put into practice

Putting things into practice from school is hard. Part of it is the fact that I can no longer claim ignorance. I’m not just a young kid in a new job who will learn from mistakes and grace will be doled out in large measures. Instead, I have the knowledge or at least the theories at my fingertips, in my homework and festering/percolating/playing pin-ball in my head. How do I make sense of all these ideas? Which ways work for me? What seems natural, and is that good? What do I need to work on? Oh, this is cool, let me experiment. So many jumbled messages running around.

I’m grateful for class discussion and a sister who has read a great deal about leadership and dysfunctional people (ie she’s read life.) to help make sense of it all. The perspective of my classmates is quite varied with ages ranging from 20 (yeah, fresh graduates) to experienced and older adults looking to enhance or change their careers. People come from both coasts of the country and Thailand, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Uganda (she’s friends with ACC people!) and California. It’s a great mix of people for an organizational behavior class. We’re a talkative group, but we always seem to make time for the wild stories our prof likes to tell. The guy's resume is incredible, so like my Dad, he’s got all sorts of fantastic tales. And this is where my dad could benefit from teaching: each year a new audience is available to absorb his anecdotal wisdom.

Tonight was exceptionally profound and enlightening. Perhaps because we talked about motivation or team dynamics. What helped me engage so much, though, were the real life issues I am facing in my jobs and relationships. We worked with a case study to understand ways to motivate a diverse group of people. I wanted to put my “Jane Ms and John Ds” on the board and say, "Help me fix this or understand this person’s thinking." Theory to discussion to practice can be a very quick track, but the former two parts don’t really involve feelings. Only smiley faces in a 2D way ☺ And in infinite time and space. Being “boss” is not my forte but perhaps because I need to revisit my own point from class discussion. To lead or to manage. In leading people, we have an opportunity to work alongside, sometimes eliminating the tension of inexperience or age. Managing makes me think of cattle herding. While I might need to work on collaborating/leading skills, I have never been nor want to be a good rancher. I’m a cowgirl with a pink hat. Let that be telling enough.

So I think I will tip my hat (pastel pink as it is) and fess up to weaknesses while still maintaining a balance of ushering groups forward to succeed. If that’s all I can do with the spinning wheels in my head, let them work as functional gears.