Appreciative Inquiry and Authentic Leadership for Collaborative Learning Communities

Administrative ambiguity and resistance from faculty resistance can leave instructional designers voiceless. Communication challenges across disciplines and departments can lead to stagnation, burnout, anger and frustration. Understanding the barriers to clear communication can help faculty and staff channel the passion they feel for learning into productive conversations. In this workshop, instructional designers and administrators will 1) identify a personal approach to authentic leadership 2) use appreciative inquiry to identify opportunities and means of dialogue, 3) develop a strategic plan to collaborate within and across departments and with a variety of stakeholders. Participants will commit to using the tools discussed in the workshop in their work with their home institution.

The role of instructional designers can vary across institutions and departments. This leads to role confusion and miscommunication. When roles and responsibilities are defined and tangible, various stakeholders can participate in the design of solutions to institutional problems and changes. Too often there is not enough time to develop frameworks that define these roles and responsibilities.

Communication challenges are further compounded when different members of an educational community have a change in direction or goals. During these moments of change, administrators and designers both rely on tacit knowledge providing support and holding up structures on the basis of experience, and  trial and error. Turning tacit knowledge into explicit and therefore shared knowledge paves the way for better communication within organizations. How can we move from engaging with our communities based on assumptions to engaging in clear communication?

Learning Objectives:

• Develop an understanding of authentic leadership and the role of your leadership through a self-assessment

• Apply principles of appreciative inquiry to identify and dispel assumed barriers to clear communication 

• Integrate the tools of authentic leadership, appreciative inquiry to build a strategic plan that informs your work at your home institution

Authentic Leadership (20 minutes): Higher education professionals are trained to critique and evaluate; this can translate into a focus on what’s wrong and not working instead of a process of increased self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ongoing process of reflection and re-examination so that we know our strengths, weakness, power and value. As Kouzes and Posner state, “Before you can be a leader of others, you need to know clearly who you are and what your core values are.” As many individuals on campus are unclear of what an instructional designer is, or can do, it is imperative that they be able to articulate their value and communicate clearly. Participants will learn authentic leadership strategies to stay focused on the strengths they bring to the table – which in turn will help them recognize the strengths of their team. The trust established offers a clear foundation of growth, from which challenges can comfortably be addressed.  Participants will complete complete a questionnaire to develop awareness of their style of authentic leadership.

Materials: Slides Handout

Tools: Questionnaire on Authentic Leadership

Focus: Individual Work & Reflection

Appreciative Inquiry (30 minutes presentation): Building on the self-awareness generated through the first activity, we now turn to appreciative inquiry as a method of developing clear communication. Appreciative inquiry, Cooperrider writes, is “a radical departure from traditional deficit-based change to a positive, strengths-based approach”(2012). It is a change model that can help stakeholders develop a stronger foundation through communication with which to build strategies that can bolster interdisciplinarity and interdepartmental cooperation (Bushe 2011). Appreciative inquiry goes beyond the typical beliefs that colleagues are either obstacles, replaceable or undervalued. After a brief presentation of the four tiered method, participants will pair up and develop two questions that can be posed to their colleague in this activity about his or her leadership style. Participants will develop and practice ways of listening and questioning to enable better collaboration between individuals with a different leadership style. Participants will use google forms on a mobile device to build the shared list of questions that can be accessed from their home institution and used for the next activity on collaboration.

Materials: Slides & Handouts

Tools: Google Forms list building & sharing tool (participants without an account can create one there, and add their preferred email to the spreadsheet)

Focus: Working in pairs to develop questions

Building a Strategic Plan for Collaboration (30 Minutes): Meaningful collaboration requires communities that are grounded in trust. Instructional designers and others who are tasked with enhancing the quality, accessibility and viability of online learning, need to know they have a voice to be able to successfully evaluate their programs to meet accreditation goals and other regulations. Instructional Designers should ask questions or engage in conversations with administrators and faculty to find a sustainable schedule to help faculty, new or existing, create an online experience to support student success and maintain a high level of academic rigor. This requires a plan. In this section of the workshop we will use the issues and questions generated by the appreciative inquiry process to build community. We will start by mapping out the issues and critical stakeholders in our own organizations. Then using that map and our understanding of authentic leadership and appreciative inquiry, we will develop a broad and personal strategic plan for fostering regular and informed communication around on-line learning. This will require a set of shared norms including assuming positive intentions and a focus on evidence-based communication (Boudett, City, & Murnane, 2005). A guide for strategic planning will be provided to all participants and modeled by the presenter. Participants will then create a basic strategic plan. Participants will share these strategic plans once developed with their previous partner and refine their plans to incorporate an outsider’s perspective.

Materials: Slides Handout

Tools: Strategic Plan, Stems for Accountable Discussion, Reflection Survey

Focus: Individual Work and Pair Critique

Discussion and Reflection (10 Minutes): Participants will complete a survey reflection form on their experience in the workshop informing future work in this area of inquiry. Time for discussion and wrap-up of major themes covered.  

References:

Boudett, K, City, E., & Murnane, R. (2005). Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Improve Teaching and Learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bushe, G.R. (2011) Appreciative inquiry: Theory and critique.  In: Boje, D.,  Burnes, B. and Hasard, J. (eds.) The Routledge Companion To Organizational Change.

Oxford, UK: Routledge.  (pp. 87103).

Cooperrider, D. (2012). What is Appreciative Inquiry? Retrieved from: http://www.davidcooperrider.com/ai-process/

Khalil, M. (2016). Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction. In: Advances in Physiology Education. 40: 147-156

Kouzes, J. and Posner, B. (2012) The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Miller, S. (2016). Finding Our Voice: Instructional Designers in Higher Education. William Patterson University. Retrieved online 26 September 2016. file:///C:/Users/ldouglas/Downloads/Miller%20and%20Stein-finding%20our%20voice%20(2).pdf

Todd, C., Ravi, K., Akoh, H., Gray, V. (2016). An Online Adult-learner focused Program: As Assessment of effectiveness. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Vol XVIII, 3.  

Materials: Slide handouts and worksheets will be provided during the presentation, posted on the conference web site, and submitted to the conference proceedings. An email will be sent post meeting with results of the discussions.

Format of Presentation: This is an interactive workshop. Content is provided and will be followed by clear methods to actively engage participants.