COMM 3SO3

Week 1 - 01A: Introduction - Global Skills Gap

Top 5 Skills Employers are Looking For

● If a job applicant does not meet the minimum education requirements, they are less likely to get a call
back for an interview
● Degrees are an important step to get your foot in the door for a job interview
○ After this threshold has been reached, skills come into play

● Top 5 skills employers are looking for:

○ Problem Solving
■ Can you solve problems? Especially when they’re ambiguous and not well defined? Or
perhaps they’re new and they’ve never been solved before
○ Teamwork
■ Can you work with other people effectively and efficiently? Do people want to work with
you again?
○ Communication
■ Can you communicate effectively with people at different levels and different media?
Can you communicate effectively when under stress?
○ Adaptability
■ Can you adapt when a situation changes and new information becomes available?
○ Interpersonal Skills
■ Can you form good working interpersonal relationships with different types of people?
Can you resolve conflicts effectively?

Importance-Satisfaction Gap for Employers

● Gaps represent opportunities for job applications
● The light blue colour gives you information on the importance ranking that the employer has given that
skill
○ Is the number on the left hand side
● The darker blue colour gives you the employer satisfaction
ranking
○ Darker number on the right
● There are gaps!
○ Ex. problem solving on the top
■ Importance is 96, but satisfaction is only 67
■ This represents an opportunity for job
applicants
■ Those who can close the gap, as opposed to
widen the gap, are more likely to get hired
○ Ex. Technical on the lower left side
■ 83 for importance and 78 for satisfaction
■ Room for improvement, yet much less than
previous examples
● Gaps represent opportunities for you to bring a company a desirable skill and help them close the skill gap
in their organization
○ This can help you stand out from other graduates and job applicants
● Might aim to perfect skills where there are the biggest gaps
COMM 3SO3

Gap in Ranking of Importance between Employers and Students

● This data is particularly useful because it tells you what the disconnect
(or gap) between employers and students rankings
● On the left (grey bar) → employers ranking
● Right (blue number) → Ranking to that skill given by students
● The arrow in the middle identifies and quantifies the gap between
employer and student rankings
● For some skills, such as language (second from the bottom) and
resilience (around the middle), the two rankings are quite similar, with
no gap or a 0 for language and a gap of one for resilience
● Largest gap → Creativity
○ Gap of 8 between employer and student rankings
○ Job applicants may want to put their time and effort into skills

Self-Quiz
1. In an interview. Jason mentions that he has successfully delivered
weekly presentations to a team of 10 people. Which of the “Top 5 Skills
Employers are Looking For” is Jason giving evidence of?
a. Problem Solving
b. Teamwork
c. Communication
d. Adaptability

In-Class Discussion:
1. Which of the five Global Skills (problem solving, teamwork, communication, adaptability, interpersonal
skills) is your most effective skill right now?
a. Teamwork
i. Can you work with other people effectively and efficiently? Do people want to work with
you again?
1. I am able
b. Communication
i. Can you communicate effectively with people at different levels and different media?
Can you communicate effectively when under stress?
c. Interpersonal Skills
i. Can you form good working interpersonal relationships with different types of people?
Can you resolve conflicts effectively?

2. Which of the five Global Skills (problem solving, teamwork, communication, adaptability, interpersonal
skills) has the most room for improvement?
a. Problem Solving
i. Can you solve problems? Especially when they’re ambiguous and not well defined? Or
perhaps they’re new and they’ve never been solved before
b. Communication
i. Can you communicate effectively with people at different levels and different media?
Can you communicate effectively when under stress?
c. Adaptability
i. Can you adapt when a situation changes and new information becomes available?
COMM 3SO3

Week 1 - 01B: Closing the Gap

DeGroote B.Bomm Learning Goals (2019)

● After completing the DeGroote Bachelor of Commerce program our students will be:
○ Possessors of a cross-functional core of business knowledge
○ Innovative problem solvers
○ Persuasive communicators
○ Self-managed learners

● In business, it is important to possess a foundational understanding of areas outside of your particular

area of expertise
● Cross-functional teams in the workplace are comprised of experts from different areas who work together
to make decisions
○ This means we all need to understand how each discipline works and how it can support our own
work
○ For example: marketers focus on marketing courses in school
■ Yet in the workplace, are expected to work with operations regarding product
availability, accounting and finance for budgetary purposes, HR for sales team
management, IT for day to day issues and strategic data mining

● The four learning goals in COMM 3SO3 support the development of the give global skills employers are
looking for (as presented in the previous segment)
○ Problem solving, teamwork, communication, adaptability and interpersonal skills

5 Levels of Leadership
● A concept developed by Jim Collins
○ Discovered that all of the great organizations
had Level five leaders
● Essentially, as one moves up the pyramid and
demonstrates various skills, a person moves from
being managed to be a manager

● Level one - Highly Capable Individual

○ You make high-quality contributions with
your work, you possess useful levels of
knowledge and you have the talent and skills
needed to do a good job (KSAOs - vary by job
and involve technical and behavioural
concepts)
● Level two - Contributing Team Member
○ You use your knowledge and skills to help your team succeed. You work effectively, productively
and successfully with others which often includes cross-functional team settings. This requires
the ability to manage the task as well as interpersonal relationships to achieve business goals
● Level three - Competent Manager
○ You are able to organize a group effectively to reach specific goals and objectives.
● Level four - Effective Leader
○ Most top leaders fall into this category. Here, you are able to motivate a
department/organization and mobilize all that is required to meet performance objectives
COMM 3SO3

● Level five - Executive

○ Act with professionalism and humility. They behave in a very humble way (important)
○ For example, whenever your team has success, make sure that the credit goes to them.
Conversely, at a level 5 leader, you take the responsibility of your team's efforts even when
things go wrong.
○ Have a unique combination of resolve and humility. Often to own up to their own mistakes and
the last to take credit for success.
○ Key skills/characteristics: Developing humility, asking for help, taking responsibility, developing
discipline, finding the right people and leading with passion.

10 Manager Skills (three of special note!)

1. Self confidence
a. Assurance in one's own ideas, judgements and capabilities
b. Knowing and trusting in yourself
c. A manager with self confidence inspires respect and admiration and has the ability to meet
challenges and solve problems in order to achieve goals
i. If mistakes happen, they happen without feeling the world has come to an end
d. A manager who lacks self confidence, is more likely to avoid difficult situations and confrontation
and may tend to over control subordinates (micro managing)
e. Believe in themselves and easily delegate responsibility, take risks, give credit to others and assert
themselves for the good of their team
f. Can have too much self confidence
2. Emotion control
a. Being able to keep one's emotions in check (so that they don't interfere with relationships and
goal attainment)
b. Some people are naturally able to balance things such as worry, frustration, fear, anger and does
not get in the way of their work
c. These people can often remain calm under pressure
d. Managers who are low on emotional control can be easily hurt by criticism, overly emotional in
difficult situations and may experience negative thoughts before a difficult situation
e. Self refrestaint is the ability to think before you speak or act
i. Key to emotion control
3. Focus (stay on task)
a. Focus means you can keep your attention centred on a topic, situation or task and are able to
screen out distractions and complete the job at hand (rather than becoming side tracked by less
important activities)
b. People with high focus are able to give their attention to the immediate task and then can return
to the long term task without losing any speed
i. Typically very good at meeting deadlines (able to push through struggles/boredom and
see it to the end)
c. People who experience low focus tend to look for distractions rather than sticking to the project
needing to be completed
i. May start out cleaning out a closet, rather than finishing research or studying for an
exam
COMM 3SO3

4. Objectivity
a. People high in objectivity have the ability to mentally stand back and take a holistic view of the
self and of others in order to understand a logical basis on how to solve a problem
b. Rather than act on the personal likes and dislikes, they can generally come up with several
solutions, evaluate pros and cons and make sensible decisions based on what they think would be
best
c. This strength allows managers to see a bigger picture which includes other perspectives even if it
doesn't match their own
d. Managers with objectivity are also able to take a non bias view of their own performance, see
how well they’re doing, and analyze why something went wrong and learn from it
5. Relationship Building
a. New managers quickly realize that management means getting things done through other people
b. Struggling managers often have poor work relationships/mismanage/misjudge the cultural
values and work ethics within the company
c. A manager low on relationships could be insensitive to the needs of others, too critical, and
negative towards others. May stay isolated while working on tasks
d. A lesson for managers: you can’t do everything themselves
i. Must influence others and create an environet eager to accomplish the company’s goals
e. Successful managers realize that more than half their time is spent networking and building
successful relationships
i. Managers high on relationship building like and care about people, and are likeable, are
empathetic towards others needs, and trend to treat people with kindness and respect
6. Initiative
a. Having a strong capacity to begin an activity without the need to procrastinate
i. Even if it’s something boring
b. Revealed as the ability to reach out to others when needed, readiness to start a new project and
the ability to take personal responsibility
7. Goal-directed mindset
a. People who score high in this strength can see the desired future outcomes and establish the
steps needed to reach their goals (and to stay on target) without being distracted
b. Focus on the long term rather than being pulled away by short term responsibilities
c. People low on this ability have trouble focusing beyond their immediate outcomes and can easily
lose sight on their long range goals
8. Ability to organize
a. Organizing is the capacity to arrange people, resources and activities into a system
b. Organizers are efficient, disciplined in how they approach tasks and often clear in which task is a
higher priority and which one is low
c. Organizers tend to keep a format of a daily to do list, stick to time limits, and establish deadlines
for themselves and others
d. A manager low in organizing skills may not be where to start a project, reluctant to organize
people in order to accomplish tasks and may not how to structure activities and manage
resources
9. Time management
a. People high in this skill are always on time for meetings, appointments or events
b. They meet deadlines and approach things in a calculated way
c. Accurately estimate the amount of time it will take to finish a project
d. Finiish most important tasks first, and still have time to finish other requirements
COMM 3SO3

e. Low on time management ability: may have trouble beijing on time for appointments, miss
deadlines and may not accomplish much in a day as they expected (underestimate the time it will
take to accomplish things)
10. Agility
a. If you are able to quickly adapt in changing situations you possess agility
b. Able to revise your plan, adjust, and change the course when you’re faced with new information,
obstacles, setbacks or even mistakes
c. People high in agility tend to take the unexpected in instride and adapt easily to change
d. Low in agility are not comfortable with the unexpected and have a harder time adapting to
changing situations
i. Not willing to incorporate new information
e. Managers high in agility are able to cope with uncertainty/high pressure without becoming too
stressed

● We tend to excel on personal, academic and business life when we focus on our strengths rather than our
weaknesses
● When you work on your strengths, you tend to be more motivated, competent and satisfied
● Objectivity, Initiative, Agility
○ WIll be the focus on upcoming assignments

Self-Quiz
1. Mary has been working at ABC Corp. for 2 years. She has been very successful in her job but prefers to
keep to herself and work independently. WHich level best describes where Mary is at?
a. Level 1
b. Level 2
c. Level 3
d. Level 4
2. The manager of a company notices one of her employees struggling to complete a task, so she
approaches the employee and offers assistance. Which manager skill is she demonstrating?
a. Objectivity
b. Initiative
c. Time Management
d. Self-Confidence
COMM 3SO3

Week 2 - 02A: Critical Thinking

What is Critical Thinking?

● Ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned
judgment
○ Critical thinking involves the evaluation of sources such as
data, facts, observable phenomenon, and research findings.
● Using these external sources of info, internal bias can be eliminated
● A well cultivated critical thinker has the characteristics of
○ Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly
and precisely
○ Gather and asses relevant information using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
○ They come to well reasoned conclusions and solutions , testing them against relevant criteria and
standards
○ Critical thinkers think open mindedly, with an alternative systems of thought - recognizing and
assesings as needs to be their assumptions, implications and practical consequences
○ Critical thinkers also communicate effectively with others and figuring out solutions to complex
problems
● https://www.thebalancecareers.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745

An Effective Critical Thinker Can…

● Draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information
● Discriminate between useful and less useful details
● Use this analysis to solve problems or make decisions
○ Important within an employment setting because managers may need to solve new problems
that have never been solved before (or old solutions no longer work)
○ Critical thinking can assist with decision making in various circumstances
■ Relevant and useful info needs to be determined in order to draw conclusions and make
appropriate decisions

Why, from a management point of view, is it important to hire Critical Thinkers?

● Will not need constant instructions about what type of information to seek out (and how to seek it out)
● They can be trusted to make decisions independently based on an analysis of relevant factors

Critical Thinking about Yourself

● Key skill you can demonstrate in job interviews and on the job
● For example:
○ Who am I? - this is your brand
○ What are your strengths and weaknesses? - More specific details
about your brand
● What are the various forms of evidence [...] - supports what you believe your
brand is and what your strengths and weaknesses are
● Next, we need to know ourselves so we can continue to improve our strengths
and weaknesses
○ Middle of the photo: what are the root causes of my strengths,
weaknesses, and my willingness to change? - if we know the root
COMM 3SO3

causes, we can build on them and modify the situation as required (willingness to change)
○ What are the various options [...] - seekings out specific opportunities to enhance our strengths
and improve on our weaknesses
● Bottom
○ What did I learn [..] - The personal effectiveness plan (PEP) workbook will support each of these
aspects of critical thinking
■ Typically need to be able to successfully apply critical thinking to ourselves before we
can optimize and effectively apply it to others

Critical Thinking about Others

● Critical thinking also means not accepting information or
arguments without question
○ Invites us to examine the perspective of others and
our own experience when interpreting info and
viewpoints
● Top
○ Why do others think or act that way? Why don't they
think/act like me?
■ Require objectivity
● Middle
○ What are my options [..]/ Did my planned intervention
[...]
■ This thought process requires the
engagement of reflective and independent
thinking
● Bottom
○ Why did I learn [...} / These questions [...}
■ Requires adaptability because we may need to change our plans based on incorporated
new data and observations about what we have learned when we tried to influence
others
Critical Thinking
● Ultimately, critical thinking encourages curiosity, enhances creativity, reinco feces problem solving ability
and supports independence in the workplace
● Is a business skill - also a life skill

Self-Quiz
1. A group of students are working on solving a case question for a marketing class. They work well together
and come up with various marketing strategies, however, they fail to consider relevant data and ended up
going over budget. Which critical thinking skill has the group neglected?
a. Open-mindedness
b. Creativity
c. Communication
d. Analysis
COMM 3SO3

Week 2 - 02B: Ethical Problem Solving and Ethical (Moral) Intensity

Ethical Problem-Solving
● Ethical dilemmas​, also known as a moral ​dilemmas​, are situations in which there is a choice to be made
between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ​ethically​ acceptable fashion. In such
cases, societal and personal ​ethical​ guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser.
○ As managers, you will be faced with ambiguous and poorly defined situations that may never
have been encountered before and you will need to make a decision
○ On top of that, the info may be unavailable or unknown and without this info, the decision
becomes more difficult
■ Therefore, the solution many not have one obvious answer that will satisfy all
stakeholders
■ The decision makers also may have different world views which are based on their
education, family background, life experiences, values, perceptions, and others
● All of these factors influence the decision making process and help why people
see and interpret things in different ways

Situational Factors Influence Ethical Decision-Making

● Perceived ethical importance or concern is
known as ethical intensity
○ When addressing a high ethical or
moral intensity issue, managers tend
to be more aware of the impact their
decision will have on others
○ The decision is more likely to be
viewed as an ethical or moral
decision than a economic issue
○ Concern about the right thing can
cause the manager to worry about
the ultimate decision to make

● Concentration of Effect
○ Whether effects of action are
concentrated on a few people or
affect many people a little
■ Eg. Concentration on a few
increases intensity
■ Eg. eliminating health care
coverage for 500 employees
has a greater concentration
of effect rather than reducing health care benefits by 50% for 2000 employees
● Proximity
○ The nearness the decision maker feels to people affected by the decision
■ Eg. being ‘nearer’ increases intensity
■ In making these judgements, we subconsciously prioritize the proximity of individuals or
organizations involved relative to ourselves and our own identity groups
■ The closer the impacted group is to our own group, the greater the weight, priottiy and
consideration we give the issue
COMM 3SO3

● For example: you may give our partner higher priority than our family, which
we give higher priority to our friends, to whom we give higher priority than
other people (depends on your world views)
● In a business setting, proximity is greater if supervisors need to lay off
employees that they know than employees they don’t know
● Temporal Immediacy
○ How soon the consequence of any effect are likely to occur
■ Eg. long time delay lowers intensity
■ When is temporal immediacy greater? Two situations:
● Manager has to lay off employees next week and also needs to lay some
employees off three months from now
○ Temporarily immediacy is greater if a manger has to lay employees
next week compared to three months from now because there is a
shorter amount of time that elapses between making the decision and
the consequences of that decision
● Magnitude of Consequence
○ Sum of the harms or benefits impacted by the problem or action
■ Eg. financial loss caused by faulty advice
■ Eg. Let’s say a drug is being developed and tested. It turns out it has a side effect that
may result in death from 30% of the people that take it. The potential side effect has a
higher magnitude of consequence than a drug that may cause a skin rash of 30% of the
people who take it, therefore the recognizinton is more likely to occur with the drug
that results in death
● Social Consensus
○ Degree to which people agree over the ethics of a problem or action
■ Eg. act deemed unethical by others
■ Managers have difficulty in deciding what is deemed ethical or unethical if they are not
influenced by a reasonable amount of public pressure
■ When there is a high degree of SC, there is little ambiguity to the decision that should be
taken
■ SC becomes codified into laws that clearly determine and outline what is acceptable and
what is not
● Probability of Effect
○ The likelihood that harms (or benefits) will actually happen
■ Eg. higher probability = higher intensity
■ Eg. The production of an automobile dangerous to occupants during normal driving has
a greater probability of harm that the production of a nascar race car that endangers the
driver if curves are taken at great speeds

Which of the 6 Situational Factors Influence Ethical Decision-making has the greatest impact on ethical
intensity?
● Typically, managers are more likely to view a decision with ethical issues through the lens of the
magnitude of the consequences
● When the magnitude of consequences has a total harm which is high, and there is also social consensus
agreement that the action or behaviour is bad, the decision becomes more clear
COMM 3SO3

Codes of Conduct & Whistle Blowers

● Organizations may seek to introduce a code of ethical conduct which is a formal settlement that outlines
the types of behaviour that are and are not acceptable.
● often be introduced with a formal, written, code.
● 'Whistleblowers' are employees who disclose illegal or unethical conduct on the part of others in an
organization
○ Eg. Depending on your area of profession:
■ CPA, and they have a professional code of conduct and a student code
■ HRPA, which has an explicit professional code of conduct including ethics
■ Canadian Marketing Association, CMA, which has a code of ethics
● As managers, you will face ambitious and poorly defined situations, information that you seek may be
unknown or unavailable at the time you need to make a decision
○ These professional codes and conducts can help and support the organizational culture
○ When whistleblowers are employees that report unethical behaviour -- ontario also has
whistleblower laws (aimed to protect) - however still may be reluctant and afraid to report

Self-Quiz
1. Heather is facing an ethical dilemma but doesn't think her decision is likely to impact others. The factor
affecting moral intensity is ____________.
a. Proximity
b. Probability of Effect
c. Magnitude of Consequence
d. Social Concensus
COMM 3SO3

Week 2 - 02C: Creative Problem Solving

Stages in the Problem Solving Process

Critical thinking is essential in the problem solving process. Using
objective analysis of information, making a well reasoned judgement
based on rich and unbiased sources of data, facts, observation and
research all assist in the effectiveness of a problem-solving process.
● Stage 1 - Define the Problem
○ Recognize
○ Diagnose
■ Many large organizations such as microsoft,
apple and GM spend millions of dollars to
teach their managers effective problem solving
as part of their productivity and quality
improvement processes
■ This requires a clarification as to what should
be happening in organizations compared to what is actually happening
● If the gap is discovered between the two, this is where the problem lies
● To find the right problem and defining it well ensures that a team has a firm
understanding and are working towards solving the same problem
● If the problem definition is incorrect, or members of the team have different
perception as to what the problem is, the problem solving process will be
insufficient or incorrect
● Stage 2 - Select a Response
○ Develop Alternatives
○ Select the Best Option
■ This stage requires postponing selecting a solution until many alternatives have been
proposed. Often, the quality of the solution can be significantly improved by looking at
multiple alternatives
● If, especially, if presented by diverse team
● If the evaluation of alternatives occurs quickly, or too early in the development
alternatives phase, this sometimes happens due to stress and a stress of
urgency, some good or even better ideas may not be considered because they
were never raised
● Sometimes, satisficing occurs at the select the best option portion, whereby a
satisfactory outcome is accepted, rather than trying to achieve an optimal
solution
○ A solution that will solve 90% of the problem now, may be desired
over a solution that will address 100% of the problem in 5 years
● Stage 3 - Execute a Solution
○ Implement the Selected Alternative
○ Evaluate the Solution
■ This includes implementing the solution often after approvals from the appropriate
parties within the organization
■ Mobilizing the right people is often a key to success and monitoring feedback provides
information about adjustments that may need to be made
COMM 3SO3

Techniques to Improve Problem Solving

● Stage 1 - Problem Definition Techniques
○ Root Cause Analysis
■ Approach to find the true (root cause) of the
problem instead of addressing the symptoms
● Only addressing the symptoms may
seem like a quick, actionable path to
take but it rarely solves the problem -
which will reoccur or get worse (asking
a person to work faster is probably not
the best interest of the company)
○ The Five Whys

○ The key to correctly defining a problem is the focus must

be on the real problem, not just the symptoms
○ Eg. Let’s say you have an employee who fails to
complete their work on time. If you can make a short list
of four potential problems, what do you think they might be based on this limited information?
■ Slow work might be a problem, or it could be a symptom. How do you know if there's an
underlying issue? This is where RCA and the 5 Why’s can help!
● Stage 2 - Selection of Response Techniques
○ Brainstorming
○ Creative Intuition
○ Rigorous Debate (Robust Dialogue)
■ Takes advantage of divergent and convergent thinking
● Stage 3 - Execution Techniques
○ Stakeholder Involvement
○ After-Action Reviews

How can further developing your problem-solving stage identification and techniques benefit you?

Self Quiz
1. 1. Chris is a customer service representative for a cellphone service provider. A client calls in to report a
problem and Chris begins to brainstorm possible solutions. Which stage of the problem-solving process is
Chris at?
a. Stage 1: Define the problem
b. Stage 2: Select a Response
c. Stage 3: Execute a Solution
d. Stage 4 None of the above
COMM 3SO3

Week 3 - 03A: The Six Killer Constraints

● In job interviews, we are usually asked what areas we can improve on → Moreover, what are our
weaknesses?

What are Constraints?

● A constraint is a weak point or limitation, and are as important to know as our strengths
● Recognizing constraints or weakness and compensating for them by improving honest skill, ensure that
people are the best they can be at in their personal, academic and business lives
● If a system has a weak link, or several, it limits overall performance

How can identifying constraints in yourself and others help in business?

● To achieve high performance in the workplace, you need to understand and use your strengths
○ You also need to recognize what you’re not so good at, and try to develop those skills
● We all have constraints, and minor ones do not significantly impact management capability
● A major constraint that has been worked on to reduce is it is unlikely to impact management ability

● Effective managers use critical thinking to recognize their own constraints and those of people on their
team
○ They then hire people with skills that support the areas identified as constraints
● Constraints tend to become more evident in stressful situations and negatively impact work effectiveness
and relationship building

Six Killer Constraints

● Often things we are aware of but are not planning to do anything about!
1. Never feeling good enough
2. Being a “marshmallow”
3. Riding roughshod over other people
4. Playing “Mr Spock” (Showing no emotion)
5. Being overly critical
6. Low self-control

Never Feeling Good Enough

● This is the opposite of when we hear about executives with supersized egos
● Not having enough confidence can be just as harmful to your career progression
● Subtle characteristics of the fear, or insecurity, that a companies never feeling good enough include
subconscious self sabotage of one’s own career and being uncomfortable interacting with peers from
prestigious organizations
● Lower self esteem may result in a manager second guessing themselves and being reluctant to speak out
or take initiative due to the fear of disapproval or failure
○ It is difficult to lead a team to success and optimal performance if a manager does not take
action

Being a “Marshmallow”
● Can a person ever be too nice? - Sometimes, yes!
● Within the workplace, a person who is altruistic and caregiving and going beyond the call of duty to assist
others is often good for those around then is often considered being collegial
○ But if a person finds themselves covering up for mistakes of other people, those people will not
learn how to manage their own work
COMM 3SO3

● This over nurturing can actually hurt the people that someone might be trying to help
● Marshmallows don’t typically make good managers
○ They find it challenging to offer constructive criticism which would help an employee develop
and improve
○ Also, they may spend a lot of time with poor performers in order to help them do their work
rather than supporting high performers within the company

Riding Roughshod over Other People

● This is the opposite of being a marshmallow and it can be just as bad
● This may be dominance in the extreme
○ People who are effectively bullies in the corporate hallway
● They tend to have difficulty listening to other people’s ideas or putting down others ideas is their first
mode of operation
● Sometimes it may be within aggression or contempt
● Other times, people who run roughshod may actually be manipulative with failed threats
● This is a killer constraint that is one of the most dangerous killer constraints
○ The challenges, people who tend to run roughshod ultimately alienate everybody, destroy
relationships and create ill will
○ People will leave the company because it is not a team they want to continue with

Playing “Mr Spock” (Showing No Emotion)

● Mr. Spock is from the vintage tv series and has difficulty understanding emotions and others because they
don’t actually feel them in themselves
● A phrase that might describe someone one who is playing Mr. Spcok may include that they are
emotionally tone deaf
● There's no intention or ill will in being cold or somewhat hard hearted
● People have this killer constraint are typically highly rational and have a lot of objectivity - which is
considered a strength
● It’s easier for them to be highly rational because often times they dont take human emotions into
consideration
● Others may perceive them as being demanding, harsh and even critical
● They’ll step up and point out the flaws and problems, however, would rarely give compliments on work
that’s well done
● In the ned, a culture of fault finding and blame might be one of the results

Low Self-Control
● Here’s a few questions to ask yourself:
○ Do you ever start a project and have difficulty finishing it before moving on to another one? Do
you make a lot of impulse purchases that you regret later? If so, you may be impacted by this
killer constraint!
● People who have low self-control tend to be easily distracted and lack self discipline
● They can’t stay focused on a long-term goal
● They get bored easily, and want to change and move on to the next thing before the previous one is
completely finished
● It is good to be able to be agile and accept changes as a manger, however, there does need to be
balanced in order to ensure that everything needs to be accomplished, is
● Low self control can include unproductive and potentially harmful emotions and an inability to focus
COMM 3SO3

Being Overly Critical

● Some managers have an inner critic and its really difficult because its a harsh view of other people
● This may be a focus on on what's not working rather than what is
● The challenges, the fault finding, and criticizing people and their performance their efforts can be very
difficult on a team
● Being overly critical people can’t see the good side of a report or appreciate the skill that went into a
particular project
● Being overly critical, they often become fault finders rather than actual leaders
● People often become discouraged and unmotivated when they’re on the team with a overly critical
person

What can we do about your weaknesses?

● The key is to be aware of them, and to take action to minimize them
● Emotional intelligence, and all of its components can help us
○ For example: under self-awareness, you can notice that
there is an accurate self-assessment
■ This can be accomplished through a number of
self-assessments in workbook 1 - specifically, the
six killer constraints
■ Knowing this info, can give you some direction on
where you should focus your effort
● Social awareness, as demonstrated by being aware of our impact on
others, and how they function and understanding their point of view
is basically an empathic component
● Relationship management really focuses on developing and inspiring others while managing conflict
● Self management includes having an optimistic point of view, taking initiative and emotional control
● All of these combined can help us minimize our constraints!

Self Quiz
1. Aubrey is working on a group assignment for school. One of his group members is making major changes
to the assignment, which Aubrey does not agree with. Despite this, he does not express his concerns to
his group members. Which killer constraint is Aubrey demonstrating?
a. Being a “Marshmallow”
b. Riding Roughshod
c. Being Overly Critical
d. Never Feeling Good Enough
2. Travis is taking a commerce class which requires active participation. During a discussion in class, Travis
thinks of a really good point that he would like to contribute, but is too nervous to do so. He ends up not
raising his hand and does not participate the entire class. Which killer constraint is likely to negatively
affect his participation grade?
a. Low Self-Control
b. Being Overly Critical
c. Never Feeling Good Enough
d. Playing Mr. Spock
COMM 3SO3

Week 3 - 03B: Self Awareness

What is self awareness and why build it?

● Self awareness is understanding your own personality, emotions, what you enjoy, dislike, what motivates
you, and what comes easily to you as well as what poses as challenges in your life and at work
● Being able to accurately assess your own strengths and constraints or weaknesses, is a key component of
self-awareness
● Being able to accept constructive criticism and advice without feeling and getting defensive supports
increasing self-awareness
● Appreciating how your patterns affect others is key
● Building self-awareness is an important step and learning how to manage yourself before you manage
others
○ Therefore, we should build it

Self-Awareness Builds Skill Competence

● Abraham Maslow refers to the mastery of any skill as unconscious
competence or stage four in the self-awareness competency model
● In this model, the word conscious means self-aware
○ This is when you have the ability to perform a skill well,
without any special effort or thought - automatic

Stage 1: Unconsciously Incompetent

● Mastery of a new skill starts at stage one
● This is when a person does not have competence with the skill, they do not know how to perform the skill,
and they are not aware that there is no competence
● At this stage, there may also be denial about the usefulness of of the skill
● To move onto stage 2, an individual needs to recognize the value of the new skill and that they do not
have competence

Stage 2: Consciously Incompetent

● This is when a person has become conscious or self aware of what might be needed to do well in a certain
circumstance
● Recognize the value of the skill and can’t perform it yet
● Making mistakes is part of the learning process at this stage

Stage 3: Consciously Competent

● Now, with the conscious awareness of the scale, there will be a transformation into the ability to perform
the actual skill
● At this point, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a lot of concentration
● The skill is often broken down into smaller steps, and each step requires conscious involvement and
executiving the new skill
● This is the stage where practicing a management skill, similar to practicing a sport, becomes fun
● During this stage, you receive feedback about your skill and become aware on how well you are
performing it
○ This is when you are ready to move on to stage 4
COMM 3SO3

Stage 4: Unconsciously Competent

● The individual has had so much practice the skill that it has become second nature - and integral part of
view
● It can be performed easily and competently
○ Also without conscious thought or much effort
○ For example: if you achieve stage four, being unconsciously component in a management skill
such as communication, you no longer need to think about how to communicate effectively - you
can just do it!

Three Ways to Build Self-Awareness

1. Self-diagnosis - analyzing evidence
2. Self-disclosure - talking about yourself to others
3. Soliciting feedback - asking others about yourself

1. Self-Diagnosis - analyzing evidence

● Self-assessments are key to building self-awareness
○ Provide evidence, reflecting on the results and using self-inquiry support, gaining insight into
examining yourself objectively to further reflect on who am I
● Completing self-assessment honestly and analyzing the scores, will increase your understanding of
yourself

2. Self-Disclosure - talking about yourself to others

● Sharing thoughts, fears, emotions and concepts of yourself with others is included in self-disclosure
● By doing this sharing, we learn more about who we are, and how we impact others
● By seeing how we affect others around us, by what we do and what we say, we can see for ourselves their
reactions and their perspectives
● The reactions and interpretations help us form opinions about ourselves
○ Generally, the higher the level of self-disclosure for sharing, the more well liked the person is
○ There is a stronger connection the more we know somebody

3. Soliciting feedback - asking others about yourself

● Other people can help us learn about ourselves
● In the seven habits of effective people, Steven Covey mentions the social mirror - which refers to the fact
that our perceptions of ourselves are partly shaped by how others perceive us
○ Seeking feedback can improve our job performance because it enhances self-awareness
● You may learn that others think you are particularly skilled at motivating your team
○ Although you may not recognized this yet, this feedback will give you more confidence in
directing your efforts
● You may also learn that while you think you manage your time quite well, others perceive you as
disorganized and always in a rush
○ This feedback will provide you with some direction for areas of improvement
● In both examples, self-awareness is increased
COMM 3SO3

Johari Window
● Creators: Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham
● It’s a tool that can be used to support greater transparency,
communication, cooperation, and trust in the workplace
● Quadrants represent self awareness
● To achieve a greater understanding, its important to see and
understand how we see ourselves compared to how we are seen by
others
● The goal: to build greater transparency, communication,
cooperation and trust in the workplace is to expand the open
quadrant

Quadrant 1 - Open: Known to Self / Known to Others

● The goal here is typically to be consistent
○ If you know that you’re really good at building a team, then you want that to be known to others
● If others see by your behaviours and actions and your team work, that you do motivate teams, then what
is known to self is known to others

Quadrant 2 - Blind: Not Known to Self / Known to Others

● Here is a situation where other people notice things, either areas for improvement or a skill, but is not
known to self:
○ For example, perhaps you may not realize that you interrupt others when they’re speaking - you
may not even notice it. However, it is known to them

Quadrant 3 - Hidden: Known to Self / Not Known to Others

● Perhaps we keep certain feelings or fears concealed from others, and we may want to keep some things
private
○ However, there are something that when appropriately shared, may help in the workplace
○ If someone in the workplace has a fear of flying and was avoiding trips required within the
workplace, that would be an example of something known to self and not known to others
■ It would be better in that work situation to align what’s known to send and not known
to others and let others know about the fear if flying incase there is other uses of
transportation that could be used

Quadrant 4 - Unknown: Not Known to Self / Not Known to Others

● This night be attitudes that we are unaware of, it could also be special skills or talents that we’ve never
pursued or even tried to know that we are very good at

To Reduce your “Blind” Quadrant, you need to:

● Solicit feedback from others because…
● Seeking feedback can improve performance and job satisfaction
○ If something is known to others, and not to ourselves ,we need to find out what it is
COMM 3SO3

To Reduce your “Hidden” Quadrant, you need to:

● Disclose more about yourself to others
● Ensure that your potential employer knows what you have to offer
○ Perhaps there's a new assignment or project that you’re going to be apart of, and you had
experience in your previous job with a particularly difficult aspect of it, if you disclose your
experience, this will ensure that your potential employer knows what you have to offer

To Reduce your “Unknown” Quadrant, you need to:

● Try new things to advance the …
● … Process of self-discovery
○ Open up the open quadrant

To Maintain/Grow your “Open” Quadrant, you need to:

● Continue to solicit feedback from others
● Continue with self-disclosure

Johari Window
● What is something that you have never tried to learn/do or tried and were surprised that you could do it?

Self-Quiz
1. During a job interview, Megan tells the interviewer about certain personal traits that will allow her to
succeed in the position she is being interviewed for. Which Johari Window quadrant is Megan reducing by
doing this?
a. Open
b. Hidden
c. Blind
d. Unknown
2. After studying with her friends, Zara realizes that she is falling behind and needs to change her study
habits in order to succeed in her classes. Which stage of self awareness is Zara at?
a. Unconsciously Incompetent
b. Consciously Incompetent
c. Consciously Competent
d. Unconsciously Competent
COMM 3SO3

Week 3 - 03C: Personal Change and Development

What is personal change and development?

● Personal change can include changing our behavior and thinking
● We tend to accept the personal change more so when it is of our choosing
○ For example: if we find a new job with better opportunities and therefore, leave our current job,
the change is planned, intiratived by the job seeker, and has an element of excitement regarding
new opportunities
● We tend to have more difficulty when it comes to changes that are imposed on us
○ For example: a person may enjoy their job and be told that the position is redundant. On short
notice, they are let go and no longer have a job. The change is swift, imposed by others and
unexpected
● Personal development is the growth that occurs through these experiences

Typical Stages of Individual Change

Personal Change Model - Typical Stages

● A framework of progression through stage

Stage 1: Precontemplation
● People in this stage may wish to change, but they don’t have any
plans right now to do so
● They may not be fully aware of potential benefits or maybe feel
unmotivated to try because of past failed attempted, or they may
simply lack the available energy
● They also may be in denial about the need for change, and
therefore, right now, it seems like the cons outweigh the pros

Stage 2: Contemplation
● Thinking about taking action
● They typically aren’t quite ready, and really don;t know how to get started
● The people who are thinking about it, might make the change within the next six months and are open to
info and feedback
● In this stage, the pros and cons, making the change, feel about equal
● You may be able to identify if you’re in the contemplation stage if you’re no longer opposed to making
changes in your life, maybe when someone’s talking about a related subject, you become very interested -
and while you’re not actively looking for information, you may look at it if you happen to come across it -
starting to imagine the change!

Stage 3: Preparation
● Getting ready to take action
○ Confident, committed, there is a plan, and may have already taken some small steps
● At this point, the pros of making the change outweigh the cons significantly - but there is still a lot of work
to do before action can take place
● You're in this stage if you find yourself gathering information - even support from friends, maybe you're
buying supplies and you feel close to taking your next first steps
● You’re accepting support at this stage, and often welcome others to participate in activities that will move
you forward
COMM 3SO3

Stage 4: Action
● Now is the time to just stop thinking about it, and to actually do it
● Once preparation is completed, beyond thinking about your plan or preparing to act, you are actually
acting it out
○ Maybe you’re doing something differently, maybe you’ve been experiments and expanding your
efforts to try to build momentum and knowledge and confidence that will continue into action
● During this stage, people are working to continue growing their commitment to the change
○ Oftentimes, support from external people is critical - even though they may not be inclined to ask
for help, people at this stage to benefit help from the benefit of others
● You know you’re in this stage if you're implementing your action plan

Stage 5: Maintenance
● Have managed to stay in the action mode for a while now - up to six months
● This means that during this time, any obstacles that
came up that would prevent them from ingraining
their new behaviour have been overcome and
through practice, the person is gaining confidence
● Their new behaviours are becoming integrated into
their daily life
● You know you’re in this stage, if the new behaviours
seems fairly routine at this point

A Cycle of Personal Change Model

Stage 1: Numbness
● Using our earlier example of someone who was let go
from work, there are numb to the full emotion and
impact of what had just happened and cannot process
everything yet

Stage 2: Denial
● Denial occurs when people cannot actually believe that it has happened to them
● May even feel like someone else in the company should have been let go instead of them

Stage 3: Depression, Guilt, Hopelessness, and Anger

● Typically, when trying to let go of the past, when it was a past that you desired, you can experience
different emotions - including anger, depression, guilt, and hopelessness
● These emotions , while maybe a stage to actually work through, need to be worked through so that you
can move onto stage four

Stage 4: Acceptance of Reality

● At this point, you can see the self-esteem is low, but the person involved is willing to live in the present
and look into the future
● Will not be going back to their former job

Stage 5: Testing Alternatives

● This is a stage where options come up, problem solving, finding alternatives and deciding which one you
might select
COMM 3SO3

Stage 6: Search for Meaning

● At this stage, people may pause and decide what they are really looking for out of a job?
○ What kind of meaningful job do they want?

Stage 7: Integration and Internalisation

● The new reality has been fully integrated, as well as the goals for the future

● When we consider a cycle of personal change, and the personal change model previously discussed, we
need to recognize that everyone will go through changes at a separate pace
○ The same person will go through different changes in their lives at different paces as well

Self-Quiz
1. Annalise has recently failed a class and begins to believe that her grade is incorrect and that there must
have been a mistake. Which stage from the “Cycle of Personal Change” is Annalise currently at?
a. Numbness
b. Denial
c. Searching for Alternatives
d. Meaning
2. Maya would like to improve her interpersonal skills, so she has decided to attend a networking event at
her school. Prior to the event, she researches the industry professionals that will be attending and
compiles a list of potential questions to ask. Which stage of personal change is she at?
a. Contemplation
b. Preparation
c. Action
d. Maintenance
Commerce 3SO3

Week 4 - 04A​: ​Positive Emotional Attractors

● Have you ever wondered why some goals for personal change are reached and others are not?
○ Why can some people commit to going to the gym three times a week and succeed, and others
stall in their progress towards this goal?
● A significant component for success in the personal change cycle is positive emotional attractors

Three Keys to Helping Individuals Change

1. Positive Emotional Attractor
2. A Support System
3. Repetition! (Deliberate Practice)

Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA)

● Supports​ inspirational​ hopes and dreams about the future
● Focus on the possibilities of what could be rather than a focus on fixing weaknesses
● A desire change from within, rather than a mandate to change from an external source
○ Important because the process of change is not continuous; it can solve what moves us
ahead with positive emotional attractors
● Generates sufficient ​excitement and energy​ to get through the change curve
● “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

● E.g. think of a time when someone brought up an idea, that is a possibility, and you think, “hey, I
haven’t thought of that before.”; maybe someone believed in you and had confidence in you
and trusted you could do well
● E.g. maybe someone gave you an opportunity that you thought was personally beyond your
capabilities and experience, but they believed in you and you work towards that goal
● PEA can impact people as role models, because they can inspire through something that they do
well
○ You may decide that you would like to be that type of person or leader
● E.g. Who has helped you the most so far in your life? Maybe brought out some sustained
changes, even from an early age; as you think about that person, what happens when you recall
how they helped you, what do you think about? what do you remember?
○ Often, we think of a parent, a friend, teacher, manager, etc. that brought up an idea and
supported you in your goal; this causes you to try it and be excited to work towards that
goal
● The common aspect when you look at PEA is that someone made you think of your ideal self,
your aspirational goal, or convinced you that you have the abilities to reach your goal; this is
what we call activating your PEA
● A combination of using your strengths and having a vision activates your PEA
Commerce 3SO3

Negative Emotional Attractor (PEA)

● Negative emotional attractors are the overwhelming feelings of ​problems, fear and pessimism
● This typically falls into a “Should” do, “ought to do” class rather than a “want to do”
● “To release negative emotions: First, don’t judge yourself for having them… acknowledge that it
is natural to experience them. Second, understand that to continue to hold onto them is a
choice.” - Denise Linn

A Comparison Chart
Positive Emotional Attractor
● We come from an area of positivity and
dreaming about hopes and possibilities
● We’re from a positive state, and we rely on our
strengths to help us achieve that
● We’re willing to try new things
● Dreams, hopes, possibilities

Negative Emotional Attractor

● More of a focus on problems with pessimism
and fear
● May even focus on correcting weaknesses
● Comes from a “should do” aspect; we tend to do things that we’re supposed to do, rather than
experiment

Difference Between Positive and Negative

● The difference is between something you would love to do, rather than what you’re expect or
should do
● If you are a PEA, you’re excited to try it or do a new activity
● If you’re a NEA, you feel as if you must do it
● You need both negative emotional attractors, which serve to provide an amount of stress to
move us forward through a change state, and positive emotional attractors, that help us thrive
and forward in the change
● Almost all sustained personal change you have starts with positive emotional attractors; you
open up to the positives
● If we try to start a personal change in negative emotional attractor, a negative mindset,
stressed, getting defensive, limiting vision and options, not being excited about the task -- we
tend not to progress
○ This blocks new possibilities, whereas PEA opens up possibilities
● “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” - Henry Ford
Commerce 3SO3

Why is it important to have positive emotional attractors?

● Positive emotional attractors can move us ahead in the change process
● E.g. a positive emotional attractor such as a shared vision is one of the most powerful predictors
of successful mergers and acquisitions
○ Without a shared vision, clashing cultures may result in increased expenditures and a
decrease in innovation and productivity in the organization
○ This is due to the fact that the strategic vision is unclear, and often not agreed upon
● E.g. the degree of shared vision has improved the emotional intelligence and resulted in greater
organizational engagement; positive emotional attractors supported personal change and
success in business
● Leadership can help others find direction and purpose through vision → Griffin Parker Mason
showed that a leader emphasizing vision elicits more adaptability and openness in those who
work within the organization; this openness and adaptability is associated with the
characteristics of positive emotional attractors
● Another study by Carton Murphy and Clark showed that thinking about a desired image, or
shared positive emotional attractor of the future, and selecting values inherent in that idea,
were the most motivating and predictive of organizational performance

PEA Exercise
Select one of the following five global skills that you would live to improve on:
● Problem solving
● Teamwork
● Interpersonal skills
● Communication
● Adaptability

What do you ​dream​ about being able to do? Visualize.

How would achieving this dream change your:

● Personal life
● Academic life
● Career?

Self Quiz
1. Bill contemplated his work situation and decided to prepare and take action regarding speaking up
about his relevant ideas, rather than keeping them to himself. He strongly believes his ideas support
the company’s vision and can be implemented. Which of the following BEST describes his experience?
a. Positive effective attribute
b. Negative emotional attractor
c. Positive emotional attractor
d. Negative effective attribute
Commerce 3SO3

Week 4 - 04B​: ​SMART Goals

● Developed in 1981
● To be effective, a SMART goal does NOT have to satisfy all five factors; however, the closer it
comes to meeting all five, the more effective it will be

Do companies really use SMART goals?

● Yes; smart goals are the desired outcomes for different levels of organization, including the
entire organization, groups or departments within the organization, and individuals
● Often embedded into your individual performance goals, the goals of the department, and the
goals of the organization
● Planning is a key skill of managers and begins by having an understanding of the organization’s
objectives
○ Consists of devising a strategy for achieving these goals using the personnel available
and developing the means to integrate and coordinate the activities
● Goals provide the direction for all management decisions and form the criteria against which
actual accomplishments can be measured
● SMART goals can be used for personal development, as well as financial objectives in
organizations

Kickstart Dreams with SMART Goals

● S - Specific
○ What do you want to do?
■ Set precise targets rather than
generalizing about a result
■ In business, you can get specific with
numbers, such as increased
production from 10 to 100% per day
rather than just ‘produce more’
● M - Measurable
○ How will you know when you’ve reached it?
■ Make sure the goal can be assess and it’s quantifiable
■ Look for a difference between the beginning and the end of the task
● A - Achievable
○ Is it in your power to accomplish it?
■ Are you going to be able to do it?
● R - Realistic
○ Can you realistically achieve it?
■ Ensure that the entire task is possible and that it’s not too easy or impossible
● T - TImely
○ What exactly do you want to accomplish it?
■ This represents an end point in time for the goal to be achieved
Commerce 3SO3

SMART Goal Exercise

● Go back to the global skill that you used in the PEA exercise
● Write up a SMART goal for that skill (5 minutes)
● SMART goal review, feedback, and revision

Self Quiz
1. Shaima has some free time so she wants to read 2 chapters of her textbook and will keep track of her
progress by using a to-do list. Which element of a SMART goal is she missing?
a. Measurable
b. Achievable
c. Realistic
d. Timely
Commerce 3SO3

Week 4 - 04C - Deliberate Practice

● Deliberate practice is different from naive practice
● According to Ericsson, naive practices are people who just play games and in doing so just
accumulate more experience
● Deliberate practice is different -- you actually pinpoint something you want to change and once
you have that specific goal of changing it, you will now engage in a practice activity that has a
purpose of changing just that

What is Deliberate Practice important?

● Deliberate practice includes breaking down the elements of great performance into smaller
parts so that one can practice and master a particular aspect before moving onto the next
● Often feedback provided by a teacher, coach, or manager can objectively assess strengths and
weaknesses

Implement Goals with Deliberate Practice

E.g. two basketball players:
● Player A would be the better shooter according to deliberate
practices
● Small part of the task is to successfully complete practice shots;
player A can achieve 200 practice shots because another
colleague retrieves the ball; a record is kept of successful and
unsuccessful shots as well as errors
● Player B has several tasks to work on, including practice shots, ball retrieval, dribbling, and
taking several breaks
○ Therefore, the number of practice shots is much lower, at only 50

What does Deliberate Practice Look Like?

● According to Anders Ericsson, deliberate practice consists of 5
aspects that will lead to world-class performance​1
○ World-Class Performance
■ Designed to improve Performance
■ Repeated a Lot
■ Feedback Continuously Available
■ Mentally Highly Demanding 0
■ Not Much Fun
Commerce 3SO3

Designed to improve Performance

● Designed to improve performance involves building on or acquiring new skills
● Important to build a solid foundation of skills to make the learning process more effective in the
long run
● The performer needs to have a constant sense of improvement, whether its a small
improvement in a relatively short period of time, or a larger improvement over longer
timeframes
● E.g. basketball example: getting as many practice shots in one hour and recording them can
indicate improvements in performance

Repeated a Lot
● This aspect is based on effective mental representations
● The more deliberate practice one does, the easier it becomes
● We basically form a mental map; think of how automatic or potentially unconsciously
competent one becomes after accurately repeating a skill over and over again
● E.g. basketball example: taking 200 shots

Feedback Continuously Available

● Feedback is an essential component
● In the early stages, feedback can come from a coach, a teacher, or manager
● In later stages, once a high level of expertise is achieved, often [athletes] become self evaluators
● E.g. basketball example: eventually, this basketball player will be able to evaluate their own stats

Mentally Highly Demanding

● This requires full attention and focus from the person working on their skill
● It’s not enough just to follow instructions; one needs ot be fully engaged mentally and physically
● This may become increasingly difficult with the number of repetitions over a long period of time
● Sometimes we might lose focus; it is mentally demanding to maintain as much focus on the
200th shot at the end of the deliberate practice compared to just the first few shots

Not Much Fun

● Because deliberate practice takes place outside of a person’s comfort zone, inherently, it’s just
not fun
● E.g. basketball example: is the ball landing in the hoop at all? When it does, does it have the
right speed? Each practice shot requires further refinement

The Adaptive Learning Cycle

● Feedback provided enables learning
● People tend to sense the environment, take action, and correct
themselves as feedback and synthesis indicate whether the
previous actions were effective or ineffective
○ This is the goal of receiving feedback during a deliberate
practice; learning can happen next
Commerce 3SO3

Deliberate Practice (DP) Design Exercise

● Go back to the global skill you have been working with today
● Design a task/activity (DP) that you could do over the next week/few weeks that help achieve your SMART
goal
● Review

DP Revision by Moving from Adaptation to Innovation (Creative Problem-Solving Styles)

● Revising an existing deliberate practice can potentially
move it from adaptation to innovation
● Innovation is a new method, idea, or product that results in
a large step of improvement, or a completely novel idea
○ Left of image: building of pyramid has several
different approaches (e.g. elevator, hot air balloon,
and a rocket, which takes much less manpower and
occurs much more efficiently)
● Adaptation is the process of change; its for the better and
tends to take place over the long period of time with small
improvements
○ Right of image: manually lifting the blocks as
opposed to using a crane

Video about Alphabet (Google’s parent company)

● Consider: differences between innovation and adaptation, and how does Alphabet support
innovation within its organization?
● X = top secret lab owned by Alphabet
● Alphabet encourages innovation among its employees
● They encourage going beyond one’s comfort zone and recognize that sometimes it is going to
result in failure
● Other times, they will get that one chance that it will be the ‘electric car’

What is your Creative Problem Style?

● Innovator:​ likes to challenge basic assumptions and new alternatives
○ They tend to ask themselves → what if?
● Adaptor:​ seeks to expand on and improve something that already exists
○ They tend to ask themselves → what is the next smallest step?
● Both can lead to good business outcomes

DP Round 2 - Bring on the Creativity

● Seek feedback
○ Can refine our ideas for improving on our skill
● You may want to share your deliberate practice with a friend, family member, or team member
to brainstorm how your DP can be more innovative, stimulating, and more effective
● “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” - Maya Angelou
Commerce 3SO3

Self-Quiz
1. Sharon’s least favourite class is math and she has been struggling lately, so she has decided to implement
deliberate practice in order to improve. Her textbook has an extensive list of math problems but does not
contain answers. Despite this, she believes that she will benefit from completing all the math problems.
Which element of deliberate practice is this missing?
a. Repeated a lot
b. Not much fun
c. Feedback is continuously available
d. Mentally highly demanding
COMM 3SO3

Week 5 - 05A: Support Systems, Change Curve, Consultative Coaching

● Support systems include emotional connections with people who give you hope, support and
make you believe that you can change - they inspire you to change and help you move along the
=change curve more quickly
● Consultative coaching can also assist people in moving along the change curve
○ Social movements often have effective leaders that give them hope, that change is
possible despite it not looking like such at the moment

Why are support systems important?

● Inspire us often when we need it most
○ If we’re starving for personal change, at some point there is often roadblocks that
motivate us
● Realization that there is a lot of work ahead of us and we may question our goal
● A member of a support team will reinspire us and motivate us to continue pursuing our agree
○ Won't agree that it is hard and we can't do it any way - the same thing can happen with
teams and organizations

Three Keys to Helping Individuals Change

1. Positive Emotional Attractor
2. A Support System
3. Repetition! (Deliberate Practice)

● A support system is key to helping individuals change

Change Curve and Support System

● Often said it takes a village to raise a child - it also takes a village to raise an organization to be
successful as well
● We can’t do everything along - we need to surround yourself with people who encourage and
motivate us rather than demotivate us
● There are things we can do to support them as well
○ How can I support you? How can I help you to get through this? What’s a good first step
we can take together?

Your Personal Support System

● Who is in your life who encourages you, holds you accountable, gives you constructive feedback,
listens to you, and so on?
● Who is in your life who puts you down, lets you get away with bad behaviour, is critical but not
constructive, talks more than listens, and so on
● How can you get more of the first and less of the second?

● FIrst will result in positive emotional attractor, will work with our strengths, become highly
motivated and willing to try new things and move forward
● Second: negative emotional attractor, don’t think we can do it and we are doing it only because
we should
COMM 3SO3

How do support systems help us through the change cycle?

A cycle of personal change
● View from the managers perspective
● As a manager, what can you do to help your employees
that are unwilling to let go of the past when they’re facing a
significant change?
● As a manager, ​in stages 1-3​, you might have to listen to
your employees, let them complain and don’t react, be
calm, don’t give them a platform to get into groupthink
where they rally the forces against the change (sure way to
stop it)
○ Instead explain to the entire group what's going to
happen and why its going to happen. Then explain
the benefits of the change. Invite people to ask
questions
● Second half of the curve: when team is able to live in the present and look into the future
● Stages 4-5:​ manager can arrange workshops or actually demonstrate the changes that are
required
○ Brainstorm to get engagement is critical in these stages
● Stage 6: ​search for meaning - important to capture the learnings
○ This is where you really want to align what you see as the benefits pr the meaningfulness
of the change and feed them back to your organization
● Stage 7: ​Support continued integration and internalization of the change to the team doesn't
revert back to the pre change condition s

Compare the Two

● The image on the right shows a team actually going through change - you’ll notice that they are
all scattered about
○ There was only one change in the organization, and all members experienced all the
change. They are all on the change curve - yet at different spots
○ At the end, you can see that the team leaders have already met the end of the change
curve, but their members are scattered around the previous stages
○ As an employee or as a personal change initiative, its important to see where you are on
the curve
○ As a manager its important to see where your team lies on the curve
● Leaders need to be aware that although they may already be moving on, they need to check in
with their team members because everyone will be going through the transitions at their own
pace
● For managers responsible for making changes within the organization - the challenge isnt only to
get the process and structures right but to help people
through their individually paced transitiations
○ Can be a challenge because it involves a sense of
loss for the employees (not doing things the way
they’re used it, the y have to put in a lot of effort to
change and may not fully realize how important it is
to the organization that they do change)
● A leader needs to convey the benefits of the change and
make this change as easy as possible for their team
COMM 3SO3

● In the end, an organization will reap the benefits of an enduring successful change

Peer Coaching
● Coaching vs Mentoring
○ Coaching:​ Task completion and having a high quality product in the end
○ Mentorship​: More about the relationships, more about the long term goal where there's a
focus on guiding the mentees career development
● Why be a peer coach? (giving end)
● Why be a peer coachee (receiving end)?
● Coaching exercise

What is the best style of coaching, consultative or directive?

● Answer: a combination of both!

Directive versus Consultative Coaching

● Directive Coaching:
○ The manager is the expert and the employee is the
student
■ Can work if the manager has a lot of
knowledge and experience
■ Tend to advise and instruct
○ Also assists if the manager observes the employee
and corrects with comments
○ If the employee respects the managers positions and expertise, they may be motivated at
times to follow the directive approach
■ However, used all the time and 100% of the time, it often falls short and can fail
● Non-Directive Coaching:
○ This is a situation where the employee finds the answers themselves. THe coach
provides a push for the employee to actually solve their own problems. They might listen,
ask questions that will assist the employee in their though process
○ People have the opportunity to improve their performance and reduce weaknesses when
they go through this self guidied approach
○ The consultative coach will ask key questions and listen and observe the employees
behaviour
○ The employee can work through the problem as al earning experience and discover the
answers for themselves rather than being told
■ Eventually, the employee becomes less dependent on the coach for instruction

● Both approaches have value when used in the appropriate situation

○ Sometimes an employee might face a problem and the manager knows a quick and easy
answer
■ Might be more directive in this situation )especially under time constraints)
○ However, when a problem has not been encountered before, it may be time to bring in
non-directive coaching
■ Can be most effective because it provides time for trial and error and learning by
the employee and the potential to find an even newer solution is within reach

Self Quiz
COMM 3SO3

1. Your McMaster support system includes ____________.

a. Librarians
b. Tutorial Assistants
c. Instructors
d. All of the above
COMM 3SO3

Week 5 - 05A: Grit and Resilience

● Do you have a long-term goal that you;re pursuing?
● Have you had long term goals you were pursuing and then decided to stop?
● What is the difference between the two?
○ Change in priorities
○ Another may be grit!

Why is Grit and Resilience important in business?

● Breadth is an individuals passion and persistence for
achieving a long term goal
● Its a key skill in life and the workplace because managers
and change agents need to persevere through unexpected
setbacks to succeed
● The ability to persist with a long term goal over a long
period of time and overcome all the challenges is
associated with career success

Grit and Resilience

● Angela Ductwork is the world’s leading expert on Grit
● Defines it as passion and sustained persistence applied towards long term achievement with no particular
concern for rewards or recognition along the way
○ Combines resilience, ambition and self control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years or
even decades

● G - Growth
○ How likely we are to seek fresh ideas, perspectives, inputs and ideas to help you succeed in that
thing
○ Growth mindset is the ability to seek new ideas, alternatives and approaches
○ This component encourages individuals to be open minded and curious - fosters a sense of
exploration and a willingness to simply do more and go beyond the minimum required
■ May include the devotion of extra time and energy and stretching oneself to the edge or
beyond your comfort zone even in situations of adversity of a significant challenge

● Growth Mindset: ​includes when people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through
dedication and hardwork. Brains and talent are just a starting point. This view creates a love of learning
and a resilience essential for great accomplishment
○ Failure - an opportunity to grow
● Fixed Mindset: ​Includes when people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent are just
simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing
them. Also believe that talent alone leads to success without effort
○ Failure is a limit of my abilities (it's not my fault and there's nothing i can do about it )
■ Demonstrates a fixed mindset - not overcoming frustration and stopping an activity
when one gets frustrated and giving up the goal is another indicator of a fixed mindset
● R - Resilience
○ Bouncing back from adversity and being able to use adversity to grow
○ For example, the capacity to nt only bounce back from adversity but grow with it and detail with
it constructively turns ap potentially unsuccessful experience to motivation or fuel for increasing
one’s efforts in the next attempt
COMM 3SO3

■ In other words, we’re talking about a successful failure! Resilience enables individuals to
endure the setbacks, learn from them, try harder and look for alternate solutions. It
develops the mindset that when we face difficulties, take risks or tackle anything that is
difficult, it is often more meaningful in the end, more internally motivating and more
rewarding than performing the minimum amount of work (or what is easy)

● I - Instinct
○ Going after your goals in the best way not the hardest way!
○ Innate desire to pursue the goals you deem worthy in the most effective ways
○ Reveals one’s ability to learn from past experiences and information that you’ve gathered from
others to think critically and strategically solve problems
■ Encourages agility, creativity and practicality and working towards your goals

● T - Tenacity
○ Perseverance and persistence - never say quit!
○ Continued persistence towards a goal despite any difficulty or discomfort that may happen along
the way
○ Often involves the ability to delay the gratification to go for a long term goal because reward will
be bigger in the end and refocus energy and effort and willingly be personally committed to a
goal

Marshmallow Challenge

What can we learn from the Marshmallow Challenge?

● Foster a culture where assumptions are challenged
○ Key for organizations - essentially asking why, similar to the give whys
○ Challenge the assumptions and see if you come back to the answer you think or the situation has
changed and you have a different answer now
● Provide real time feedback instead of waiting until the group project is completed
○ Having immediate feedback is important when working towards goals (don't want to find at the
end that all your efforts were misdirected)
○ Although leaders might feel like they have too much to do at a time to deal with getting feedback
along the way, this actually reinforces the importance of getting regular feedback, inform your
employees of their strengths and their direction for efforts should be focused at these strengths
● Focus on encouraging learning opportunities instead of just focusing on the answer
○ Why do kindergartners do so well on this challenge? They use their time to learn about how the
structure would work, how to reinforce the spaghetti beams, and provide a base of support so
when the marshmallow was placed on top, the structure would not fall
○ Children didn’t have prior knowledge - similar to successful companies that are searching for
unique ways to have the organization and employees to grow (competitive advantage or build on
what is already there to offer something inque)
○ If we focus less on the best answer and more on opportunities to learn something new, often
leaders can make sure that a attitude of complacency does not set in within their organization
● Communicate a shared and meaningful purpose to your team
○ A shared and meaningful purpose is the vision - it can be that positive, emotional attractor that
will motivate the team to use their strengths and share the same guided vision
● Clarify expectations but allow employees to define which route to take
COMM 3SO3

○ One item that is common in leadership is that leaders should model the behaviour thay they
would actually like to see in others
○ The challenge; sometimes leaders confuse modelling this behaviour with telling people that they
lead how to do their jobs
■ In the spaghetti challenge, there were no rules as to how to approach the puzzle. In fact,
the goal was to see how different groups would go about the winning design
■ From leadership, we can see that there's a valuable lesson to be learned: its important
to give the end goal, but there may be different ways to get there and diversity of a
group can lead to multiple or optimal solutions

Grit and Resilience

● T​he marshmallow challenge resulted in 5 outcomes that you can incorporate into your personal, academic
and work life to build further grit and resilience

Self Quiz
1. Paula has been working hard to receive a promotion, but her co-worker is given one instead of her. She
uses this as an opportunity to reflect and work harder in order to receive the next promotion. Which one
of ”The Dimensions of Grit” is Paula demonstrating?
a. Growth
b. Instinct
c. Tenacity
d. Resilience