Month: October 2024

Write a 1,200-word reflective essay that answers the following questions. An outline for how to organize your work is offered below. Avoid generalities in this essay; ground your ideas in concrete examples that resonate with your unique and central point of view. There is no “right answer” to this assignment. What you are being evaluated on is the depth and breadth of your exploration, your offering of this unique and centralized point of view, and how you set yourself up to succeed in your Unit 7 project with this interesting, personalized contrast point.

Prior to taking this course, what did you fundamentally believe about why people are the way they are? Consider nature and nurture aspects, the fluidity vs. stability debate, but don’t be limited by these factors – explore everything you’ve believed to be true about how we become the people we do.
How did your personality theory develop? What influenced it? Consider the effect of cultural factors, family upbringing, your education, etc.
How does that “personal construct” (your own personality theory) manifest in your own life? In other words, looking at your own personality, how does it reflect your beliefs about how people become who they are?
How have you “tested” this theory? What data did you collect? Were there ever any moments that did not fit? In other words, did your own actions or the actions of another person stand out because it contradicted what you knew to be true about the nature and development of personality?
How has your personality theory served you thus far in your life? In what ways have you used it to understand, predict, and control your own behavior or interpersonal interactions you’ve had?
Consider to what extent you are willing/able to add to, change, or shift your views on personality development to include ideas you learn in this course. What challenges might this create for you, if any? Or is it something you are excited to do?
As you look through our syllabus/course calendar or click through each Units’ content, what theories do you think are going to align with your personal personality theory? Which will diverge?

Week Four Signature Assignment: Apply Systems Thinking and Complexity Theory
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Instructions
Background
This assignment will assess your ability to apply key course concepts in a meaningful way, especially with the practices of a learning organization, dialogue, relational leadership, adaptive leadership, and/or systems thinking, to a situation or scenario where you should exercise effective leadership.
This case is an opportunity to use what you have learned about systems’ level thinking (Senge, 2006; Wheatley, 2006), practices of a learning organization (Senge, 2006), and post-industrial leadership theory—see Transformational Leadership (Burns, 1978; Bass and Riggio, 2006), Relational Leadership (Rost, 1993), and Adaptive Leadership (Heifetz and Laurie, 2001; Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. 2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review.
Instructions
Begin by reviewing all of the following resources:
• Stahl, L. (2020). Raw sewage flowing into the Tijuana River brings toxic sludge to California. CBS News: 60 Minutes Nature.
• [CBS 8 San Diego]. (2020, June 1). “60 Minutes” features sewage contamination in Imperial Beach [Video]. YouTube.
• City News Service. (2023). County supervisors push for federal emergency on Tijuana River pollution. KPBS.
Imagine that you have been hired as a highly paid consultant and must help the mayor of Imperial Beach, CA. You were hired to introduce new ideas and/or coaching to improve the leadership both individually and through efforts to manage change in the organization. Write a four to five-page (1000-1500 words) paper that identifies:
• The issues presented in the case
• Your analysis of the identified issues
• Your approach to leadership utilizing ideas presented in the course to solve the issues you identified
Consider: What is the impact on the preparation of the US Special Forces?
Connect: Be sure to connect your analysis to the practices of a learning organization, dialogue, transformational leadership, relational leadership, adaptive leadership, and/or systems thinking.
Follow APA 7th Edition (2019) requirements. See NU Online Library for resources for APA compliance.
Length: This assignment must be 4-5 pages (1,000-1500 words), excluding the title and reference page.
References: Include at least 4 peer-reviewed scholarly resources.
Additional Resources
• Stahl, L. (2020). Raw sewage flowing into the Tijuana River brings toxic sludge to California. CBS News: 60 Minutes Nature.
• [CBS 8 San Diego]. (2020, June 1). “60 Minutes” features sewage contamination in Imperial Beach [Video]. YouTube.
• City News Service. (2023). County supervisors push for federal emergency on Tijuana River pollution. KPBS.
• National University. (n.d.). APA style. Nu.Libguides.com.
Grading
This assignment is worth 30 points and is due on the final day of the course.
FORMATTING NOTES: ENSURE APA 7TH EDITION IS ADHERED TO WITH ATTENTION TO:
PAGE NUMBERING
PAHE HEADERS FOR TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PAGES
TITLE PAGE CORRECTLY FORMATTED
SHORT ABSTRACT, NO MORE THAN 5 SENTENCES
DOUBLE SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
REFERENCE PAGE, CORRECT HANGING FORMAT

Week Three Assignment: Leadership Journal- Reflect on Senge’s Core Disciplines and Organizational Change
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Instructions
Instructions
How has your understanding of the four core disciplines proposed by Senge (2006) (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning) enhanced your perspective on organizational adaptability? Reflect on how each discipline contributes to an organization’s capacity to respond to changes and challenges. Ensure you draw on personal experiences or observations to illustrate how these disciplines have been applied to foster adaptability within an organization. Consider the ways in which these disciplines might collectively shape a more agile and resilient organizational culture.
Your response should be 500-750 words (two-to-three pages) and include at least two references. Peer-reviewed journal articles are preferred. Ensure your response complies with APA 7th Edition (October 2019) format.
Please submit this assignment as a Word document (PDFs will not be accepted).
t is worth 10 points and is due on Sunday. For more specifics on how this will be graded, refer to the rubric.
Grading
This assignment is worth 10 points and is due on Monday.
FORMATTING NOTES: ENSURE APA 7TH EDITION IS ADHERED TO WITH ATTENTION TO:
PAGE NUMBERING
PAHE HEADERS FOR TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PAGES
TITLE PAGE CORRECTLY FORMATTED
SHORT ABSTRACT, NO MORE THAN 5 SENTENCES
DOUBLE SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
REFERENCE PAGE, CORRECT HANGING FORMAT

Week Two Assignment: Leadership Journal- Reflect on Organizational Learning and Effectiveness in Leadership
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Instructions
Instructions
Senge (2006) introduced eleven laws of the fifth disciple in Chapter 4 of the course textbook. Select at least three of the laws and discuss how they resonate with your understanding of organizational learning and effectiveness and leadership. How might these principles be applied in real-world scenarios to foster personal mastery, shared vision, systems thinking, and other key aspects of the learning organization concept? Make sure you share examples from your own experiences or observations.
Your response should be 500-750 words (two-to-three pages) and include at least two references. Peer-reviewed journal articles are preferred. Ensure your response complies with APA 7th Edition (October 2019) format.
Please submit this assignment as a Word document (PDFs will not be accepted).
Grading
This assignment is worth 10 points and is due on Monday.
FORMATTING NOTES: ENSURE APA 7TH EDITION IS ADHERED TO WITH ATTENTION TO:
PAGE NUMBERING
PAHE HEADERS FOR TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PAGES
TITLE PAGE CORRECTLY FORMATTED
SHORT ABSTRACT, NO MORE THAN 5 SENTENCES
DOUBLE SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
REFERENCE PAGE, CORRECT HANGING FORMAT

Final Project — Client Presentation
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Instructions
At this point in the course, you have developed all required sections of your client company’s digital marketing plan. Your final step is to present your plan to the client company owner and/or marketing department.
Submit the following for your final project:
A five-minute (no longer) audio/video-embedded PowerPoint presentation to the client company. Minimum elements:
1. The presentation should cover each area of the digital marketing plan with the exception of the company overview (after all, the client already knows the basics about their company).
2. The slide deck should be visually appealing, utilize images/graphics that are appropriate/effective, and avoid the use of too much or to little text on each slide. A good rule of thumb is no more than seven words per bullet point and no more than seven bullet points per slide.
3. Each slide must be presented with audio and/or video embedded. Students are to use the “Recording” menu inside PowerPoint to embed a video of themselves as they present the slides. Audio-only narration on each slide is acceptable only if students do not have a camera available to record video.
4. Students should dress and speak in a professional manner–one which a client would expect from a digital marketing consultant. Genuine enthusiasm for the ideas being presented should be evident, the pace should neither lag nor race, and the spoken elements of the presentation should be largely free of filler words and sounds such as (like, um, uh, etc.).
Students are permitted to utilize alternative presentation software and methods as long as the file submitted for grading can be opened and viewed by the instructor and as long as it contains both the audio and visual elements as specified above.
Grading breakdown:
Quality of Slide Deck 25%
Quality of Verbal Presentation 25%
Completeness of Content 25%
Quality of Content 25%

Week One Assignment: Leadership Journal- Reflect on a Personal Leadership Challenge
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Instructions
Instructions
Reflect on a recent leadership decision or challenge you encountered within your organization, school, or personal life. Describe how you applied systems thinking principles to analyze the situation and understand the interconnected elements at play. Additionally, discuss how embracing the concept of organizational learning influenced your approach to the decision-making process. Try to include specific lessons learned from your experience, and explain how you plan to incorporate these insights into your future leadership strategies to promote a learning culture and enhance the overall effectiveness and adaptability of your organization.
Your response should be 500-750 words (two-to-three pages) and include at least two references. Peer-reviewed, journal articles are preferred. Ensure your response complies with APA 7th Edition (October 2019) format.
Please submit this assignment as a Word document (PDFs will not be accepted).
Grading
This assignment is worth 10 points and is due on Monday.
FORMATTING NOTES: ENSURE APA 7TH EDITION IS ADHERED TO WITH ATTENTION TO:
PAGE NUMBERING
PAHE HEADERS FOR TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PAGES
TITLE PAGE CORRECTLY FORMATTED
SHORT ABSTRACT, NO MORE THAN 5 SENTENCES
DOUBLE SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
REFERENCE PAGE, CORRECT HANGING FORMAT

Week One Assignment: Leadership Journal- Reflect on a Personal Leadership Challenge
Hide Assignment Information
Instructions
Instructions
Reflect on a recent leadership decision or challenge you encountered within your organization, school, or personal life. Describe how you applied systems thinking principles to analyze the situation and understand the interconnected elements at play. Additionally, discuss how embracing the concept of organizational learning influenced your approach to the decision-making process. Try to include specific lessons learned from your experience, and explain how you plan to incorporate these insights into your future leadership strategies to promote a learning culture and enhance the overall effectiveness and adaptability of your organization.
Your response should be 500-750 words (two-to-three pages) and include at least two references. Peer-reviewed, journal articles are preferred. Ensure your response complies with APA 7th Edition (October 2019) format.
Please submit this assignment as a Word document (PDFs will not be accepted).
Grading
This assignment is worth 10 points and is due on Monday.
FORMATTING NOTES: ENSURE APA 7TH EDITION IS ADHERED TO WITH ATTENTION TO:
PAGE NUMBERING
PAHE HEADERS FOR TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PAGES
TITLE PAGE CORRECTLY FORMATTED
SHORT ABSTRACT, NO MORE THAN 5 SENTENCES
DOUBLE SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
REFERENCE PAGE, CORRECT HANGING FORMAT

Week Four Assignment – Digital Marketing Plan
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Instructions
In this class, you will create a digital marketing plan for a small to mid-sized business that is currently lacking a strong digital marketing presence (hereafter referred to as the “client company”). Assume the role of digital marketing consultant retained to create an actionable digital marketing plan for the client company. Each week, you will write additional components of this plan so that by the end of Week 4 you have a complete digital marketing plan for the client company. Write in third person (avoiding first person pronouns like I, me, my, etc).
This week, develop the following sections of your client company’s digital marketing plan:
Mobile Marketing Plan – This section should make recommendation to the company on tactics it can use to reach its target market via their smartphones. There are so many options (SMS, in-app ads, video ads, push notifications, apps, geo-fencing, QR codes, etc), so be sure to apply the concepts you learned in Chapter 12 and select tactics that are best for your client.
Social and Regulatory Issues – This section should address any social or regulatory issues the company needs to be aware of when implementing the digital marketing plan.
Measurement and Evaluation Plan — This section should make specific, actionable recommendations as to tools the company should use to measure and evaluate the results of its digital marketing efforts.

Final Project — Client Presentation
Hide Assignment Information
Instructions
At this point in the course, you have developed all required sections of your client company’s digital marketing plan. Your final step is to present your plan to the client company owner and/or marketing department.
Submit the following for your final project:
A five-minute (no longer) audio/video-embedded PowerPoint presentation to the client company. Minimum elements:
1. The presentation should cover each area of the digital marketing plan with the exception of the company overview (after all, the client already knows the basics about their company).
2. The slide deck should be visually appealing, utilize images/graphics that are appropriate/effective, and avoid the use of too much or to little text on each slide. A good rule of thumb is no more than seven words per bullet point and no more than seven bullet points per slide.
3. Each slide must be presented with audio and/or video embedded. Students are to use the “Recording” menu inside PowerPoint to embed a video of themselves as they present the slides. Audio-only narration on each slide is acceptable only if students do not have a camera available to record video.
4. Students should dress and speak in a professional manner–one which a client would expect from a digital marketing consultant. Genuine enthusiasm for the ideas being presented should be evident, the pace should neither lag nor race, and the spoken elements of the presentation should be largely free of filler words and sounds such as (like, um, uh, etc.).
Students are permitted to utilize alternative presentation software and methods as long as the file submitted for grading can be opened and viewed by the instructor and as long as it contains both the audio and visual elements as specified above.
Grading breakdown:
Quality of Slide Deck 25%
Quality of Verbal Presentation 25%
Completeness of Content 25%
Quality of Content 25%

Final Project — Client Presentation
Hide Assignment Information
Instructions
At this point in the course, you have developed all required sections of your client company’s digital marketing plan. Your final step is to present your plan to the client company owner and/or marketing department.
Submit the following for your final project:
A five-minute (no longer) audio/video-embedded PowerPoint presentation to the client company. Minimum elements:
1. The presentation should cover each area of the digital marketing plan with the exception of the company overview (after all, the client already knows the basics about their company).
2. The slide deck should be visually appealing, utilize images/graphics that are appropriate/effective, and avoid the use of too much or to little text on each slide. A good rule of thumb is no more than seven words per bullet point and no more than seven bullet points per slide.
3. Each slide must be presented with audio and/or video embedded. Students are to use the “Recording” menu inside PowerPoint to embed a video of themselves as they present the slides. Audio-only narration on each slide is acceptable only if students do not have a camera available to record video.
4. Students should dress and speak in a professional manner–one which a client would expect from a digital marketing consultant. Genuine enthusiasm for the ideas being presented should be evident, the pace should neither lag nor race, and the spoken elements of the presentation should be largely free of filler words and sounds such as (like, um, uh, etc.).
Students are permitted to utilize alternative presentation software and methods as long as the file submitted for grading can be opened and viewed by the instructor and as long as it contains both the audio and visual elements as specified above.
Grading breakdown:
Quality of Slide Deck 25%
Quality of Verbal Presentation 25%
Completeness of Content 25%
Quality of Content 25%

Week Three Assignment — Digital Marketing Plan
Hide Assignment Information
Instructions
In this class, you will create a digital marketing plan for a small to mid-sized business that is currently lacking a strong digital marketing presence (hereafter referred to as the “client company”). Assume the role of digital marketing consultant retained to create an actionable digital marketing plan for the client company. Each week, you will write additional components of this plan so that by the end of Week 4 you have a complete digital marketing plan for the client company. Write in third person (avoiding first person pronouns like I, me, my, etc).
Develop the following sections of your client company’s digital marketing plan:
Website Design & Functionality Plan – This section should make actionable steps the company should take to improve its website’s design and user experience. If the company does not have a website, this section should lay out a proposal for a company website including: the main pages to be included in the site, the type of content to be included, the functionality the user will be able to access via the site, and any other requirements you would specify for the site design.
Digital Customer Support Plan – This section should address how the company should utilize digital tools to support and serve both prospective and existing customers. There may be some overlap in this section with other sections of your plan, as customer support can be conducted via email, website, text, social media, live chat, video calls, etc. Therefore, be sure to narrowly focus this section specifically to address customer support/service which is normally initiated by the customer.
Social Media Marketing Plan – This section should make specific recommendations for the company to utilize social media platforms to effectively reach its target audience. Paid social media advertising should have been addressed by your Digital Advertising Plan in Week 2, so there is no need to reiterate it here. Instead, focus on which specific social media platforms the company should maintain accounts on, what type of content they should post (be specific), recommended posting schedule for each platform, and which specific platform-specific tools the company should use (e.g. Reels, Stories, Posts, YouTube Shorts, polls, contests, direct messaging, tagging, etc). Your plan should make recommendations for response time to comments made on company posts, direct messages via social, etc.
Customer Relationship Marketing Plan – Customers are expensive to acquire, and loyal customers are the most valuable assets a company has. This section should address recommendations the company can implement to use digital tools to strengthen their relationship with existing customers. This section may be brief if you have addressed CRM recommendations in your other sections.