Values in conflict? View your organization through a CVF lens

Robert E. Quinn, PhD, is one of my favorite leadership scholars. One of his significant contributions to the field of organizational studies and leadership development is the competing values framework (CVF). The CVF helps one make sense of the tensions people often experience in organizational life.

As noted in this video introduction to the CVF, individuals and organizations are continuously challenged to manage polarities that relate to external positioning and internal maintenance, as well as flexibility and control. The juxtaposition of these competing tensions creates different types of organizational cultures, which are animated by values associated with framing and focus. Simply put, these frames and focuses involve collaborating, creating, competing, and controlling. Which of these four values resonates personally and professionally with you?

— Dolgachov/iStock/Thinkstock

Gaining insight into these tensions helps one appreciate and value differences between and among people and processes in an organization. Such appreciation leads to development of compassion and respect for individual contributions to the organization. Using the lens of CVF, how would you describe the culture in your organization?

Three levels of analysis
Given the competing values framework, there are three levels of analysis that help one gain insight. At one level, organizations are analyzed relative to external outcomes and expectations. At another level, competing values in terms of an organization’s internal workings are analyzed. Finally, at the third level, how the framework relates to individuals in the organization is contemplated. Knowledge and understanding of CVF provides leadership insights and guidance about how to navigate tensions and issues and support alignment of people with organizational processes, purposes, and effectiveness (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, Thakor, 2014).

For example, if an organization is focused on internal maintenance and stability, the culture is probably hierarchical and its orientation one of control. Leaders in this type of organization focus on coordinating, monitoring, and organizing. Value drivers are efficiency, timeliness, consistency, and uniformity. By contrast, if a culture is focused on external positioning and is flexible, it is an adhocracy, and creativity is valued. Leaders in this type of organization are innovative, entrepreneurial, and visionary, and value drivers are innovative outputs, transformation, and agility.

In a market-driven culture, the focus is external positioning, stability, and control, with competition the orientation. Leaders in this type of organization are hard driving and competitive. Value drivers in a market culture are market share, goal achievement, and profitability. A fourth culture type is clan. In this culture, the focus is internal maintenance and flexibility. Leaders in this culture are perceived as facilitators, mentors, and team builders. Value drivers are commitment, communication, and development of people and relationships.

In successful organizations, the competing values of collaborating, creating, competing, and controlling are at play concurrently. Consider the conflicts that can erupt if leaders and managers in an organization have a competitive market-driven focus and workers adhere to a clan or collaborative focus. Or how does one manage tensions between a need to be creative and innovative while, at the same time, working in a hierarchical bureaucracy? Or how does one both compete and collaborate?

How about your organization?
As you reflect on your organization, how does competition among the competing values of creating, competing, controlling, and collaborating play out among leaders, managers, and staff? With your personality, traits, and behaviors, what role, from a competing values perspective, do you play in your organization? Are you a pioneer, networker, achiever, strategist, anchor, analyst, team player, or helper? How can you leverage your strengths and role to make a positive difference in the organization’s culture and milieu?

As a result of learning more about the competing values framework, I have developed more compassion for and insight into the dynamics of academic and health care organizations, and this has enabled me to positively influence change and transitions. I invite you to learn more about the framework, and apply leadership insights you gain to the culture in which you find yourself. Developing a competing-values leadership skill set will enable you to maximize, influence, and activate your own success, as well as the success of your organization.

Reference:

Cameron, K.S., Quinn, R.E., DeGraff, J., & Thakor, A.V. (2014). Competing values leadership. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Influence, power, and activism

There is focused effort to get more nurses on governing boards. The goal is to have 10,000 nurses serving in that role by the year 2020. There is no doubt that nurses have much to offer in terms of knowledge, skills and experience, but many are apprehensive about issues of influence, power, and activism.

I continue to be perplexed by the paradox that, although nursing is ranked consistently as one of the most respected professions, nurses are not regarded as being very influential. What does it take for nurses to own and master their influence skills? Eleanor Sullivan, PhD, RN, FAAN, a past president of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), tackles this issue in her book Becoming Influential: A Guide for Nurses, 2nd edition (2013), Prentice Hall, Boston, MA. In "Taking the Mystery Out of Influence," Sullivan advises reading the subtext of situations and going beyond the non-verbal to gain influence insights. Suggesting that professional presence supports influence consciousness, she notes that power is a foundation for influence. Perhaps nurses need new ways to think about the powers they possess?

Six stages of power
Janet Hagberg’s model of personal power is a useful guide for reflecting on the dynamics of what she identifies as the six stages of power: 1) powerlessness, 2) power by association, 3) power by achievement, 4) power by reflection, 5) power by purpose, and 6) power by wisdom. She believes there is a developmental trajectory to these stages and that people grow and evolve from one stage to another. She describes the characteristics of each stage, where people can get stuck, and how a person can move forward from stage to stage. 

mindscanner/iStock/Thinkstock

Observing that individuals can be, at any particular moment and relative to other people, at various stages of power, Hagberg links these stages to issues of leadership and motivation. Using her model and reflecting on one’s own developmental progress in regard to stages of power leads to insights and understanding of self and others. I personally believe that, to be effective and successful as a governing board member, power by reflection, power by purpose, and power by wisdom—stages 4, 5, and 6—are required.

Armed with influence, empowered nurses activate leadership skills. As Karen Kelly, EdD, RN, CNAA, BC, notes in “From apathy to political activism,” published in American Nurse Today (2007), there is a developmental trajectory associated with activism. It moves from apathy to buy in to self-interest to acquisition of political sophistication to leading the way. There is an emerging community of people who are becoming health activists and there are great stories about nurse activists. To prepare nurses to serve on boards, we need to do a better job of helping them own their influence, master their power, and be better activists, particularly at the grass-roots level.

What are your current beliefs and values in regard to the triple helix of influence, power, and activism? Where are you developmentally on the journey from powerlessness to wisdom? What are the compelling issues that ignite your reflection, purpose-power, and wisdom? How will you contribute your leadership talents to a nonprofit or for-profit organization that is meaningful to you? How will you move beyond apprehension to confidence? On what governing board will you serve? Will you be one of 10,000 nurses who serve on a board? The year 2020 is not far off.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Take off the blinders!

I have come to admire and appreciate the work of Gary Klein, PhD, who authored the book, Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights (2013, Public Affairs, NY). Klein notes that most performance-improvement models involve decreasing errors and uncertainties through standards, controls, documentation, checklists, reviews, rigors, and procedures. Sound familiar?

Insights, on the other hand, come from grappling with curiosity about contradictions, connections, and coincidences. Klein posits that an insight is an unexpected shift to a better story for understanding how things work and can lead to changes in how we understand, act, feel, and desire. Wrestling with contradictions and connections to gain insight is often catalyzed by creative desperation—when the need to reconcile opposite or contrary experiences or understandings results in the creation of something new or innovative that better solves a problem or helps reconcile competing beliefs or frames of reference.

How often do you see things that others don't?

Failure to gain insight is often characterized by lack of experience, a passive stance, concrete reasoning, and adherence to flawed beliefs. Gaining insights requires experience, an active stance, playful reasoning, and a willingness to question long-held assumptions and beliefs.

How often do you see things that others don’t? How often do you try to make sense of contradictions, connections, and competing ideas, of understandings, stances, or frames of reference in your professional practice? To what degree do you apply curiosity and creativity to foster insight development in yourself and others? Do you think cultivation of insight is important to your education, practice, and research leadership skill set? How do you foster insight development with your peers, colleagues or protégés?

As I studied and learned more about Klein’s theory and ideas about insight formation, I connected his work and ideas with those of Barry Johnson, PhD, father of polarity management. I realized polarity management is a key leadership skill set that assists individuals, groups, teams, and organizations in defining and working through contradictions, connections, and polarities. Unpacking and working through polarities oftentimes leads to development of insight.

Bonnie Wesorick, recipient of the 2011 Edith Moore Copeland Award for Excellence in Creativity—a Founders Award presented by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International—provides an excellent overview of polarity management, as well as principles and leadership practices needed in today’s health care environments. Consider identifying polarities in your work context, and then experiment with managing those polarities, based on the strategies and techniques she describes. [Learn more: “Bonnie Wesorick: Nurse on a mission,” and “Bonnie Wesorick: Putting the care back in health care.”]

Improving performance, decreasing errors, and establishing standards and controls are necessary in health care today. However, each of us should be curious about and sensitive to contradictions, connections, and coincidences we experience. Subjecting those experiences to playful reasoning and polarity management can lead to wisdom insights and a better story for understanding how things work. Decide now to learn more about polarity management. Maybe you will begin gaining some wisdom insights and see what others don’t.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Systems thinking and generative leadership

Nursing leadership has a significant role to play in sensemaking and supporting development of learning for the purpose of strengthening global health care systems.

Through understanding of system dynamics and interaction patterns over time, a leader’s influence and impact on positive organizational change can be strengthened. Such influence requires attention to the five disciplines of a learning organization: personal mastery, ability to discern and make mental models explicit, co-creating with others a shared vision of a desired future that is contrasted with a present state, and team-learning that supports an ongoing cycle of action-oriented systems thinking. Working intentionally in systems that aspire to become learning organizations requires development of personal mastery, based on one’s strengths and professional purpose-management.

Personal mastery requires dealing with paradox, ambiguity, and holding the creative tension of opposites, especially when people have competing or contrasting mental models or worldviews. Being open, honest, and direct supports exploration of mental models. Having a vision supports a generative—as opposed to remedial—mind-set. Understanding how the parts of a system influence each other aids sensemaking. Finally, building a shared vision requires contrasting a present state of affairs with a desired future state.

The gap between here and now, and there and then, sets up a creative tension that activates generative leadership. Navigating and negotiating tensions between compliance and commitment result in shared visions in service of greater purposes in the context of an organization’s mission, vision, and contribution to the social order. Consider exploring the world of systems thinking to enhance your leadership skill set.

Archetype learning

For some years now, in leadership courses I teach, I challenge and engage students to analyze situations and experiences through positive and negative system archetypes. The results are always fascinating. Students gain new and surprising insights into system dynamics they need to negotiate. Through systems thinking and sensemaking, students realize there are creative and generative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

Archetype learning and systems thinking require perspective taking and a “balcony view” that reveals patterns that are often tacit. Systems thinking helps make these patterns explicit. Mapping and representing system dynamics help one visualize the balancing and reinforcing loops, as well as the delays and unintended consequences, of system dynamics. Being able to discern one’s own mental models, as well as those of others, requires reflection, inquiry, and advocacy. Mastering techniques of systems thinking, inquiry, and advocacy is essential to insight and action.

Negative archetype dynamics can easily be identified in health care scenarios today—for example: limits to growth, shifting the burden, eroding goals, escalation, success to the successful, tragedy of the commons, fixes that fail, growth and underinvestment. Knowing the early-warning signs of each of these negative archetypes can activate a management-leadership principle that will help in the resolution or remedy of the negative system dynamic, in service of one that is more positive.

Knowing the negative archetype dynamic is useful in terms of thinking of its opposite. Positive archetypes include: plan for limits, strut your stuff, collective agreement, invest for success, fixes that work, bite the bullet, stay on track, cooperative partners, win-win, and be your best! System archetypes are held in place by actors, policies, and procedures that may be in competition with espoused beliefs, values, or intentions.

Systems thinking is an essential knowledge management or leadership skill and supports integral understanding of the interconnectedness of all parts in a system. Systems thinking, generative leadership, and sensemaking are skills that nurses possess. It is our systems thinking and generativity, as well as our sensitivity to negative and positive system archetypes, that provide insight and direction for the nursing leadership crucial to strengthening global health care systems.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Join the 100 Top Squiggles of Nursing project

In my July 12, 2010 Meta-Reflections post, I commented on the squiggle sense and the complementary nature of nursing phenomena. I was delighted and surprised when David A. Engstrom, PhD, creator~designer of The Squiggle Sense blog and co-author, along with J.A. Scott Kelso, PhD, of The Complementary Nature, contacted me and invited me to be interviewed! We exchanged many an e-mail and now that interview is posted on the Squiggle Sense blog!


Dr. Engstrom also posted a comment to my July blog post, in which he extended an invitation to the nursing community to participate in the 100 Top Squiggles of Nursing project, part of his effort to gather the 100 top squiggles in a variety of disciplines. I think this would be a very interesting exercise that would add to our understanding and appreciation of the complementary nature and dynamics nurses negotiate on a daily basis.


So, here is the plan. I invite all my nursing colleagues to use the comment feature provided at the bottom of this blog post (click on the word “comment”) or send directly to me (dpesut@iupui.edu ) a list of squiggles you notice in your practice, education or research contexts. I, in turn, will pass them along to Dr. Engstrom, and we will slowly but surely build a list of the top 100 squiggles in nursing! For example, a few of my candidate squiggles of nursing are: nursing~negligence; suffering~succorance; health~illness; mindfulness~mindlessness.


What complementary pairs or “squiggles” has your squiggle sense perceived and acted upon? Participating in this project is easy. All I need are your squiggles, but if you care to spend a few minutes to let us know why you chose your particular candidate(s), please do so.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Becoming wholehearted

Recently, I became aware of the work of Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, who studies wholeheartedness. The evolution and development of her interests and research career is enlightening and inspiring. For a quick introduction to her work, check out this TED video, where she talks about the power of vulnerability and the importance of human connection. What is most fascinating to me is that she began studying wholeheartedness as a result of her research interest in the concept of shame. I struggle with issues of shame. Everyone does. Brown’s definition? Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and, therefore, unworthy of love and belonging.

Brown makes the following points about shame. We all have shame, and it is one of the most primitive human emotions we experience. The only people who do not have shame lack the capacity for empathy and human connection. We are all afraid to talk about shame. The less we talk about shame, the more control it has over our lives. Shame is the opposite of owning our story and feeling worthy. Shame is different than guilt, which is about doing something bad. Shame is a belief that I am bad and not enough.

It was through her study of shame that Brown discovered wholehearted people, individuals who had developed shame resilience. Men and women with high shame resilience have four things in common. They understand shame and recognize what messages and expectations trigger shame for them. They practice critical awareness by reality-checking the messages and expectations that tell us being imperfect means being inadequate. They reach out and share their stories with people they trust. They speak shame. They use the word “shame.” They talk about what they are feeling and ask for what they need.

As I reflect on my nursing career, I realize that many of the dysfunctional dynamics I have observed in individuals, groups and organizations oftentimes involve issues of and responses to shame. I wonder what would happen if we started talking about shame and the effects of shame in our personal and professional lives?

Antidotes to shame involve the following: cultivation of authenticity, self-compassion, a resilient spirit, gratitude and joy, intuition and trusting faith, and creativity. Developing shame resilience also includes letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth. It involves cultivating calm and stillness, and letting go of self-doubt and “supposed-to.” It involves cultivating laughter, song and dance, and letting go of being cool and “always in control.”

If you want to learn more about wholeheartedness and developing shame resilience, check out Brown’s work. She is delivering important messages to the world about the power and value of vulnerability, compassion, courage and connection. Nurses everywhere will benefit personally and professionally from her wisdom, advice and careful attention to the research available on the subject of wholeheartedness and authenticity. Developing shame resilience is a practice worth pursuing.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Gremlins and grace: Challenges for a new year

As the holiday season and another year came to a close, I reflected how, in the recent past, my gremlin kept surfacing to influence, hamper and interfere with my thinking, doing and relating. One of my colleagues suggested I read Rick Carson’s book, Taming Your Gremlin. I did, and it has given me new ways to monitor, notice and respond to my personal gremlins.

As we begin a new year, I think it is a good time to take stock, reflect and consider how best to tame one’s gremlins. According to Carson, taming one’s gremlin involves the process of noticing and choosing—
moment-to-moment—light over darkness, good over evil and the love that sustains over the fear likely to destroy. If you have one or more gremlins that need taming, explore Rick Carson’s website and learn more about gremlin taming.

Of special note are his tips for taming gremlins. Pictures people have created that visually represent personal gremlins of many types and varieties is available in his Gallery of Gremlins. Feeling creative about describing your personal gremlin? Perhaps you will want to respond to Carson’s invitation to draw and submit a picture of your own gremlin to his Gremlin gallery?

Gremlins often take charge of the chatterbox inside our heads. Gremlin taming is one way to manage the chatterbox. Another way is to create a state-of-grace document for yourself and with others.

The five components of a state-of-grace document are: 1) the story of me/us, 2) interaction styles and warning signs, 3) expectations and core values, 4) questions to return to peace, and 5) short- and long-term agreements. A state-of-grace document can become a blueprint for positive healthy relating. Creating a state-of-grace document for yourself and with those you care about provides a stimulus for conversation, dialogue and understanding.

Learn more about these documents and consider how gremlin taming and grace can be incorporated into your personal and professional development plans for the new year, 2011.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Paradoxes of group life: Is the profession of nursing caught in a self-referential bind?

Group life is permeated with contradictory thoughts, actions and emotions. Groups bound together by a purpose often spend time trying to negotiate and unravel the contradictory forces associated with relating to each other in a meaningful way. Such negotiations often result in a paralyzing circular process of conflict, enmeshment and paralysis rather than reflection and transformational dialogue. Smith and Berg (1987) in their classic work, Paradoxes of Group Life, note that making the invisible, paradoxical nature of group life visible helps unravel some of the paradoxical dynamics of conflict.

Clustered under the three essential group concepts of belonging, Smith and Berg identify tensions associated with identity, involvement, individuality and boundaries. Under the concept of engagement, they discuss tensions and issues associated with the dynamics of disclosure, trust, intimacy and regression. The issue of speaking in group life is explained in the dynamics of individual versus collective voice, authority, dependency, creativity and courage.

Group life revolves around several paradoxical tensions. Consider the complementary dynamics associated with tensions between the individual~group, self~other, conscious~unconscious processes, dependence~independence, stuckness~movement, framing~reframing, participation~control, disclosure~non-disclosure, fear~courage, isolation~intimacy, belonging~not belonging, splitting~connecting, and issues of introjection~projection.

Smith and Berg suggest the dynamic responsible for the paralysis and difficulty in group life is a “self-referential bind.” They write: “When a social entity uses itself as a mirror through which it judges what it is like, it often only sees those parts of itself that confirms what it wants to know, that is, that it will enable it to remain as it wants to be. Systems that are self-referential create binds for themselves that are difficult to get out of” (1987, p 48).

The bind that groups create is the paradox that emerges as a result of projections and introjections as groups engage in splitting and fractionation around issues of identity (we-they) and issues related to errors of logical type. Projections are defined as taking something from the inside and mapping it to the outside. Introjections are the mapping of outside onto the inside. Projections and introjections are forms of displacement, where some dynamic that belongs in one place is moved to another.

When the projection~introjection dynamic is co-mingled with subgroup formation in group role taking, collective splitting results in social interactive processes that are paradoxical and paralyzing. Multiple frames create conflicts that appear to be irresolvable and foster double-bind situations that elicit multiple contradictions and meanings. Framing and reframing these contradictions in different ways leads groups to developmental insights that evolve the group beyond intractable, paralytic dynamics. Reframing changes the meaning, content or context of a situation so people develop new insights about intentions and actions.

So, as I witness the dialogue and debate surrounding the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) consensus model, and ponder consequences of the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Practice Nursing on the future of master’s degree education, and consider services the profession will provide to the public, and explore the fifth iteration of the Draft Masters in Nursing Education Essentials document, I ask myself: As a profession, are we caught in a self-referential bind? How might we reframe all of the contradictions in such a way that we gain insights that move us beyond intractable, paralytic dynamics?

What do you think?

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

The squiggle sense and the complementary nature of nursing

I once heard a quote and am not sure to whom it is attributed: “Life is bipolar and everything contains its opposite.” I have had my share of challenges trying to negotiate and reconcile what seem to me oppositional issues in my own life. I now have a new understanding of the complementary nature of polarities and paradoxes.

The squiggle sense has been proposed by scientists J.A. Scott Kelso and David A. Engstrom to represent the complementary nature and coordinated dynamics of opposites that, in fact, are components of a greater dynamic process. Such coordinated processes are linked to the way the brain processes information and engages in sense making. Kelso suggests the tilde or squiggle (~) as the symbol of the complementary nature that relates contrarities, opposites and their kin. Think about the squiggle sense and the complementary nature of nursing.

For some time, I have suggested there is a complementary nature to nursing and that the opposite of nursing is negligence. Thus, the squiggle sense of this would be nursing~negligence. I believe most nurses have a well-developed sixth sense about the complementary nature of nursing care. Now we have a way to represent—and perhaps make explicit—our squiggle sense of complementarity in terms of patient-care needs. Other complementary pairs relevant to nurses and the care they provide also come to mind.

Consider the complementary pair of any nursing problem with its opposite or desired nursing-sensitive outcome. For example, pain~comfort, anxiety~ anxiety control, impaired mobility~mobility, body~mind and self-care deficit~self care. In fact, one of the essential aspects of nursing is management of the complementary nature of human responses to health~illness situations. I wonder what would happen if nurses moved away from the development of problem lists and began to identify and note the complementary nature of each identified problem in terms of its coordinated opposite. We would then be identifying problems~outcomes and, perhaps, have a new appreciation of nursing care responsibilities in light of the squiggle sense of issues presented by individuals, groups, families and communities.

Why not explore the complementary nature website and see how the theory of coordinated dynamics resonates with your own thinking, personal experience and the practice of nursing. The squiggle sense mission is to provide an “evolving online resource for the study and appreciation of a sixth sense of the complementary nature, and its philosophical~scientific grounding in coordination dynamics, the science of coordination.” Nursing is grounded in the science of coordination. I hope you accept the invitation to explore the complementary nature site and reflect on how coordinated dynamics might influence your thinking, doing and nursing practice.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Strengths and values

People who know me are familiar with my enthusiasm for a strengths-based approach to personal and professional development. Personally, I belive every nurse in the world ought to know their signature strengths. Such strengths-based knowledge supports learning in service of caring.

Do you know the constellation of character strengths you possess? There are a couple of ways to learn about and maximize your strengths skill set. I invite you to take some time to explore the VIA Institute on Character. It evolved as part of an evoluationary vision connected with developments in the field of positive psychology. Since its inception, the institute has focused on classification, testing and research related to character strengths. These classifications include cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, civic, self-control and strengths attuned to connections with the larger universe in which we live and make meaning.

Do you have a cluster of strengths related to the acquisition of knowledge? Strengths that fall under this category include creativity, curiosity, judgment and open –mindedness, love of learning and mastery of providing perspective. Courage is the category of strength that includes bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest. Humanitarian interpersonal strengths include the capacity to love and be loved, coupled with kindness and social intelligence. Commitments to building community involve the civic strengths of justice, teamwork, fairness and leadership.

Temperance, as a strength, modulates and works against excess and includes the value set of self-control, prudence, modesty and humility, as well as forgiveness and mercy. Finally, strengths that help us transcend and find meaning in the larger universe include appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor and spiritual consciousness, supported by faith or purpose. Wouldn’t it be great to know what your character strengths and values are? Such self-knowledge enables one to be clear about personal and professional contributions to the nursing care enterprise.

Once upon a time, you could take the brief version of the Character Strengths profile for free. A recent visit to the VIA Institute on Character revealed they no longer offer that service as an option. However, they do have a number of free resources. Check out the research studies. Perhaps the most useful resource is "340 Ways to Use VIA Character Strengths." As you consider some of the suggestions about using and developing your strengths, share your plans with a friend or colleague, and invite them to develop their strengths. Contemplate how development of your individual strengths contributes to your leadership in the greater community where you live and work!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

What is MOJO? And have I lost it?

Not very long ago, I thought I had lost my MOJO. So I was really excited to read Marshall Goldsmith’s latest book, MOJO: How to Get it, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Need It. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I gained new insights into myself and people with whom I work. I now believe I understand and know how to better self-manage the four keys to MOJO—identity, achievement, reputation and acceptance. Goldsmith defines MOJO as “the positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside.” He and his team have actually developed a MOJO Survey to help people discern their level of MOJO, which is defined in terms of short-term satisfaction (happiness) and long-term benefit (meaning). The results of the survey make explicit the dynamics of a person’s relationship to any activity. The categories are: surviving, sacrificing, succeeding, stimulating and sustaining. How do you recognize people with MOJO? People with MOJO take responsibility, move forward, run the extra mile, love doing it, appreciate opportunities, make the best of it, are inspirational, grateful, curious, caring, have zest for life and are awake! In contrast to MOJO, there is NOJO, which is defined as “that negative spirit toward what people are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates outside.” People with NOJO play the victim, march in place, are satisfied with the bare minimum, feel obligated to do it, tolerate requirements, endure it, are painful to be around, are resentful, uninterested, indifferent, Zombie-like and asleep. Goldsmith makes a distinction between professional MOJO, which is powered by the ingredients of motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence and authenticity, and personal MOJO, which is powered by happiness, reward, meaning, learning and gratitude. He has even developed a MOJO scorecard for people to track and rate their MOJO, based on the activities in which they engage every day. This is a very revealing exercise, if you decide to do it! Finally, he provides people with a MOJO tool kit comprised of strategies and techniques as well as principles and practices. These strategies help in the management and development of one’s identity. There are also clues and tips about how best to support achievement and reputation. Finally, the advice and wisdom about accepting change and influencing what you can while letting go of what you can’t change was significant and resonated with me. So, now I am on a MOJO recovery program and that positive inner spirit is beginning to radiate outward once again! Thanks, Dr. Goldsmith!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International

Transforming and creating the future of learning in nursing

A number of significant studies are emerging about the need to transform nursing education. One recently published study is the Carnegie report titled Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation. Another activity that is taking place is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine. I plan to keep up with the developments of these initiatives and am anxious to see what evolves. Consider bookmarking the link for the RWJF initiative to your favorites list or visit the initiative’s blog periodically. Better yet, engage in the dialogue and conversation.

Any transformation or “future-casting” of nursing needs to be framed within the greater context of the anticipated forces that will affect education. If you have not yet explored the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education, visit this Web site and think about how these predictions might influence and impact the reforms called for in the RWJF and Carnegie initiatives.

The map was developed by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation in collaboration with the Institute for the Future to stimulate conversations and prompt foresight, insight and action among stakeholders concerned about the future of education. The map has been described as a “conversation catalyst” or “thinking tool” to stimulate scenario development and storytelling about possible futures in the world of education.

The future-forces map outlines possible developments in five areas: 1) Family and community; 2) markets; 3) institutions; 4) education and learning; and 5) tools and practices. Each of these areas is cross-referenced or cross-impact-analyzed against six drivers of change that are predicted to impact developments in education.

The change drivers are: 1) evolution and expansion of a grassroots economy; 2) emergence and ongoing development of smart networking, social networking and connecting technologies; 3) positive and negative opinions, played out in a global media configuration, that simplifies complex issues; 4) tension and polarity between a health or illness orientation; 5) impact and influence of urban versus rural living environments; and 6) merging and integration of physical and digital information through connective media and social networks.

Consider the elements of KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s “2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning.” Attention to the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education requires effort, curiosity and a commitment to understand future forces that will shape and influence policy, practice and education reform among those invested in transforming and creating the future of learning in the nursing profession. With so much attention and creative thought being generated about transformation in nursing, it is clear that changes are inevitable and creative mindsets will be needed to see us through.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Knowledge complexity and the complexity of knowledge

The Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International was founded on the conviction that knowledge, learning and service are essential ingredients to professional growth, development, satisfaction and well-being. Knowledge supercedes data, evidence and information. Data leads to information, information is transformed into knowledge, and making meaning of that knowledge leads to development of philosophy and wisdom. Hopefully, wisdom supports sustainability and the greater good. My ideas about knowledge complexity and the complexity of knowledge have been greatly influenced by the work of Verna Allee.

Verna Allee has skillfully integrated all of these dimensions about knowledge into what she calls the Knowledge Complexity Archetype/Framework. I enjoy exploring Allee’s Knowledge Management Library. Her masterful synthesis of a variety of models and theories enables one to appreicate how knowledge and learning modes are connected to action and performance. I think the knowledge complexity archetype expands and deepens our notions about knowledge, learning and, ultimately, service. I am not sure the founders of the honor society fully realized the depth and breadth of their vision when they dedicated themselves to knowledge, learning and service as fundamental values for the community they intended to create.

Each of the dimensions or levels in Allee’s Knowledge Complexity Archetype requires a different mode of learning and has a different action and performance focus, as well as a variable time perspective. For example, data gathering requires instinctual sensing and learning with moment-to-moment attention and awareness. Information requires attention to single-loop learning and involves procedural adherence. Double-loop learning is required for doing things the best way because self-conscious reflection is required. Beyond knowledge, meaning-making becomes important in the context of relationships and trends, so communal learning is fostered. Communal learning fosters self-organization and development of philosophies that support pattern recognition, creativity and generative learning in service of a greater sense of community.

Perhaps, you are curious enough to study the Knowledge Complexity Framework Easy Reference Chart. As you do, ask yourself the following questions:

Where on the knowledge complexity archetype do I spend most of my time and attention?
What learning mode is most comfortable for me?
Do I spend time gathering information and conforming to standards trying to do something in the most efficient way or am I wanting to do it the best way?
How do I understand what promotes or impedes effectiveness?
Do I generally see where an activity fits into the whole picture?
How does my learning influence my sense of integrity and purpose management?
When do I take time to reflect and consider all the complexities of knowledge in the greater contexts of universal understandings?

I think the knowledge complexity archetype is a useful tool for reflecting on how best we engage in practice, education and research, and how each of these contexts can benefit from a deeper understanding of the complexity of knowledge. I am very grateful to Verna Allee for expanding my understanding and challenging me to think about all of these complexities.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.