Simarjit Shergill

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Category: Unit 1 (Page 1 of 2)

Response

January 7, 2018 / / 1 Comment

This is in response to the question in Leona’s post https://create.twu.ca/soleona/2018/01/07/ldrs591-unit-1-activity-1-3/

“Where have you witnessed the negative outcome of misinformation, and what were the results?” There are 2 topics which I would like to bring up for discussion here.

  1. Vaccines. For decades medical research has supported use of vaccines for prevention of disease, and have even successfully led to the eradication of certain diseases like Smallpox ( we seem to be headed towards eradication of Polio) . In recent years there has been a wave of ‘antivaccers’ , based on some ‘studies’. This makes one wonder where these doubters are getting their information from ? Did they apply basic understanding of scholarly inquiry to the information being disseminated through these ‘studies’?
  2. Climate change. There are believers and non believers in the theories of global warming and the reasons behind it. Scientists everywhere have proven through what seem to be peer reviewed and solid research based studies that there is indeed global warming and humans seem to be in a major way responsible for climate change. On the other side there are the non-believers in global warming. From what I have seen so far, they seem to be basing their arguments on ‘misinforming’ anecdotes.

I believe that the fundamentals of scholarly inquiry should be part of secondary or post secondary education , so that everybody learns to discern information from misinformation.

Response

January 4, 2018 / / 1 Comment

This is in response to Layla’s post on worldview- https://create.twu.ca/layla11/2018/01/04/unit-1-activity-1-2/

I really like the way she has consolidated the the five principal factors that she thinks influence one’s decision making. Having said this, I will move straight to her question, “How to reconcile opinions of different worldviews to reach an agreement when there is a conflict?” This somehow echoes my question about how does one reconcile their worldview with someone else’s or company policy, if they happen to differ? If we think of worldviews as a conscious or subconscious product of our experience and values, there are bound to be differences. In case of conflict because of differing worldviews, I think the guiding principle towards resolution of such conflict could be ‘what is for the greater good? ‘  Taking a step back and thinking about the collective good rather than personal gain ( or satisfaction), is a strategy that could possibly help resolve a lot of conflicts arising from differing worldviews. Others might argue that this would mean sacrificing one’s personal beliefs and agreeing to adopt someone else’s. I think we all are constantly trying to find the balance between being agreeable on one hand and staying true to one’s beliefs on the other. I would say that while persistence is a virtue, stubbornness is not.

Activity 1.3

January 3, 2018 / / 1 Comment

 

Unit 1 Learning Activities

Patton (2001) seems to be trying to influence the away from using the term ‘best practice’, instead urging them to focus on ‘lessons learned’. He also argues that when talking about ‘best practices’ , it is important to know the context, as well as to be discerning as to who is taking about them using what criteria. He seems to be skeptical about the universal applicability of evidence based practice.

In the second article, evidence-based education is defined as “the integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction.” (Whitehurst, as cited by Trybus, 2007).  The author,Trybus (2007) is concerned that the emphasis on ‘evidence’ risks converting teaching into a science rather than an art. She suggests balancing research with professional wisdom.

In the third article, the authors Walshe & Rundall (2001) primarily talk about evidence based practice in health care.  As per them evidence based practice originated in the health care field, but has now ‘ spread to fields outside healthcare, with the establishment of initiatives for evidence-based practice in social care, criminal justice, and education’ (Davies, Nutley, andSmith1999; Boruch, Petrosino, and Chalmers 1999). They also raise the argument that if the health care providers are expected to adopt evidence based decision making, then why not health care management?

I believe the ‘evidence’ these articles are referring to is what is supported by research studies. Being in health care we rely a lot on evidence to guide decision making. As Walshe and Rundall mention that prior to the widespread use of evidence based decision making, there was a lot of variability in the use of health care resources and also in decision making, leading to ‘underuse, ‘overuse’, or ‘abuse’ of resources. I agree with use of research based best practices in the delivery of health care. But on the other hand, I also think that overreliability on evidence takes away the ‘art’ from the practice of medicine, and even education. It risks leaving little room for innovation, individuality and creativity. I also agree with Walshe and Rundall in their argument that health care management ( and for that matter, management in other fields ) should also be held to the same standards of universality based on evidence that health care providers are held to .

I would like to close with a question- being in medicine I have been following evidence-based practice. Why has it not gained the same kind of applicability in the fields of education, social care, law and justice, and finance?

References

Boruch, R., A. Petrosino, and I. Chalmers. 1999. The Campbell Collaboration: A Proposal for Systematic, Multinational and Continuous Reviews of Evidence. London: School of Public Policy, University College London

Davies, H.T.O., S.M. Nutley, and P.C. Smith. 1999. What Works? The Role of Evidence in Public Sector Policy and Practice. Public Money and Management 19(1):3–5.

Patton, M. (2001). Evaluation, knowledge management, best practices and high quality lessons learned. American Journal of Evaluation, 22(3), 329-336.

Trybus, M. (2007). Understanding scientifically based research: A mandate or decision making tool? Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 5-8.

Walshe, K. & Rundall, T.G. (2001). Evidence-based management: From theory to practice in health care. The Millbank Quarterly, 79(3), 429-457

Whitehurst. G. Evidence-based education (slide presentation), www.ed.gov/nclb/metliods/whatworks/eb/evidencebased.pdf. As cited in Trybus , M. (2007). Understanding scientifically based research: A mandate or decision making tool? Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 5-8.

Activity 1.2

January 2, 2018 / / 3 Comments

 

Unit 1 Learning Activities

I have to confess that I hadn’t had the opportunity or reason to contemplate my worldview, much less put it in writing. This activity made me reflect on my worldview.  Merriam-Webster describes worldview as ‘a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint’; for the purpose of this post we will assume this is one’s individual standpoint. As per G. K. Chesterton “the most practical and important thing about a man is his view of the universe” (1986, p. 41). I believe there is a conscious or subconscious set of beliefs and values that determines most, if not all, our decisions and interactions; and this is my interpretation of the idea of worldview.

As per Valk et al (2015), leadership study “encourages awareness of one’s own view or vision of life as a means to better engage with others. ” In my case, my decisions as a leader are not much different from my decisions as a human being, In terms of my personal interactions, my decisions are based on empathy. I strive to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you ‘ . In a professional or organizational context I tend to make decisions depending on what works for the larger good. I also tend to be frugal and try to do the most with the least.  Valk et al (2015) state that ” One’s view of the world is initially shaped by the immediate context out of which one emerges—family, community, social, and cultural environments.” If we added religion to this statement, it would explain the basis of my worldview in totality. In this sense I agree with the authors that one’s worldview influences our process of seeking answers. I grew up in a culture and society that has limited resources, and that has made me very averse to waste. I also belong to a religion that believes in sharing and kindness, hence my empathetic approach to leadership. Having said that, I would like to argue that not all decisions made by one are based on their worldview, especially in our professional lives. I for one can confirm that a lot of my decisions are based on hard -core research, expert opinion , best practices or company policy.

Sometimes our worldview conflicts with company policy or professional expectation. How does one reconcile the two ? What if one had to choose one or the other?

 

References

Chesterton, G. K. (1986). The collected works of G. K. Chesterton (Vol. 1). San Francisco, CA: Ignatius.

Valk, J.; Belding, S.; Crumpton, A.; Harter, N.; Reams, J. (2011). Worldviews and Leadership: Thinking and acting the bigger pictures. Journal of Leadership Studies. Summer2011, Vol. 5 Issue 2, p54-63.

Merriam-Webster. Retrieved Jan 2, 2018 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worldview. Retrieved

 

 

LDRS 591 Unit 1

January 1, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Research is an essential part of my professional life, as I am sure is true for everybody else in this course. I am a physician and we rely on research for most of our decision making. I subscribe to a few peer reviewed journals. I will confess that I don’t read all the studies reported in them. I mostly peruse the titles for articles that are relevant to my specialty, skipping those that report advances in non related specialties. Because of the sheer volume of research that is going on in the medical field and the necessity to keep up with evidence based practices, it is not possible to read every article that is published. I am not an academic practitioner, my interest is in the clinical applicability of the research. In the interest of time, I end up reading the abstract, and sometimes the detailed discussion and conclusions, mostly skipping the methods. This is true for the trusted journals in my field. If I were to come across a study/article from a source that I am not familiar with, I do try to read it critically to try and discern if the study was conducted using the appropriate methods and data analysis for scientific inquiry.

In addition to relying on research for keeping ourselves updated, we also use the latest reports of advances to treat our patients appropriately . I am not in a formal leadership role in my organization. But as a physician I rely in research and updates to formulate what is the best advice for my patients. In this sense I am the defacto leader of the patient care team. Recently there have been some discussions and changes in Blood pressure guidelines. We are implementing changes in our practice to reflect those. This involves training and education our staff as well as educating our patients. These recommendations are mostly based on recent peer reviewed research reports, along with some input from past experience as well expert opinion. Another example of research guiding my practice is the current influenza season. We are treating and providing prophylaxis to our patients based on currently available research and our organizational policy, guided by past experiences. In this context we also follow the recommendations from the county health department, which I believe can be categorized as expert opinion.

I am not an expert in research methods, and think of myself more as a semi-informed user. I am looking forward to learning more about leadership and scholarly inquiry. ‘Evidence-based leadership’ is a new concept for me, and I am excited to explore it further.

 

 

Servant Leadership response

October 4, 2017 / / 1 Comment

This is the third of my late responses to Unit 1 activities !

I am responding to nocontest’s question – ” How do you practice increasing your awareness in situations where time is limited, and emotions may be higher than normal? ”

Here is a link to their blog.

I had earlier responded to this on the comments section of their post. I would like to elaborate my thoughts on this .

I agree that self awareness can sometimes take a back seat , especially when we are very invested in an issue. Sometimes our own emotions or past experiences might come in the way of being objective about an issue . I struggle with this too sometimes, though I wouldn’t put this on the top of the qualities that I think are most important to being a good leader. What I have found helpful sometimes is putting my in the other person’s shoes  .  Another strategy that I have found effective is just taking a pause – I call a ‘ time out ‘ and reflect . This helps in avoiding making any impulsive decisions or comments .  I do state here that I do not have any data or literature to support my arguments , these are anecdotal experiences.

Leadership definition

October 4, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I am posting all my responses to Unit 1 activities on the same day, as I just realized that we were supposed to post them in a separate post.

This is my response to mrwilliamsphysed question – ” do you feel Northouse’s ( 2016 ) definition of leadership is different depending on whether you are an assigned or emergent leader ? Here is a link to their blog: https://mrwilliamsphysed.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/ldrs500-2/

I dont think the definition differs for the two kinds of leaders, just the context does . Or more specifically the application does. The assigned leader has the ‘ power ‘ which is bestowed on them because of their designation, and do not necessarily have to work as hard to build a relationship with their followers. An emergent leader has to , as mentioned in the post itself, create a relationship with their peers/ followers . I believe the emergent leader does have to work harder to establish their position within the organization , and create influence .

I also would like to respond to the observation by Kellerman ( 2012 ) , that “Power used to be the domain of leaders, but that is diminishing and shifting to followers ” . I wouldn’t say that power has  shifted from leaders to followers, as much as that the leadership process is now understood to be more of a two way exchange , with increased awareness of each other’s role in the process .

Response Riggisonilap

October 3, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I apologise for not realising that the comments were supposed to be posted in a separate post. I have been responding to my co-students’ post on the comment section in their blogs

This is in response to Riggisonilap’ s question whether the distinction between leader and manager is different ?

Here is the link to their post –

Assigned and Emergent Leaders / Leadership and Management

I think this distinction between a leader and manager is relevant, because even though sometimes their duties might overlap, their overall roles in an organization are different. As you mentioned in your , ‘ people are differently gifted’ ; I would like to add that they are differently trained and might have different perspectives. I see the reason for this distinction at work everyday, where the team leader lays out his vision for the organization, and the manager makes sure the individual roles are carried out ( amongst the myriad other duties both of them perform

Follow The Leader

October 1, 2017 / / 1 Comment

 

I chose to follow Mr Bill Gates. He is the founder or Microsoft and one of the richest men on earth. But he is also the world’s leading philanthropist. I followed him on Facebook and Twitter. I also read Wikipedia to learn more about his early life .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

https://www.facebook.com/BillGates/

 

The one quality  that really impressed me was his encouragement of his successor. When Mr Satya Nadela took over as the CEO of Microsoft in 2014 , Mr Gates reportedly said to him  “ don’t try to be like me “ . Mr Nadela’s interpretation of this was very enlightening ; he took this to mean 2 things- one, was that it was foolish to try and replicate founders; his second inference was that Mr Gates was encouraging him to develop his own style of leadership . Mr Gates also praised  Mr Nadela , at his own expense . He said Mr Nadela was  “naturally great at a skill that took him years to learn- how to deliver feedback with empathy. ” As a de-facto team leader in many clinical situations in my practice , I often rely on other team members for patient education, scheduling etc. I also interact with specialists from other fields in my daily patient care . I appreciate their involvement, and believe in letting each member of the team feel empowered to bring in their unique experiences and perspective to try and provide better care to our patients .

Over the last few years Mr Gates has been dedicating his time and money towards promoting health and literacy in poor communities, mostly in Asia and Africa . Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , he has funded projects to make health care more available and affordable . He has also been promoting vaccination and women’s health, which are issues I feel very strongly about . Being a health care provider myself, I believe we all need to step up our charitable and philanthropic contributions, and be more involved in communities that need help .

Most of the twitter and Facebook feed I was able to gather was from Mr Gates’ followers, with an occasional contribution from Mr Gates himself .   He has 39.2 million followers on Twitter ! My advice to Mr Gates would be to use this platform to reach out to people who  want to be more involved in charity , but don’t know where to start, or how to contribute. He could also enlist more volunteers  to work with him in his projects. The benefits of this are twofold- he gets more manpower, and people from privileged backgrounds get exposure to the lives of the not-so-fortunate. Talk to your followers Mr Gates !

A disturbing ( to me ) piece of information I found about him in Wikipedia was that during his early days at Microsoft, he was known to be verbally combative and berated his managers for perceived holes in their business strategies [1][2] . I wasn’t able to discern whether this is still his leadership style. Doesn’t seem like it is, from what I recently learnt about his comments to the new Microsoft CEO . But I definitely do not agree with this style of leadership, where a leader believes in reprimanding their followers/ employees as a means of getting the best out of them . In my opinion encouragement , kindness and nurturing are more likely to bring about loyalty and efficiency from one’s followers than harsh words. Those in leadership roles should remember, nobody wants too be ‘ mediocre’ or to deliberately do a bad job. Different people just have different capabilities .

On his Facebook page, he lists his personal interests as – Philanthropy, Energy, Education, Health, Global Development . If we were to take these ‘ interests ‘as the principles by which he lives his life, I think they align very closely to my principles. I strongly believe that all of us should look beyond ourselves, seek a charitable cause that we can contribute to . In one of his tweets he said ” disease and poverty are solvable ” . There are a lot of issues the world is dealing with today that are solvable,  so those who are in a position to make a difference need to get involved. In another tweet he was quoted  ” Don’t wallow in failure . Instead learn from it ” . We all have or will have to face failure at some point in our lives. I agree with Mr Gates that dwelling on failure is self-defeating, instead we should use failure as a learning experience and move on .

References

  1. Rensin, David (1994). “The Bill Gates Interview”. Playboy
  2. Ballmer, Steve ( October 9,1997). “Steve Ballmer Speech Transcript- Church Hill Club “. Microsoft. Archived from The Original On April 20, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.

Servant Leadership

September 29, 2017 / / 2 Comments

To me the three most important principles of servant leadership are listening , foresight and building community

 

Listening is a learned discipline that involves hearing and being receptive to what others have to say ( Northouse , 2016, p.227) . In this definition the most important component is ‘being receptive’ . I practice listening in my role as a physician everyday . I am also very fortunate to be working with an immediate superior who is a great leader by virtue of his exemplary listening skills and empathy .

 

Foresight is the ability to anticipate future events and plan accordingly. As per Greenleaf, this comes with ethical responsibilities –  “a leader should be held accountable for any failures to anticipate what reasonable could be foreseen and to act on that understanding “. I had a foresight moment today. A patient came in to our clinic with a ‘ cold ‘ . I was the only physician in the office, and being that we are on the verge of flu season, I called an impromptu meeting with our clinic supervisor and put our flu protocols in place, for protection of our patients and staff.

 

“A community is a collection of individuals who have shared interests and pursuits and feel a sense of unity and relatedness” ( Northouse, 2016, p.229) A good leader is one who inculcates a sense of oneness amongst his followers, so as the collective moves together towards a shared goal . I had a chance to go to my daughters school for a ‘meet the teacher ‘ barbeque event. It was a very well organized event, in collaboration between the teachers and parents. I commend the school leadership in fostering this community , where we are all working towards one goal i.e the education of our children .

The most challenging of these to me is foresight – getting a chance to implement  future ideas is not always possible in a hierarchical setting

My question – I think foresight is something that you either have or you don’t . Can foresight be developed / cultivated ?

 

References

Greenleaf, R.K. ( 1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership Theory and Practice  seventh edition. Los Angeles: Sage.

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