A500.9.4.RB_SchreterPaul

This course was very difficult for me. Initially it was because I hadn’t taken a class in over two years and so I had to get readjusted to new study habits. Then after I became adjusted, work and life events started to kick off and things became very stressful. While things have slowed down just a tad at work, the constant change of pace that I’m getting thrown into adds for new challenges. But to reflect on my experiences thus far, I’m going to talk about a positive aspect of this course, a negative aspect of this course, and finally what I expect in future courses.

Learning about the SEE-I method has proved to be a very positive experience for me. Mainly in the sense that it forced me to come up with a metaphor to try and explain a complex idea. I feel like this is an important ability in leadership that cannot be underestimated. While I wouldn’t say I’m a metaphor god, the idea of trying to come up with random ones stretches my imagination to new areas that I’m not used to. It’s not so much about teaching a man to fish, but more to teach him how to fish upside down.

               I found the discussions to be a little negative in nature. Not so much about the people or the discussion themselves, but the lack of the human element. To me it seems like every person may as well just be a number and I’m just responding to that number. I feel like the experience could have been better if we had profile pictures or avatars that allowed us to have a face to the name. Faces are easy to remember, names… not so much.

               So what do I expect out of my future courses? Well the big one that I’m looking forward to is my next course, which I believe is titled leadership communication. While I’m not entirely certain what to expect out of it, I certainly hope to come out with a new vision on communication altogether and apply it to my everyday professional and personal life. Very much like making a new friend in the UK, even though we speak the same words, our languages are so far apart from one another that I’m constantly learning new ways to express ideas.

               So this was a quick and simple overview on some of the positive and negative aspects of this course and what I expect in future courses. While I am uncertain about many aspects of this overall curriculum, so far it’s a journey that I want to continue forth and finish. Every long journey begins with a single step and this course was that step.