Category: Discussions/Homework

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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/8

1. When watching Renata Salecl’s TED talk her rhetorical approach stood out to me. She begins this talk about human’s unhealthy obsession with choice by stating a choice that she had to make when preparing. Since it is the first thing she discusses it sets a theme. She connects the topic to herself making it feel relatable. What was interesting was that the choice that she had to make was deciding between three quotes, these quotes were also about choice, giving the audience an example that stays directly on topic, making a clear and concise purpose. As she continues with the talk she uses quotes from philosophers, and psychoanalysts to prove her points, using credited people to back up her argument makes her seem more reliable to the audience. She also gives real-life examples about herself, or her friend’s experience, which allows the audience to connect to their own life. That engages the audience because they can picture themselves in the situations she speaks giving them a better understanding. She also uses language strategically, for example, she addresses the audience as you, making them feel like they are in a conversation. To conclude she goes back to what she talks about when she first begins the speech, the choice she had to make herself. This rounds out and connects all the points she made to one conclusion, it makes the talk feel more whole like there isn’t a cliff hanger or missing piece. Overall her rhetorical approach is convincing and showcases her purpose, that everyone has individual choices but we also need to focus on choices as a society.

2. Margaret Hefferman’s TED talk is a great example of how a speaker works with evidence. One form of evidence she uses is telling real-life stories. She tells these stories to introduce her topic of technology and human skills but she incorporates her own bias and judgment to show what side she is arguing. In the talk there are transitions from the real-life examples to her argument, connecting back between that evidence when she needs support in communicating her purpose. She makes her points more clear by summarizing the credited facts she includes as evidence, for example, she uses a word like “so what that means” to connect her evidence back to her claims. She walks the audience through the argument by using tools like metaphors to give them something to relate her point to. That allows her to talk about a wide variety of topics, such as global warming and company predictions, and still be able to relate it to her argument on efficiency and the unexpected. Evidence from past mentalities is paired with the thought of the future to encourage that her ideas enhance positive change that others should believe in.

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Discussion Post Week of 6/8, Dominique

  1. One of the TedTalks that I found interesting was Fried’s talk about work, and how people don’t actually get their work done at their offices. This speaker was very engaging and interactive with the audience. He was giving a formal speech, but spoke in a way that made it seem like he was having a conversation with just one person. He made jokes, and asked rhetorical questions that kept the audience thinking. He also spoke about the fact that he is manager, and that many managers need to work on not interrupting their employees, including himself. His awareness of this issue made him likeable, and easy to listen to. In order to explain his ideas, he gave the audience some insight into what it is like to be working, and have your day interrupted at the office. He also talked about employees, and how he has found that all of the people he talked to about the subject preferred to work somewhere other than the office. He spoke to the audience member’s experiences in their favor, which most likely helped them know that he understands their struggles at work. Overall, I thought that this TedTalk was very interesting, and made a lot of sense. 
  2. One of the talks that I listened to that I thought worked well with evidence was Heffernan’s speech. This is because she gave many examples that enriched the information she was speaking about. For example, she began her talk by speaking about a business chain that wanted to become more efficient. Heffernan says that this business embraced technology called a task allocator in order to do this. Instead of the business allowing for collaboration, the employees got assigned tasks, completed them, then went back to get more assigned. This did not end up being very efficient because the new technology could not predict different changes throughout the day at the grocery store. The main purpose of her talk was to show that if we rely on technology so much for efficiency, we will lack skills to deal with changes or unexpected occurrences throughout the day.  I believe that Heffernan was smart to begin her TedTalk with evidence like this because it gave the audience a clear understanding of what she was going to be talking about.
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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/8

This week you will be watching three TED talks and reading another article that all intersect with our big umbrella topic of organizational culture. (Think of this like a Venn diagram:

Venn diagram

I think this can be a helpful analogy because it is much the same tactic that we take in research: we are not simply looking for the one “perfect” source but rather for a source that interacts with our ideas in someway that move them forward. And the more voices we hear from in that research (the more perspectives we incorporate), the more likely we will arrive at a fuller understanding of the topic we’re examining.

For this week’s discussion I would ask that each of you respond to question #1 and then either #2 or #3. Please categorize your list as “Discussions/ Homework” and tag it with “week of 6/8,” “unit 1,” and [your name].

  1. We use the term “rhetoric” to discuss how we make arguments (what we do and how and why, not just what we say). Since a hefty portion of your work in this upcoming Expanding the Canon blog post hinges on rhetorical analysis, let’s do some practice–working with one of the TED talks for this week (Heffernan’s, Fried, or Salecl), talk to us about what you find interesting in their rhetorical approach. How do they engage the audience? What kinds of strategies do they use to explain their ideas? What do you think is interesting or significant about the way that they present their arguments and appeal to their listeners?
  2. Choose one of the talks that you watched this week and examine how this speaker works with evidence. What kind of evidence do they use? How do they explicate the connections between their evidence and their claims?  Be specific. How do they walk the audience through their argument? What are some of their argumentation tactics that you find effective? Note that you will need to watch the talk at least a second time, and take notes while you are doing it; you can also access a full transcript of the talk on the TED website.
  3. Choose one of the talks, and discuss how this presenter adds to our body of knowledge around organizational culture. Who is the speaker/author, and what kind perspective do they contribute? (You may need to do a quick Google search to get a sense of who they are.)  What kind of connections do you see between this take and other things we have been learning about organizational culture? If you were to make a Venn diagram (or a few) articulating the connections between this text and other ones that we’ve read, what would it look like? You can have some fun with this using an online Venn creator like this one or by sketching it out by hand and incorporating the image(s) into your post):

    Venn Diagram Maker Landing Page

    Please post your responses by the end of the day on Wednesday, 6/10, and respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts by the end of the day on Saturday, 6/13.

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Overview of Week of 6/8

We’ll be closing out Unit 1 this week, so that means your first Unit assignment deadline is approaching (Sunday, 6/14).

Read on for an overview of how we’ll be moving toward that:

Look for feedback from me in the next couple of days on the summary of your article that you submitted yesterday. You’ll work with that feedback to finalize your summary, which will become part of your Unit 1 blog post (along with your commentary on how this article would enrich our understanding of the specific organizational culture issue/area you’re exploring). Be sure to review the unit 1 assignment sheet. Consider your purpose carefully.

show & tell

While you’re waiting for that feedback, start thinking about and looking at your options for a media component (link, video clip, image, etc.) to incorporate into your post. You’ve got a lot of latitude to work with here. I suggest using the assignment’s purpose as your starting point. Here’s what I mean: while you’ve read this article (probably multiple times by now), your classmates probably haven’t. You’re suggesting that this text ought to be part of our canon, that looking at it would enrich our knowledge and understanding of this important issue. You need to show and tell us how that’s the case. You’ll be offering summary, analysis, and commentary. The media element is there to round that out. For example, your media component might:

  • provide some background knowledge that would be crucial to our understanding (i.e. through a link or a video)
  • contain some visual context for the scope or complexity of the issue (i.e. an infographic) or assist with our understanding of change over time or comparison (i.e. graph, chart)
  • offer an opportunity to explore this issue further (i.e. through a link) for those who want to learn more

You may incorporate more than 1 element if you would like; just make sure you have at least 1. Also be sure to attend to the following:

  • if using a link, make sure it is functional–use the “Add Media” button in the +New Post window to “Insert from url”
  • if using an image, make sure it is high-resolution so that it’s legible–again you’ll use the “Add Media” button to “Upload files” and “Insert into post”
  • if using an image, provide a caption that includes the source information (where you found the image–the actual web page, not just “Google search”)
  • whatever your media component, be sure that you explain its relevance in your post–don’t leave your reader to draw their own conclusions about its significance. Walk us through what you want us to learn from this item.

Here’s the other work on tap for this week:

  • draft of your blog post (let’s extend the deadline here to the end of the day on Wednesday, 6/10)
  • a few TED talks to watch (linked from Blackboard) for more perspectives on diversity and organizational culture (and in preparation for this week’s discussion)
  • discussion work on the blog–see the prompt here:

    Discussion prompts for Week of 6/8

I’ll be reading your drafts (due Wednesday) and getting you feedback by the end of the day on Friday. Your final version of the blog post is due by the end of the day on Sunday, 6/14.

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Dan discussion week of 6/1

  1. The articles “Understanding Key D&I concepts” and “Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage” both identify many significant problems that we face in our modern-day workplace. The former article describes a fictional workplace that is the epitome of most work cultures. The manager is struggling in the chaos of too many urgent tasks and is falling into the common behaviors of many ineffective managers. Those that are not in the inside group of upper management get little attention from her although she intends to do right by them. The latter article discusses how neurodiversity can play a great role in increasing the profitability of our businesses. Austin and Pisano provided multiple examples proving the success certain companies obtained by including neurodiversity people. Though if we intend to reap the benefits of our neurodiversity friends like those few companies, we must make organizational changes to provide a safe environment for them to thrive in. The workplace culture described by Kaplan and Donovan would not be suitable for this community of people. We will have to change at the individual level as well as the our organizations and the marketplace as a whole.
  2.  I started my research for something to contribute to our cannon by exploring one of the tools I know about from work. Dale Carnegie training is something that many people are familiar with. I was curious to see if there were any whitepapers about D&I. This led to me finding a company called the center for generational kinetics. This looked promising to me; however, the company mainly focuses on delivering keynote presentations to deliver their information about generational diversity. Unfortunately, this means the information they do provide often includes many cliffhangers instead of fully formed ideas and examples. Though I will not be using this article, it helped me discover the topic that I will be researching which is generations collaborating in the workplace. I have since been using the Syracuse University library to find articles pertaining to this subject.
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Week of 6/1 Discussion

  1. Through the Syracuse Library database, I have been able to search certain topics and find databases with many articles on that specific issue. On organizational culture, for example, I’ve been able to search one specific aim of research and find more studies about those type of findings. With my research this week, I have been looking further into neurodiversity, and diversity in general in the workplace, and how that can affect the success of a company. With this in mind, and in the midst of the world’s focus right now, I think it’s important to not only research and listen to the voices who talk about the importance of diversity in their company, but also the voices who are labeled “diverse.” In many corporations, diversity quotas are put in place for PR reasons as well, but it’s often not public knowledge how welcoming or healthy that culture even is for diverse employees. And this goes for racially, sexually, neuro etc. diverse people. The voice of the diverse is as important as the ones calling for diversity who may not be labeled as such. As the Austin and Pisano article stated, while adding diversity can help a company, there are accommodations that need to be in place to help the diverse employees as well.

3. The project of the writers in this case is to convince the reader of the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Through five sections, they begin at a smaller level and move into bigger concepts before concluding with takeaways from the chapter. The first section begins at the level of one person’s workday. This has the purpose of putting the authors in the reader’s shoes for relatability. They then move on to beyond this perspective and discuss intent versus impact, as in how the actions of one affect others, calling the reader to question their own. Through the next three sections the authors move on to systematic framework and how the company as a whole can affect its individual parts with all things considered, overall moving from an individual perspective to one that affects and intertwines with the bigger company in mind, before concluding with the main ideas from each section: A sustainable inclusion effort must include change at four distinct levels: individual, group/team, organization, and marketplace. Good intent is not good enough when the impact does not match the intent. Managing the impact of our biases is leadership. What the authors do/“work on” in this chapter is effective because they move between different perspectives and don’t place the author as an other they are simply talking at. They raise counter arguments with responses to follow, and work withrather than against the reader to get them to agree with their proposals by the end of the chapter.

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Austin & Pisano Article Summary

Companies are looking for “neurodiverse” talent, including people with autism spectrum disorder. The incidence of autism in the U.S. is now 1 in 42 among boys and 1 in 189 among girls. Neurodiverse people often need workplace accommodations, such as headphones to prevent auditory overstimulation. But to realize the benefits, companies would have to adjust recruitment, selection, and career data sets. Companies implementing neurodiversity programs have encountered challenges, authors say. Many are hard to identify, and potential candidates do not necessarily self-identify. Microsoft is working with universities to improve methods of identifying and accessing Neurodiverse talent.People are like puzzle pieces, irregularly shaped. Historically, companies have asked employees to trim away their irregularities. Wittenberg says Innovation is most likely to come from parts of us that we don’t all share. The work for managers will be harder, but the payoff for companies will be considerable.

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Week of 6/1 – Discussion

1. For our unit 1 assignment I found myself diving further into the Syracuse database. My initial research began by looking up the topics we had already been reviewing for over the past two-three weeks. I found linking scholarly and academic articles with keywords such as homogeneity, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., helpful in narrowing down targeted interests. From here, I came across a few articles that opened a topic of conversation I at least had not considered yet. Language and the effect multilingualism has in the workplace particularly caught my eye. My preliminary understanding from the briefs I read suggested this form of diversity is an emerging topic worth further scholarly investigation. As the workplace becomes increasingly global, challenges in communication between employees with different linguistic backgrounds are inevitable. Topics worth following up on include case studies and understanding the dynamics between native/ nonnative language speakers. Seeing the effects this has from an individual, team, and organizational level overlaps with a few of the readings we’ve had such as  Kaplan and Donovans ‘level of systems’ framework. Similarily, Gundemir’s take on leadership, goals, and perceptions coincide heavily with how minorities can find comfort in communicating in other languages at work.

3. Kaplan and Donovan’s intent was to place readers in a position of judgment where they could reassess the impact one’s words and actions have at the workplace. From the narrative of executive employee Kim, readers follow vignettes of her day to day schedule prompting readers to think about how her decisions stand with concurrent issues of diversity and inclusion. The storyline is broken down in the latter half of the chapter addressing solutions or alternative ways Kim could have better-approached a work-related scenario.

Kaplan and Donovan develop these sections speaking on the distinction of good intent versus impact, the importance of recognizing unconscious bias, and the problems with insider-outsider group relations. They’re able to reach a broad audience because of the familiarity Kim’s everyday anecdote presents, however, the extent of their writing only comes across as far as the simplicity of their solutions. The sometimes overly perfect measures Kim could have taken suggest ‘quick’ fixes for an otherwise complex system. Still, Kaplan and Donovan’s approach at its core reopens a lingering discussion dissectable for readers to understand the perspective of those who fall short of being included. The best use their key takeaways realize is that the reevaluation of systematic views at various scales only marks the beginning.

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Discussion Prompts 6/4

  1. In relations to the kind of material I’ll be looking for, I decided to look for data using the Syracuse library as my other classmates have mentioned. I also plan to take a closer look into Google Scholars and JSTOR. The topic within diversity and inclusion I would like to focus on is religious diversity, because we have yet to read about this. I got this idea because I just remember taking a world religions class in high school and automatically was intrigued. I have a strong Catholic faith, so I am looking forward to this challenge. I am eager to step out of my comfort zone and learn more about the different religions around the world. My goal is to gain statistics on what religions are practiced most in each country, what experts think is going to change or remain the same in the future regarding these statistics, how this difference in religion affects the workplace and company’s ethics, etc. A strategy that I found to be helpful to me is writing a summary like we’ve been doing after an article so I know what to focus my attention to what the author is trying to say.
  2. Austin / Pisano’s argument that companies are not tapping into neurodiverse talent is supported by research showing that the unemployment runs as high as 80% among those with neurological conditions. I have always believed that neurodiverse people should be represented in the workforce, and question why is it has taken companies like SAP this long to just now implement programs. I understand that the conventional hiring processes companies use for their employees has been a challenge when it comes to testing the skills of someone with autism for example, but the author makes an important point about innovation. On the other hand, “Why diversity matters” focuses on racial diversity and includes no mention of the disabled. I found it interesting, though, that the articles states that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. I agree with this statement because I do believe that in order for a diverse company to be successful, the leadership performed by managers must be held to extremely high standards. If a company is diverse (considering both race and ability), but the leadership skills practiced by managers and CEOs isn’t strong or does not set examples, what makes it true that these companies would actually drive in profit and attract future potential employees?
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Unit 1-6/1 (Mikayla)

  1. In unit 1 we remained focused on mostly ideas regarding diversity and culture and how incorporating multiple voices and backgrounds can really add a lot of enrichment to any environment. In order to further build on the course ideas and help the class expand I would like to delve more into a topic one of the other articles already spoke on, spreading minority awareness and helping them thrive in new environments. Because we all attend the same university I would like to research more about the experiences and challenges undergone by minorities in college and how they manage to create opportunities for themselves in such new environments. Some experts and databases I would like to check up on are the rates of success within organizations designated  for minority outreach and success. I would also consider using Syracuse libraries and implementing an article that is close to home and that the class might relate more too. More strictly, if minorities find themselves in leadership positions and manage to assimilate well into their university classes. I would particularly like to go through mostly reputable sources and ones that connect with their audience and use rhetorical elements in their writing.
  2.  As we further delve ourselves into the reading of Austin and Pisano and Kaplan and Donovan, we realize that they use different techniques in order to teach us about advocating for diversity in the workplace. On the one hand A/P focuses on spreading outreach for Neurodiverse individuals and shows how they have implemented different programs and created opportunities for them to find work and excel. On the other hand the article by K/D shows us that although workspaces may strive for equity and inclusivness, they cannot do so unless all members of the community are willing to show leadership and make a change.