Personal Narrative

 I post personal narrative here. However,  this post is almost same with my post about Risk I posted before. I think my post about Risk can be regarded as my personal narrative post. The following is my personal narratives. 

Personal Narrative

     In this summer, I am going to visit Surabaya, Indonesia and engage in Service Learning Program there. The program is “International Service Learning at Petra Christian University” provided by ICU. I am a member of the group that is composed with students who are coming from different states, such as the Netherlands, China, Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. Then, we go to a village in Surabaya and make a contribution to it through teaching English to children or repairing buildings.  I have not been to Indonesia, yet I am sure that I need leadership skills there. I will learn a lot of things in this program through using leadership skills.

     In this Service Learning Program, I would be faced with many risks. For instance, I would suffer from a stomachache because of bad water. In addition, I would get confused to the unknown culture in Surabaya that is totally different from a familiar culture in Japan. However, even though I am faced with these risks, I must think the risks are worth taking. As the author of Leading at The Edge says, "Understand the risks you face and evaluate them carefully", I should assess the risks accurately. 

     I think the risks in Service Learning Program are worth taking because there are benefits I can get from the risks.

     First, I can cultivate the ability to solve something that actually happened from the service learning. In the service learning, I would be involved in approaches to solve actual events with various kinds of institutions or groups in the community. This requires me to deal with the actual events by means of not the theory that I learned in textbooks but the practical skills that are related to lives in the community. Thus, I would acquire the ability to find solutions to the reality in the situation. In addition, I think that the important ability will be very useful to the work in the future. In fact, I am interested in working for international institutions such as United Nations and International NGO groups. In order to work in such institutions and contribute to the fields, especially the fields of development, the ability is essential and indispensable. 

     Second, I can develop the self-consciousness that means I am needed to the community. In the service learning, I would try to contribute to the community through unpaid activities. I think that this makes me enhance the self-awareness. For example, I joined volunteer activity in Ishinomaki, Miyagi in this summer. Although the activity was unpaid, I realized that I was developing the responsibility to be dedicated to the activity. This responsibility meant I was fully needed to the community. Moreover, the experience learning from the contribution to the community in service learning can be made use of the community in which I am living.  

 

     Third, I can experience the diversity in the community from service learning. When I go into the new community and work in it, I face with a lot of different people and the diverse culture in it. I am sure that this experience produces the awareness of diversity. For instance, I can aware the different culture of people from different states through living in Global House, an international dormitory in ICU. In the lives in Global House, I really felt the importance of respects to the different culture because, if people in my dormitory do not take care of other’s culture, it would probably cause conflicts between them. I experienced such conflicts many times, thus I know that people should put importance on respecting the different culture. However, the awareness of diversity always makes me have curiosity about the gap between different cultures. I hope that I visit new community and experience more awareness in it.

 

     Finally, I can acquire new skills by engaging in the service learning. In the activities of service leaning, I would pass through many experiences and gain new skills. And the skills would be different from the place to place. For example, I can develop the skills to educate and communicate with children in program of teaching supports. And I can also develop the skills to cooperate with people from different cultures in program of group works. It is difficult to acquire these skills in daily lives in Japan. 

      In conclusion, I think the risks in the Service Learning Program are worth taking basically for the four reasons; to develop the ability to solve something that actually happened, to aware the self-consciousness of the responsibility to the community, to experience the diversity in the community, and get new skills. I would like to dedicate myself hardly to the program and develop myself as a person who has fully responsibility to the community in which I engage in the program.

Final Presentation "The Importance of Play"

As a final presentation, I explained about the importance of "play". As I presented, I would like to post the handout and presentation here.

Henry Ford said, “When we are at work we ought to be at work. When we are at play we ought to be at play. There is no use tying to mix the two.”

This saying was true in the last century, but now the situation is upside down.

Take the air business for example.

South Airlines

South Airlines is one of the most successful companies. The company’s mission statement says, “People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it.”

South Airlines is not just one company that is including Play in its work ethic. Wall Street Journal shows more than fifty European companies think highly of play in working place. Such as Nokia, Daimler-Chrysler, Alcatel…

For now, I show you the structural element of play, that is…

Game

Humor

Joyfulness

First, Game. If I say,” Leadership skill is essential when we are playing game”, can you imagine that? Actually, some games like role-playing games require players to know the identity of a character and to navigate them into a virtual world.

One study shows that playing games enhances the right-brain ability to solve problems that require pattern recognition. Moreover, another study found that playing games at work can increase productivity and enhance job satisfaction.

So, experiences with simulation games can give rehearsals for the social interaction of our lives.

 

The Second factor is humor. Good leaders use humor as the management skill. Because it reduces hostility between people, relieves tension, improve moral, and helps communicate difficult messages. George W Bush had a sense of humor a lot, for example.

Humor can be destructive in organizations, of course.

However, used skillfully it has much greater effect than just an entertainment. 

Finally, this is the most important factor, joyfulness. Please take a look at this picture. These people are laughing together. Then, what is they are laughing at? In fact, they are laughing but they are not thinking anything in their mind. They are laughing for no reason.

This is the picture of a laughter club. Dr.Kataria in India started the first laughter club. He believed the power of laughing is so good. So, in 1995, he went to a public park and started asking people if they wanted to laugh with him. He had only five people but they continued and laughed each following day and they all were feeling good.

In the very beginning of a laughter club, people told some jokes together to laugh but now Kataria combines yoga with laughter to make laughter yoga. The goal of his club is “thought-free” laughter. He says, “ In laughter clubs, the source of laughter is not outside the body; it is within us.”

A lot of study shows the positive effect of laughter. Such as…

l  Laughter can decrease stress hormones and increase the human immune system.

l  Laughter activates the cardiovascular system (心臓血管機能), increases the heart rate, and pumps more blood to internal organs.

l  10 minutes of activity on home exercise machine = 1 minute of laughter

It is the best medicine for human.

Situation around laughter club is becoming more interesting. Laughter club in working place. Kataria says,” businesses believe that serious people are more responsible. That’s not true. Laughing people are more creative people. They are more productive people. People who laugh together can work together.”

Laughter Yoga is introduced into the workplace by small and large companies. The benefits are reducing stress levels, increasing efficiency and team building, and creating a happy atmosphere.

Corporations such as UBS and Emirates Bank, IBM, Hewlett Packard, YPO (Young President Association), SAS and Emirates Airlines, Volvo Automobiles, Glaxo Pharmaceuticals have own laughter club within company.

In fact, we can find a laughter club near ICU. Kichijoji laughter club.

Just plain laughter can lead joyfulness. And it can lead to greater creativity.

Malden Mills: Rising from the Ashes

Maiden Mills is the company creating commodity-based textile industry.

              →making a cloth from raw materials

●  Founded by Henry Feuerstein in 1906

●  The successive president- Henry Feuerstein→ Samuel Feuerstein→AeronFeuerstein

Aaron Feuerstein

1.     First success - In the late 1970s

Polarfleece: a fabric created from recycled soft-drink bottles

→enabled a person who likes outdoor

to look sharp and to stay warm in the cold weather

Then, used by many popular outdoor company (L.L.Bean, Paatagonia…)

2.     Second success- In 1991

Polartec: the ability to have numerous combinations of essential characters

→made it true that the fabric with Polartec has unlimited applications and be used for almost any type of outdoor clothing.

Sales are more than $200 million (in 1995).

The challenge: the fire in the evening on Monday in December 1995 

●  A tragedy: The evening was Aeron’s seventieth birthday

              He got a phone call that tells the fire burned the entire company and made it out of control at 11:00 P.M.

●  By the time he arrived, the fire reached three of four main production building.

●  One Good News: no one had died in the tragedy

Aeron realized that

“He might be able to save the company, if he could save the fourth building.”

●However,

  His director of engeneer said that

  “the forth building will be burnt by 7:00 A.M.

Strategy 1: Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives.

Feuerstein organized his employees and told them that they must save the fourth mill, if they wanted to ever work at Malden Mills again, if they wanted to save the company and the community.

●  He inspired his workers to make the best to save the forth mill.

→the forth building was still standing and the fire was under control by the next morning.

Strategy 3: Instill optimism and self-confidence, but stay grounded in reality.

Feuerstein had called his customer and assured them that he could be in production in thirty days.

→People said that this would be nearly impossible.

●  However, he realized that he could achieve this by doing more rapidly what people are used to doing more slowly.

→worked around the clock and made effort to focus on the number-one priority.

Strategy 8: find something to celebrate and something to laugh about!

By late fall 1996, the company rebuilt the manufacturing lines based on new computer-controlled machines. Moreover, with the new technology and efficiency, the company was producing a new and high-quality fabric than before fire.

● The company-wide gala celebration to thank his employees and celebrate the success they had in rebuilding the company.

→ In September 1997, the celebration was hold with more than 15,000 guests, including all employees and family members, along with local and nation political, religious, financial, business, and media leaders.

Chapter 16 Post

I would like to respond to the point, “Learn to Love the Plateau”. The idea here is that it takes long periods of efforts to acquire leadership skills. As the author says, “I believed that the journey of learning to lead means accepting the reality that leadership skills are developed through long periods of striving with only moderate signs of progress. This means that learning to love the plateau is an essential part of learning to lead at The Edge.”

I remember the phrase, “Borrowed plums are sure to come off sooner or later.” If I were to get a tool that makes me great leader overnight, I would be willing to use it. However, it is possible just in the world of Doraemon (ドラえもん). The reality is that some things do not happen overnight. In order to become a leader at The Edge, we have to continue to go through a tunnel even though we cannot see the light of the exit. Therefore, I think the first step to leading at The Edge is to start anything. Of course, we do not know the thing leads us to good leader or not. But the action, taking first step is important to our future.

 “Rome was not built in a day.”

Mr. Kitashiro Impression

Mr. Kitashiro explained about Leadership and I learned a lot from him.

For example, I learned how to develop the communication skill. He explained well that communication is important and I am sure that he is good at the communication skill. Therefore, I was wondering how to develop the communication skill and asked a question about it. He answered that it is important that looking at a person in his/her eyes and knowing the level of his/her understanding. He said, “Do not look at floor or ceiling when you are talking with a person.” In fact, when he was answering my question, his eyes were looking at my eyes. I thought he was practicing what he said. Therefore, I understand that looking at a person in his/her eyes is essential to develop good communication with him/her.

Week Six Required Post

Risk

The author says in chapter 9," Clearly, leaders at The Edge need to be comfortable with the discomfort of risk. Unnecessary risks should be avoided, but there are times for bold moves."

In this point, the author tells that  there are risks which are worth taking and good leaders should have the courage to take the risks in order to achieve success. I think this is related to the risk to start something new. For example, in this summer, I am going to visit Surabaya, Indonesia and engage in Service Learning Program there. I am a member of the group that is composed with students who are coming from different states, such as the Netherlands, China, Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. Then, we go to a village in Surabaya and make a contribution to it through teaching English to children or repairing buildings. 

In this Service Learning Program, I would be faced with many risks. For instance, I would suffer from a stomachache because of bad water. In addition, I would get confused to the unknown culture in Surabaya that is totally different from a familiar culture in Japan. However, even though I am faced with these risks, I must think the risks are worth taking. As the author says, "Understand the risks you face and evaluate them carefully", I should assess the risks accurately. 

I think the risks in Service Learning Program are  worth taking because there are benefits I can get from the risks.

First, I can cultivate the ability to solve something that actually happened from the service learning. In the service learning, I would be involved in approaches to solve actual events with various kinds of institutions or groups in the community. This requires me to deal with the actual events by means of not the theory that I learned in textbooks but the practical skills that are related to lives in the community. Thus, I would acquire the ability to find solutions to the reality in the situation. In addition, I think that the important ability will be very useful to the work in the future. In fact, I am interested in working for international institutions such as United Nations and International NGO groups. In order to work in such institutions and contribute to the fields, especially the fields of development, the ability is essential and indispensable. 

Second, I can develop the self-consciousness that means I am needed to the community. In the service learning, I would try to contribute to the community through unpaid activities. I think that this makes me enhance the self-awareness. For example, I joined volunteer activity in Ishinomaki, Miyagi in this summer. Although the activity was unpaid, I realized that I was developing the responsibility to be dedicated to the activity. This responsibility meant I was fully needed to the community. Moreover, the experience learning from the contribution to the community in service learning can be made use of the community in which I am living.  

 

Third, I can experience the diversity in the community from service learning. When I go into the new community and work in it, I face with a lot of different people and the diverse culture in it. I am sure that this experience produces the awareness of diversity. For instance, I can aware the different culture of people from different states through living in Global House, an international dormitory in ICU. In the lives in Global House, I really felt the importance of respects to the different culture because, if people in my dormitory do not take care of other’s culture, it would probably cause conflicts between them. I experienced such conflicts many times, thus I know that people should put importance on respecting the different culture. However, the awareness of diversity always makes me have curiosity about the gap between different cultures. I hope that I visit new community and experience more awareness in it.

 

Finally, I can acquire new skills by engaging in the service learning. In the activities of service leaning, I would pass through many experiences and gain new skills. And the skills would be different from the place to place. For example, I can develop the skills to educate and communicate with children in program of teaching supports. And I can also develop the skills to cooperate with people from different cultures in program of group works. It is difficult to acquire these skills in daily lives in Japan. 

  In conclusion, I think the risks in the Service Learning Program are worth taking basically for the four reasons; to develop the ability to solve something that actually happened, to aware the self-consciousness of the responsibility to the community, to experience the diversity in the community, and get new skills. I would like to dedicate myself hardly to the program and develop myself as a person who has fully responsibility to the community in which I engage in the program.

Week Five Required Post

Conflict

Expedition Log

In answering questions, I think of "my organization" as global house, which is an international dormitory where I am living.

1.     What are the norms about conflict in the culture of your organization? What is the level of openness? Do team members share their opinions openly and dealt with problems directly, or do they raise conflict in oblique, indirect, or passive-aggressive ways?

Global house has the norms about conflict; a dormitory meeting. The meeting is held once in a month and everyone living in global house is forced to attend it. We often discuss issues about our dormitory, especially the issue about budget. I think that this meeting promotes dormitory members to share their opinions openly because of two reasons below.

First, whoever has an opinion can show it with raising his/her hand. There is good atmosphere that any opinions get warmly welcomed.

Second, the meeting uses both English and Japanese. This is important for both Japanese students and International students to understand the dormitory issues and share their opinions.

2.     How many Mooses are there in your organization? Are there taboo topics that affect performance but never discussed? Consider a Moose roundup, or some other proactive way of initiating a discussion about these off-limit topics?

The Moose in our dormitory is OB/OG visitors who used to live in our dormitory and already graduated from it. We have a rule about visitors: visitor hour finishes at 11 p.m. that means no visitors after 11 p.m. However, the border of the rule is ambiguous for OB/OG visitors and no one criticize them when they violate the rule. Everyone finds that this is a problem but no one touches it. 

Therefore, in order to initiate a discussion about this, we first should consider the visitor rules for OB/OGs and make a clear decision to allow them to be in our dormitory after visitor hours or not.