Leadership Learning Pact

Kevin Jones

Indiana Wesleyan University

Dr. Boyd Johnson

DOL 865A Advanced Global Leadership

December 6, 2007

Revised November 8, 2008

Revised January 5, 2009
Leadership Learning Pact

Influential and Effective as a Leader

I am learning to be more influential and effective as a leader through practicing more reflection before responding. This may seem to be pretty insignificant to some but because I have a personality like that of Jesus' disciple, Peter that does not come easy for me. I am more inclined to react and then reflect and regret.

I am also learning to research issues before reacting (Appendix A). Recently there have been a couple of occasions where I strongly disagree with the action being proposed but rather than reacting negatively to the proposals I researched, using peer reviewed journal articles, and found evidence that contradicted the proposed plan. In one case a different approach was put into place than had been originally proposed and in the second a different approach is being studied which may prove to be more effective.

Both of the above practices are leading to increased credibility within our academic community. I have begun to realize that while I may have been born with a specific personality type I need to get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to transform my mind and my tongue as noted by Willard (2002).

Two Biggest Leadership Problems or Issues

One of the leadership issues I am currently faced with is how to continue to improve the Alliance for International Christian Business Education (AICBE) program. We have just discovered in the past two weeks that for the very first time Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) has included funding for the program in the IWU annual budget (Appendix B).

This news helped to resolve one problem but leaves us with another: How to grow the program. We currently work with two schools within the United States (U.S.), LeTourneau University and Seattle Pacific University, to provide online undergraduate business and management courses to four schools internationally: Daystar University in Kenya, Emanuel University in Romania, Kazak-American University in Kazakhstan, and Lithuania Christian College in Lithuania.

I wrote the initial draft of the AICBE Strategic Plan (Appendix C) which, after several meetings and revisions, was approved in the fall of 2006. Our goals include adding one additional U.S. university and one international university in the academic year of 2007-2008. Another goal is to recruit adjunct instructors who will facilitate one course every three years on a volunteer basis. We also are planning to revise two of our current courses as well as to add at least one additional course for 2007-2008.

I will measure the success of meeting these goals by determining whether or not we have added additional schools as planned and if we were able to offer an additional course. In addition, success will be measured by having at least one course facilitated in which the facilitator was volunteering to facilitate.

A second leadership issue I am facing is in improving our IWU online undergraduate business and management programs by developing and implementing either rubrics or a grading guideline for the final paper or project of each course. This recently was completed as noted in Appendix D.

Our goal is to have these completed, approved, and implemented no later than July 1, 2007. Our initial measure of success will be whether or not these are in place by the July 1 date. Once that has happened I will accept both student and facilitator feedback as well as comparing feedback from classes prior to the implementation to those after the implementation to see if the feedback has become more substantive and consistent.

A great deal of what has been accomplished with the AICBE program as well in the other programs of which I have oversight has been through the use of double-loop learning as introduced by Argyris and Schon (1996). The use of double loop learning has allowed us to take a hard look at our values and assumptions and these have begun to change. We can no longer make the assumption that all of the international universities we are working with are lacking qualified faculty. More and more theses universities are able to find qualified faculty and will soon reach a point where our assistance is no longer needed. This has assisted us in gaining the support of the administration of IWU and that of the other US universities in reaching out to more schools in different countries. This has not caused our values to change but it has greatly affected our assumptions.

The use of double-loop learning also was used heavily in the development of the new scoring guide as well as in the discussion of a new grading scale. In the previous it brought us to the place where we realized that our processes that had been developed for grading were faulty and a change was made to assist adjunct faculty in grading. In the second case, that of a new grading scale, double-loop learning brought us to a point of recognition that it would change our values in a negative fashion without the redeeming value of solving the perceived problem and the idea was abandoned.

Stretch Leadership Development Goals and Action Plan

Over the next six months my plan is to continue to strive for increased knowledge of what servant leadership looks like in action. To do this, I will continue to immerse myself in my studies. I will submit the remaining assignments in the next six months in a timely manner even when life happens at inconvenient times.

I am going to contact the three university presidents whom I interviewed last summer to see if they would be willing to grant me a follow up interview. My questions would be slightly different based on the learning that has taken place over the past year and will include questions regarding organizational culture and organizational learning.

I will also keep a journal of the time I spend reflecting on at least a weekly basis. This journal will provide a measurement for determining if I met this goal.

Mentoring

My mentor is Dr. Larry Lindsay whom I will be meeting with on April 29, 2007 to discuss leadership and specifically, my personal philosophy of leadership paper. Dr. Lindsay has been reading over each iteration of this paper and offering invaluable suggestions and insight.

References

(Argyris C Schon D A 1996 Organizational learning II: Theory, method, and practice)Argyris, C., & Schon, D. A. (1996). Organizational learning II: Theory, method, and practice. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

(Willard D 2002 Renovation of the heart: Putting on the character of Christ)Willard, D. (2002). Renovation of the heart: Putting on the character of Christ. Colorado Springs, CO: NAVPRESS.

Appendix A

One of the times that comes to mind for me is during the meeting we had about the new grading scale.  In it, you were able to passionately and effectively establish (and support) your position that was counter to the 'prevalent' position.  You first listened to their viewpoint and then assertively (but not overly aggressively) asked probing questions and gave food for thought.  You backed off to allow 'simmering' of those thoughts and further discussion.  You then reiterated your stance and provided evidence about how it would hurt (online) students after a comment was made about it "not hurting but possibly helping" the situation.

Your actions were to help the program, the students, and the facilitators-and thereby the ADs as well.

Strengths, as mentioned above, included: passion, reason/logic, debate skills, assertion, and discernment.

The outcome was to table what appeared to be an edict and imminent change that is now under discussion.

Mark Alexander

Director, Center for Distributed Learning

Indiana Wesleyan University

Exhibit B

You and Stephen have worked at keeping this going. I wish I had a little more time to infuse more enthusiasm toward the program also.

Over the past year I have worked along with Kevin and Stephen to build a greater awareness of the AICBE program within IWU. In particular, we have focused on trying to find ways to pursue additional funding. Progress at a university can be slow but I believe that we have made good headway with our new VP of Adult and Graduate Studies as well as with our new President and the new Director of our Advancement Office.

Although we haven't had a chance to meet face-to-face, I want you to know that I believe strongly in AICBE and the potential it has for spreading business knowledge along with a Christian message. Because I believe in it as strongly as I do, I used AICBE as the topic for my grant proposal in a grant-writing class last semester. After additional reviews, I hope to utilize this proposal to pursue additional funding for AICBE. 

I am most excited to tell you that the three of us, with support from our AGS VP, have included $77,700 in the IWU budget for the AICBE program next fiscal year. This amount is even larger than the $61,375 specified in the Strategic Plan for 2007-2008. To date, the 2007-2008 budget has been tentatively approved. Though we still desire to seek additional funding externally, this budgeted amount will allow us to sustain and begin to expand the program next year. Kevin and Stephen have been receiving interest from other schools and people to participate in AICBE. We are praying for the Lord's leading as we continue to move forward.   

Thank you to each of you for your part in helping to sustain the AICBE program.

Sincerely,  

Allyn Beekman

Assistant VP, Planning & Development

Appendix C

AICBE Strategic Plan   2006-2009

AICBE is a consortium made up of a representative of each of the founding U.S. institutions and representatives selected by the original founding entity, ServiceMaster Foundation. Operations are handled by a program manager appointed by the aforementioned representatives.

AICBE provides international institutions with online courses and instructors in areas of study where they may have difficulty finding qualified faculty to teach onsite.

Vision Statement

The vision of the AICBE is to develop leaders to enhance the ability of developing countries to succeed in the market-based business environment.

Mission Statement

The AICBE is an alliance of U.S. universities committed to providing market-based business education from a Christian worldview to institutions of higher education in developing countries. This education will be of the same quality that students studying at U.S. universities enjoy. AICBE members strive to be good stewards of what God has entrusted them. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).

Objectives

1.      Assist developing countries in joining the global economy by helping to develop strong business leaders.

2.      Assist in addressing the need for a strong system of ethics and morality in business.

3.      Plant the seed of the Gospel in those who have never known Christ.

4.      Encourage and strengthen those who know Christ in their faith as they prepare to begin their business career or as they further their current career.

5.      Provide a vehicle through which Christian U.S. universities and their faculty are able to use their gifts and resources to help spread the Gospel as well as their business expertise to developing countries.

Strategies

1.    Recruit 30 worldwide adjunct faculty members over the next three years to teach on a volunteer basis in this program. The goal will be to recruit 10 new facilitators each year of the strategic plan.

a.       The U.S. participating schools will offer their faculty the opportunity to have a worldwide mission impact by teaching one 10-week course every three years on a volunteer basis. Participating schools are defined as those who provide courses for the AICBE program and supply the online platform for the course(s) as well as technical support for the course(s).

b.      Offer this same opportunity to the faculty of all CCCU schools as well as encourage the administrators of these schools to accept these opportunities as service learning projects for their faculty members.

c.       Create a recruitment plan for faculty of institutions of higher learning not affiliated with the CCCU but who hold to a biblical worldview.

d.      Work with organizations that are actively involved in sending out short term mission teams to recruit volunteer faculty and staff with a heart for missions and who are academically qualified.

e.       Work with pastors to identify and recruit those within their local congregations who would be academically qualified to serve as volunteer faculty.

2.      Increase the number of participating international schools by a minimum of two schools over the next three years. The first is to be in place for the 2007-2008 academic with the second in place for the 2008-2009 academic year.

a.       Work with mission organizations to establish relationships.

b.      Contact international schools that are affiliated with the CCCU.

3.      Increase the number of participating U.S. schools by a minimum of two over the next three years. The first is to be in place for the 2007-2008 academic with the second in place for the 2008-2009 academic year.

4.      Raise $300,000 over the next three years to support AICBE. This fundraising will be in accordance with projected costs as outlined at the end of this plan.

5.      Explore the idea of expanding the scope of AICBE beyond business courses. A report on the study will be submitted by the end of the 2009 academic year.

6.      Develop a course in Organizational Leadership geared primarily toward students in ministerial programs to develop their skill in leading small organizations. This course will first run in the fall semester of 2008.

7.      Add courses as the demand increases. This will be determined by current schools' needs as well as new institutions that join the AICBE. A survey will be sent to each of the international schools in the spring of 2007.

8.      Work to recruit individuals with a strong interest in providing business courses with a biblical worldview in order to form an Advisory Council. This council will be in place by the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.

9.      The international schools will be expected to pay 10% of what they charge their students to enroll in AICBE courses to AICBE. This payment will be in U.S. dollars. This will be implemented in the fall of 2007.

Appendix D

Assignment Scoring Guide Task Force

When Mr. Jones was a member of this task force, he worked with all task force members and took the initiative to work closely on several drafts of this scoring guide with Mike Manning. Because of the potential impact on our entire curriculum, Kevin and Mike led numerous faculty and student focus groups to ensure we had adequate information before this was implemented last year. His understanding of both the online and onsite adjunct faculty culture was very much a factor in the successful implementation of this initiative. In addition, Kevin Jones and Mike Manning presented this scoring guide at our 2007 Curriculum Writers Workshop at the IECN.

George Howell

Associate Dean

Business & Management Programs

Indiana Wesleyan University