Fluent Essays

1. As the Top Chef at the Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver, you have valued the high reputation your restaurant has. Your menu choices have always been admired by guests and the restaurant industry. Over the past 3 months, there have been a 10\% decline in customers. You find this peculiar because the restaurant made a 25\% expansion of the kitchen space as well as the restaurant seating.  The kitchen staff have all worked at Pan Pacific for over two years. Everyone has an idea on why there is a downturn in customers. As the Top Chef, I hear their ideas but it is hard to know who to believe. What will you do to turn this around? Topic 3:  When talk becomes action In organizations, dialogue is critical for effective decisions.   An organization starts out with strong dialogue that includes planning and dreaming.  As time goes by, the dialogue becomes clumsy; talking and effective decisions are fading.  What happens?    In Unit one we looked at the many things that impact decisions.  It is difficult to even get to the point of decisions when the ability to dialogue is lost.  New budgets, new employees, corporate take-overs, conflicts, misunderstandings, and restructures are a few of the things that get in the way of effective dialogue.  Effective decision making becomes less than effective.    How can we have dialogue that becomes action? Charan discusses three primary things to practice when turning and organization of indecision into a culture of decision makers.  Identify these three topics in the chapter to gain a deeper understanding of who they can improve dialogue. ·  Intellectual honesty:  Trust and respect each other · Social operation mechanisms:  Know who and when to talk to.  Make the environment comfortable for open discussions · Openness · Candor · Informality · Feedback and follow through:  Listen to suggestions.  Do what you say you are going to do.   Learning Activities Activity 3.4:   Role Play – Copy To build or not to build The citizens of the town of Smithville, population 1,500, decided to build a new school within the next two years.  Smithville has $500,000 of government funding for planning and development; additional funding is available as plans are finalized.   For the past 50 years, school children have traveled 10 miles each way to attend the Mars school. Your Learning Pod will role play this scenario, debating about the reasons to build and not to build. Things to consider could be:  safety, best use of resources, traffic, community investment, tradition, taxes.   Each student will become their own “person” in the dialogue, taking up one or two of the things to consider.  Your “person” may be kind and gentle. contentious, have grudges, or just stuck in the past.  Develop your “person” as you go along.   The Role Play will last 3 – 4 minutes.  (Choose one person to be the time-keeper.) After the role play, spend 5 minutes discussing why or why not this was a successful dialogue.  Bing Search School bus children    Activity 3.6: · The response to COVID-19 brought world-wide changes and decision making.  Beginning with the World Health Organization, identify at least 4 levels of dialogue or people who were involved before national quarantine was in place. · Write a brief 1-page reflection on the levels of layers of people/organizations involved before the quarantine was implemented.  Submit into the dropbox under Unit 3.   Key Terms Read Making Decisions, pp 3 – 12. DROP AND DRAG ACTIVITY Define the following terms, dragging the key term to the correct definition. Openness              The outcome is not predetermined Candor                   A willingness to speak the unspeakable, to expose, and to air conflict    Informality            Casual, encourages candor Closure                  At the end of a meeting, people know exactly what to do.                                 Topic 2:  What are the road blocks to successful dialogue “I want to do what is good, but I don’t.  I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do is anyway.  The Bible, Roman 7:19, NLT.   No one sits down at a meeting and says, “I hope I say something inappropriate that causes others to be quiet and not give their opinions.”  We enter a meeting expecting the dialogue to go well, we can stay on the agenda, and everyone leaves satisfied.  That is what we hope.  But as much as we want that to happen, we often fail.  The reason?  Charan calls these “Dialogue Killers”.   See pages 62, 63 under the box entitled Dialogue Killers.  ·  Dangling Dialogue:  Confusion prevails and the meeting ends without a clear next step. · Information Clogs:  There is simply not enough information to make an informed decision. · Piecemeal Perspectives:  Please hang on to their narrow views of self-interest. · Free-for-All:  The leaders fails to direct the flow of the discussion so group members will get side tracked or try to force others to see their perspective. Learning Activities Activity 3.3: DROP AND DRAG ACTIVITY Define the following terms, dragging the key term to the correct definition. Dangling Dialogue                                               Meeting ends without a clear next step Remedy for Dangling Dialogue                          Give the meeting closure by making sure everyone knows what to do and by when it should be done   Information Clogs                                                An important piece of information is left out until after the decision is made Remedy for Information Clogs                          Make sure the right people are attending. As the information is presented, discuss it with openness and candor with coaching as needed.                   Piecemeal Perspectives                                     People stick to narrow vies and self-interests Remedy for Piecemeal Perspective                 Listen to all sides of the issue.  Repeat the common goal.  Give alternatives.  Provide coaching so everyone understands the goal   Free-for All                                                           The leaders allows negative behaviour to flourish      Remedy for Free-For-All                                    The leader must use inner strength to focus on accepted behavior and coaching or sanctioning the unacceptable behavior.               Unit 3 Topic 1:  What is dialogue:  It all begins with dialogue “It all begins with dialogue” is the premise Ram Charan uses in his article “Conquering a Culture of Indecision.”  He makes a direct correlation between the effectiveness of dialogue and the effectiveness of decisions.  We will begin by reviewing a case study presented in Charan’s article.  It speaks clearly of how dialogue can actually change the direction of a company while demonstrating respect for others.   Case Study In the article “Conquering a Culture of Indecision” see the section entitled “It All Beings with Dialogue”.  Read the case study about the company Unit Head and CEO.   Below is a summary that demonstrates the way that simple dialogue can change the course of a company . Upon hearing the presentation of the Unit Head, the CEO could have ridiculed the Unit Head because of the unacceptable presentation.  Instead, he began a dialogue of sharing ideas, coaching, and came up with new ideas to benefit the organization.    · Key points that describe the turn-around: · The Unit Head’s proposal was flatly rejected but he did not walk away. · The CEO did not assert his authority or diminish the Unit Head as a person. · They shared a dialogue and creative ideas began to flow. · Through that dialogue, a new plan developed which exceeded expectations · In 90 days, they met again to discuss the revised strategy.    · Some observations: · The Unit Head expected the CEO would be impressed with his presentation, and the CEO expected the Unit Head would bring a strong presentation. · The expectations were not met for either. · Dialogue began between the CEO and Unit Head.  Newer and better ideas ensued. · The Unit Head respected the CEO and the CEO respected the Unit Head. · This allowed for creative dialogue.  New and creative ideas evolved which changed the course of the company.   · Some What-Ifs · What-If the Unit Head felt rejected and just walked away? · What-If the CEO got frustrated and dismissed the Unit Head?   · Conclusion · Without dialogue, the future of the company would be deterred. · Organization decisions are impaired when people loose the ability to dialogue. · Dialogue is the basic unit of work in an organization. · Dialogue is at the heart of successful organizational decisions.   · Lessons Learned 1. 2. 3.   Learning Activities Activity 3.1 · Learning Pod:  Identify 3 lessons learned from the Case Study.  Share and compare these lessons with others in your Learning Pod.  As well, discuss the things that get in the way of effective dialogue in an organization.   Activity 3.2: Today’s Decisions · Learning Pod:  Identify a conversation or dialogue you had today.  Determine what influenced outcome of the conversation, how it influenced, and why it influenced your decision.   Share this reflection with your Learning Pod.   Questions to Consider After completing the activities above, consider the following questions: · Who or what drives many of my decisions? · Do I actively participate in dialogue or do I simply follow the dialogue of others?