Four areas I will address regarding the lessons learned from this project are: (a) conducting and managing a major project, (b) the process of action research, (c) leading organizational change, and (d) message to the future learner.
I am fortunate in that I have previous experience in project management and found that to be invaluable. In fact, it was not until I treated the major project as another client project, that I began to devote sufficient time and organize my workload appropriately. The actual conduct of the research was fun and empowering for me; and as I reflect on the most important factor related to managing this project, I realize it was the application of everything I had been taught during the Masters in Leadership program. My world changed throughout this process, and I began to see the researcher must coordinate both internal and external change. Beck and Cowan (1996) captured the essence of my experience as they quoted Clare Graves’ description of the changes of human existence. Graves (as cited in Beck & Cowan) said,
As he sets off on each quest, he believes he will find the answer to his existence. Yet, much to his surprise and much to his dismay, he finds at every stage that the solution to existence is not the solution he has come to find. Every stage he reaches leaves him disconcerted and perplexed. It is simply that as he solves one set of human problems he finds a new set in their place. The quest he finds is never ending. (p. 16)
I also learned much about action research from the things that did not go as well as I would have liked. The group of participants were wonderful, charming, engaging, and passionate about their work. I wish I could have taken them further as a group and helped them develop momentum for the future work that is required. Stringer (1999) discussed community-based action research and described what happens when groups are successful: “They provide a powerful means of accomplishing any set of social or professional goals”
(p. 189). Stringer further stated, “Collaborative processes not only generate a sense of purpose and energy but also provide the means for the accomplishment of goals and the solution of problems and produce conditions that enhance participants’ personal, social and professions lives”
(p. 189). I believe what we did accomplish was to lay out a scaffold for constructing positive progress. I will stay open to opportunities to connect the group together again so they can actually erect the building on the outlines of this scaffold.