1) What does Change emotionally, cognitively, physically, and spiritually demand of you? You need to use your own examples when discussing this question.
2) Discuss the following claim by Earl Shorris (Scenes from Corporate Life), “Man can only create himself through freedom; otherwise he is created an object, without dignity.”
3) Discuss how the LEARNING MODEL exploits Ambiguity/Uncertainty to achieve and promote Learning.
4) Elements in building a strong and resilient mind involve, amongst other things, weaning the mind off of extrinsic motives, such as grades. In this regard what will it take for you to volunteer to accept NO grade for this class, despite completing two excellent assignments? On the other hand, what does your willingness or unwillingness mean to you?
5) Discuss the following statement: “We choose dependency when we avoid ownership and responsibility by never confronting our own wish for safety and the importance we give our own self-interest.”
6) To become extraordinary requires us to do things that prepare us to be extraordinary. What for you are these things and what are you doing about them?
7) Discuss three examples about how you construct and co-construct dependent relationships (relationships that sustain our wish for safety, our own self-service, and our desire for control, especially the control of others).
8) Discuss: “Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.”
9) If you are interviewing a person for an employment opportunity in an organization that uses the New Organizing Model, what question would you ask that would reveal whether the person has the resiliency and emotional strength to thrive in an environment devoid of structure? What answer are you looking for? Finally, why do you believe this question will reveal this strength or lack thereof?
10) What discussions did you find most valuable in Margaret Wheatley’s book, Leadership and The New Science? Why did these discussions appeal to you?
11) When was the last time you truly learned something important on your own? What did this experience teach you about the rigors of learning and how could you help others learn similarly? Or can you?
12) Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and The New Science, has a graduate degree in communication. How is her discussion of chaos theory challenging your own understanding of communication?
13) The Learning Model is all about promoting RESILIENCE—the ability to fall, recover, and press on with vigor. How would you promote resilience in your personal and professional relationships?
14) How would you assess your own Uncertainty threshold? How does your own complexity threshold either expand or limit your communication practices?
15) After learning of the different organizing models in this class, what in the end did you truly learn about yourself that ends a delusion you have been living?
