I don't see blood and treasure in terms of minimising loss of lives and materials. Maybe it's because
I am not the military but my take on blood and treasure is framed in terms of the essence and the
gifts my life has brought me so far. It is my job to examine my blood and treasure, extract the
essence and the gifts and outline them here. In this assignment I look at my core values and how
they influence my ethical decisions, enumerate and evaluate my leadership skills, and then draw it
all together to think about where to from here.
The inspiration for my collection of leadership skills has come from several sources. From Richard
Rierson, Becoming a Leader, I have take the four Cs of calm, consistent, confident and
courageous. (Rierson, 2014). From 10 leadership theories in 5 minutes by Prof Michael Zigarelli: I
have taken technical skills, people skills, conceptual skills from the Skills theory; leader should
be matched to situation from Contingency theory; encouraging, caring, inspiring, cultivate
followers from Transformational theory (and grow leaders, from me); and reciprocal service,
trust, co-operation from Servant-Leader theory. (Zigarelli, 2013). The two tables on Moodle,
Leadership modules Part 2 provided Self-organising: interaction, initiative, keep adapting, keep
learning, strong shared intent, values, processes and Change oriented: inspire shared
responsibility for making change happen, facilitate shared vision of the future as well as
authentic, emergent, intentional and agile. (Malcolm, 2013).
When I use my Human Design strategy and authority then I am calm and confident. I know when I
have made a correct decision for me and I have trust in it because it is my body telling me this, not
my (tricky) mind. When I am unable to wait until I have clarity then I fall prey to the opposite. I
have a defined root and it helps me to be calm. The majority of the time I am able to be calm and
confident; these are strengths. Strengths and learning edges.
Consistency is something that I need more of. It is the result of having open head, ajna, and G
centres. I am learning about it, but obviously I need to learn more so that I can be more consistent. I
see this in my family with my children with me not being consistent in how I act with them, and in
the way that I take in various ideas, “oh this, oh that, oh oh, what about that over there?” It is the
'not self' disdvantage of having an open crown and ajna. It is a learning edge. Strengths and
learning edges.
I believe I am courageous, and have courage. It takes courage to live something that most people
don't understand (i.e. Human Design). It takes courage to leave your long term partner because of
his drinking. It takes courage to go back again and committ to working through things. Learning
Journal, the piece highlighted yellow.
I have the 'technical' and people skills to do 'My Work'. What I mean by 'technical' skills is that I
have documented processes that I take people through, I have qualifications, I have my Human
Design knowledge and experience, I have facilitation skills. By people skills I am meaning things
like communication, empathy, listening, negotiation, and networking. Professional Practice Canvas.
Branching out from 'My Work' into other ventures may mean needing other 'technical' skills.
Potential learning edge.
I have a open crown and ajna meaning I have a flexible mind and am able to take in all sorts of
information, concepts and ideas. This leads to me being able conceptually, although I am not
always a big picture thinker: it depends on whether I am called out to solve a crisis and whether that
is correct for me. This is a strength and a learning edge. Strengths and learning edges.
Being a leader who is matched to situation is something that I have in the context of 'My Work'. I
have everything I need in the way of skills to do what I do. However if I am going into story telling
then it is a learning edge. I have a capability that needs developing. It is a learning edge.
Professional Practice Canvas; Strengths and learning edges.
I am an emotional being and I have a design of sensitivity. Provided I pay attention to this then this
is definitely a strength. When I don't, or let my emotions build up, then it becomes a problem
because I can 'spew' the emotion all around me if I am not aware of the build up. I am naturally
good at encouraging, caring, inspiring, and cultivating followers. It is a strength. I am learning
about growing leaders. This is new to me and is a learning edge. Strengths and learning edges.
I believe in and attempt to model reciprocal service, trust and co-operation. I have an innate
sense of whether things are fair, that engenders trust and co-operation as long as I manage peoples
expecations of me. This is a strength. Strengths and learning edges.
I have the design of a transmitter and as a result am good at the salesperson aspect of life. This is
interaction and intitative, and the ability to keep adapting. I am always learning – the
investigator learning and building the firm foundation. I know when things are fair and believe this
is about having a shared intent, values and processes. These are all strengths. Strengths and
learning edges.
I don't have much experience in inspiring shared responsibility for making change happen or
facilitatiing a shared vision of the future. I am not sure I have these skills or capabilities yet. I
don't see them in myself (yet) and therefore can't see them in my human design. These are learning
edges that I need to get experience and skills in.
I am authentic. It is rooted in being pono, being honest and genuine, which is one of my core
values. It is a strength that I have that is part of who I am. Core Values.
I believe that part of having a open head, ajna, and G centre, and being a heretic investigator, is that
I am always exploring what is emergent and how it relates to me and what is happening around me.
This is a strength. Strengths and learning edges.
Intentionality is something I need more of. I am not as intentional as I would like to be. I forget
about being intentional because I get caught up in the emotional side of things due to my defined
emotional centre. I am learning about this. It is a learning edge. Strengths and learning edges.
Agility is something I need to develop more of. In terms of leadership it is the ability to think on
your feet, to go with things on the fly, to rapidly adapt to new situations. I don't really know how it
fits with my Human Design and therefore I need to figure that out. It is a learning edge. No
evidence for this as I don't know where it fits with me yet..
Theory U, developed by Otto Scharmer, outlines a process to use to develop learning edges into
capabilities and thence to competencies. I have been going down the left hand side of the U
becoming aware of my learning edges; this is where I have become aware of old ways of thinking,
am suspending them and seeing with fresh eyes; I am listening to myself and observing. Next I will
be doing some reading and learning experientially where I am opening myself further. Ahead of me
is the open mind, open heart, open will phase of sensing from the field and letting go. Some of this
is already happening. The move up the other side is what awaits in my Year 2 Negotiated Learning
assignment 1. Theory U allows me to process the whole picture, including the spiritual, which is
important to me. (Scharmer, 2007-2019).
In summary, I have looked at my core values and how they have influenced my ethical decisions,
and evaluated my leadership skills in terms of strengths and learning edges where further
development is needed. I have seen there are some areas needing attention: if I want to do story
telling I need to develop some capabilities around story telling; I need to develop more capabilities
in the area of Te Ao Maori and meaningful bi-culturality; I need to keep in mind that I have some
potential learning edges such as possibly needing different 'technical' skills when I branch out from
'My Work'. Further areas identified as learning edges are consistency, conceptual abilities, growing
leaders, inspiring shared responsibility for making change happen, facilitating a shared vision of the
future, being intentional and agility. The blood and treasure has been extracted. I will take these
learning edges to my Year 2 Negotiated Learning assignment 1.
References
Bunnell, L. (2011). The definitive book of Human Design, the science of differentiation. Carlsbad,
CA: HDC Publishing Ltd.
Laskas, J. M. (2018). To Obama, with love, joy, hate and depair. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Malcolm, M.J (2013) as cited in Inspiring Communities (2013). Learning by Doing: Community-
led Change in Aotearoa NZ. Wellington: Inspiring Communities Trust.
Milne, A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream
schools. Thesis for Doctor of Philosophy: University of Waikato.
Mulder, P. (2013). Organizational Culture Model by Edgar Schein. ToolsHero. Retrieved from
https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/organizational-culture-model-schein/
Oxford Living Dictionaries. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/
Rierson, R. [Dose of Leadership]. (2014, July 14). What is Leadership? [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNWDekfGog
Spicer, C. (2017). Living Your Design course booklet. Auckland, NZ: Christine Spicer.
Scharmer, O. (2007-2019). Theory U. Leading from the future as it emerges. Retrieved from
https://www.presencing.org/aboutus/theory-u
Te Aka Online Māori Dictionary. (2003-2019). Retrieved from https://maoridictionary.co.nz/
Wikipedia. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_strategy
Zigarelli, M. [Christianity 9 – 5]. (2013, August 17). Ten leadership theories in five minutes. [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo