Plan for Transformation: Derek Matthews

Plan for Transformation

Model for Transformation

These past three years of studying leadership, learning, and service have changed my worldview in a way unlike any experience in my life thus far. As I sit here at my computer writing this final paper of my doctoral career, I am reflective on the journey, yet eager to develop a blueprint for another. The following Participatory Narrative Framework, or model, has evolved since I wrote my initial doctoral papers in the Fall of 2011. This model was inspired by my belief that leadership, learning, and service are a composite hero’s journey that we all experience in life. I have watched this framework evolve in such a way that it represents leadership, learning, and now service by following a narrative structure of personal meaning reflection for transformation, or IT.  I plan on utilizing this Participatory Narrative Framework as a guide in my individual and organizational transformation in the near future. 

Transformation of a Leader

There are two areas of transformation that I have experienced in this program – individual and organizational. Individual Transformation can be defined as the act of committing to leading, learning, and serving for the purpose of internal transformation. Additionally, Organizational Transformation is the act of creating a culture that values living a meaning seeking story of internal transformation. In this paper, I will address my individual and organizational transformation from the program as well as develop a plan for continued transformation.

My definition of leadership is the art of helping others creatively discover their character within the context of a greater story. In this program I have seen this definition develop from an idea to a major cornerstone of my leadership philosophy in my dissertation research and my life. The transformation of a leader is centered on the leader identifying their strengths, personality shape, leadership style, and personal growth story to add increased value to their organization. As I reflect on my transformation as a leader, this model tells my personal story of growth. This section will outline my personal character, challenge, choice, change, and IT through the lens of the model.

Character

When I stepped into class for the first time I was a young 23-year-old doctoral student surrounded by refined and accomplished leaders. My classmates had 10-15 years of leadership experience on me, which was intimidating to say the least. I found myself nervous to contribute and worried about being judged as ‘childish’ with the comments I shared and questions I posed. To keep myself motivated as a contributor, I had to begin looking at the value I could add to discussions as the result of my young age. I was able to find my niche in contributing from the aspect of a millennial leader. I was able to inform my Generation X/Y and Baby-boomer classmates on current uses of technology, social media’s role in social change, and various other millennial mediums that are becoming avenues for positive change. I began to find over these years that my classmates would turn to me for a ‘millennial spin’ on topics which added value and perspective to the conversation. By finding my personal strength and differentiating factor, I was able to transform into a character in the Cohort 22 story that added tremendous value. Age does not limit influence.

Challenge

My biggest challenge as a doctoral student leader was containing myself to listen more rather than speak. I felt like a firecracker when I began the program, wanting my opinion to be heard over others, but quickly learned that the learning culture at Stritch promotes listening and building consensus. As I began to transform through listening, I started to realize that listening informed and refined my thoughts more. I was able to mold my perspective in my mind a bit more before sharing. For my personality type this was a Eureka moment!

Choice

The most impactful choice I made in my doctoral career was deciding a dissertation topic. I knew that I wanted my research to make a significant difference in the world of college student leadership development. I began looking for the needs of college students and stumbled on the idea of exploring how leadership development, with a narrative reflection model, helps students make meaning of life, leadership, and the college experience. I knew by making this choice I was fulfilling a choice transformation to be a leading expert in this field and help students across the country discover more about their self.

Change and IT

The greatest change I experienced as a leader in this program was the feeling of accomplishment at my defense. The moment I began my defense, standing in front of the audience, I experienced a change transformation, or IT, as a leader of me informing others. The greatest part of it all was I finally earned the respect as a ‘doctor’. I had come full circle as a leader creating small change in the world, as well as myself.  

Transformation of a Learner

            The development of my dissertation played a vital role in my personal transformation as a learner. As I think back to my learning habits prior to this program, I would tend to read one source of information and conclude my perspective. The dissertation process taught me that a skilled learner seeks multiple sources of information to exhaust all possible perspectives and then draws a personal perspective open for debate. As a result I have a massive references section in my dissertation to support many viewpoints of college student leadership development and meaning-making. While researching, my strategy was to read an article and then ‘mine’ the article’s references. With this strategy, I found that my confidence to talk about multiple perspective of the topic became much richer by exploring multiple opinions.

            Another aspect of my learning transformation came from increased confidence in myself to learn at a higher level. When I began this program I felt overwhelmed with the workload pace, especially in a collaborative environment. I remember sitting in my first group project working on an infant mortality case study, where I felt like a mere bystander, adding little value to the project.  I was inexperienced in my collaborative skills (within the research process), research perspective, and the ability to keep up with all the information being presented. This led me to ponder if a doctoral program was beyond my ability as a learner. Since then I have transformed as a learner by taking strides each month to lean on my classmate’s strengths to see how they organize and digest project based assignments. As a result I have become much more confident as a learner by figuring out where my learning style and strengths fit within the group to achieve the best result of the assignment. I have learned that I am the ideas guy and the go-to for technology innovation for presentations – which is a great role to have. I’ve become more authentic and comfortably transparent as a learner by telling group members my weaknesses as well. These acknowledgements, as the model suggests, serve as my personal learning IT (internal transformation).

Transformation of a Servant/Transformational Action

When I think about my transformation as a servant I am immediately reminded of my dissertation process. The research question is the means towards the end of positive transformation on society. In other words, since the completion of my dissertation, I have realized that the research process itself is centered on servanthood principles – serving a greater purpose in society. I began writing and listening to the voices of expertise, which led me to write chapter five as a representation of my expertise and added value to serve society.

My service came in the form of gaining a better understanding of how leadership development programs can help college students explore personal meaning making in life, leadership and their college experience. As a result of my dissertation research I am in the process of creating a Big Questions program to serve freshmen leaders at a small liberal arts college in southeastern Wisconsin. The goal is to utilize the Character Quest (CQ) Leadership Development organization to help create and train approximately 40-50 student coaches (sophomore and up) to sit in various freshman success classes and act as mentor/coaches. Additionally the CQ Staff will be training the coaches and freshman to understand how to explore three big questions of meaning making: 1) Identity - Who am I?, 2) Purpose - What's My Purpose?, 3) Difference - How can I make a difference at Carthage?, and 4) What’s my story. By focusing my dissertation efforts on adding value and service to the community I am excited for the opportunity to help not only transform the student experience at Carthage but also the notions of on-campus service.

Plan for Continued Growth

            As I near the end of my doctoral, and educational career, I have come to the startling realization that I will no longer receive a constant stream of academic rigor, doctoral-level analysis, and rich discussion. To be honest, I am a little nervous that the doctoral mind I have sharpened over these past three years will dull itself at a rapid pace. Thus, I have decided to utilize this plan for transformation paper as a way to outline my continued growth transition plan in myself, Character Quest, and my community.

Continued Growth for Myself

            A significant contributor to my growth in the doctoral program was the notion of taking in a diverse range of information with a multitude of perspectives. For instance, reading The Fair Society, is in complete opposition to my political and social beliefs, yet it challenged me to see social issues from a fresh perspective. Prior to this program I would have thought the book to be ‘stupid’ and not worth my time. Now as a doctoral graduate I have found the value in absorbing information I may disagree with – diverse perspectives give you a greater scope as a leader, learner, and servant. I find myself now listening to NPR, reading the Wall Street Journal, and New York Times to get a range of perspectives on my world. I have learned from the doctoral program that just because I disagree with something doesn’t diminish it’s value. While this may seem like a no brainer to the average person, this was a startlingly valuable lesson for me as a leader, learner, and servant.

            Regarding Continued Growth for Myself, I plan on continuing to explore my newfound value of diverse information as a plan for transition. Upon graduation I will have much more time to seek out books, articles, and news sources that challenge my beliefs, articles that challenge my worldview. I have a tendency to stick to my guns on my perspective but now is an opportune time to really push myself, since I won’t have a professors or classmates to push and challenge my thinking. My concern is however, over the past three years I have grown accustomed to being surrounded by doctoral level thinking people who are hungry to challenge their thought process as well as the thought process of others. Thus, I have prepared a plan for transformational action with a list of 100 Books to challenge me, three news sources, and various podcasts to listen to regularly to stimulate an open minded ‘doctoral’ approach.

Books for Open-mindedness (Underlined are complete already)

1. The
Great
Gatsby
by
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald

2. The
Prince
by
Niccolo
Machiavelli

3. Slaughterhouse‐Five
by
Kurt
Vonnegut

4. 1984
by
George
Orwell

5. The
Republic
by
Plato

6. Brothers
Karamazov
by
Fyodor
Dostoevsky

7. The
Catcher
and
the
Rye
by
J.D.
Salinger

8. The
Wealth
of
Nations
by
Adam
Smith

9. For
Whom
the
Bell
Tolls
by
Ernest
Hemingway

10. The
Picture
of
Dorian
Gray
by
Oscar
Wilde

11. The
Grapes
of
Wrath
by
John
Steinbeck

12. Brave
New
World
by
Aldous
Huxley

13. How
To
Win
Friends
And
Influence
People
by
Dale
Carnegie


14. Call
of
the
Wild
by
Jack
London

15. The
Rise
of
Theodore
Roosevelt
by
Edmund
Morris

16. Swiss
Family
Robinson
by
Johann
David
Wyss

17. Dharma
Bums
by
Jack
Kerouac

18. The
Iliad
and
Odyssey
of
Homer

19. Catch‐22
by
Joseph
Heller

20. Walden
by
Henry
David
Thoreau

21. Lord
of
the
Flies
by
William
Golding

22. The
Master
and
Margarita
by
by
Mikhail
Bulgakov

23. Bluebeard
by
Kurt
Vonnegut

24. Atlas
Shrugged
by
Ayn
Rand

25. The
Metamorphosis
by
Franz
Kafka

26. American
Boys’
Handy
Book

27. Into
Thin
Air
by
John
Krakauer

28. King
Solomon’s
Mines
by
H.
Rider
Haggard

29. The
Idiot
by
Fyodor
Dostoevsky

30. A
River
Runs
Through
It
by
Norman
F.
Maclean

31. The
Island
of
Dr.
Moreau
by
H.G.
Wells

32. Malcolm
X:
The
Autobiography

33. Theodore
Rex
by
Edmund
Morris

34. The
Count
of
Monte
Cristo
by
Alexandre
Dumas

35. All
Quiet
on
The
Western
Front
by
Erich
Maria
Remarq

36. The
Red
Badge
of
Courage
by
Stephen
Crane

37. Lives
of
the
Noble
Greeks
and
Romans
by
Plutarch

38. The
Strenuous
Life
by
Theodore
Roosevelt

39. The
Bible

40. Lonesome
Dove
by
Larry
McMurtry

41. The
Maltese
Falcon
by
Dashiell
Hammett


42. The
Long
Goodbye
by
Raymond
Chandler

43. To
Kill
a
Mockingbird
by
Harper
Lee

44. The
Dangerous
Book
for
Boys
by
Conn
and
Hal
Iggulden

45. The
Killer
Angels
by
Michael
Shaara

46. The
Autobiography
of
Benjamin
Franklin

47. The
Histories
by
Herodotus

48. From
Here
to
Eternity
by
James
Jones

49. The
Frontier
in
American
History
by
Frederick
Jackson
Turner

50. Zen
and
the
Art
of
Motorcycle
Maintenance
by
Robert
Pirsig

51. Self
Reliance
by
Ralph
Waldo
Emerson

52. Another
Roadside
Attraction
by
Tom
Robbins

53. White
Noise
by
Don
Delillo

54. Ulysses
by
James
Joyce

55. The
Young
Man’s
Guide
by
William
Alcott

56. Blood
Meridian,
or
the
Evening
Redness
in
the
West
by
Cormac
McCarthy


57. Seek:
Reports
from
the
Edges
of
America
&
Beyond
by
Denis
Johnson

58. Crime
And
Punishment
by
Fyodor
Dostoevsky

59. Steppenwolf
by
Herman
Hesse

60. The
Book
of
Deeds
of
Arms
and
of
Chivalry
by
Christine
De
Pizan

61. The
Art
of
Warfare
by
Sun
Tzu

62. Don
Quixote
by
Miguel
de
Cervantes
Saavedra

63. Into
the
Wild
by
Jon
Krakauer

64. The
Divine
Comedy
by
Dante
Alighieri

65. The
Hobbit
by
JRR
Tolkien

66. The
Rough
Riders
by
Theodore
Roosevelt

67. East
of
Eden
by
John
Steinbeck

68. Leviathan
by
Thomas
Hobbes

69. The
Thin
Red
Line
by
James
Jones

70. Adventures
of
Huckleberry
Finn
by
Mark
Twain

71. The
Politics
by
Aristotle

72. First
Edition
of
the
The
Boy
Scout
Handbook

73. Cyrano
de
Bergerac
by
Edmond
Rostand

74. Tropic
of
Cancer
by
Henry
Miller

75. The
Crisis
by
Winston
Churchill

76. The
Naked
and
The
Dead
by
Norman
Mailer

77. Hatchet
by
Gary
Paulsen

78. Animal
Farm
by
George
Orwell

79. Tarzan
of
the
Apes
by
Edgar
Rice
Burroughs

80. Beyond
Good
and
Evil
by
Freidrich
Nietzsche

81. The
Federalist
Papers
by
Alexander
Hamilton,
John
Jay,
and
James
Madison


82. Moby
Dick
by
Herman
Melville

83. Essential
Manners
for
Men
by
Peter
Post

84. Frankenstein
by
Mary
Wollstonecraft
Shelly

85. Hamlet
by
Shakespeare

86. The
Boys
of
Summer
by
Roger
Kahn

87. A
Separate
Peace
by
John
Knowles


88. A
Farewell
To
Arms
by
Ernest
Hemingway


89. The
Stranger
by
Albert
Camus

90. Robinson
Crusoe
by
Daniel
Dafoe

91. The
Pearl
by
John
Steinbeck


92. On
the
Road
by
Jack
Kerouac

93. Treasure
Island
by
Robert
Louis
Stevenson


94. Confederacy
of
Dunces
‐
John
Kennedy
Toole


95. Foucault’s
Pendulum
‐
Umberto
Eco

96. The
Great
Railway
Bazaar
by
Paul
Theroux


97. Fear
and
Trembling
by
Soren
Kierkegaard


98. Undaunted
Courage
by
Stephen
Ambrose

99. Paradise
Lost
by
John
Milton

100. Cannery
Row
by
John
Steinbeck

News Sources for Open mindedness

1.     Wall Street Journal

2.     New York Times

3.     NPR

Podcasts for Open-mindedness

1.     TED Radio Lab

2.     NPR All Things Considered

3.     Fresh Air

4.     Radio Lab

5.     Planet Money

Continued Growth for Character Quest

            My job description in the Character Quest organization is to develop new lessons for our clients, teach the lessons, and coach the clients for success based on the lesson criteria. For example, in a given month we could talk in our classes about how to develop and apply a growth mindset as leaders in the organization. I would present a topic to them, get them into groups to talk about it, and then they would report back. Then individually I would coach them on their personal thoughts on the topic and the application of that topic in their personal growth journey. CQ has found this to be a very effective means to thought stimulation with individuals and teams.

There is a direct correlation between my plan for personal growth and my organizational growth  - my information input will dictate my lesson output. In other words, if I am creating leadership lessons based on a narrow scope of information that I agree with, then I am ridding my clients of receiving the full picture of the given learning topic. I have decided to create all of our lessons with what I call a Strategic Lesson Choice, which basically takes a leadership concept such at Mindset, and gives the clients 4-5 strategies to choose and discuss, all from diverse information sources. This new plan is opposed to my current approach to the lessons – find one source of information on the topic and send it out to everyone. I want more of a range for strategic and challenging thought with my clients. I believe that this tactic will work in the favor of both Character Quest and the growth of our participants.

Continued Growth for Community

            My continued growth for the community is currently centered on helping others see the value in exploring a range of perspectives on a given topic. I want to imbue in my clients a hunger to be, as Dr. Tony Frontier suggested, scientists rather than judges and to seek more information when making decisions. With the Strategic Lesson Choice addition I can give my clients a little slice of the transformation I was exposed to at Stritch with diverse perspectives. The value in this approach will create community members who are more aware of and more tolerant of diversity and new ideas.

Conclusion

            These past three years have been an incredible hero’s journey as a leader, learner, and servant. While, this program serves a common purpose, I find it amazing how we all have a unique experience. My experience has been one of finding a way to apply what I am learning to my personal transformation into the Character Quest organization. I feel like I have accomplished my mission and look forward to exercising by continued plan for growth as a leader in the community and beyond.