Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Counting feelings ... a Pirate Honor Code
A few points from the last class session really struck me so I want to memorialize them in this blog. (Or perhaps I am just procrastinating on my research proposal?)
First, we just happened to wander onto the Count's video and it worked great as an illustration of the importance of counting in meaning making. But, his song about counting feelings is also an apt reminder of the need to strike balance between quantitative and qualitative methods. It also aligned with my last blog about being a pirate and ninja, in equal measure. A “feeling” is an important indicator of a participant’s reality. All of the participant’s emotions and reactions should be identified and added up. It is also critical for the researcher to acknowledge and understand her own feelings as she stays attentive to bias and open to new meanings.
Second, this leads to the last few slides we were shown from the Class 9 deck on qualitative analysis. I’ve summarized the points here as a sort of “Pirate Honor Code”:
On my honor, as a Pirate, I will strive to be a good writer and fair observer. I will be respectful, reliable and trustworthy. I will always endeavor to remain open and honest about my biases, and to look for new meaning and patterns in every observation that I make.
The Count said it well… “Feeling all these feelings makes me feel exhausted!” On his advice, I am going to go catch 40 winks.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Pirate and ninja, in equal measure
Prior to the beginning of this course in January, I certainly did not appreciate the concepts of pirates and ninjas as I do now. I also certainly wouldn’t been as tickled as I was to have the following conversation with my 10-year old daughter yesterday:
K: “Mom, I have to find a ninja school to enroll in!”
Me: “But, K., ninjas aren’t seen or heard so you’ll have to be really quiet. Are you sure you’ll enjoy being a ninja?”
K: “I know they’re quiet but they also climb walls. I have to go to ninja school to learn to do both!”
Anticipating the end of this course and indeed the end of my graduate coursework, I would say that I have learned the value of being a pirate and a ninja, in equal measure. I have learned to be a stealthy and quiet ninja at times, and an inquisitive and reflective pirate at others. I have filled my tool belt with both quantitative and qualitative research methods, designs, techniques and procedures. I understand the difference between positing a hypothesis and identifying a foreshadowed problem and how to proceed when researching each one. I know now how to find giants and how to stand on their shoulders when they have already done the hard work for me. I also know how to tell when they really aren’t giants at all.
After two and a half years of exploring this curiosity and that whim as a way to pay some of the household and tuition bills, I have just accepted a full-time job back in my original profession of Human Resource Management. Since I am thinking constantly anyway about this new role, I’d like to use this blog post to reflect on how I can use this course’s lessons to improve my performance at this organization and how I can translate my new-found skills and abilities into success for the business.
Two weeks from now I will begin working as an HR manager for a relatively young organization which contracts with government agencies to provide hardware installation and support. The company has doubled in size in the past year to about 70 employees and anticipates needing to double again within six months. I will be HR person #2; hired to develop a competitive and sustainable employee benefits program as well as to build a full corporate curriculum covering customer service, organizational policies and procedures, leadership development, and performance management.
In the past, I have tended to approach new jobs and business relationships where I am expected to play an expert or advisory role, as a ninja. I naturally prefer to provide proof for my recommendations through credentials, past work samples, and statistical data. Now, I can add to this tendency, my new skills in finding quantitative research in peer-reviewed journals and in assessing the validity of studies, to develop my recommendations. As this company is in start-up mode, I foresee a specific need to research and clearly communicate study results to management, about best practices for emerging companies around benefit plan design (what types of coverage, plan designs, and employer/employee cost sharing percentages), management:staff ratios, and employee training among other things. I’ll also use these studies to encourage data-driven reflection by the leaders prior to developing and implementing our new structures and policies. I hope to also propose and test hypotheses about what will happen in this particular company with variables like expected enrollment levels, productivity standards, and transfer of learning rates from classroom to desktop. Even though I will not (purposely) undertake experimental research in my new role, I will still be able to quantitatively “study” the impacts of new programs, policies and procedures even without any formal control groups.
But I am most excited about altering my approach to be more like a pirate. I can consider this new job as an opportunity to conduct an ethnography. In the coming months and hopefully, for even longer, I will be able to live within this organization and culture, both as an observer and a participant. As I advise the company’s leadership about ways to develop and grow wisely, I will likely need to serve as a mirror in some cases and to be an interviewer in others. I anticipate formulating grounded theories over time about what works and doesn’t work, and what motivates or discourages. I also hope that there will be one or more employees, managers, or departments who will be great case studies in superior customer service, effective process improvement, innovation, or cross-border teamwork. I also look forward to using qualitative methods to develop a new performance management system. I know already to begin with dialogue and interviews about what performance is and should be and what the culture can possibly support in the way of tools, forms and procedures.
Regardless of the design, a constant respect for ethical behavior will be necessary. I will apply the required researcher behaviors that we identified via our grounded theory activity to my role. Obviously, I will need to ensure confidentiality for all employees and managers, as well as to manage the risks of any “research” I conduct. I will also ensure that when I leave the organization, the leaders, the employees and the business will be in a better place and a stronger position than where I find them.
Undoubtedly, a mixed-methods approach will best serve me and this organization. I look forward to being a pirate and ninja, in equal measure!
K: “Mom, I have to find a ninja school to enroll in!”
Me: “But, K., ninjas aren’t seen or heard so you’ll have to be really quiet. Are you sure you’ll enjoy being a ninja?”
K: “I know they’re quiet but they also climb walls. I have to go to ninja school to learn to do both!”
Anticipating the end of this course and indeed the end of my graduate coursework, I would say that I have learned the value of being a pirate and a ninja, in equal measure. I have learned to be a stealthy and quiet ninja at times, and an inquisitive and reflective pirate at others. I have filled my tool belt with both quantitative and qualitative research methods, designs, techniques and procedures. I understand the difference between positing a hypothesis and identifying a foreshadowed problem and how to proceed when researching each one. I know now how to find giants and how to stand on their shoulders when they have already done the hard work for me. I also know how to tell when they really aren’t giants at all.
After two and a half years of exploring this curiosity and that whim as a way to pay some of the household and tuition bills, I have just accepted a full-time job back in my original profession of Human Resource Management. Since I am thinking constantly anyway about this new role, I’d like to use this blog post to reflect on how I can use this course’s lessons to improve my performance at this organization and how I can translate my new-found skills and abilities into success for the business.
Two weeks from now I will begin working as an HR manager for a relatively young organization which contracts with government agencies to provide hardware installation and support. The company has doubled in size in the past year to about 70 employees and anticipates needing to double again within six months. I will be HR person #2; hired to develop a competitive and sustainable employee benefits program as well as to build a full corporate curriculum covering customer service, organizational policies and procedures, leadership development, and performance management.
In the past, I have tended to approach new jobs and business relationships where I am expected to play an expert or advisory role, as a ninja. I naturally prefer to provide proof for my recommendations through credentials, past work samples, and statistical data. Now, I can add to this tendency, my new skills in finding quantitative research in peer-reviewed journals and in assessing the validity of studies, to develop my recommendations. As this company is in start-up mode, I foresee a specific need to research and clearly communicate study results to management, about best practices for emerging companies around benefit plan design (what types of coverage, plan designs, and employer/employee cost sharing percentages), management:staff ratios, and employee training among other things. I’ll also use these studies to encourage data-driven reflection by the leaders prior to developing and implementing our new structures and policies. I hope to also propose and test hypotheses about what will happen in this particular company with variables like expected enrollment levels, productivity standards, and transfer of learning rates from classroom to desktop. Even though I will not (purposely) undertake experimental research in my new role, I will still be able to quantitatively “study” the impacts of new programs, policies and procedures even without any formal control groups.
But I am most excited about altering my approach to be more like a pirate. I can consider this new job as an opportunity to conduct an ethnography. In the coming months and hopefully, for even longer, I will be able to live within this organization and culture, both as an observer and a participant. As I advise the company’s leadership about ways to develop and grow wisely, I will likely need to serve as a mirror in some cases and to be an interviewer in others. I anticipate formulating grounded theories over time about what works and doesn’t work, and what motivates or discourages. I also hope that there will be one or more employees, managers, or departments who will be great case studies in superior customer service, effective process improvement, innovation, or cross-border teamwork. I also look forward to using qualitative methods to develop a new performance management system. I know already to begin with dialogue and interviews about what performance is and should be and what the culture can possibly support in the way of tools, forms and procedures.
Regardless of the design, a constant respect for ethical behavior will be necessary. I will apply the required researcher behaviors that we identified via our grounded theory activity to my role. Obviously, I will need to ensure confidentiality for all employees and managers, as well as to manage the risks of any “research” I conduct. I will also ensure that when I leave the organization, the leaders, the employees and the business will be in a better place and a stronger position than where I find them.
Undoubtedly, a mixed-methods approach will best serve me and this organization. I look forward to being a pirate and ninja, in equal measure!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Skip to the End!
This is one of my favorite lines from my favorite movie of all time, The Princess Bride. Prince Humperdink was trying to make sure the “mahwage” ceremony was finalized before Buttercup was rescued by the Dread Pirate Roberts.
I was reminded of it when Professor Croasdaile used a similar line in response to my plea for help on the Introduction/literature review section of the proposal. Prior to class last Thursday, I had spent all of Wednesday and the better part of the prior weekend trying to get started on filling in my outline of major concepts and topics. This first section was clearly the biggest challenge of the project so far for me.
But, the advice was sound. When I sat down to get started again on Friday morning, I found that putting together the pieces and parts of the sample, procedure and measures was much easier than trying to first be eloquent about concepts and theories. I was able to address the nitty-gritty details (who/what/when/how) of the question I wanted to answer which in turn guided me back to a review of the literature that had piqued my interest in the first place.
After this rough start, I feel pretty good about the draft I’ve just turned in. I do hope to receive feedback on some additional concerns though. I worry about the measure that I’ve created in Appendices A & B. It is adapted from other measures that have been validated separately but never as a whole. How do I express the need to validate the instrument and how specific do I need to be about how that will be done?
I am unsure if I’ve transferred everything that is in my head down onto the paper. Have I fully defined all of the variables for the reader or have I left out points because I just naturally understand them after reading for the past two and a half months? Really, I am having trouble reading it objectively at this point.
My task ahead: let this sit for a while. Then, with a refreshed mind, I’ll hope to be able to process the feedback and finish this proposal in time for the April 26 deadline.
As a side comment, I think the advice to "Skip to the end" is valuable in other settings as well. Sometimes, giving ourselves permission to move on to the people, the details, the process, and the execution lends great clarity to the end goal and desire. Sometimes, not having every idea researched, source uncovered, and thought written out perfectly is the way forward.
I was reminded of it when Professor Croasdaile used a similar line in response to my plea for help on the Introduction/literature review section of the proposal. Prior to class last Thursday, I had spent all of Wednesday and the better part of the prior weekend trying to get started on filling in my outline of major concepts and topics. This first section was clearly the biggest challenge of the project so far for me.
But, the advice was sound. When I sat down to get started again on Friday morning, I found that putting together the pieces and parts of the sample, procedure and measures was much easier than trying to first be eloquent about concepts and theories. I was able to address the nitty-gritty details (who/what/when/how) of the question I wanted to answer which in turn guided me back to a review of the literature that had piqued my interest in the first place.
After this rough start, I feel pretty good about the draft I’ve just turned in. I do hope to receive feedback on some additional concerns though. I worry about the measure that I’ve created in Appendices A & B. It is adapted from other measures that have been validated separately but never as a whole. How do I express the need to validate the instrument and how specific do I need to be about how that will be done?
I am unsure if I’ve transferred everything that is in my head down onto the paper. Have I fully defined all of the variables for the reader or have I left out points because I just naturally understand them after reading for the past two and a half months? Really, I am having trouble reading it objectively at this point.
My task ahead: let this sit for a while. Then, with a refreshed mind, I’ll hope to be able to process the feedback and finish this proposal in time for the April 26 deadline.
As a side comment, I think the advice to "Skip to the end" is valuable in other settings as well. Sometimes, giving ourselves permission to move on to the people, the details, the process, and the execution lends great clarity to the end goal and desire. Sometimes, not having every idea researched, source uncovered, and thought written out perfectly is the way forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
