The First Law of Thermodynamics and Synergy

February 18, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong Leave a Comment

Photo Credit Global Source Technology

The first law of thermodynamics is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Which means that what allows us to move around comes from a source that has been around since the beginning of time. Okay, so stay with me, I will tie this into cultural synergy.

All this week, I’ve been thinking about cultural synergy and how it plays out in our world. The word synergy comes from the Greek and means working together which leads me to believe that if we want to create a positive work environment or social environment, all members have to contribute in the best way the know how (M0ran, Abrasion, Moran, 2014).

Rachel Gillet (2015) wrote in Business Insider , that the tech giant google is one of the best places to work for according to employee surveys. I think, what is effective, is that google sets a climate that is inclusive and respectful of all its employees. According to the article, provides free Wi-Fi, shuttles to and from work, laundry and work out facilities, healthy food and 18 months paid maternity leave for all its employees. It’s this climate that allows the team members to enjoy coming to work, because they know they don’t have to compromise their health by overworking, eating unhealthy foods, etc. In addition to setting a positive climate, employees or team members need to feel like their experiences are being valued and not disregarded. Ideas should not be compromised or tossed aside, instead in true synergy, they are not lost they are enhanced (M0ran, Abrasion, Moran, 2014).

Let’s go back to the idea that energy cannot be created or destroyed. If this is true, then that could suggest that each human is the sum of all that came before him or her as well as the sum of all that is in existence right now. This gives us cultural relevance that goes beyond coming from different countries or areas. It’s the difference between living in the suburbs and living in the modern projects. Those experiences that we’ve learned form shape how we interact with others, how we relate to others and how we think. Some of that is changed as we grow older and interact with the world around us, but there needs to be value in that. So, a team that truly has synergy understands this concept and creates ways engage each member and his or her talents, thoughts and feelings. I believe that this is how we can create intergraded solutions that are effective.

References

M0ran, T, Abrasion, N.R., Moran, S.V., 2014 Managing Cultural Differences Ninth edition

Gillet, R. 2015, Here’s what it’s REALLY like to work at Google, the ‘world’s most attractive’ employer. Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-its-really-like-to-work-at-google-the-worlds-most-attractive-employer-2015-9

Learning Something New

February 12, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong 2 Comments

I think it’s safe to say that most of us want to change at least one thing about ourselves or our job. Hopefully, this want for change is for the better! This weeks lesson was interesting because it gave us some insight into how change works. Albert Bandura (1986) developed a model of social learning that focuses on four steps: attendance, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Attention is honing in on the behavior you want to take on. For example, if a company wants to increase its communication, a good start would be to identify where the breakdown is and look at examples of companies that have a good communication structure. This could be done by shadowing other companies, but once the desired communication skill has been observed, members of the company need to retain the new information. At its simplest, this is just remembering what the effective model looks like, how it works and how it affects the company at large. Some challenges to this is that if we don’t remember all the information, we may bring only part of the needed information back to our company.

But, let’s say that we bring the whole picture of this communication strategy back to our company. Now, we have to be motivated to replicate the behavior. This is where there leaders of the company need to have buy in from ALL employes. The leaders need to motivate others to try and come up with achievable goals and timelines. If this process fails, then it won’t matter how good the new strategy is, it will fail, because those that need to execute the plan aren’t willing to. After motivating the whole team, the company is ready to reproduce the new model that has been adapted from other companies/observation. It is important that this part not be rushed, because, again, if we don’t have the buy in, implementation will fail.

Work Cited

PSU World Campus, (2017) Social Learning https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654114

Communicating Lady Gaga

February 5, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong 4 Comments

Lady Gaga entered NRG Stadium from the open roof. Credit Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

As I sit here with my father, his wife, my sister my cousin and his friend watching the halftime show, my cousin and father tell the group that they don’t see why she was chosen for this performance. They agree that she doesn’t “do anything form them.”

Knowing that my father is uncomfortable with anything that has to do with LGBTQ+ people or their allies/icons I raise my eyebrow, ready to jump into conversation defending the community. My cousin tells us that he doesn’t know any of “these” songs and he things that performers like James Brown or New Kids On the Block should be performing right now.

After just having read the course notes, I remember that one part of missing information has to do with decoding error. I take a step back and think about how I am interpreting the information that was just presented to me. I am looking at a black male in his mid 30’s who, I think just said something negative about Lady Gaga, an artist that I respect and that I believe has done a great deal in normalizing the LGBTQ+ community. I wanted to jump to defend her, I wanted him to know that he was being a bigot.

While I was in my short state of reflection, I thought about our different interests and so, I simply asked him “you don’t listen to this type of music, do you?” he responded with “no, not really.” There seemed no judgment in his voice. I knew that in this moment, I judged him based on my egocentric communication. I was so overconfident in my communication style that I didn’t take into account that others communicate differently based on diversity and cultural experiences. He wasn’t telling me that Lady Gaga and the LGBTQ+ community was somehow inferior.

I think that if it weren’t for having read the reading notes for this week, the conversation would have gone into a very different direction that may have blown something simple and non-confrontational into an argument that would not have gone anywhere.

So, how do we prevent this from happening again, how do I remember to take a step back when I am at work talking with a colleague that I disagree with, or reading an email that may come across as harsh or when I am drafting an email to a group of people that I don’t know?

Diversity within Sameness

February 4, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong 3 Comments

At work we talk a lot about diversity, not just for our students, but also for faculty and staff too. When I first started working at the school, I thought we didn’t really have diversity. 100% of the student body is black American and from low income DC. I’ve observed our students in the hallways and at lunch and they seem to listen to the same music, talk about the same social events and dress alike(part of the likeness in dress is due to the school uniform, but most students elect to sag their pants, not tie their ties all the way or pop their collar). The staff is predominantly black American from DC, but we do have five white people, two people from India and one person from Germany.

So how can we talk about diversity when it all looks to be the same? What I realized through this lesson is that I was looking at the surface of what diversity means. Surface level diversity only looks at the physical attributes that sets us apart or unites us, ethnicity, demographics, etc. (Campus PSU World, 2017).

I took another look at the student body this week to look at the deep-level diversity of this group. The deep-level diversity refers to the way people behave, their interests, thoughts; the things that we can’t see or know just by looking at them (Campus PSU World, 2017). It seems that these are things we discover only by getting to know people.

We break our students into one of five academies. All the first year students (9^th grade) are in an academy, and then we have the Fine Arts Academy, Health Science, Information Technology and Early College. Each academy has attracted students based on their interest and talents. Members of these academies are knowledgeable about their fields, for example I spoke to one of the students in Information Technology who told me that our Wi-Fi “sucks” and that he knows how to fix it, if only we would let him. I got to teach a master class to the dance students in the Fine Arts academy and they were interested in the lesson, asking questions, engaging in the activity and discussing their future career goals.

I say this, because I’ve learned that diversity is not just what we see, but when we get to know others, we get to see the world through new lenses. To me, it seems that this is how change is made, how policies can be updated and human rights can be honored. Even though leaders may have the same skin color, or gender, it doesn’t mean that they can’t bring value to the discussion.

So how can the diversity of the staff encourage conversation of what diversity means and looks like for the students? To me, it is no longer about bringing the white, Indian and German staff members together; instead, it’s about bringing different walks of life and opinions together; really listening to someone that I disagree with and trying to see where he or she is coming from and how we can compromise.

Bibliography

Campus PSU World. (2017). Penn State University. Retrieved February 4, 2017, from www.psu.edu: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654094

High School Culture

January 21, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong 4 Comments

Among American youth 10-24, suicide is the second leading cause of death (Project, 2016). Perhaps, this is best explained with Meyer (2003) Minority Stress Model, which is based on factors associated with an array of stressors and effective and non-effective coping mechanisms that have an impact on the mental health of members of the LGBTQ community (Dentato, 2012). Because our American culture can be perceived as more heteronormative, meaning that more value is placed on straight relationships and perceived gender rolls, members of the LGBTQ community have a harder time adjusting to school environment, where they may be bullied or made fun of for their sexual orientation.

This weeks reading taught us about the importance of cultural competence when interacting with others who have different values, thoughts and practices than us. Working in a high school, I often hear the phrase “that’s gay” or “don’t be gay” when what students really mean is “that’s dumb” or “don’t be an idiot”. Many of the students who say these things don’t mean to be homophobic, they just grew up in a culture that associates gay people with a lesser value in life and thus, words like these come out. But what how does the student feel when he hears things like that and he is gay?

When I talk to students about this, a common response is that others shouldn’t be so sensitive, or “I didn’t mean it like that”. To me this is a prime example of ethnocentrism, the concept that ones own values, thoughts and cultural experiences are more important and more accurate than those of others (PSU, 2017). This outright disregard for the experiences of others proves that high schools can be hostile environments where gender identity and sexual orientation non-conforming youth for victimization (Toomey, Ryan, & Diaz, 2010).

The question that is raised with this information and the vast literature is how do school leaders and mental health practitioners create an environment that is safe for the LGBTQ community? How do we create social acceptance and responsibility for people who are different than us? I don’t believe that the answer is simple or easy to come by, but I do believe that we have to do something to ensure that schools, a place where adolescents spend the majority of their time, is a safe and affirming place that values them as well as education.

Bibliography

Dentato, M. P. (2012, April). The minority stress perspective. Psychology and AIDS Exchange Newsletter . Washiington, DC, USA.

Project, T. T. (2016). www.thetrevorproject.org. Retrieved 1 21, 2016, from The Trevor Project: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/pages/facts-about-suicide

PSU. (2017). Penn State University World Campus . Retrieved 1 21, 2017, from psu.edu: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654085

Toomey, R., Ryan, C., & Diaz, R. (2010). Gender-Nonconforming Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: School Victimization and Young Adult Psychosocial Adjustment. Developmental Psychology , 46 (6), 1580–1589.

Gabriel DeLong

January 9, 2017 by Gabriel DeLong 1 Comment

Gabriel DeLong Student Information Manager

I live in Washington, DC where I am the Student Information Manager for a charter school. This is not my final career, but it allows me the flexibility to go to school. I want to get my Ph.D. in either school psychology or counseling psychology. I am very interested in creating programs that allow young people to express emotion and thought in creative ways. I’ve worked as the Recruitment and Registration Officer for a school district; I am the founder and president of a nonprofit called Real Youth; I’ve worked in various capacities in leading the discussion in schools around support for the LGBTQ community, etc.

I’m not sure that I have a favorite leadership quote; I love the idea that we all have talents and a good leader knows how to help you bring that talent to the forefront and use it.

I don’t have any children, however, I did recently get married in 2016. I have a background in classical ballet and I am interested in combining my degree aspirations with dance.