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.

Week Four Required Post

Core Team Values

The author says in chapter6," Willingness to admit mistakes is [...] way of minimizing status differences, and I am always impressed by leaders who can say they were wrong." 

As I read this chapter, I remember the former Prime Minister Kan's reluctance to admit mistakes in his attempt to the 3.11 earthquake and the accidents at Fukushima nuclear power plant. I was really surprised to his attitude as if everything he's doing were all right even though many people had been criticizing him. As far as I know, politicians seldom admit their mistakes and attempt a modification of a planned course of action. Are these characteristics only found among elites such as politician?

I think leaders should admit mistakes and try not to stick to a planned action. Shackleton was outstanding in this point as he did when he had a mistake about the amount of ballast. He realized his mistake and admitted it directly, saying " You were right." This phrase looks easy to use in an ordinary situation, but it actually very difficult in a critical moment especially for those who are in position of leader.

Therefore, the ability to admit mistakes is essential for leaders!

Week Three Required Post

 Optimism and Reality

Expedition Log

Q: How do you typically react when faced with adversity or potential setback? What do you say to yourself- what goes on in your inner dialogue?

 When I faced with adversity, I typically say to myself," Whether should I deal with this adversity by myself or with someone?" I know from my life experience that most of adversity require people to cope with others, and by getting helps from others the burden of it become lighter.

Q: Are there changes that you can make to this "self-talk" that will create a more optimistic view and enable you to bounce back more quickly?

  I think I can share the adversity with those who are close to me if it is possible. I could get some useful advice or optimistic view from them.

Q: Think about a current business challenge you are facing. What are you doing to instill optimism in your team or organization? Does your language communicate  confidence and hope? Have you been able to reframe this situation in a convincing way?

  The current challenge that I am facing is the communication problem between Japanese students and International students in soccer club. In the soccer club, most of communication are conveyed in Japanese, therefore International students often misunderstand it. 

 What I am doing to instill optimism in soccer club is to teach the International students some Japanese language which Japanese students usually use in playing soccer and to communicate in English with the International students as many as possible. This could reframe this difficult situation and it creates good atmosphere in soccer club that lead us to a success.

Week Two Required Post

Vision and Quick Victories

Defining a Long-Term vision

Q: What is The Edge Goal for your organization-the ultimate destination for the expedition you have  undertaken?

 The Edge Goal for my team is to rise in status from the Third Section of the Tokyo Soccer League to the Second Section. My team, ICU soccer club have never been to the Second Section since it was founded. Therefore, the goal is not limited to our generation. To achieve the goal, our team have to be the champion in the Autumn competition of Third Section.

Focusing Energy on Short-Term Goals

Q: What are the key opportunities for action?

 Before the Autumn competition, we have another competition, that is, Spring competition. In the Spring competition, we don't have to win in the all of the game. However, this competition is really important to construct good team enough to win in the Autumn competition.