COURSE COMPETENCIES
ORGL 610
COMMUNICATION & LEADERSHIP ETHICS
One of the main things I took away from this course is a reverence and understanding of the different values that guide decision-making for different people. Schwartz Theory of Basic Values succinctly creates a way to become aware of underlying goals based on his universal requirements for existence. In this course, we investigated the driving motivations for decision-making, as well as how to act for the greater good as determined by various ethical viewpoints. We also looked at several moral dilemmas both in organizations and society. Using the understanding of ethical principles gained through the course, we analyzed different ethical organizational dilemmas and perspectives and clarified our own guiding values.
​
ORGL 605 | IMAGINE, CREATE, LEAD
This course was described as having a two-fold purpose - to provide an introduction to Gonzaga and the ORGL program and to challenge students to apply and expand their creative and imaginative capacity. What actually happened was a coming together of eight completely different people to work together and build a relationship that has carried us all through our Gonzaga career. I highly recommend that the course size is paired down for future classes to give people the opportunity to truly build relationships. Our class was composed of ½ women, ½ men, ½ are people of color, ½ have military experience, ½ are introverts, ½ are extroverts. The unique perspectives we brought, the dialogue and the laughter we shared showed the beauty of different people coming together with a desire to learn from each other, support each other and understand each other . In the course, we also studied leadership and transcendentalism, embodiment, and metanoia. Although I learned the least amount of ‘hard skills’ from this course, the soft skills I learned have undoubtedly made an impact on my life. At least once a week, I tell myself or someone around me to honor and rest in the space between stimulus and response.
​
ORGL 600
FOUNDATIONS OF LEADERSHIP
This course gave me a deeper understanding of how individuals contribute to culture within an organization. Through reading Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed in the first module, we studied the relationship between the oppressed and oppressor and focused on the importance of dialogue in creating shared understanding. We learned what we don’t want to contribute. In the second module, through The Courage to Teach, we examined paying attention to the heart of leaders, embracing and facing our fears, and learning as a community while learning what we do want to do as leaders. In module 3 we read The Leadership Challenge, which coupled with the Student Leadership Practices Inventory helped to the five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The fourth module gave us the opportunity to examine how the content studied in previous modules will help us shape whom we are becoming. In Leadership and New Science, Whatley reminds us that through engagement in the world, we evoke our futures.
ORGL 689
LEADERSHIP & MINDFULNESS
I took this course as a result of meeting Dr. Tina Geithner in ORGL 605 and gaining a deep curiosity into the role that practicing mindfulness can play in leadership. This course started by showing research on neuroscience demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness and created space for myriad mindfulness practices, including breathing, walking, journaling, and different styles of meditation. From this course, I gained a reverence and dedication to a lifelong commitment to practicing various aspects of mindfulness. As a result of this class, I am committed to practicing and playing. How this looks varies from day to day, but is a daily practice. I am continuing with 10 minutes of meditation, I am acknowledging anxiety or fear and recognizing that the emotion is not me. I am lengthening my spine and bringing calmness down my front, I am turning the corners of my mouth up in a soft smile, I am releasing my shoulders when I feel them tense up, I am visualizing my desired outcome before going into a situation. I don’t know that each of these will be done every day, but I want them all to become a part of me.
ORGL 682
LEADERSHIP & STORYTELLING
Leadership and Storytelling provided an opportunity to practice using storytelling to speak in my own voice as an authentic leader. For me, through examining the stories I choose to tell I was able to see more clearly what my own values and thoughts were. This class also demonstrated the power of storytelling in relationship building. As we practiced telling stories together, we were all intimately reminded we all come with a long background of experiences that has shaped who we are. We also learned about the necessity of storytelling, that if you don’t tell people, they will create their own narrative. We learned the structure of a good story, learned the importance of rehearsing and learned to look for stories in our life to make points and build connections.
​
ORGL 520
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
In this course, we studied the conflict triangle, conflict dynamics, and the relationship between conflict and change. We discussed personal, relational, structural, and cultural conflict. From this course, I gained an understanding of peace-building approaches to conflict through nonviolent communication. I also learned about the importance of conflict transformation for creating positive outcomes from difficult or seemingly negative situations. The final two modules of the course were particularly impactful for me, as we shifted from studying the impact of organizational and cultural conflicts to building skills focused on interpersonal conflict. For my artifact, I have chosen an essay written during the first module of the course discussing the role my culture plays in my perceptions and values of violence and nonviolence.
​
ORGL 615
ORG THEORY & BEHAVIOR
One of my major takeaways from this course is how I want to engage with people while having conversations regarding organizational culture, work, and leadership. This course deliberately examined the skills to reflect and inquire and share knowledge when engaging in difficult conversations. In this course, we also learned about mental models, their power, and the power of team learning to help build shared learning and vision. We practiced improving conversation through dialogue and skillful discussion as well as recognizing the Ladder of Inference and balancing advocacy and inquiry. This course also looks at patterns and systemic structures, and the power of continually asking why to gain new insight and increasing our awareness. Through simulations and case studies we developed skills for analyzing problems. It also resonated with me to look for systems and look for how to intercept loops.
ORGL 689
LEADERSHIP, JUISTICE, & FORGIVENESS
In this course, servant-leadership, restorative justice, and forgiveness are a large focus. The tie in with servant leadership made this class incredibly meaningful. Through looking at the apartheid in South Africa and the holocaust, we look at horrors that human beings have suffered through, and were able to see different nations’ approaches toward reconciliation. We worked towards creating a foundation based in love that calls us toward seeing human suffering and we worked on understanding leadership (specifically servant-leadership), justice and forgiveness in the context of change with an organizational system. The latter part of the course was focused more inwardly, to examine how we as individuals are called to forgive.
​
​
COML 511
COMM CONSULTING & TRAINING
This course gave me an opportunity to examine how I am communicating as a leader and provided me a toolbox with some opportunities to engage audiences. Two of the transformational aspects of the course were both of the Ted Talks. The presentation on PowerPoints has shifted how I will present information in my professional career and the presentation on the power of questions will shift my future communications. In this course, I was gifted with an incredibly dynamic team for our group project and we really enjoyed working with each other. This provided us the opportunity to learn from the unique perspectives that we each brought and showed the benefit of coming together as a team. This class impressed upon me the amount of work that needs to go into an engaging training. So often, they seem effortless, but there is a vast amount of time someone puts into a great training session. It makes me feel better about the amount of time I spend on my work knowing that a lot of people do the same.
​