Friday November 2nd was my first session in the AIM IT Leadership Academy at CSG International.  

When I arrived to the conference room, I had an assigned seat. The Agenda for the day was laid out at my table.  

The class started with Introductions. I told everyone my name Anthony Carlson. I work at Farm Credit Services of America. I shared that I am the person who responds to messages at strange hours.  

The first exercise we did at our table was designing a leader. The hard part of this activity was determining if the traits we talked about should apply to everyone or just a person we wanted to exist.  

After this activity we dived into Emergentics. Emergenetics is a response profile tool that helps you and your team to understand yourself and each other. A folder was handed out that had our group information and personal information.  

There are 4 ways of thinking in my profile. If you think like this you will always be like this is a wrong approach to thinking. Learn to separate different ways of thinking out.  

In looking at the behaviors the questions were asked. How much energy do you put into things? The words your using to talk to others, are they close to your heart? The willingness to accommodate the thoughts and actions of others.  

People will observe behavior before the see the way you are thinking. The social response is to ask what you are thinking and not see your behaviors.  When you read a audience you are in conceptual and analytical mindset which happens more in IT related functions.   

Intent Impact Model:

Is the intention getting the impact. The common theme is the message you send is interrupted in different ways.  

How do you want to be treated over How I treat everyone. If you think only one way you might miss something.  

What motivates you to learn? It is not that you cannot do different aspects of your profile. It is exhausting to do things that do not come naturally.  

Capstone Project

In the middle of the day we were put in groups of 2 to 3 individuals. I was partnered with a employee of Team Software and Werner Enterprises. Our group is to deliver a 10-minute presentation related to Emotional Intelligence on Agile Teams. A one-page document was given with guidelines to follow. The date of the project delivery will be in April.  

Project goals : 

• Research and data 
• Proven metrics 
• Pace and flow of what we think is considered Agile 
• Try to be visionary: How we think the future of Agile will look.  
• Include everyone 

Ending Thoughts

The first session was well done. We had a great facilitator and the pace was just right. I look forward to sharing all the information from the session with my accountability buddy and my leader at work.

These were my three actions I took from this course.

1. Find empathetic ways when working with others I don’t understand.
2. Practical thinkers are predictable that is ok, make connections.
3. Try to appreciate how different everyone is.