A521.1.4.RB - Stories in Your Organization

Describe a common story in your organization and discuss its implications on the organization. Does this story promote the goals and ideals of the organization? Does it help describe "who we are and what we stand for?" What is the story's impact on the culture of the organization?

I work for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and we have many, many stories in our organization. While reading Denning's chapters on storytelling in an organization, I thought of a couple that might work for this reflection exercise. I kept in mind who told the story and who the audience was and how it has impacted our business unit.

The first story I thought of is actually a collection of three stories that are part of our "Ethics Commitment" series. The video is usually viewed by a team and their manager, a group of 10-15 people in a classroom environment. The video has stopping places for discussion points and everyone gets a "My Learning" credit at the end. These videos are shown once a year and last about an hour. The video is composed of three stories, each one a tale of someone who didn't follow the ethics training and was either dismissed or counselled. One such story is about a young man who worked in the Everett facility and was so excited about working there that he constantly took pictures of his workspace, the airplanes, and the inside of the facility. Boeing has a very strict photography policy for pretty understandable reasons, our facilities are full of proprietary information that if leaked, could give our biggest competition a leg up. So this young fella was taking all of these pictures and posting them on his Facebook page. One of his co-workers saw these pictures on the social media site and went to her manager for advice. The manager thanked her for letting him know and the enthusiastic young employee was counselled on the photography policy and let off with a warning. Another story is of an employee who was working in one of our Boeing Defense facilities and was spending an extreme amount of time on the internet...not working. His co-workers had to take up the slack and were very resentful. The co-workers talked about their frustrations in the cafeteria and decided to speak up to their manager. The manager went to Human Resources to find out what the options were for dealing with this situation and after pulling the search record from the employee's laptop, decided that he should no longer work there. This employee was terminated because he was using company time and resources for personal use and we all were thus warned.

Both of these stories do speak to who Boeing is as a company and what we stand for. Boeing wants us to be proud of where we work, and looks for teachable opportunities first then if necessary, termination of the employee. Boeing wants to be fair to all employees, union and non-represented but as shown in the Defense facility, time is money and we all need to put in our best effort every day to be successful as a whole organization. These videos come across as a bit corny, and are acted out by employees. But while we as a team are all kind of snickering at the cornball acting and dialog, we do all engage in the discussions that the storytelling encourages. This is happening all across Boeing so I think the impact on the organization is huge.

We do also have quality videos that go out and messages that come out about the same time as the quarterly earnings are announced. The quality videos are set up much the same way as the ethics videos with three or four stories of actual events and how they impacted the business and what can be done to avoid these quality issues. The discussions about earnings are usually sent out as an e-mail from our Vice-President or CEO and while they talk about the billions of dollars we made, they also talk about where that money goes and how it is distributed. The talk always turns to our competition and how we have to spend a certain way to protect our future. This is usually met with groans of disbelief in corporate transparencies. (Like most large companies I'm guessing!) In all of those examples, getting the message out to over 100,000 employees stationed all over the world, is a heady task at best and I personally applaud them for even trying!

A500.9.4.RB - Course Reflections

This was my first graduate level class and I didn't know what to expect from it. I was a bit intimidated by some of the tools that we had to learn, specifically The Brain and I'm not sure exactly how to use the ePortfolio but I do see how each of those tools could be very helpful. The canvas format for the class was refreshingly simple to use and I really enjoyed the accompanying videos of TED lectures and the conspiracy theory web series. They were not only entertaining, but educational and memorable. The topics covered in this course went way beyond what I had imagined for critical thinking and research but it was awesome to dig that deep. This class was a great one to take first because of the introduction to so many great tools.

I should have been better with my time management. It is something I have struggled with...for always. Next semester, I'm going to set calendar reminders and tasks and stay on top of the assignments. I'm simply too old to pull an all-nighter when I procrastinate. Too. Old. Ha! I also missed out on some of the discussion board conversations because I posted later than recommended. I enjoy those boards because I end up learning something new or a new perspective on the week's topic. So, to improve my learning experience, I will be more disciplined.

Embry-Riddle and Prof. Watkins really did a stellar job with providing support this semester. I was in touch with my advisor and she go back to me super fast with responses and Prof. Watkins is compassionate and fair with her feedback - which was also given in a timely manner. That is very appreciated.

I start my next semester next weekend and will have a tough go of it until the end of the year but I will be able to confidently go into it with a plan and will have two semesters under my belt going into 2016. This is just the beginning!

A500.7.3.RB - Quantitative Research Reflection

Quantitative research is different from qualitative because it deals more with hard facts and the results of scholarly studies that test theories and make predictions based on statistics. While looking for a quantitative research article, I noticed that the articles were comprised of experiments and surveys, numbers and objectives and controlled responses. It reminded me about the differences between sociology and psychology courses. I had enrolled in a psychology course when working on my Associates degree in 2002. It was a 7pm - 9pm class two nights a week. Since I'm not nor never have been a typical college student...going back to school when I was 27, I was also working a full time job. That 7pm - 9pm slot was a risk to my ability to be at my 7am math class. (I was a glutton for punishment then too.) I went to this first class in psychology and the instructor was going over what material we would be covering. It started to dawn on me that psychology was a lot of numbers and scientific theories and studies that seemed very black and white. It was very controlled and I could see that there would be a lot more to this than I had imagined. I'm more of a creative person, right-brained I think it's called, at least most of the time. So, I didn't think that psychology was the class for me. It was the first class I ever withdrew from. A couple semesters later, I enrolled in a sociology class which was more relatable. There were observations, social studies on different cultures and it was fascinating to me to understand how we behave and function in the world we are born into, whatever that world is. I took an anthropology course around that time too and both of those classes touched my right-brained-ness in the stories that came out of it, and the subjectivity of those two sciences.

Quantitative research, at least what I found, was informative and was more about objective and conceptual tools and systems.

A500.8.3.RB - Good Presentation Design

You are working at your desk when suddenly a reminder pops up...15 minutes until the workshop report-out. Oh great. Another hour of your day wasted on some "death by PowerPoint" mumbled presentation that will only challenge your ability to stay awake. Awesome. You finish up your e-mail and head over to the largest conference room (oh great) and pray to the gods of meetings that they be merciful and kind. You look around the room and find a place where you can still Facebook on your iPhone but still kind of look like you're paying attention. The first speaker gets up and does not disappoint. He clicks through the PowerPoint in slow motion reading every bulleted point on the slide as if no one in the room is capable of comprehending his information any other way. There is no color, just an endless stream of black and white. Finally, after what seems like 50 slides and your "liking" several snarky memes on Facebook, the pain is over. That was crazy...the speaker droned on and on, no excitement, no personality, and absolutely forgettable. You hope that nothing important was said, although it would be hard to tell since it didn't seem like any point was more or less important that the others. Next up is another workshop participant who immediately grabs your attention. This presenter has put up a lively and interesting presentation that is colorful, professional, meaningful and brilliant. The bulleted points are just talking points and they are elaborated upon intelligently. There are different medias used and the examples are relatable and relevant. You forget all about the YouTube video of cats drinking out of the faucet you have queued up and really listen to what the speaker is saying. The important information is emphasized and there is even a quick question and answer segment because the presentation was timed to include that for the listeners. It was magical and you wish it had never ended! You look down at your clipboard and notice that you actually took notes! You actually learned something from the second presentation and you might even be able to help implement the idea because some of the help needed items are in your wheelhouse. The report-out is concluded and everyone heads back to their desks and there is a really cool collective vibe in the office because people are excited to get to work on this project.

And that is why good presentation design is important. A bad design is forgetful and loses people's interest. Whatever the presenter wanted to convey is lost and people just want it to be over. A good presentation design can grab the attention of the room and convey what the speaker wants the audience to know about their project. Putting the time and energy into thinking about the audience and what the presenter needs from them and then designing a presentation that appeals to the audience is pure art. It also creates an environment of synergy and excitement in the audience and when it's all over, the folks in the room leave with a positive attitude. Good presentation design is the well-oiled machine of success.