Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Essay Example

Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Essay Example Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Essay Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Essay Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Kevin Sanderson LDR/531 October 18, 2010 Lawrence Hibbard Create a Plan for Positive Influence Paper Working in a team environment requires that each team member be motivated to complete the tasks at hand in an efficient and effective manner. Member performance is normally proportionate to satisfaction. Bases for this winning combination can be derived from self assessments such as The Platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment and team collaborations. The outcome of such assessments and collaborations are instrumental in the positive influence of teamwork both in school and workplace environments. Often teams are assigned large projects to work on and the attitudes, values, emotions, and personalities of the members are direct attributes of the projects success or failure. A plan to promote a positive environment is the first step of ensuring team success. The Platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment identifies four styles of behavior: dominance (the need to control and the need to achieve), interactive (thrive on the admiration, acknowledgment, and compliments), steadiness (warm, supportive, and nurturing individuals), and cautious (analytical, persistent, and systematic problem solvers) (Alessandra, 2010). Each style includes four sub-styles: Dominance-director, adventurer, producer, pioneer Interactive-socializer, helper, impresser, enthusiast Steadiness-relater, specialist, go-getter, harmonizer Cautious-thinker, master-minder, assessor and perfecter Each sub-style has its own motivators, which will be addressed later. When each team member has identified his or her individual style and sub-style, the team can collaborate to see who is best for what role and find the right dynamics for the team. It is found that for some, the assessment is a perfect description, whereas others believe the results are off the mark. The differences in perceptions of individuals self is good during team collaborations because individuals can discover behaviors and personalities that they were not aware they possessed. Also it helps each member identify with whom he or she can work with the best. Different people have different values indicative of their behaviors and personalities that must be identified as well when working as a group and large projects. For example, A person looking to hurry and get-by would not go well on a team that is dedicated and looking to deliver a quality product or service. However, this type of individual’s energy could be used to handle any manual labor that may be needed and can be controlled and monitored. Once the identification phase has taken place, it is important to find ways to increase motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Increase in Motivation As mentioned earlier each behavior style has a sub-style with unique motivators. For example the Interactive Enthusiast (Id) is motivated by influencing others. This means this type of individual experiences higher levels of satisfaction by stimulating other team members in some positive form or fashion. The realization of this influence then causes the individual to perform at peak levels. The more Interactive Enthusiasts can influence people, the more motivated and satisfied him or she will be and individual performances will increase (Alessandra, 2010). Another example is a Dominance Pioneer (Dc). This type individual is motivated by functioning in a position to direct and redirect task accomplishments. These futuristic focused individuals are quick on their feet and work well in contingency situations. Assigning new tasks in unchartered territories will increase the motivation, satisfaction, and performance of these individuals (Alessandra, 2010). Job satisfaction may also be increased when a person is doing work that is liked. Other job-satisfaction facets included pay, advancement opportunities, supervision, and coworkers; however, if a person is doing what is of interest to them he or she will tend to experience satisfaction long-term (Robbins Judge, 2007). Performance levels also can be increased when specific goals are set. A person, striving to do the best he or she can, may not reach optimal performance. The goal-setting theory suggests that specific goals act as internal stimuli and increase individual performance (Robbins Judge, 2007). Therefore, if team members have definite objectives and timelines the team has a better chance at effectiveness and efficiency. Behavior Influences It is evident that a person’s behavior has an effect on the dynamics and productivity of a team. Many factors play a part in individual behavior. Behavior can be influenced by attitudes, personalities, values, and emotions. Attitudes are said to be casually related to behavior meaning that a person’s attitude will dictate his or her behavior. Importance is one of the most powerful moderators of attitudes-behavioral relationship. According to Robbins Judge (2007) â€Å"Important attitudes are ones that reflect fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or groups that a person values† (p. 78). These types of attitudes demonstrate a strong relationship to behavior. A person’s personality, in a sense, dictates how individuals interact with the masses. Two extremes of personalities opposite of each other have a great deal of influence on behavior; Type A and Type B personalities. Type A people are aggressive, always moving, multi-taskers obsessed with numbers, and measure in volume and mass. This type of personality is best used when an organization taking off or going through a transition; may be harmful during the maturity period of the business life cycle. Type B people are rarely hurried, patient, reserved, and can put their mind at ease. This type of personality is best used when an organization is trying to focus on the mission and objectives as well as the big picture; can be a spontaneous thought detriment (Robbins Judge, 2007). Values are individual perceptions of reality itself and the way the individual chooses to deal with it. Because values are based on individual perception, he or she can obstruct objectivity and rationality. This can have a negative impact on a team if an individual values cause the team to deviate from its goals and objectives by deciding to place self want over team need (Robbins Judge, 2007). The direction of intense feelings toward someone or something is called emotions. In an organizational setting it is hard for a person to function if he or she experiences the emotion of anger, for example. This oment of emotion can alter the mood from pleasant to unpleasant. This in turn can affect one’s creativity. People in good moods tend to be more open-minded, think fast, and come up with many ideas, while those in bad moods can be pessimistic, abrupt, and have their mind wonder (Robbins Judge, 2007). Differences Many differences exist in referencing attitudes, personalities, va lues, and emotions. Just as one of the aforementioned can have a positive effect on a team, it can have an equivalent negative effect as well. A team may be diverse and contain many personality traits that may play part on one’s emotions. These emotions can dictate the individual attitude, which has a direct affect on the individual value system. Of course, the sequence of cause and effect can be rearranged yielding a different outcome of the same elements. Knowing and understanding the individual and collective differences of attitudes, personalities, values, and emotions can help a team organize its committees, plan its strategies with strategic personnel, make timelines more conducive to team member preference, and develop trust among members. Conclusion When a team assembles the members must figure each other out to work together. Different motivating, satisfying, and performance-driven feelings exist in everybody. Mix the feelings with the attitudes, emotions, values, and personalities that each member possesses, and the outcome is unpredictable. If provisions are made for positive influence, the benefits to the team can be unlimited. References Alessandra, T. (2010, October). The Platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment. Retrieved from https://uop. blanchardassessments. com/reportcontents. asp? id=174030 Robbins, S. P. , Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational Behavior (12th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Experiment in Joy †5 Steps to Create It and Sustain It

Experiment in Joy – 5 Steps to Create It and Sustain It The Experiment In August 2014, Call Response, a group of seven Black women performers, from seven cities, presented their freshly minted, powerful works at a festival at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This in itself is remarkable. Antioch, after all, had not exactly been a hotbed of discourse and creativity for Black women prior to 2014. In fact, the festival would never have happened if it weren’t for a professor named Gabrielle Civil, who made the unlikely choice of accepting an appointment there when she experienced the enthusiasm of the faculty who hired her. Part of her demand before accepting the position was that Antioch would hold a festival of Black women and performance. Even more remarkable is the process by which these performances were generated. A month before the August festival, the women had convened to perform select pre-existing works and share ideas in service of their main artistic task: â€Å"to produce the Call, the collective prompt for artistic action, that would articulate [their] ideas about art making and catalyze †¦ new performances.† The core questions they asked: What would move us forward in Black feminist practice? What would it mean for us as Black women artists to claim joy? Establishing the Call The Call they ultimately birthed, and which underpinned the August performance, was dubbed â€Å"Experiments in Joy.† Its profound components are as follows: Tell the truth. Create something new. Let someone in. Document. Repeat. I first learned about these Experiments at my 25th Yale reunion this past weekend, and I have been turning the components and the message over in my own head. While created for a specific community and purpose, the Call can spur all of us into our creativity and into action. The Dangers of Achievement Earlier in the weekend, my mom and I had met with an old friend of hers and my dad’s. This former Yale Admissions Officer shared that although his life looks wonderful objectively – he has a loving wife, financial stability, and a summer vacation house in Nova Scotia – he wakes up many mornings feeling sad and unmotivated. He self-identified as an â€Å"Eeyore,† the donkey character from Winnie the Pooh who complains about everything and sees very little hope for his life. I told him about James Lawrence, a 39-year-old who decided he would race 50 Ironman races. Not just 50 in his lifetime, but 50 in 50 days! To make things really easy, he vowed to run these 50 Ironmans in 50 states. Did he complete his goal? You bet he did, even with an early injury that required him to swim some of the races with one arm. Amazing right? â€Å"I bet he got really down after he completed those races,† said Eeyore. And in fact he was right. Mr. Lawrence has been struggling with his motivation since he completed the races. Looking at the Experiment in Joy, I see that Lawrence covered numbers 2,3 and 4 of the Call but I’m not sure whether he did numbers 1 and 5. He repeated the Ironman 50 times but then stopped. And there was no particular truth telling that I know of at the foundation of his physical challenge. Thus, when it was over, he was left without joy. Your Personal Experiment in Joy I wonder what our Yale friend would create if he were to use the recipe for joy in the Call? I wonder what I would create? I recognize that my blog is a creation that meets the Joy criteria. Each week I tell the truth about something, create an article that has never been written before, share it (let many people in), document it, and repeat the next week. Notice the trick in the Call. That fifth element is the most important really. Creating something and being vulnerable about it will only bring joy for so long. It’s the repetition, the telling of a new truth, perhaps in a new way, that keeps the joy alive. I’ll be honest: Each week lately I have struggled with what to write in my blog, and I have often not come up with an idea until late Sunday night or even Monday morning, which is my deadline. But when I write something meaningful and new, I do feel joy. And I feel joy when people tell me I’ve given them tools they will use or insight into their own lives or a new way of approaching life. I will be continuing to explore ways that I can respond to the Call to Joy in my life. What would your truth be? Your new creation? Where does your Joy reside? Note: A more thorough explanation and account of the Call to Joy project can be found in volume 41 nos. 1-2 of the creative/scholarly journal Obsidian: Literature Arts in the African Diaspora. Participating performers: Gabrielle Civil, Duriel E. Harris, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Rosamond S. King, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Mirà © Regulus, Awilda Rodrà ­guez Lora