[Practical Self Management Intensive] Week 4 Reflection_ Invitation to The Sky Collective
0/ Intro
At this moment, I cannot believe that PSMI course is almost over. Recalling my first day of the course, I was in a daze for a while after the class. All words and ideas discussed in the class were so confusing and vague to me. But strangely something gently pushed me into entering a whole new world. Accordingly, I could not stop exploring these notions of self organizing, social contract, self managing, role expectation mapping canvas etc. Perhaps it reflected the organizational blind spot that I struggled with for long periods.
While in the last stage of completing the course, I notice that I can have hope for change.
1/ PSMI Journey
In the first place, I expected to learn some useful and practical tips at work to be more productive and in-demand person. Contrary to my expectations, I started exploring who I really am and discovered how to be true to myself. For example, I first had to organize physical, psychosocial and environmental factors I normally mind and do not mind in the workplace. At the same time, I got the chance to confront things that unconsciously control my thoughts and behavior.
On top of this, it has also given me the opportunity to change my attitude towards others with the realization of what interaction and communication with people really meant, such as listening till the end without any judgement, understanding the contextual background/personal situation, accepting and responding to feedback, making no one feel ignored in the decision-making and so on. All were not related to matters of right and wrong, but related to humanistic process.
And this week, our learning reached its height by having the experience of the design thinking methodology mostly focusing on prototyping. In a nutshell, it was a day full of fun by quickly thinking and creating something out of nothing with my hands (I was so embarrassed in the first place though). After that, the prototype was shared and evaluated in a gentle way. To test my hypothesis and to develop/enhance my idea in a rapid way, prototyping turned out to be so essential. For me, the most enjoyable part was the moment of receiving feedback because I could further develop some points to make my idea more useful and effective.
There was one more thing that gave me a new and pleasant experience. To be honest, I never imagined that this kind of activity can be performed online due to perhaps my misconception such as interactiveness to get the accurate result. Yet, it worked out pretty well.
2/ Beautiful Experience
“Teaming is a dynamic activity, not a bounded, static entity. It is largely determined by the mindset and practices of teamwork, not by the design and structures of effective teams. Teaming is teamwork on the fly.”
- Amy Edmondson -
For the weekly assignment, we were asked to create the prototype with the team assigned; Nick Turner, Abhinav Agarwal, Hyeyoung Jeon and Me. For the prototype, we built up the global self-management community creating the website. You know what? Everything was magically done within 3-4days. It is still unbelievable that we so quickly made one business model in the end.
Honestly, I was unsure as to whether all notions learned in the course could be utilized or sustained throughout the rest of my life. I probably needed to have more explicit experimentation, and the assignment for this week hit the spot. At this point, I need to confess that they are a great source of inspiration that I experience, at first hand, the worth of self management. While having the virtual meeting twice, I could see that we appropriately used all methodologies we practiced throughout the course, such as open-mindedness, adult-adult learning, advise process, consent based and generative decision, clarification, interaction, commitment and so on. Most important part was that no one was excluded as roles and responsibilities were clearly defined for each person. Yet, Nick and Ahbi made a more considered contribution since technical skills were highly required.
3/ Dreaming of the future of further gathering
I now have a feeling of pleasure and excitement sensing something coming with my beautiful cohort. Although we live elsewhere and never met in person, I strangely feel so connected with them. I now believe that we must work together to catalyze a better future. Probably, this will be the core value of PSMI.
P.S. Anyone who wants to come along with us is welcome to join The Sky Collective! https://www.theskycollective.org
