Colleague 1
Angela Eaker
While coordinating an adult education program, I assumed that implementing a new digital learning platform would automatically enhance student engagement and performance. I believed that because the platform offered interactive features and flexible access, learners would readily adopt it and instructors would seamlessly integrate it into their teaching. However, this assumption proved to be only partially accurate. While some students adapted quickly, others struggled with digital literacy, and several instructors were hesitant due to a lack of training and support. This assumption impacted my behavior—I focused more on the technical rollout than on preparing stakeholders for the change. As a result, initial usage rates were low, and some learners felt frustrated or excluded. According to Fullan (2007), successful educational change requires attention to both the innovation and the human factors involved in implementation. If I were to face a similar situation again, I would invest more time in professional development, stakeholder feedback, and gradual integration. However, I would not abandon the use of technology altogether, as it ultimately expanded access and improved learning outcomes once properly supported. The experience taught me that assumptions about readiness must be validated through inclusive planning and ongoing communication.
References
Fullan, M. (2007). The new meaning of educational change (4th ed.). Teachers College Press.
Colleague 2
Leslie Allen
One experience in my professional life was working alongside a small team of engineers during the commissioning stage of an industrial project. I was the youngest on the team and quickly learned that the window of opportunity to capture defects during the warranty period, which fed into a report to the awarded supplier, was paramount for rectification. Although I primarily worked along with two engineers to populate the corrective maintenance management software, there was the assumption that I didn’t need to backcheck their work because they are experts in the field. I considered tech savvy, and in researching how the software works, I contributed to restructuring mismatched locations and identifying equipment with the agreed tree structure.
Leaders tend to place restrictions on those that they lead (Finkelstein, 2017). This fundamental procedure could have led to poor data retrieval, which could have cost thousands of dollars in defects and buried historical data. If placed in a similar situation, I would not assume that senior staff cannot make errors. I should ask clarifying questions when given a task that requires collaboration, even if I am the least experienced person.
Resources:
Finkelstein, S. (2017, July 13). 4 ways managers can be more inclusive. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2–5. http://hbr.org
