The Agile Mind: Creating Personal and Professional Dialogue
Introduction
Our work environments are becoming more complex. Emphasis is being placed on innovation and inter-disciplinary teams, organizations, and institutions are being created to accomplish grand societal objectives. This results in several different viewpoints related to reaching a goal. To manage this, I believe we need to change our collective approach and aim to solve problems through dialogue. The program outlined below explains how we can loosen our hold on our current views of the world and open ourselves to different opinions. It is from this pluralistic perspective that I believe agile minds are created and grand societal objectives can be reached.
Purpose
The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate ways we can move from a fixed mindset to a more agile way of seeing the world. It is my intent to explore our individual capacities toward decision making and change, while also offering a useful way to interpret the various sources of information we interact with.
Process
A four-stage dialogue with the client:
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​Stage one will explain how our minds are vulnerable to bias. Various forms will be discussed and the client(s) will be asked to think about situations where they have been vulnerable to bias in their decision-making processes.
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Stage two will demonstrate how our susceptibility to bias may make us less open to changing circumstances or different perspectives. Reasons for resisting change will be discussed and various models for viewing change will be presented. The aim is to first gain awareness about how we see change in others and second to recognize these same situations within ourselves.
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Stage three will be focused on mindfulness and mental skills training. Meditation will be discussed as a tool to enhance our focus, which will tie back into making better decisions and monitoring our thoughts in dynamic environments. Priming will also be discussed as a way to actively reprogram our brains and train the associations we make.
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Stage four will be focused on evidence-based management. It is important to understand the different pieces of information that are incorporated into the decision-making process. It is equally as important to understand how valid these different pieces of information are and how we interpret them given our susceptibility to bias.
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The session will conclude with an overview of the concepts throughout the presentation. A one page worksheet will then be distributed to everyone that will serve as the foundation for individual consultations.
Follow-Up
I will meet with individuals shortly after the presentation – one to two days – to discuss their responses to the worksheet provided below. It is my intent to discover how they view themselves and their environment at work. I would like to explore ways for them to become more aware of themselves and help them set goals for moving forward. To help ensure the behavior is properly adopted, I would recommend further individual consultations at one, three, and six month intervals.
Manifested Competencies
Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Design Thinking, Change Management, Organization Development, Intercultural Communication.
I believe in the duality of leadership; It is rare that a complex problem has a binary answer. I feel that leaders should be steadfast in their grand ambitions, while remaining open to different modes of accomplishing them. This project aims to foster the type of thinking that I feel is useful for leaders in complex environments. I believe it shows the importance of inter and intrapersonal dialogue, while also providing a way to interpret the information we are presented with. It is this view that has allowed me to embrace different perspectives throughout the program. I feel that it provides a foundation for personal and professional transformation as I seek to play a part in solving the grand problems facing the world.