Question: Need a 125 word reply to each of the following 3 forum post made by my classmates - 375 words total) (organizational development class)(these are replies to my peers post to original forum questuon. See attached for orginal forum question).
Forum 1: I have often been put in similar situations to Todd and would have acted similar in some ways and completely different in other ways. While the premise of the meeting was somewhat surprising the tone of CQI was there.
I am a strong believer in full transparency. I have found that in my experience transparency goes a long way with your customers and internal staff. I would have acted similarly during the initial meeting, by doing the standard question asking that I normally do. I would conduct the meeting as business as usual. I would have asked for a follow up meeting in a few days to a week before the conclusion of meeting one. I would've asked for the follow up meeting with the premise that after we have reviewed and gathered the information we'd like to do a scope session style meeting.
This would give me the opportunity to discuss with my employer my concern on what the customer wants and where my skill sets lie. In addition to that I would also address the issue that what the customer is asking for is not truly addressing some of the underlying issues.
In the follow up meeting with the customer I would use that opportunity to address where my expertise lies, how I can help, and how I will ramp up on the CQI side to also address their desire to improve in that area with assistance from other team members.
I always prefer to be honest and open up front so that expectations are set across the board. This transparency sets the expectation for all parties while maintaining professional integrity, but still acting in the best interest of the client.
Forum 2: If I was placed in a similar situation as Kindred Todd, I would do the same thing she did. I think she handled the situation well. She had to preserve her integrity and values. But her attempt to be reassigned was denied and she basically had to do the job or leave. Even though she did not tell the client she wasn't an expert in CQI, she gained valuable knowledge and experience by deciding to complete the assignment.
I hate having to say "I don't know" or "No, I can't do..." at my job. I think it makes me look incompetent. I would much rather say "let me find out" or "let me see what I can do". I have actually been put in a similar situation in my current job. We recently transitioned from having an outside accounting firm do our accounting work to moving it in-house. The work moved in with me. During the first month while I was still adjusting and figuring out how to do all the assigned tasks, my boss asked me to create an extensive report for one of our long-time donors. My boss and I knew I had never done it before. At first I thought it was impossible. When I asked the last accountant how the report was done, she told me it took her about two weeks to complete it but her copy of it had been misplaced. After a few hours of research, the report only took me two hours to complete. The donor was very happy with the report was surprised at how soon it was delivered to him. I learned from the experience and now my boss thinks I am more than capable to do my job.
In Kindred Todd's case, she was not fully honest with the client. But the client still had a consultant who did everything in her ability to provide them with the best results. She still did her job with the client's best interest in mind.
Forum 3: I think the case of Kindred Todd is a very familiar one for many of us. I have found myself many times faced with a task that I had not previously encountered and was forced to learn, sometimes on the spot. In this scenario, Todd did the right thing by not accepting or denying the title of an expert in CQI and instead moving the meeting into a direction she was comfortable with. Especially being a novice in her career, this client is a huge milestone for her future and I feel she handled it as such. While her boss mislead her about the situation, he also set her up to appear more credible to the client, which ultimately worked in Todd's favor. Additionally, while reading the case study, I thought in my own situation I would use the allotted time to learn as much as I can about what the client was asking for and then use that knowledge to show them how it may help a symptom, but offer other solutions to the core root of the problem.
While I do not think that I would have left the firm under similar circumstances, I think Todd did the right thing by resigning. She considered who she was, and what she wanted from her career and made the difficult decision to cut ties when she felt her values no longer aligned with her employer.