Looking forward, looking back

Reflection. I have been on my MBA journey for two years. Some highlights include:

1. Learning management beyond what was taught at undergraduate level. The course is global in its reach. Researching ideas behind consciousness and applying them to my own work situation. Identifying systems approaches to problems and the learning organisation (agile) and the ideas of Ubuntu, ‘I am because we are.’ I hope to further explore these in application to my chosen work context in terms of how small business owners can balance work/life and how small business can include the ideas of agile and the learning organisation in order to improve work/life balance, i.e., it is a bottom up approach to workload for small business owners.
   • One of the main considerations from Ubuntu that I have found is in a TEDx talk by Getrude Matshe: A person is a person through other persons
   • One of the main authors on systems thinking is Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline.
   • And on consciousness: Tom Lombardo: Mind Flight.
   • Within the financial perspective there has been considerations to the value of an organisation, particularly the valuation and cost effectiveness of projects.
   • Paradigms of organisational structure described by Laloux (Reinventing Organisations) and Holacracy.
2. The ideas of shifting the organisation perspective/ culture to one of more agility and becoming a learning organisation, working in collaboration would be an interesting idea in the small business, and reflecting on whether it would leave the owner for more time for their work/life balance. Also, I would consider the ideas of the business providing ‘value’ (value for whom) — staff, customers and owners.
3. The research done here could provide the way for further research on the ideas or practices for small businesses.

This forms part of my reflective practice for 1.2 of my MBA journey.