Alison
Brown
Ted Brown
David Heise
Paul Kaak
EDRM 605 Introduction to Qualitative Research
July 7, 1999
Role |
Name |
Title |
Cohort |
| Interviewer: | Paul Kaak | Leadership Consultant/Trainer; The Leadership Institute | 1999 |
| Interviewees: | Ted Brown | Director of Finance, Southwestern Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church | 1998 |
| David Heise | Chief Information Officer, Andrews University (finished with year one) | 1998 | |
| Alison Brown | Director, Employee Assistance Services | 1997 | |
| Transcribers: | Alison Brown | Director, Employee Assistance Services | 1997 |
| Paul Kaak | Leadership Consultant/Trainer; The Leadership Institute | 1999 |
Firstly in regard to my professional life I am just so excited that this program is such a good fit with what kind of working I am doing. I looked for quite a while for some kind of study, I’ve been on the web with Yahoo.com and the things I’m learning here I can, almost on a daily basis, take back to my workplace and visa versa the things I do in my workplace directly go into my work on the Ph.D. The impact on my life has been very supportive. In terms of my family, I tend to spend too little time with my family. One of the things I learned in Leadership (in the Leadership Vision classes) is balance. I can’t say that I am doing any better job of it but I need to.
The leadership program has helped me to think outside of the box, in terms of my thought processes, my creativity as a financial officer and as a person. The biggest thing that I attribute to the leadership is that it has propelled me into the use of modern technology with computers and into coursework and being able to dialogue and it has helped me to recognize the things that I have learned and things that I didn’t know that I could learn. And so I thank leadership for that. In terms of family, there has been some adjustments there and leadership has become a priority for me career wise, that along with my family and keeping things in perspective has really helped me to appreciate the program.
I would strongly encourage someone entering the orientation program to make sure they read everything, before they come and listen to the dialogue and the discussion before being quick to respond. I think that’s something I learned in my experience. Appreciate the process even though everything may not be understood regarding what they are engaging in, but keep an open mind. I would especially ask questions if things are not clear, make sure that you get as much clarification as possible from faculty before they leave and if at all possible to attend all the session and just utilize every opportunity to understand the program before you go.
I’ve got just one hint. I found the orientation experience to be very foreign to my temperament type and I found I needed to take lots of notes (write everything that people are saying) because a lot of it sounded like a foreign language to me. (You might not have that problem.) If I was going to take anything away with me, I had to record it and reading it over and over later helped a lot.
Last year when we had our orientation, it was suggested that not only someone would bring a notebook, but that someone would bring a printer, so then you could have a hard coy of the things that were shared for the people in your groups. That piggybacked on what Dave has said about note-taking and so forth.
I found the IDP to be uncharted territory and I got a lot of help from one of my regional group meetings when someone from my group who was further along in the process brought copies of about 4 or 5 other IDPs . That helped me along in understanding what it was even about and the kind of things you would want to put in there that would make sense. You want to avoid setting up too much of a task and at the same time set up something that is worthy of a Ph.D.
In looking at the IDP something was mentioned in terms of being clear, what it entails, what it means and knowing what the construction of it is. If that’s done, it will save a lot of time, and anxiety in terms of making it bigger than what it actually is. And sharing the IDP process with group members or somebody whose gone through there so that way you’ll know exactly where you are and how your are doing. And staying in touch with your advisor so that your advisor can figure out in review where you are in case you need to make adjustments.
Another piece of that is not to let months go by without much being accomplished. Don’t let it drift.
My IDP went through three drafts. The first one was okay, but then needed to be tightened up, and it was a little frustrating, but, I agree with David when he says you want something worthy of a Ph.D. and so, the specificity of my IDP really gives it better form than my original submission.
In my experience, when you are coming into a program, I think the temperament types of the advisor is very important. Having an advisor that you listen to and (in my experience) having an advisor where you know there are certain things to be expected and that you get it done and you are comfortable enough to share. And respect the fact that you are among advisees, and to utilize the time with your advisor as much as possible. And make sure that you have everything in place so that when you do meet, you can have get your questions asked, and be ready to go from there. The relationship of being appreciated, of knowing that the person is genuinely interested in your development is important to me as a student. I think if you have that then you have something special.
I go along with everything that Ted says. It’s a choice you need to make very carefully. Choosing who the advisor is to be. There needs to be some chemistry and some shared interest. The temperament types don’t have to be the same, (its almost better if they’re not the same) but there does need to be some correspondence. Because if there is enough difference, because if there’s enough difference then things that you are going to miss, then they will find for you…they pick up, because you’ve left out.
Teleconference, setting up meetings periodically, once a month. Then I had a chance to come up here a couple of times to the campus and my advisor came up to the territory I was in and we had a chance to meet and even visit on site. That was helpful. Just the contact of letting your advisor know and making copies, and downloading information so the individual can review what you are doing is very important. And just the communication so that you don’t feel like you are just out there so that you aren’t strangers when you do come together and see each other and talk and there is a relationship. The pre-meeting from the interview process was important. I had a chance to meet and the relationship and the chemistry, just meeting w/my advisor, which was Dr. Freed, really was the reason why, her personality is what made the difference in my coming into the Leadership program. That’s important.
I wasn’t sure that I had a choice. And I thank God that I got Shirley because there is a chemistry, and the relationship and I thing she will confront me because I trust that by nature she’s gonna make sure that it’s a good job. And I have a lot of confidence in that.
Yea, I’ve been in the program a year now and I’ve done things that I could use to demonstrate competency but did not realize the significance or was not organized well enough (or whatever excuse I might come up with) and didn’t file the material. But more importantly to reflect on what I’ve done and that is difficult to do unless it is done immediately. So there’ll be a lack of richness in some things I will file in my portfolio as a result.
You want to organize…one of the challenges that I had when I started out with the competencies I felt that when I looked at the IDP and the competency said, everything including the vision statement, the proposal the experiences, the document – you did it all and that’s what made up the competency thing and I started out like that. But I find that with the documentation, you want to keep everything. Even things you don’t think mean anything, pull it out because it means something and it’s something special and I’m excited that when it’s over with, and you’ve got all these competencies and all this documentation, that will give us an experience of our lives that we never were aware of because we never pulled it together, and the then we can look at the genuine richness of the Leadership program. You’ll be able to look at everything and say WOW this is what God has done in my life. That’s the wonderful part of the documentation. Document everything. Set up a filing system for each competency and make multiple copies of it so that you’ll have it when you are ready to do your portfolio.
Um, I’m hesitating a little. The local Berrien Springs regional group has a bit of a reputation for being somewhat dysfunctional. As of last year there were 3 different groups meeting with members from the local area. One is called “The Dissertation Group” because they are near their end and one is called the "Local Group" and there is the Midwest group. Currently I’m meeting with the two groups – the Midwest and Local Group. I found they are helpful in different ways. I will probably continue to meet with both of those groups. If I was stuck with only one of them, I’d feel – by reading the reports like the Western send in, and the group from New England, the kinds of group those things have, because the faculty have to travel to meet with them, they seem to have really inspirational and really productive, useful sessions. Where here we meet for an hour or two once a month and nothing very special happens. So I lust a little after what I see happening in some of the other groups and I’m hoping that one or the other of the groups I’m attending can get there.
Some of the things I wish were happening here is that others are reading books together, actively working on their preparation for roundtable. Having a goal that we are on a journey together, we are going somewhere.
In our regional group we have two-year people and one-year cohorts. Essentially we are two years old and we have been in a tremendous learning curve. We have accomplished a lot, partly by our own design, and partly focused by the tasks of Leadership program such as the roundtable presentation around the book The Courage to Teach. We have had to learn how to be a regional group, and we aren’t “there” as yet, but have a pretty good idea in terms of how to talk to each other which lend themselves to support, and stay intact, through disagreements.
The Texas group has started out strong. There were two of us. We had regular meeting and we interchanged where we were. We went to some professional sporting activities together. We had reading assignments together and those represented the competencies. Unfortunately, one member moved away and that set us back, but then the person has moved back. The cohesiveness of the Leadership program, there has to be a certain amount of honesty and respect there has to be genuine cohesiveness and support for the betterment of each group member. That’s something that we had a good relationship with, and I think that’s important. Being able to move together and even thought you are at different levels, finding common ground, being supportive enough to recognize that even though I may be almost finished, this person is just starting out and I need to be sensitive to where they are and try and bring him up and glean what I can from him. I think the best part of the development and mentorship are those who have been in the program longer. Taking the responsibility and saying “There is lots of ambiguity, you’ll have to learn that on your own.” Try and spare the new people some of that frustration, because some, may not get it, because some things are so broad, that can create frustration and a lot of animosity and distress. So I think the purpose of the group is to facilitate that. And then, utilize the faculty to come out and meet with your group on a regular basis. I think Dave mentioned something with some of the group, going to the beach and do some other things apart from cracking the books going through assignments helps to build that cohesiveness. That is really the essence of leadership. I missed honest things and I’m sending the message.
Last modified: Sunday, August 15, 1999 09:52:13 AM