Am I An "Animateur"?

Read the article Anatomy of Inspiration by Senge, Smith, Kruswitz, Laur, & Schley (2008). In this article, the authors discuss what it means to be an animateur and how leadership is strongly associated with inspiration. Reflect on and discuss your own experiences in demonstrating your ability to be an animateur. Discuss the future efforts you could make in leading change in this role. Further, discuss how you will sustain change in your organization through inspiration and collaboration.

One of the hardest things to do is to bring to life a new way of thinking (Senge, Smith, Kruswitz, Laur, & Schley, 2008, p. 54). An animateur knows how to engage their stakeholders by listening, communicating, and getting to know them. When you know what your stakeholders value, and understand what they deem is success you then began to inspires them to grab a hold of that success. As an assistant manager it is my job to make sure the employees are trained in the areas they are assigned. In order to do this I have to let go of any negative thought about my employees. In addition, it is important that they have everything they need to do their job. I cannot tell you how many times the morale drops when the employees do not have everything they need to do their job. Engaging the associates mean getting to know them and what excites them. Every day I go around and talk to the associates and I know pretty much everything about them that matters. Asking them how they are doing and helping them with problems if I can. One of the problems that many of the managers have failed to understand that even though the associates are trained in stocking and knowing the areas they work in they should be trained and retrained. When you perform well in the area you work in you become even more productive. For the most part the associates only get computerbased training (CBL) to aid in their training. At the same time associates need real time training in order to be a better problem solver and develop conflict skills which will help them work better with each other and with customers.

Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement

Read the articles by All Things PLC as well as the resources by Hord (1997), Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement. As you reflect on professional learning communities and continuous improvement in an organization, what big ideas or insights have you discovered? What ideas have you learned related to professional learning communities that could be applied to your own organization for creating sustained, continuous improvement? In order for a professional learning community to work everyone need to be committed and supportive. Several years ago, we use to have PLCs meeting three times a week. During this time, we had a different director who would attend the meetings sometimes but would usually give us an excuse why he could not attend. This would lower the engagement of the stakeholders involved in the planning. When the stakeholders saw that the director was not as supportive of the PLC as he should have been, there were not empowered to accomplish any of the goals that were set. Once a new director was in place, she set up a PLC that met twice a week. We would set goals for our students to meet and discuss ways to reach those goals. For the most part the PLC has been very productive. One thing that happens during a PLC meeting that we are trying to be more careful of is just sitting around complaining about what is not working. This has happen in the past, which lead us to wasting time instead of finding solutions. As a leader we have to show we are committed to a community of learning. If the stakeholders feel like they are not getting the support or do not feel inspired to come up with effective strategies and action plan then all you get is negativity and frustration.