Cedo565: Week Five

Okay, after last week's disasterous game playing, I'm happy to report that we finally got the hang of it this week. It's always interesting how one can go from completing lost to catching on. Normally, I'm very slow to catch on, at least when I'm working alone. Example; I purchased this very appealing app from my Droid that has me trapped in a very creepy room, and my goal, apparently, is to get out of that room. I have spend hours on this app, but I have yet to find a way to get out of the creepy room. It seems everytime I try to pick something up or gather a clue, I'm told that I cannot proceed. I totally don't get it, and I'm like that rat in the maze that has cornered itself and cannot move any farther. Last week, I was feeling the same way, in terms of our role playing game. It seemed everytime we made a move, we discovered that we had taken a step back instead of forward. It was very frustrating, and I was not seeing clearly the point.

This week, however, we all took a breather and spent several minutes really talking about what we maybe did wrong and what new direction we needed to take. With Jenny leading the way, we shared the notion that in order for a change to take place, the first steps really have to involve communication, communication, and more communication. You have to make sure everyone has at least knowledge of the change you'd like to take place before you can start creating the team and working toward implementing the change. Clearly, we weren't doing that before. Once we met and talked and talked again to various members of the community, we started to see progress. We also learned quickly that there are always going to be people who are not on board, no matter how many times you talk to them and listen to their concerns. Once we started making progress, everything else just seemed to fall into place, and the game became very enjoyable.

Honestly, at first, I wasn't sure of the significance of this role playing game, and I wondered why we were spending two class periods on a "pretend" activity. At the conclusion, however, I really was glad we had invested the time, and I found the game incredibly significant. In fact, I'm saving all the handouts. I know in the next year, there will be numerous changes taking place, and I think the handouts will be a good reminder for me to include the important people and take the right steps. In addition, the game was a perfect reminder of how one can stumble indefinitely if one does not take the appropriate actions before implementing change.