful to them and the world
• I specified the audience of the synthesis: Those who are convinced with the need for change but do not know how to begin this process nor which new core attributes that have to be developed.
• The framework is designed for all types of organizations and stakeholders.

D. I have identified the premises and propositions that my project depends on, and can state counter-propositions. I have taken stock of the thinking and research I need to do to counter those counter-propositions or to revise my own propositions.

I have achieved:

• I believe that both the business and organizational contexts have changed dramatically; therefore we need a new leadership capable of creating new organizations that produce unconventional results.
• The leaders have to learn how to develop these capacities. Therefore they need methodologies, tools and processes that allow them to monitor the results and how do they accomplish it.
• I have identified the following premises
  • The new leadership must be capable of creating new organizations that produce new results
  • Enhance significantly opportunities for increased profitability, growth, reputation,
  • Improve the quality of life and wellbeing of everybody, and
  • A stronger economy, and
  • A better conserved ecosystem, and
  • The removal of major barriers for improving global justice, security, peace, and prosperity
• The new leadership needs new attributes for creating these new types of organizations that produce these unconventional results. These are related to a new way of thinking, in regard to • Ethics • Space • Time • Global Citizenship

E. I have clear objectives with respect to product, both written and practice, and process, including personal development as a reflective practitioner. I have arranged my work in a sequence (with realistic deadlines) to realize these objectives.

I have achieved:

• I am clear and happy with my product, because I expect it to become a relevant and effective instrument for planning, implementing, and assessing changes in organizations. Additionally I expect it be become useful to all stakeholders along the supply chain.
• I conducted a workshop on Global Responsibility applying methodologies previously used in my consulting and training work and the audience got engaged with this topic which for most was new.
• I feel that I have a good basis now to continue my process. Combining my practical experience with the present academic experience was very interesting and challenging.

F. I have gained direct information, models, and experience not readily available from other sources.

I have achieved:

• My web research allowed me to confirm that organizations are beginning to change — some modestly, others more aggressively. Some management mentality is changing in response to different motives and pressures (internal and external). For example, the statements CEOs make in their annual company social or sustainability reports convey that some fresh thinking is beginning to happen. In about a decade ago there were less than a dozen reports and now there are more than 14000 and all accessible by the public (see the www.VIAGlobus.com portal which will launch April, 2008).
• The concept of the synthesis is very new; there is not sufficient bibliography. I had the opportunity to go during one year to weekly seminars at the CSR Initiative of the JFK Government School of Harvard (see appendix)

G. I have clarified the overall progression or argument underlying my research and the written reports.

I have achieved:

• The process of progress and improvement I have experienced has been important. When I took my sabbatical my idea was to review and reflect upon my consulting work, the methodologies, and the process used during the past 17 years at CEC. S

I have struggled with:

• I accomplished my goal, wandering trough many difficulties during the past three years (see question # 5) and creating two final products: my synthesis work and an Internet portal. Much more than what I had expected.
• I acknowledge the support received from my academic and international advisor as well as the people that believed in me and offered me work at UMass, and from my son and close family members who suffered but understood and accepted that I was living far away from them.

H. My writing and other products Grab the attention of the readers/audience, Orient them, move them along in Steps, so they appreciate the Position I've led them to.

I have achieved:
I have had the opportunity to present the concept of the New Creative Leader to different audiences. The first one was in ANDI (National Association of Businesses. Colombia) on 11/06/07. This was a seminar about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The participants gave good feedback and got very interested in the notion of unique attributes of the new leader and how to develop them.

I. I have facilitated new avenues of classroom, workplace, and public participation.
I have achieved: See Question # 6

J. To feed into my future learning and other work, I have taken stock of what has been working well and what needs changing.

I have achieved:

• It’s so important to constantly evaluate both the positive things and those things with great potential for improvement.
• My process of progress and improvement has been important and dear to me. During my sabbatical I had the time to review my work as Organizational Developer, thinking what process, methodologies work in which type of organizations, reviewing the leaders profiles, the core competencies of the organizations, what doesn’t work and what where the variables that had to be taken under control for better results.

II. DEVELOPING AS A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER, INCLUDING TAKING INITIATIVE IN AND THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS

1. I have integrated knowledge and perspectives from CCT and other courses into my own inquiry and engagement in social and/or educational change.

• The Cog lab and the learning in psychology (Spring 2005) were very useful to understand how the memory works, what distracts us from our focus, and the adult learning process.
• This course gave me elements to construct the dramatization I presented in an appendix of the synthesis, and to include pictures, colors symbols, like the red, yellow, and green traffic lights. (The experience that I had with the experiment Attention - Stroop Effect3, makes me think how we automatize behaviors using colors). The visual way we storage images creates the highlight traffic as a symbol that is well known, easy to remember (I create this for Creative Thinking course as a drawing –see the cover for the Practicum Final Paper) and as a graphic.
• It was also very important for me to learn about the Short Term Memory (STMi) and the Long Term Memory (LTM), and to stress the importance to “repeat and repeat and repeat” several times a concept using different tools, methodologies or process to improve the STM.4 The memory has a limited capacity to store sounds for a short period of time. The brand NCL is going to be easy
• In all CCT courses I introduced the notion of the New Creative Leader, to test and improve my ideas. This was very useful because the more that I explained the idea using different examples, the more I learned about the perceptions that people had about this leader, what people understood about attributes, competencies, values, and other concepts I continuously brought up in my courses and classes.
• In Foundations of Philosophy I was concentrated on the ethical dimension of the New Created Leader, the importance to develop trust and how to be consistent. A good example was the Katrina disaster and how the different leaders acted.
• Practicum was the course that pushed and stretched myself to organize the puzzle, the different ideas that I had developed until that moment in other courses, and I began to integrate them as a whole.
• Peter Taylor, professor of the course Evaluation of Educational Change, brought us a topic to be developed by the CCT students in an "Action Research" spiral. One of my commitments was to benchmark successful Supportive Communities (SCs), identifying for their purpose, vision, mission, values, and competencies.
  • I learned about how the SCs rebuilt communities through cooperation and living up to unifying values. This helped me reconfirm that using a framework collectively in a reflective environment is essential to starting up a change process.
  • It was my thinking to use the Action Research methodology involving the TAG community in the analysis of the TAG Summer Survey Final Report and in designing the next survey. This idea moved me to think the importance to have a framework to develop the core capabilities of the NCL.
  • The Cycles and Epicycles of Action Research made me feel being a Practical Action Researcher, reflecting, inquiring and improving my quality of thinking.
  • Action Research Basics Understanding explains how those who work together affect one another, and the importance of continuous improvement.
  • Fostering development and self-renewal of their own group and being concerned with participatory planned change
  • Collecting data on multiple perspectives of significant others
  • Obtaining trustworthy information from the right people Building tentative theories to guide future steps in the change and improvement process
• The independent courses gave me the opportunity to manage my own time and speed to continue my research and learning.

2. I have also integrated into my own inquiry and engagement the processes, experiences, and struggles of previous courses.
See question # 1

3. I have developed efficient ways to organize my time, research materials, computer access, bibliographies, etc.

• I felt that the research materials, bibliographies were developed efficiently.
• No controllable situations affected my schedule. (See question # 5) My experience as a project manager is that in all projects you have to calculate some extra time for the unexpected.

4. I have experimented with new tools and experiences, even if not every one became part of my toolkit as a learner, teacher/facilitator of others, and reflective practitioner.
For the Creative Thinking course I dramatized the new leader vs. the old leader in the four ways of thinking, using the traffic lights as the symbols that the leader has to watch and be aware of.

• I designed a very creative workshop for the NCL. I included the dramatization.
• The feedback from the people and my own process of learning improved my learning and creativity.
• For the Philosophy class I created a Framework that simulated the NCL in the Katrina’s situation. (Different roles’ where assumed during my presentation, including: President Bush, Exxon’ CEO, the President of the University, Community leaders, Mom’s, etc.) Through this experience we practiced direct democracy and how to lead authoritatively when necessary, as well as the role of the different stakeholders, their interest and how to find a common ground and purpose though shared values.
• I continually practiced my learning at the Institute for Learning and Teaching - ILT UMass program

5. I have paid attention to the emotional dimensions of undertaking my own project but have found ways to clear away distractions from other sources (present & past) and not get blocked, turning apparent obstacles into opportunities to move into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory.

• The emotions affect situations. Sometimes we cannot hide from the difficulties that appear during the process. I think that I have been able to transformed certain problem into opportunities. This allowed me to explore new things.
• I was emotionally distracted with family situations. I had to make very difficult decisions and had to struggle with my emotions; the death of a brother after fighting five years against Leukemia; then my parents weakness, my son living back home (first time separated from his direct family) living with my parents “breathing the grief and depressing environment”. One year after my brother past away, my second brother had a surgery to remove a cancer tumor. Then my father’s accident four months ago, followed by the death of my grandfather. All these situations required me to travel several times back and forth to my country, to assume the dual role of family member and leader, having to make very difficult and sensitive decisions. o
  • I had to practice in real time what a leader has to take into account to make decisions. I had to reflect and assume a stance “whether my brother should be connected to a machine for the rest of his life as the only way to continue living without any acceptable quality of life. This was a difficult debate with some family members. But my values honoring the will of my brother and thinking about the dimensions of time and ethics guided my position and decision.
  • Having time to re-think my project made me more creative and steadfast in simplifying
• When I look back to my life as a consultant, having constantly a stage to talk and to be listened to, without the limitations of money as I have had during the past three years, living in my culture, with my son, family and friends, I realized how easy it is to live in a comfort zone.
• I have learned during my student process the importance to be alone, without people that constantly congratulate what you do, having the possibility to rethink life, relations, love, and what you have been doing for a living. I felt like the phoenix bird, reviving from the ashes, living in a new environment, creating new friends, without my beloved son, learning a new language, a new culture, studying, researching and trying to create two new products: a concept of the new leader for this time and a portal for the stakeholders, leaders of the time, utilizing the technology to create the conditions for the NCL on mass scale.

6. I have developed peer and other horizontal relationships. I have sought support and advice from peers, and have given support and advice to them when asked for.

• The Practicum course is a good lab to open our hearts to others and to work as a support team. I think that in this space we learned about our fears and secrets, and we created intimate situations with others being in the same boat; this is a unique experience.
• Additionally, during my process I presented my synthesis concept in few organizational scenarios.
• I have received the feedback from my advisor, CEC consultants, top managers, professionals, employees, and friends.

7. I have taken the lead, not dragged my feet, in dialogue with my advisor and other readers. I didn't wait for the them to tell me how to solve an expository problem, what must be read and covered in a literature review, or what was meant by some comment I didn't understand. I didn't put off giving my writing to my advisor and other readers or avoid talking to them because I thought that they didn't see things the same way as I do.

• At first I felt that I was talking with people unrelated to the process of change within organizations. My classmates are more acquainted with issues related to education. In some moments I though that my discourse would be understood better by people with similar experiences as mine (OD consultants, or people applying different leadership approaches (BSR, CSR, Sustainability, etc.)).
• Later I perceived that my classmates where interested in understanding my ideas and to helping me with their feedback.
• At some point I struggled with my advisor about the importance or not to include the section on context, and also the idea that the framework that I developed for the synthesis was basically for those organizations already convinced with the importance to become socially responsible.
• My family situation led me to work in isolation but persisting in accomplishing my goal.
• I have talked with people who are familiar with the topic of my synthesis —different consultants, CEOs, business people— sharing the NCL concept and I felt that I was on a right track.
• My synthesis slide presentation 5/10/07 at the end looked for feedback in writing from participants about their feelings, thinking and motivations for action, and their responses moved me to a new level.

8. I have revised seriously, which involved responding to the comments of others. I came to see this not as bowing down to the views of others, but taking them in and working them into my own reflective inquiry until I could convey more powerfully to others what I'm about (which may have changed as a result of the reflective inquiry).
See question # 7

9. I have inquired and negotiated about formal standards, but gone on to develop and internalize my own criteria for doing work—criteria other than jumping through hoops set by the professor so I get a good grade.

• I set my own standard for the style and quality of my presentation. The synthesis presentations I think do not invite readers to read them, so I talked about this with Peter and he gave me the freedom to make my own design.
• I used different software programs (Inspiration, Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, Acrobat, EndNote, Pages) during the synthesis process, as well as for the synthesis presentations. I know that this meant additional time investment, but I was trying to take into account the different learning styles of adults, given that my project is aimed at adults.
• I self-imposed some standards. I could have made less effort, but I am interested in learning and creating new ideas. So I forced myself to make best possible presentations and as a byproduct receive good grades.
• I must work always with aesthetic designs. Peter was not asking for this, but this is my style of doing things. I believe that the packaging of a product is as important as the product itself.
• Another principle that I follow is that we need to achieve quality at all levels: a solid concept and an excellent presentation (efficient, effective and aesthetic).

10. I have approached the CCT synthesis course and the CCT program as works-in-progress, which means that, instead of harboring criticisms to submit after the fact, I have found opportunities to affirm what is working well and to suggest directions for further development.

• For me is equally important the quality of the process itself as well as the quality of the final product generated by this process.
• A participant in one of my workshops in Latin America once said: “Why don’t we avoid the first day of the workshop if during second day we achieved the results?” This question is often in people’s minds who only want results and do not realize that a result is always the outcome of a process.