TO DO LIST
1. PowerPoint Presentation and
2. Presentation Script: This may be provided either as speaker’s notes or as a separate scriipt.
What You Need To Know: Read about how sharing what you know can lead to deeper learning and how studying concepts through different lenses can solidify understanding.
Assignment: Using a teaching case as an illustrative story, prepare a PowerPoint presentation and presentation scriipt that you might use to share what you have learned in this course with a group of your organization’s formal and informal leaders.
Prepare: Read a case study to prepare for this week’s assignment.
Assignment Overview
For the final assignment in this course you will prepare a PowerPoint presentation and presentation scriipt that you might use to share with your organization’s formal and informal leaders to prepare for engaging in an organizational change process. The Belmont Abbey teaching case will serve as the vehicle for illustrating your concepts. In your presentation, you will be expected to incorporate graphical displays of information and systems diagrams to explain the organizational dynamics of the case.
What You Need to Know
Deeper Learning Through Teaching
The following short articles highlight the power of explaining concepts to others and responding to their anticipated questions. “Teaching” as an authentic practice exercise is nearly as effective as actually teaching others. The Feynman Technique is simple and intuitive. If you apply it regularly throughout your doctoral program, it will become second nature.
Farman Street. (n.d.). The Feynman technique: The best way to learn anything [Blog post]. https://fs.blog/2012/04/feynman-technique/
Rusczyk, R. (2013). Learning through teaching. https://artofproblemsolving.com/news/articles/learning-through-teaching
Two notable quotes from the readings above:
“Your ideas will never be more effective than your ability to make others comprehend them” (Ruscyzk, 2013, para. 1).
“…Richard Feynman understood the difference between knowing something and knowing the name of something…” (Farnum Street, n.d., para.3).
A Synopsis of Systems Thinking
This is a classic introduction to systems thinking that is easier to understand if you already have some background about systems. Often it is helpful to revisit recently learned concepts in a different format to help integrate and consolidate knowledge. When you read the Kim article below at this point in the course, after having studied systems thinking and archetypes as well as a change process that draws heavily upon systems thinking, it should seem familiar and reinforce your learning about systems thinking at the same time. The goal is for you to continue to increase your understanding of systems thinking concepts and tools and to gain facility in applying systems thinking to problems of practice in organizations.
Kim, D. H. (1999). Introduction to systems thinking [PDF]. https://thesystemsthinker.com/introduction-to-systems-thinking/
Prepare: Case Study
Case in Practice
Read the following to prepare for this week’s assignment, Teaching Case Study: Belmont Abbey.
Anderson, R., & Roberto, M. A. (2016). Belmont Abbey College: Strategy formulation in turbulent times. Harvard Business Publishing.
Assignment Instructions
TEACHING CASE STUDY: BELMONT ABBEY
Preparation
For this assignment, you’ll prepare a PowerPoint presentation and presentation scriipt.
If you have not yet done so, read the following teaching case:
Anderson, R., & Roberto, M. A. (2016). Belmont Abbey College: Strategy formulation in turbulent times. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing.
Review the Guidelines for Effective PowerPoint Presentations [PPTX].
The PowerPoint slides should follow the presentation standard guidelines specified in the above. Your slides must include graphical displays of information and system diagrams to explain the organizational dynamics of the case to your students. Your slides should also incorporate information provided in the case exhibits.
The scriipt will be your teaching narrative that includes explanations of each slide that will enable your students to understand the concepts. Use the feedback on your assignment in Week 7 to clearly and accurately address all components of the lesson. Anticipate questions and areas of confusion as you complete your assignment, so your plans are comprehensive and learner focused.
Include graphics as appropriate, and incorporate information provided in the case.
Assignment Scenario
Assume that you are a formal or informal leader in your organization. You, along with your supervisor (or the rest of your leadership team) are engaged in a study of your organization’s challenges and strategic position with the intention of developing and implementing a series of improvement initiatives. You have shared some of the ideas in this course in casual conversation with others on the team and stimulated their interest. As a result, you have been asked to present the course’s concepts to everyone on the team so they, too, can begin to broaden and deepen their thinking about organizational learning, change, and improvement.
You decide to use a teaching case, Belmont Abbey, to help your team develop an understanding of the key course concepts. For this task you’ll develop a set of teaching materials in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and corresponding scriipt that convey the course concepts. Using examples from the case, you’ll enable your team to develop an understanding of systems thinking, systems archetypes, and change and action research inquiry processes. In developing these teaching materials, you will be synthesizing course concepts and gaining a deeper understanding of their application to problems of practice.
Instructions
Create a PowerPoint presentation and corresponding scriipt (or speaker’s notes) that consists of the following bolded components:
Introduce the case.
Preliminary Introduction of the Case: Summarize the case for your team.
Provide a synopsis of the Belmont Abbey case that enables the intended audience to understand the case, including events, stakeholders, and challenges that will be analyzed.
Use disciplines of learning organizations to analyze problems of practice.
Disciplines: Apply the lens of the four core disciplines (personal mastery, mental models, team learning, shared vision) to the case, and provide an analysis of the extent to which the discipline(s) reveals organizational dynamics and contributes either to organizational learning or to the organization’s problems.
Analyze the organizational disabilities and systems archetypes present in the case.
Systems Archetypes: Explain and map at least one example of a systems archetype can be seen in the case. Include at least one systems map as part of your presentation.
Recommend change management strategies for the organization based on the case.
Critical-Thinking Tools: Prior to suggesting change management strategies, demonstrate critical thinking tools to identify assumptions the stakeholders in the case may have made, and develop a set of questions you would ask to help the stakeholders in the case uncover their assumptions and clarify the steps needed for future progress. Reference Paul and Elder’s
Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life text in your comments.
Four-Stage Change Process: Describe and explain how the four-stage process could be used by the Belmont Abbey leaders to improve the strategic planning process that enhances the chances of success for one of the college’s initiatives. Explain how your set of questions would help uncover stakeholder assumptions and clarify steps needed for future progress. Refer to Stroh’s Thinking for Social Change text.
Propose an inquiry model to plan for next phase of organizational improvement.
Inquiry Cycle: Demonstrate and explain how an inquiry model such as ARPP/action research could be use by the college leadership to plan the next phase of improvement or change.
Recommendations: Provide a set of specific practical recommendations about how the president should proceed.
Demonstrate how your recommendations align with the college’s mission, vision, and values.
Questions: Conclude with at least 3 discussion questions you would pose to help uncover team members’ assumptions and facilitate their inquiry into and understanding of the key concepts you have presented.
Additional Requirements
Length of Presentation: As needed to support the assignment requirements.
References: As needed to support your analysis. Include a references list slide at the end of your PowerPoint presentation.
Presentation Script: This may be provided either as speaker’s notes or as a separate scriipt.
APA Style and Format: Be sure to use proper APA citation style throughout your presentation.
SCORING GUIDE REQUIREMENTS
1. Provides a well-crafted and organized synopsis of the Belmont Abbey case that enables the intended audience to understand the case, including events, stakeholders, and challenges that will be analyzed.
2. Applies the lens of the four core disciplines (personal mastery, mental models, team learning, shared vision), and provides an insightful and comprehensive analysis of the extent to which the disciplines reveal organizational dynamics and contribute either to organizational learning or to the organization’s problems.
3. Analyzes the organizational disabilities and systems archetypes present in the case, including at least one systems map, using specific evidence from the case.
4. Identifies a set of questions to uncover stakeholder assumptions and clarify steps needed for future progress and explains why the questions will be effective.
5.Explains how the four-stage change process could be applied to the case, providing examples, citations, or other supporting arguments.
6. Presents and action plan based on an inquiry model such as ARPP/action research to describe what has occurred or to plan the next phase of improvement or change, providing examples, citations, or other supporting arguments.
7. Recommends ways the president should proceed that align with the college’s mission, vision, and values, providing examples, citations, or other supporting arguments.
8. Communicates with exceptional clarity, including evidence to support a central idea in a consistently appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
Competency 1: Apply systems thinking principles and tools to problems and organizations.
Analyze the organizational disabilities and systems archetypes present in the case, including at least one systems map.
Competency 2: Use disciplines of learning organizations to analyze problems of practice.
Apply the lens of the four core disciplines (personal mastery, mental models, team learning, shared vision) to the case, and provide an analysis of the extent to which the discipline(s) reveals organizational dynamics and contributes either to organizational learning or to the organization’s problems.
Competency 3: Apply critical thinking to evaluate ideas and in interactions with others.
Identify a set of questions to uncover the team members’ assumptions and facilitate their inquiry into and understanding of the key concepts presented.
Competency 4: Apply a change model to a problem of practice.
Explain how the four-stage change process could be applied to the case.
Present an action plan based on an inquiry model such as
ARPP/action research, and explain how it could be used by the college leadership to plan, implement, and evaluate the next phase of improvement or change.
Recommend ways the president should proceed that align with the college’s mission, vision, and values.
Competency 5: Communicate clearly, supporting a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
Provide a synopsis of the Belmont Abbey case that enables the intended audience to understand the case, including events, stakeholders, and challenges that will be analyzed.
Communicate clearly, supporting a central idea in an appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES AVAILABLE-
Books:
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2012). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishing.
Stringer, E. T., & Aragon, A. O. (2021). Action research (5th ed.). Sage.
Stroh, D. P. (2015). Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex problems, avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Other sources:
Casciaro, T., Edmondson, A. C., & Jang, S. (2019). Cross-silo leadership. Harvard Business Review, 97(3), 130–139.
Duhigg, C. (2016). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times Magazine.
Grogan, M. (Ed.). (2013). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Rev. ed.). Currency.
