Artifact 2

Narrative

During my time as an instructor of Leadership at the United States Naval Academy I volunteered to co-teach an elective class for junior and senior students called Culture and Leadership. To prepare for the class, I had to create a syllabus with outcomes that correlated to outcomes needed for academic study as outlined by the university’s academic dean as well as carry a vision for the structure of the class that would enable the sensemaking process for our students. To create a syllabus that aligned with our Leadership Department and created an interdisciplinary environment, I and two other instructors collaborated to create this class to cultivate leadership among our midshipmen. What made our team interdisciplinary was not just the gathering of three different instructors, it was the blending of three different military services and a completely different set of experiences that allowed us to show how complexity and uncertainty could be addressed through the integration of our instructors (Bloomquist, C. D., & Georges, L. (2022). (DEL OUTCOME 5) Ancona (2012), referenced sensemaking as simply structuring the unknown, which in our sense, was the complete truth. I utilized existing literature to shape my understanding of the concepts and create a design that flowed through the 16-week semester. (DEL OUTCOME 1).  

Through the review of literature and collaboration with co-teachers, I was able to create a product that generated new knowledge for our students in a space and curriculum of leader development not typically seen in their normal path to commission as officers in the US military. Before our elective was offered, there were no classes in the leadership curriculum that drew parallels between culture and leadership to enhance the development of the individual leader (Day, et al., 2014). (DEL OUTCOME 6).