Action Turn

Unit 3 required us to conduct a piece of Action Inquiry in our workplace. I based my inquiry on our team meetings, this was a jointly chosen subject with my then boss and professional advocate as the meeting had become a bit of a bone of contention within the team. It made sense to try and tackle something that would make a difference. The blog posts from this unit can be found in March and April’s archives.

I took with me the learnings from the previous unit and built on the work I had done from Goffman. I tried to build into the assignment write up a sense of what it was like doing this type of work on a part time basis. This was a theme to emerge again in my work and I think it has a resonance with the whole work/life balance debate that surfaces a fair bit in the media at the moment.

Basically I thought that action inquiry was fab. I really got it, actually make a change then see what happens whilst being prepared to change again, build in that eventuality that the first change will not be perfect. Reason and Torbert (2001. p.1) hit the nail on the head for me when they talked about the action turn. AI also built on the reflexive elements of unit two; it gave me a chance to study my role in what I was doing. The team joined in with alacrity which made my task much more pleasurable than it otherwise may have been and I suspect ultimately more successful.

I have since joined a new team and intend to identify areas where I can employ an AI method to change with them when I have spent some time understanding how they currently do things and see what may benefit from this type of approach. I have also found that my attitude to meetings is a little different because of having done this work, when I viewed things from the side of being responsible for them and being the person doing the changing, it made me realise how hard it is if people do not put in some effort (although as I have said the munchkins were excellent). A wizard pointed out that there is a thin line between being a person who challenges and uses scepticism wisely and a common spoil sport.

I remain sceptical of Myers Briggs type exercises but understanding Goffman has given me a different way to approach them, I can now play a different part and with practice will improve in that role. I had my first new team do last week and found it interesting that this is effectively a new show and an opportunity to take on a new role, at least in part. I don’t think anyone noticed that I am still learning my lines.

AI only required me to buy a pair of flip flops, and some nail varnish for my toes.

Under The Spotlight

I was dreading this unit and so of course it was the one I enjoyed the most. I knew I would find it tough; talking formally about myself is not something I am fond of. The brief was, basically, to critically reflect on yourself and your experience. You can see my assignment in these blog entries if you wish – http://apairofrubyslippers.wordpress.com/2007/02/

I had two epiphanies during this assignment, which is probably more than in the last 5 years, the first was that I was starting to see the value of a decent theory and how it could impact my work (I would like to add this into my action plan as I think it can have an impact on our future work). I had fought this idea through unit 1 as I saw it as so distinct from the world of work. I had visions of myself having pop cans chucked at me as I delivered a presentation littered with highbrow theoretical references. On reflection perhaps that was a bit optimistic anyway. What I managed to misunderstand was the value that could be delivered to the workplace by using the framework of a decent theory to help explain, understand and change the current situation. It felt to me that theory became like a nice pair of wellies you could put on and splash about in for a bit to see if they made you feel differently about your landscape from the stilettos you were previously wearing. Sorry shoes are creeping in again. For me, theory is about working smarter not harder as the old BT ad used to preach.

The second epiphany was that I could stop apologising for not finding formal disclosure easy and find my own way through it, using theory and being brave (that word again) enough to stand a middle ground that satisfied both the assignment criteria and my own sensibilities. This was something that went on to inform much of the rest of my work for these assignments and began to filter into my professional practice. I am no longer prepared to apologise for being part-time (in fact I think we part timers, who make up a massive 3.7% at Munchkin Land have got several advantages over both full timers and non workers) or female, a mother, an ex-dancer or slightly leftfield. I don’t fit the mould, but it doesn’t matter. It gives me a different perspective, it is why I did this course and not an MBA (yawn) and I can do the splits.

The reflection during this unit also made me realise that unlike most of the others on the MA I was not in love with my media. I could happily work on something else if it was creative, progressive, a little different from the norm and with likeminded people.

This unit also re-acquainted me with a couple of old chums, Mr. Farmer an ex-colleague who used to deliver advice and be a fellow misfit and Mr Goffman (who I had first briefly encountered some years ago). Mr Farmer got involved in my next assignments for which I am grateful and now feel like I could ask him for advice on work matters at any time (I have him captive on Face Book). Mr Goffman provided me with an illumination on what happens in the workplace that made sense for me and continues to inform what I interpret in my working life. His view that we play roles as opposed to have fixed traits was delightfully sensible, well most of the time (see blog posts from this unit as detailed above)

Finally this unit required that we write ourselves an action plan. This required me to ask myself disturbing questions about what I wanted to do with my career. I had neatly avoided these for a few years. I realised that I didn’t really own my own career any more, certainly not for the time being. What I would have wanted to do in career terms if I was not all the things I wrote above (mother mainly) would be very different to how I felt about it when considered as a whole with the other roles I needed to fulfil. That said, I also felt that this may not always be the case so I decided on a course of action to upskill myself rather than setting out career roles as my target. The idea being that when I decided the time was right to push ahead with my career, I wasn’t too far behind.

The plan was the least successful part of my assignment and on reflection this was probably because it is very hard to commit to a course of action career-wise with two small children. Yes I know people do it, actually I do it to a certain extent but (crikey this just sounds like excuses) it really is hard to figure out the logistics of child care alongside the emotional needs of the parent/child relationship and balancing that with work/money/sanity. Good job there are loads of helpful people to point out how you are doing it wrong eh?

This was a tough assignment and required me to purchase three new pairs of shoes.

The History, Boys

The brief for the first assignment was to take a critical look back over events that had had an impact on our particular areas. My assignment took the form of a really dodgy website (first lesson learnt, leave it to the professionals) which can be found here if you can’t sleep www.apairofrubyslippers.moonfruit.com and if your insomnia is really terrible, the blog posts below from October 2006 till January cover the period. But if your issues are not of a soporific nature, I will outline the major points below.

I chose to look at corporate websites as I was aware that we needed a new one and saw this as a great opportunity to learn from what had gone before. A few golden “rules” for creating a new site started to become obvious from the experiences of the others, they were:

• Ownership for a corporate site belongs with the External Communications Team and not with IS, Marketing or any others. It should be an integral element of a corporate comms strategy.
• The site needs a high level sponsor to succeed.
• Internal procedures need to be in place to ensure the content is updated and remains compelling – a shiny new site will soon look crap without this.
• Use the corporate site to present the company’s side of issues – but do so in a sensitive manner employing the usual “rules” of communication. It is seen as worse not to engage in debate about yourself these days rather than to take a sensible approach to adding your side.
• Tackle pressing questions such as the relationship between brand owner and franchise and the US and GB and make a decision about how to present oneself and then stick with it. Currently this is not something that has been bottomed out at Munchkin land
• Content is still king, do not let design and functionality overshadow it.
• Beware of the implications of using a CMS – imparting a rigid structure to the site

This unit was useful, it certainly drew out some salient points, which although could have been guessed at, came with solid experience from similar companies. As a business Munchkin Land has made some progress since I wrote this project. The eBusiness Team is no more and after some discussion, the internet and intranet managers’ roles are now within the Public Affairs and Communications team as recommended above. This in turn should help affect the necessary changes to the internal procedures to ensure a new site remains fresh and compelling. We also have budget approval for the new corporate site, gained mainly as we have a high level sponsor in the form of the VP for Public Affairs and Communications, perfect, well getting there.

We have made great progress this year in using the internet to publish our side of issues in the media such as environmental concerns – see www.cokecorporateresponsibility.co.uk . Whilst this took a site of its own, it is the intention to integrate with the new corporate site. I jumped for joy when we got agreement not to publish at all on paper next year (it was a dual effort this year) but then was dismayed to hear it will be on paper and the web again the following year. I have not yet had time to investigate why but will see if that make sense or not. Think of the trees we will save in the meantime and maybe even hug one.

As to the final few points, the way we present ourselves to the outside world has still not been tied down, but we have agreed to differ from the States (with their blessing and involvement) which is a breakthrough and at least now the conversations around this have been started. The point about content will be held in mind when the site is created and the point about the CMS is being taken into consideration and is helping us inform our choice of application.

I needed just one new pair of boots to see me through this first assignment and they weren’t expensive ones.