To be honest, I have no objective expectations for this class. My personal philosophy on learning in a class environment is to approach with an open mind and take what seems to emerge as applicable. However, for the sake of looking forward and making public what my thoughts are on “Designing for Effective Change” I have come up with a couple of thoughts about what may be useful from this class. First of all, I am technologically semi-illiterate so publishing reflective writing on a blog and using the class project wiki will be a useful exercise for gaining additional tools to effectively communicate and collaborate. As an engineer I understand that technical problem solving in the modern world many times requires the synchronization of individuals from different backgrounds and different locations to form a synergetic team which can effectively communicate between themselves and to others.
As far as the subject matter of the class goes, I don’t know what Professor Arvin thinks of as examples of the so-called “effective change”, but I would like to be introduced to ways in which change was brought about effectively without the formal “blueprint planning” which students typically learn in traditional courses. Few educated people are able to think outside this box to find more creative ways to implement changes in organizations or societies. Although, it is my impression that these are the ways which may be able to stir the minds of employees, professionals, students, teachers, citizens, and humans beings in general to implement stable changes better than the plans that simple logic is able to provide.
I would like to know if the methods of effective change are completely unique to each situation or if some ideas of implementing change are more or less effective in all situations. I would like to find out under what environments effective change takes hold. Is it in environments of internal pressure or external pressure? I would like to find out what promotes effective change to spread? Is it people, personalities, and relationships or economics, accessibility, and impression? Can effective change be sped up or made more “contagious” by the actions we take? These are just a few of the questions that may be good for me to answer through this class.
In the chemical engineering profession the answer to what is the nature and method of “Designing for Effective Change” will be very helpful to me. It will provide perspective on change that will inevitably happen around me in a rapidly evolving scientific field. It will also help me to take improvements that my colleagues and I find through our mathematic and technical knowledge and implement them in ways that will catch on and stick in an industry setting. These may cover such important areas as plant safety procedures, the management of new process designs, implementation of more economic operating procedures, or just efficient ways to objectively communicate from engineers to laboratory technicians to process operators to management to accounting personnel in a company.
All in all, the only constant I foresee in my personal and professional future is change. Even though the nature of this change is unclear at the present, I look to this class for the opportunity to learn how to effectively deal with and influence the change as it comes to better myself and those around me.
