Life lessons from the MPA program

This week in "MPA Class Updates That Are Likely Uninteresting to Most," I'm sharing my response to a discussion board for my Organizational Management and Behavior class. The professor listed eight sentence prompts for which we had to complete the sentences, delving into our own personality and management traits. I had fun writing it, so maaaybe some of you will have fun reading it? If you're interested at all in leadership and organizations, you'll find some food for thought, at least.

A good organization has...healthy channels of communication both vertically and laterally.

A skilled manager must...rely on the skills of others at appropriate times, not just her/his own skills.

A leader always...has more responsibility than a follower. I think it’s very difficult to be a good leader, and yet it’s a worthy and compelling endeavor.

When someone wants to be influential in organizations, he or she must...make friends with those at the bottom of the hierarchy, not just those at the top.

I’m thinking of a case study I read last semester for another class where the newly hired CEO of a hospital made a point of walking around the various units and speaking to nurses, patients, families, etc. She did this on a regular basis despite her busy schedule. She also held regular “town halls” to hear from staff, and made sure that these town halls were scheduled at various times of the day and night to accommodate all workers’ schedules. The result was that the vast majority of staff really liked the CEO, and when it came time for implementing changes, she had the unwavering support of nearly all stakeholders.

In order to get ahead in organizations, I always...try to embody a learning and growth mindset. There is always more to learn, and by taking those learning opportunities whenever they arise, you make yourself more and more valuable to the organization.

As a leader, I like to...remain in touch with the needs of those around me. We all know far too many stories of managers who create policies that are actually detrimental to the organization, but the manager thinks these policies are a great idea, simply because s/he is so out of touch with the realities of the work. If anyone has seen the movie Hidden Figures (which I highly recommend!), there’s an emotional scene where Katherine finally breaks down and explains to her boss about a circumstance that is impeding her work. The boss leaves the room, takes matters into his own hands, and changes that circumstance immediately. He recognized that the system was preventing his employee from doing her best work, and without delaying, utilized his power to change that system for the better. To me this is an inspiring moment, and reflects (to some degree at least) the type of supervisor I want to be.

When faced with conflict, I usually...have to force myself to be assertive rather than withdrawing into passivity. I’ve learned quite a bit about healthy conflict, so I know in theory what is ideal, but it’s much more difficult to exercise those behaviors in practice!

My strengths as a manager include...open-mindedness to different ways of doing things. I think it’s important to continually ask ourselves why we are doing things a certain way. Simply saying “because we’ve always done it that way” isn’t a good enough reason. This is one point that’s come up for me several times while reading about the different organizational frames. While it isn’t a bad thing to continue old practices, we have to regularly re-evaluate whether or not those practices are actually the best fit for the organization. As the organization goes through different seasons of it’s life, it’s likely that the best approach to management will also evolve.

2017 goals

I'm aware that it's customary to write about goals around the New Year, but as a way of staying mindful of our goals after the New Year's glow has faded, I'm sharing my list now.

1. Run a 10K. I've run several 5Ks in the past (never all that well) and this year, I intend to take on a bigger challenge. My dad is a longtime marathon runner, and my sister ran a 10K last year, so I feel like genetically I should be able to get into good shape for running.

Also, I've always loved running in the same way that I love dancing: I'm not particularly good at either one but both are exhilarating. They both make me feel like I inhabit my body more deeply, more fully. I love that feeling.

2. Travel. I didn't put any specifics on this. I just want to do it, to whatever extent is possible.

3. Stay politically aware, and become more active in civic protest. In recent years I've become a lot more knowledgeable about U.S. politics, and in recent months I've begun calling my representatives' offices to voice support and opposition. (Usually opposition, it seems.) I want to continue those practices and also attend more protests and rallies.

4. Read 50 books. In 2015 and 2016, I set my goal at 40 and exceeded it by 3 or 4 books, so in theory this should be doable.

I set that numerical goal right around the new year, but this week I added another component, which is the much more important part: I decided that this needs to be a year in which I read more books by people of color than by white people. I've become more and more convinced that we need to let people of color lead in the struggle toward racial justice. Reading their books isn't by any means the only way I plan on doing that, but it's a way. So that means 26+ books.

When I made this decision, I automatically assumed that I was already behind and would need to catch up. But as it turns out, I had read six books so far, and three of them were written by non-white authors. So I'm on my way. If you're interested, you can track my progress on Goodreads.

I invite you to join me for any and all of these goals! I'm particularly interested in your recommendations of books by non-white authors. Let me know what your favorites are!

Wanderlust: San Antonio

This post is so belated I almost considered not even bothering. But it's fun to think back on our retreat weekend, so here it is.

The annual retreat for Service Adventure leaders was in San Antonio, Texas this year. We spent a hilarious, heartwarming, joyful, encouraging, and profound five days with the other unit leaders and two Mennonite Mission Network staff, including these lovely folks right here.

We ate SO MUCH amazing food.

We also visited the Alamo, so now we can remember it.

We walked around the river walk

where we saw some ducks

and listened to Susan practice for her dream job as a tour guide.

In between all this sightseeing we also had some meetings, but those didn't prove to be quite as photogenic.

We also spent lots of time goofing off at the giant house where we all stayed.

We visited this park Sunday morning.

Sondra and Bob were adorable as always.

Some of us climbed trees.

Some of us splashed around in the water.

All of us participated in an impromptu "boat" (i.e. leaf/twig/grass) race down the little stream, which was so exciting that no one could be expected to take any photographs.

We also went to one of several historical mission sites, more to enjoy the delightfully warm weather than to commemorate our country's rich history of cultural imperialism (in which white people offered food and resources to the native people in exchange for religious conversions).

Most of our group left Sunday, but we stayed an extra day to go to a Spurs home game. They lost. Daniel doesn't want to talk about it.

The next day, before leaving on an evening flight, we explored more of the city, including the botanical gardens.

Krista and Leah were also staying around for some extra sightseeing, so we were lucky enough to spend the day adventuring with them.

And such a fun adventure it was.

Lately I've done enough traveling to satisfy my wanderlust for a little while, but who knows how soon it will strike again...

Look Up

After a weekend spent attending the funeral of a friend who was overwhelmingly loved, I have been waking earlier than usual and sitting at the kitchen table in the pre-day dim light. Waiting for my thoughts to settle.

I saw countless friends from near and far at the services, but what surprised me were the unplanned encounters in the surrounding area with friends I did not expect to see. My cousin on the campus of Goshen College. A Harrisonburg friend at the Mennonite Mission Network offices, meeting with the committee for the new hymnal. A college friend at Maple City Market. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be in the midst of a deeply intersectional community, where my identity is bigger.

As for the service, it was beautiful and it was good and it was awful. As witnesses, we staggered under the weight of truths from the mouths of the most brokenhearted. It felt wrong to even expect that the family and close friends would deliver wisdom, inspiration, beauty, but that is what they did. They bore testimony to a life well lived. And yet nothing about it felt okay. Nothing came close to being okay.

It called to mind -- albeit painfully -- the truth that an easy life is not granted in accordance with how much any of us deserves one.

I understood in a new way that funerals are not for the dead. Funerals are for the living. For we did not grieve for her, not really; we grieved for ourselves, being without her. She has escaped her body, escaped all pain, forever. She is shrouded in more radiance and joy than any of us can understand. And yet we miss her. Oh, we miss her. We miss her with the collective heaviness of five hundred souls who gather in a church, just to listen and to cry and to bear witness to a tragedy we will never understand, but one that was ordained from the beginning.

Look up.

Love what God has created.

This is what we know.

Holiday photo recap

In the spirit of getting things done before grad school starts again on Tuesday, here's a semi-random, non-linear update. What follows will be an incomplete but well-intentioned summary of my holidays, so take that for what it's worth.

This first photo is unrelated to anything, but deserves to be included for the novelty: Marle's common-in-Germany-but-not-in-the-States poppyseed twist.

Daniel and I spent December 24-January 5 in Virginia visiting many of our wonderful family members and seeing some friends as well. It was great to reconnect in person, and also to reflect on the meanings of place and people in my life (and the interconnectedness of the two).

If you look closely here, you can tell that my in-laws' Christmas tree is baby-proof on the bottom half only, to accommodate my two toddler nephews.

Game night with the fam.

Gifts with the in-laws.

Cousins.

More games.

New experience: My family went to the Melting Pot! So delicious.

This is the closest we got to a normal picture.

 I didn't take any other pictures of the food because I was too busy stuffing myself. I'm sure you understand.

After Daniel and I returned home from the holidays, our housemates threw a little surprise birthday party for Daniel's 29th birthday.

Mostly it featured tons of balloons. And cake.

Please take a minute to appreciate this birthday throne they crafted out of balloons and a dining room chair.

Unit love.

Next up: A list of goals for 2017...

The friendly sign found a friend

As you may remember, I put up my "Welcome your neighbors" sign at Thanksgiving.

It's been very hardy until now, but on Monday, we had record-breaking winds here in the Springs. There were sustained 50-60 mile-per-hour winds with gusts over 100 mph. Power outages were rampant, fallen trees and debris littered the streets, and the whole day felt vaguely apocalyptic. Our next-door neighbor's property currently looks like this:

Needless to say, my sign blew away. I wasn't too concerned, as I still have about fifty of them in my basement waiting to be distributed. (If you're in the COS area and want a sign, hit me up!) So I planned to replace it as soon as I was sure the apocalyptic winds had died down.

But the next afternoon, I looked out the front window, and lo, there was my sign. It was lying on the ground just inside our fence, with the only plausible explanation being that someone found it, knew it belonged to my house, and returned it.

As it turns out, the sign had not blown completely out of the ground, but broken: the metal post had severed neatly in half, with the bottom half remaining in the ground and the top half soaring to kingdom come. So I stuck it back in the ground, shorter this time, but equally heartwarming.

To my neighbor who found my sign, knew where it lived, and cared enough to return it home: thank you. You were the antithesis to the people who have stolen these signs in attempts to stifle the message, and I am so grateful to know you exist.

2016 books

Guys, I failed at my reading challenge last year. I got about six of the twelve and then mostly forgot about it for five or six months. (Not that I wasn't reading, I just wasn't reading books that fit these categories.) Here are the ones I did complete:

1. a book published this year (A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas)
2. a book you can finish in a day (Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon)
3. a book you've been meaning to read (Children of God by Mary Doria Russell)
4. a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF (The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, recommended by Anali)
5. a book published before you were born (Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer)
6. a book you've already read at least once (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

Nevertheless, I did meet my Goodreads challenge: I set my yearly goal at 40 books and read 44. Here are some favorites, in no particular order, which I would recommend to just about anybody.

• Uprooted by Naomi Novic: A lush, gorgeous, Polish-fairy-tale-inspired fantasy. The magic in this story is among the most poetic and vividly imagined I've ever read.
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Essential reading for anyone aspiring toward racial justice. The beginning pages are rather heady, possibly to the point of being off-putting, but it gets easier and is absolutely worth it. I can't say much else about it except that this one should probably be required for everybody.
• Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson: The first novel in the Gold Seer trilogy takes place during the 1849 gold rush and follows a gutsy, smart, anti-stereotype heroine and her diverse cadre of pioneering adopted family members. I loved so many things about this book, but most of all I loved the author's adept tackling of marginalization and bias, set during a time when anti-bias sentiment was decidedly unpopular.
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: An adorable and hilarious novel taking place in a newspaper office at the turn of the millennium. I couldn't get enough of these characters and their witty, endearing, compulsively readable interactions.
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card: I'm a few decades late to this one, but it's timeless enough to be appreciated anytime. I adored its handling of cultural and social anthropology, which made it much more engaging to me than the battle school setting of its predecessor, Ender's Game. It's also surprisingly relevant to the current political and social climate of the United States.

If you have read or plan to read any of these books, I'd love to talk about them with you! I'm always open to new book recommendations, too. Happy bookish new year!

Wanderlust: 2016 States

The most recent item on the list "Things my husband could be annoyed about, but isn't" is this: I keep talking about how desperately I want to take another international trip. One time after harping on about how this should be the easiest time of our lives to travel, I realized that we've actually been doing a ton of traveling. The fact that all of it has been in the United States doesn't mean it isn't true. (And furthermore, this isn't actually the easiest time to travel: Our income is tiny, I'm in grad school, we don't have jobs with built-up PTO, and we have a lot of Service Adventure-related responsibilities.)

Anyway, Service Adventure has blessed us with a lot of stateside traveling. So, at the end of the year, I'm reflecting back on the travels we've done in 2016 and feeling thankful for the opportunities. Here are the states we've spent time in. Relevant blog posts from these trips are linked below, in case you've missed them.

1. Colorado -- obviously, because we live here, but still worth mentioning, as it's the setting for a multitude of adventures.
2. California -- The Service Adventure leaders had a retreat in San Diego in mid January. It was a lovely little change of scenery and infusion of warmer weather into our winter.
3. Kansas -- In April, the Service Adventure unit took a recruiting trip to central Kansas. We spent a few days talking to high school students about the program, as well as exploring Sarah's home area with visits to the Cosmosphere and a salt mine.
4. Wyoming -- Every Service Adventure unit takes a trip together as the program is drawing to a close, and we took ours to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Gorgeous area and fun people!
5. Virginia -- From mid June to late July, Daniel and I spent time in VA with many of our family and friends. A highlight was our first time attending the Red Wing Roots Music Festival.
6. Alaska -- The Service Adventure leader orientation took place in Anchorage at the end of July this year! It was an amazing chance to visit the largest U.S. state, and we spent three whirlwind days on Kodiak Island afterward. It was one of the more unforgettable trips of my life thus far.
7. New Mexico -- We trekked to our adjacent state in early October for the annual hot air balloon fiesta and spent a happy weekend with the Albuquerque Service Adventure unit. Albuquerque is an interesting city with a vibrant Southwest culture, and I enjoyed getting to know it for a second time (since we visited last year for the balloon fiesta as well). For me, the highlight this year was viewing the nighttime cityscape from Sandia Crest at 10,000 feet.

So, consider this your year-end reminder that travelling is incredibly worthwhile, and you don't have to go far to be stretched in new ways. Here's to more travels in 2017!

Holiday happenings

An evening project: Decorating our new Christmas tree, freshly cut from the Colorado forests that afternoon.

We named it Tom.

A Saturday project: Baking Christmas cookies. Here's our intrepid cookie leader.

And a few helpers.

Later we set out to decorate all the cookies, and made it through about half before losing stamina. I found that my husband has a heretofore-undiscovered-by-me talent: Cookie art. I was amazed.

LOOK AT THE STRIPES ON THOSE MITTENS.

The whole crew, plus one...

...because Sarah came to visit! What a happy time.

Initialed.

Hiking at Red Rock Canyon & Open Space.

I never get tired of this daily sight.

 The housemates at the Festival of Lights, Colorado Springs's annual downtown parade.

I went to a sprouting class! Courtesy of Pikes Peak Urban Gardens, I now know how to grow my own sprouts at home in the winter. My first batch has been underway for a week, and about half of the seeds have burst open to reveal little pale white sprouts. I'm so proud.

Those are some of the holiday happenings around here...What merry sights are gracing your home these days?