Daily Blog Updates - Post Your Blogs Here!

(Everyone received this via email but I'm using it to get my blog credit here also).

Sorry for another mass email, but I have received some private messages, and in combination with reading the blogs, I wanted to address with everyone an informational deficiency regarding where we stand right now.

Myself and the group leaders met via teleconference last night to discuss the next steps, and the leaders will be meeting up later this weekend. We all feel very good regarding our next steps and the direction we're heading in, but given how swiftly the process has evolved over the past 2 days (and 24 hours for that matter), this feeling of optimism may not have trickled down to everyone yet (thus my overall update here).

You have likely heard from your group leader by now to gather some base information we need for our meeting. Some have chosen to do that in person, whereas some have chosen to coordinate over the phone.....every group is using discretion on what works best for them, there is no requirement from myself that groups meet in person this weekend.

After the leaders meet and use the base info collected, we will 1) have the overall problem defined, 2) have the entire task list divided up amongst the groups, 3) have a communication protocol decided upon, 4) have all of our questions for Scott Allen, and 5) have an agenda laid out for Tuesday's class.

I hope this clarifies the most current standing as well as the direction we're headed. We'll have another update for everyone once all of the leaders have met. If you have any concerns feel free to inform your group leader and/or myself.

I'm starting to wrap my head around our MB 551 tasks and gain some optimism. I think we've done a good so far of communicating and setting baseline expectations. Based on the number and complexity of the tasks, I think we'll need to run a series of experiments to check everything off the list. I like the fact that we are assigning leadership positions to people in class. Since I am not one of them, I am ready to practice the follower's responsibility. (5)

A recent news story on the extramarital affair of former CIA Director David Petraeus provides a good topic for our ethics class. He failed to model the way for his subordinates and his children. His affair may have been the result of a lack of emotional self-control. Staying at the CIA could have caused him a great deal of situational stress, so his departure could be viewed as an enactive strategy to change the situation. A more cynical view would describe his resignation as withdrawal. (5)

Although some initially found the content of the course to be a cause of work overload due to time constraints, now that we have collaborated to form a clear plan, our group spirit overall is a lot more optimistic and our citizenship is strong. (5)

I am looking forward to seeing how our class goes tomorrow. Scott M. has done a great job providing CONJUNCTIVE COMMUNICATION to the class and the sub-group leaders. I think we're showing AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP during this project. A lot of EFFORT has been put in this weekend and we have BASELINED EXPECTATIONS for tomorrow. Now, I'm just feeling WORK OVERLOAD as to how to read the entire ethics book by next Tuesday.

Our subgroup leaders are certainly modeling the way following their meeting on Sunday morning. I received a concise e-mail outlining their baseline expectations of us, and they showed how they are able to change their approach in communicating with Scott. Our group leaders have set an itinerary and inspired a shared vision among us for tomorrow night's meeting which will enable us to be more efficient and focused on our individual tasks.

For years the sporting community believed the Lance Armstrong was MODELING THE WAY. He was a beacon of hope as he INSPIRED countless others to become involved in cancer research. His yellow armbands IMPROVED the normal way of raising money for research. That all came crashing down when it was finally confirmed that Lance had cheated in his sport and now he had to step down from his charity. We can view Armstrong's choice to cheat as UTILITARIANISM through the lens that by doing so he created the most benefit. KANT'S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE would disagree with this model, as he would say that Armstrong should have been morally right and not cheated no matter the ultimate benefit.

I am working to focus on the followers responsibility while doing this project. I think that our group leaders are doing a great job and taking initiative to guide us in their process and I am optimistic that we will have a good product. Wow, I used all of my terms in the first sentence. I worked today on a tracking report for the group. I will update this report and I have opened editing access to all members of the cohort to edit this document as well. I think that this will be a good tool to visualize where we are at on task completion and it will also help our leaders determine when they need to use a pacesetting approach to get us back on goal.

I'm optimistic that our class will excell in this class and I also have the self-determination to make that happen. Already, I feel that many of you have taken a lot of iniative and have shown a lot of effort which is appreciated. I started created definitions for the MB551 terms and can see how some of the leaders in the group are demonstrating servant leadership because they have spent a lot of their own free time to help organize the rest of the class so everyone gets a good grade. (5)

The INFORMATIONAL DEFICIENCIES we faced as a class last week combined with the ROLE CONFLICT between Scott and ourselves caused many of us to have UNPLEASANT EXPECTATIONS and lack OPTIMISM. I think once we get together tomorrow, we will all be able to settle in and get comfortable with how this class is going to unfold. We all will come together and demonstrate our SELF DETERMINATION and make this a success.

I took some initiative to reach out to my sister in law about interviewing famous ethical scholars, she is more than willing to help if we need a contact, may even be a contact herself, depending on how famous is defined. It's good to see a more defined process and I really appreciate the effort that the group leaders are putting into building teamwork and encouraging optimism.

I feel the class is demonstrating great teamwork and working towards an inspired vision. Although, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, due to informational deficiencies, I am confident in the leaders guiding the class. Unfortunately, I will not be at class tomorrow and as a result, have some anticipatory stress due to fear of what may come, but at the end of the day, I am optimistic that the class will do the right thing.

Good luck!

As more time passes since first getting this assignment from Scott Allen, and looking forward to class tomorrow night, I continue to have more and more optimism. Why? First, we've seen great initiative and teamwork from a number of colleagues in the class. Second, I look forward to our cohort having relevance when next fall, instead of the syllabus saying "The two previous groups have done incredible...", it's going to say "The three previous groups....". Last, I believe that the process is coming together and the 30/70 rule is coming alive.

The media has been quite active the last couple of days concerning the resignation of the most current CIA chief, Petreus. This retired general showed a history of being able to influence in positional and non-positional leadership roles. Recently, his ethical stance has been questioned by many including himself. He chose to intervene skillfully and resign instead of fight for his position, despite the fact that the primary reason for his need to leave the post (potential blackmail) was no longer valid since his affair was outted. I think that the Petreus's resignation is his way of accepting accountability for his lack of modeling the way among other ethical failures.

WSJ Article "FBI Scrutinized on Petraeus: Complaints by Female Social Planner Led to Email Trail That Undid CIA Chief"

In today's WSJ there was an article outlining what led to the ultimate resignation of the positional leader of the CIA. There were a number of ethical issues that were apparent to me. The first, and likely most obvious, was with Petraeus himself. He used poor moral judgment in his involvement in an extramarital affair. I believe the more pressing issue falls with the lack of follower's responsibility recognized by those government officials who had known about this for a few months and instead chose to avoid the situation altogether. As it was put in the article, this could have turned out to be a matter of national security and had significant consequences if something would have happened. While we are luck this only became front page news for the lack of moral character displayed by Petraeus, it should be noted by all of the government leaders that they should display more ethical sensitivity for issues that could have potential consequences for the country.

The MORAL JUDGEMENT and MORAL CHARACTER of Kevin Clash, the voice of Sesame Street's Elmo, is being questioned after allegations that he had relations with a minor 7 years ago. While many children and parents alike saw Elmo as a NON POSITIONAL LEADER that exemplified PERSONAL CHARISMA and placing an importance on LISTENING, this image has now been tarnished by the fact that Clash has been accused of these relations. This comes just 5 months after the verdict of the Jerry Sandusky trial in the inappropriate relations with children over a 15 year period. There seems to be an unfortunate trend in these types of crimes lately, and hopefully they come to an end soon.

This article was published in The Baltimore Sun today, November 12th entitled, "Ethics Oversight Board Hasn't Met In Years." The article describes the lack of oversight from the assigned board regarding Baltimore's ethics director. The article notes that the current ethics director, Avery Aisenstark, is being accused of bad leadership in the form of corruption. The article also argues that neither Aisenstark nor the seven member board oversight panel, the Board of Legislative Reference, are engaging in servant leadership. Neither one is embracing their sense of citizenship. Aisenstark is being intemperate and the Board of Legislative Reference is effectively incompetent. (6)

Given the recent news, I believe it is impossible not to talk about Former CIA Director David Petraeus. Prior to his infidelity I believe and maybe most still do believe him to be somewhat altruistic. Especially as a General in the Army, which the coercive style of the military may make it hard to view anything as altruistic, but I feel that he used his position to inspire a shared vision and improve the lives of many at his own personal expense. Nonetheless, he may have ultimately negated much of the good he had done with the poor moral judgment he has recently displayed. He still is an outstanding officer in my eyes; he accomplished the mission better than anyone else could have but unfortunately his abilities as a leader in the military did not translate into his personal life. Obviously, he felt that no amount of expertise or effort could salvage his legitimacy.

I read a recent online article about a city councilwoman in Louisville, KY. This person has been accused of ethics violations summarized by using her position to further family members. The interesting part is that she has continuously invoked the 5th amendment during questioning and in her last hearing, simply walked out of the hearing showing a reaction to stress of withdrawl and an avoidance approach to conflict. I think this is interesting because it blurs the boundry between positional ethics and law. This hearing is simply a council trying to enforce an established ethics code that is presumably agreed to by all employees in designated positions, like council members. By leaving the hearing this person is not exhibiting the follower's responsibility, and the cause of the hearing (grandchild on the payroll despite being in jail) shows a destructive behavior that doesn't leave followers as better off, and a general lack of moral character. Pleading the 5th is a legal maneuver that may not be accepted or relavent to a ethics committee, which is a quasi-legal entity at best. Obviously, if this were a criminal hearing simply walking out would not be tolerated or allowed.

General Petraeus' affair calls into question his own personal sources of power, including LEGITIMACY and CHARISMA. It may also make people wonder whether his EFFORT was directed towards his job as head of the CIA. He would most likely be viewed as a TOXIC LEADER now based on his behavior and AMORALITY.

We really attempted to DEFINE THE PROBLEM tonight. It became apparent that we will need to RUN EXPERIMENTS with each other to get the job done. It seems like everyone is FLEXIBLE and OPTIMISTIC. We practiced LISTENING and being AUTHENTIC. Scott tried to lead us through a DEMOCRATIC style, but learned that he needed to take charge at some times through AUTHORITATIVE or COERCIVE styles.

Tonight’s meeting served a very specific purpose in relation to our successful achievement of our goal. While it took a while to relieve the sense of group disconfirmation and work overload, I feel confident that we took important strides towards our final result. Our group still needs to improve on our ability to ask relevant and necessary questions prior to diving into our objectives. Hopefully, by reviewing each task the group is able to start with their individual’s assignments and see the shared vision that we are all working towards (our final presentation). This next week will perhaps be the most important week of our project and will require all hands to be on deck. If any individual/group has questions about their specific items it will be important to present those ASAP in order to start accomplishing tasks. I am optimistic that we took a step in the right direction this evening, but we need to keep this momentum going!

plus's of today's class are that we did manage to define some problems and Scott Moore did a good job of being a leader. I suggest that Scott consider adopting a more pace setting approach to structuring the class time. He shouldn't avoid conflict and force a conclusion to discussion when we run over. If Scott sets some baseline expectations by letting everyone know up front that when time is up we are moving on, it should keep class members from feeling disconfirmed or defensive. Over all, good job tonight Scott.

Tonight was a good class meeting in that we got answers to numerous questions; reducing our INFORMATIONAL DEFICIENCIES and FEAR. Better DEFINIG THE PROBLEM skills are needed still however. The distribution of tasks does not appear to be even and, from one in a group that officially has only 2 tasks assigned to us, I am AUTHENTICLY showing EMPATHY to the other groups who may have more on their plates. I think that the work will even out in the end and agree that every task is important to the cohort's success though so maybe I need to get over a CONCEPTUAL BLOCK in my thinking that # of tasks assigned indicates amount of EFFORT put in or the amount contributed.

I am satisfied with the way we defined the problem of our group project tonight. Scott Moore did a good job of dealing with the unfavorable working conditions by changing his approach midway through the class period to focus on allocating Dr. Allen to each of the sub groups. I do feel we need to deliberately focus on the potential for interaction conflicts amongst members of our group, as the conditions are favorable for incompetent leadership to surface.