Reply to at least two different classmates outside of your own initial post thread.

1) At the beginning of this class, it was hard for me to connect the dots for what our learning objective was. I don't feel this course work was necessarily linear in thought process and that the text book was really beneficial to the coursework we completed, but none the less, I did have some takeaways that will be useful in my organization.

On Friday, I spoke with a client that gave me a scenario from her job. As a waitress, her restaurant had a recent change in executive chefs- for Valentines Day, the chef said- "this is what we are serving, if you make any substitutes, I will find a way to write you up."

I instantly started thinking about the 8 dimensions of change and reiterated them to her. Developing greater levels of understanding regarding trustworthy leadership and followers, innovation and accountability and aligned team thinking and how it all fits into an organization (Judge, 2013). Without these dimension, organizations are the epitome of dysfunction. Leadership is viewed as incompetent, disrespect runs rampant and followers are afraid to use their best interest because they're being threatened.

This also helped me better understand how my own organization functions and the high value I place on mutual respect. I think in all of this, I've learned the importance of systems thinking and how to best get leaders and followers aligned when it comes to the balance between what's best for the business and how a success for an organization has a much larger impact on employees or followers than we understand.

Post covid has left us with a world where people are frustrated- they don't want to work for organizations in which they feel undervalued, however, a company or organization that has members who aren't onboard with workplace culture or overall direction is destined to fail. This class has shown me that the organization has to be strong and healthy and must reject draining behaviors completely.

My plans for improving my own organization are to simply continue enlarging our sphere of influence and developing relationships with employees that help them understand why we do the things we do!

Judge, William.FOCUSING ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE. Available from: MBS Direct, MBS Content, 2013.

2) As I reflect on what I have learned in this class I realize that the knowledge that I have gained here can help me understand the changes within my organization a little better. They continue to look for ways for us to improve our processes to not just provide a better experience to our clients but to provide a better working environment for us. Change is hard especially for me because I always have the "knee jerk reaction" I hate change. However, most of the changes made what we do easier for not only us but for our clients as well. The changes we make are what keeps us as one of the leaders in our field. I learned that in my department we have the unique position that allows us to speak with and have knowledge of most of out clients. Often, we provide our companies first impression; having great customer service and knowledge of each helps us to be able to help our clients and guide them through the processes. My organization makes it a point to gather feedback from us after changes are made to see what is working and what is not. This is important to us because it lets us know they value our opinions. After taking this class I can evaluate my strengths and weaknesses a little better. I know that my biggest weakness is my aversion to change. I would like to approach change with a more positive attitude. My goal for myself is to become a "change champion" I want to be someone that promotes why change is so important and why change is not only good for the company but for us as well.