A521.3.4.RB - Personal Reflection

A521.3.4.RB - Personal Reflection

In your Reflection Blog, recall two or three situations from your childhood or early adulthood that had a formative impact on you. Describe the situations and relate how they impacted you. Pick situations that have affected how you act and feel in an organizational or team-based environment.

One of the first situations from my childhood that had an impact on my life was my parent’s divorce when I was seven years old. I never thought for a minute that the divorce was because of something I’d done…a punishment. This was because I never heard my parents fight; it was a complete shock to me. The impact that it had on my life was that I learned from my Mom how to be a strong and independent woman. She has been the one constant in my entire life…from moment one. I have learned from her that being strong doesn’t mean that you don’t make mistakes, or that you don’t fall in love, or that you have to be cold-hearted. It means that your strength is in how you recover from those mistakes, how vulnerable you allow yourself to be with your loved ones, and that the person who wears their heart on their sleeves is always stronger than the one who hides. I tried to learn from her mistakes but ended up only repeating them…ha! However, I had her voice in my head constantly reminding me that I could do better, was worth more, and was capable of bigger things. This has impacted me especially in my career choices – especially when I took a job in a commercial electrical distribution company. I drove a forklift, made deliveries to job sites, and eventually had my first management experience. Everything I did lead me to the doorsteps of the Boeing Company. If I hadn’t tried for better…I’d still be selling shoes at Dillard’s.

Another situation from my youth was that my Uncle Wayne, my mom’s youngest brother, was an airframe mechanic. This job took him all over the world. A lot of my early childhood was spent in airports waiting at the gate (back when you could still do that) for Uncle Wayne coming back from England, Germany, Saudi, Italy…you name it! He always brought me something back, the only two things I still have are dolls from Egypt and Germany. He brought little pieces of the world back to us in Arlington, SD. It just seemed like his life was one continuous adventure! So, fast forwarding to when I was 22 years old and I had moved back in with my parents in Santa Fe, NM. I went to Santa Fe Community College and met my first husband in a math class. Four months later, we married and six months after that, I moved to Germany with him. It was my turn for adventure and I didn’t look back. Remember what I said about repeating my Mom’s mistakes? Marrying too early was one of those mistakes. But I’ll never regret the time I got to spend immersed in German and Western European culture. My Uncle Wayne sparked an adventurous spirit in me. I have taken many leaps of faith, not all of them landing well, but that’s where learning from those mistakes comes in. Either way, I still went for it.

Both of these people have had an impact on me in a team-based environment because I have a more diverse world view than folks who have never lived anywhere else. I’m not saying its better or worse. I’m just saying that I do well in team situations because I know that everyone has a backstory, everyone comes from somewhere and has their own battles. Seeing so much of the world has made me aware that no matter where we come from, there are similarities in all walks of life. We all struggle, from mechanic to CEO, and finding the common bond is what makes the difference.

Both my Mom and my Uncle Wayne have pioneering spirits. My Mom was probably scared to cut the ties of a (somewhat) secure financial situation and a roof over her (and me) for her independence – but she still took that leap. My Uncle Wayne was probably super excited to travel but also scared to be so far away from the only home he’d ever known – but he still took that leap. I think both of them came out of their experiences slightly bruised and forever changed but I also think that they don’t regret any of it.  

A521.2.3.RB - Danger of Stories

A521.2.3.RB - Danger of Stories

View the TED video Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story. Adichie uses several episodes from her own life's story to deliver her powerful message. Use your blog to reflect on Adichie's message. How do you view her message in terms of what you have learned in this module?

Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk was fascinating and quite a revelation to me. She articulated what I’ve often thought about so beautifully. She said that the single story is limiting and creates stereotypes. It flattens our life experiences. The danger of the single story is that it creates a feeling and opinion about a place, a culture, a song, a person’s story that is based on very limited information. Essentially what Adichie is talking about is critical thinking…and reading with a critical mind. This statement especially touched me, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” (Adichie, 2009) When the one story becomes the only story…that is a powerful statement.

At Boeing, a single story that I hear all the time, and so far, in all of the major business units that in which I’ve worked: “We’ve always done it this way.” This is just a sentence but within our organization, it speaks volumes about what can and cannot be done regardless of the drive for values such as “Finding a way,” and the culture of innovation. “We’ve always done it this way.” Tells a story of a company that is stuck and that hasn’t changed in 100 years. This is obviously false. “So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” (Adichie, 2009) My reaction to this story is: “Wrong. If we’ve always done it this way, we’d still be making airplanes out of canvas and glue. Try again.” I work in workshops to try to innovate and improve processes in our factory. I work with mechanics, mechanical engineers, production engineers, programmers, etc. and we come together with our single stories in an effort to expand them into a multi-level narrative of success and forward motion. This is not an easy task and all departments have that same single story: “We’ve always done it this way.” But it isn’t true. “The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” (Adichie, 2009)   I’ve worked with all of the departments in some form or another and underneath this stubborn suit of armor lies a very diverse and capable group of individuals who have, in fact, done amazing things. New things. And this is the story that should be carried into the next century of Boeing. I do see people trying to change the story and that makes me proud and excited to be a part of this company. I think the multi-faceted story will prevail.  

What Adichie’s examples spoke of is a lack of critical thinking and a lack of literary analysis that I think is common in most cultures. Her example of the house boy that worked for her family was incredibly touching because when she visited his village and saw that his family was not just poor but hardworking – it was such an important thought-shift for her that she still remembers it into adulthood. “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.” (Adichie, 2009)

The message itself was presented in a way that was easy to understand. Adichie clearly had rehearsed this speech but didn’t come across as wooden or as if she were reading it off of cards. It was obvious that she had a copy of her speech on the podium making it somewhat extemporaneous in nature, but again, it didn’t feel like she was reading it. Her message was honest, concise, had great examples to back up her point, and was delivered with confidence and charm. She understood what the purpose of the speech was and conveyed it clearly to her audience. “The basic rule of style is that your language must be appropriate to the audience, the subject matter, the occasion.” (McKay, et al, 2009) She also knew that everyone there had their own single story situations and they would be thinking of those moments while she was giving her TED talk. “Communication is meaning. Remember, communication takes place in your listener’s mind.” (Whalen, 2007)

This was a very thought provoking TED Talk. Adichie is a skilled story teller and creates an environment of understanding and brings everyone together by giving her personal life experiences and epiphanies about the single story. She creates a critical thinker in every one who experiences her TED Talk and to me, that is greatness.

 References:

Adichie, C. N. (July 2009). The Danger of a Single Story. TEDGlobal 2009.

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

McKay, M., Davis, M., Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The Communication Skills Book. Oakland, CA. New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Whalen, J. D. (2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

A521.1.4.RB2016 - 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. This year we are celebrating 100 years in business. One. Hundred. Years. Think about that for a minute. 1916 – 2016. The world is a completely different place and a lot of that has to do with technological advances and a lot of those advances came from engineers and techs working at Boeing…or McDonnell-Douglas...people working in aerospace. This anniversary has opened up the vaults containing generations of stories about Boeing – from its infancy, through the “space race,” and continuing on through today and what the future (or the next 100 years) will look like for Boeing. I’m not going to pretend like it’s not a completely exciting time to be working for this company!

To pin-point one major story that resonates across all major business units (MBU) at Boeing, it would have to be a story of legacy. The legacy that the current generation of employees has been left and the legacy that we will leave. Recently, Boeing paired with the Museum of Flight and the Discovery Channel to present a five episode series called, “The Age of Aerospace.” This was not only Boeing’s story but the story of American aviation. “Stories excite the imagination of the listener and create consecutive states of tension…and tension release. Thus, the listener is not a passive receiver of information but is triggered into a state of active thinking.” (Denning, 2011) It was very inspiring and made me very proud to be part of this organization.

When the series aired, I was working in fabrication and we worked primarily with raw materials building wing structures. It was easy to forget that what we did actually helped build airplanes…and pretty awesome airplanes at that. Now that I work in Final Assembly and there are always several 787 Dreamliners in the factory at any given time, I sometimes take time to go up to the third or fourth floor balconies and just watch the activity for a few minutes. I get to eat my lunch while these majestic airplanes are being assembled not even 50 feet away from me. This is part of the legacy that the Boeing stories talk about. This communing with the noises and movements of the factory is the thread that binds us all together, from Everett, WA to Charleston, SC and all over the globe. It’s pretty amazing when I stop and think about it. “Communication takes place in the mind of the other person, not in yours.” (Whalen, 2007) Whatever our predecessors wanted us to glean from their stories, we, the listeners and receivers, put it into terms that apply to us now. Just as our stories will take on different meanings to the generation after us. That’s how it is in business and in life. The stories of an organization always start and end with the people of that organization. Boeing is no different.

Resources:

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Whalen, J. D. (2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

https://press.discovery.com/us/sci/press-releases/2016/age-aerospace-explores-space-technology-advan-3746/