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“Does group thinking impact your context and how might you change this?”
Yes- the strategies and approaches I read about totally fit what I experience.
For example, I work in a team whose knowledge is uniquely held in the organisation as guardians of our holistic learning and assessment model. In the leadership team, I am the sole educational representative and continually needing to challenge their language of business. Their managerial discourse is fixated and it’s really hard to push against the influence of this “cognitively central” voice. We (my Learning and Development Team) are often put on the periphery and struggle to gain influence and buy-in to best practice.
The strategies and approaches I read about this week totally fit what I experience.
For example, I work in a team whose knowledge is uniquely held in the organisation as guardians of our holistic learning and assessment model. In the leadership team, I am the sole educational representative and continually challenging their language of business. Their managerial discourse is fixated and it’s really hard to push against the influence of this “cognitively central” voice. We are often put on the periphery and struggle to gain influence and buy-in to best practices.
Ways to address:
- Focussing on those I can influence is helpful- finding allies and not getting distracted or slowed down or depressed by the entrenched views.
- Communicating with my senior leader to ensure all sides of issues are documented- in minutes, etc- keeps alive the debates.
- Refusing to be silenced and taking advantage of multiple channels of information.
- Telling real stories about why it really matters that we do not succumb to reducing assessment to ticks in a box.
- Remembering the difference between my past experience of being bullied at school and who I am now so I don’t let old feelings overwhelm or stop me in a moment.
- Recognising within myself my own human desire to please and that this gets in the way- be brave, speak up when I can but forgive myself when I just don’t have the energy in a given moment.
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