ADIA

Learning about leadership concepts is what the first part of the course covers. Leadership is not really something you can learn or teach as it is something that is very personal and an individual trait. This sub-course is meant to focus on the first level of analysis, "Individual."

The first set of readings includes a paper which outlines different leadership frameworks. It goes on to explain how leadership is a very personal thing, and how command, an even more personal form of leadership, is a very refined art. It focuses on how taking the time for some deep introspection is a key attribute to becoming a better leader.

As you cannot order leadership in a box, there are different tools that have been developped over the years to help guide a person towards being a better leader. Of these are Total Quality Management (TQM), "Lean Six Sigma," "Seven Effective Habits," "5 S Leadership," and the "Balanced Scorecard," to name a few. TSDM will be focusing most of its efforts on the concept that all of these frameworks have one thing in comon, ADIA: Assess, Decide, Implement, Assure. This is a cyclical process that is a tool or technique to aid in leadership, but does not guarantee it.

Within the ADIA framework, five questions are asked which corrolate with the four stages of ADIA. These questions are very fundamental and most of the time take a lot of reflection to answer.

“Who am I?” in a sense requires a personal assessment of one’s personality and preferences, plus an examination of the “place” one occupies in an organization.

“Where are we?” requires an assessment of an organization and its environment, and the factors which impact them.

“Where should we go?” requires deciding on an organizational vision and strategy to guide and coordinate further efforts.

“How do we get there?” requires implementation actions to carry through on the strategy.

“Are we getting there?” requires controlling and measuring the performance of the organization to assure desired results.

The second reading is a case study about the USS NIMITZ. It is from the perspective of the XO, Hank, who is faced with troubling crossroads. His CO is adamant about the mission and operations, but does not want anything to do with the upcoming extended shore time and the planning that is involved in it. He is also junior to many of his fellow subordinates which makes for some interesting interactions and crossings of the chain of command. In the end, Hank needs to find a way to convince his CO that the planning of the upcoming shore time is of great importance and needs to be addressed now, even among real world operations.

Some pretty heavy reading already, for me, and I am making an effort to write what I think about each and every one of them so that I can understand them as much as possible. There are still three more readings for next week and I plan to get through them sooner than later. Not sure if I will write about them though. 

-Another great day