From striving to achieve, to learning how to listen, inquire, and see the world anew\u2014Paul Argyle, Founder of Flight Directors, the UK’s leading independent Airline GSA and fast growing Online Flight retailer, Alternative Airlines, reflects on how the Doctorate in Organizational Change (DOC) reshaped his thinking.<\/p>\n
I can only compare my experience with the personal growth I experienced as an undergraduate, when I learned to learn for myself and experience the world around me as an adult. The DOC encouraged me to see relationships, the world around me, and myself in ways that had previously been hidden or outside my frame of thinking. A wonderful, painful, living process.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I now feel so much freer to encounter worlds which I am not yet part of. Always in a positive way looking for opportunities to challenge the assumptions I bring to the situation, relationship, or encounter. Always looking to inquire, learn, and understand with the help of others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Massively: much more listening, much more patience, much enjoyment of participation and discussion.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I have let go of my previous need to always achieve and value much more the chance to be part of, rather than leading, or stepping back, from challenging discussions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOld dogs don\u2019t learn new tricks\u201d goes the saying. Well, actually, yes they do\u2014and not just tricks, but a whole new way of seeing the world!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSix impossible things before breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stood there and smiled to myself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was in a small, Scottish seaside village and in the window of the blue-doored, antiques shop, where Maisie and myself had paused to look (me), and smell (her), there was an old-looking enamel sign which showed the figure of Lewis Carroll\u2019s Alice, with the quote: \u201cWhy, sometimes<\/em> I\u2019ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Tugging on her lead, I guided Maisie into the little store, with its crowded floor and over-flowing counters. In the warmest of North Scottish accents, a lady in wild plaid knitwear greeted me and, of course, quickly stooped to stroke Maisie. \u201cMay I have a look at the sign over there\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe one with Alice on it?\u201d She replied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPlease,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quickly checking the price ticket, I said, \u201cLovely, thank you, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She smiled and started to wrap it, without saying anything more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I filled the silence by adding: \u201cIt\u2019s for a good friend, we\u2019ve been studying together and she\u2019s just completed her doctoral thesis, which featured Alice in Wonderland. It\u2019s perfect for my graduation gift to her.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She looked at me more closely and frowned: \u201cYou do know that it wasn\u2019t Alice who said those words, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cErr, no, I didn\u2019t\u201d I replied, feeling confused, miffed at being confronted in this way, and slightly foolish for not being able to reply, \u201cyes, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt was the Queen of Hearts, in response to Alice saying that you couldn\u2019t believe impossible things and noting that she thought that Alice probably hadn\u2019t had much practice at trying\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ouch!<\/em> I thought, I\u2019m still missing so much in the way I see things. I must never stop challenging my assumptions or let my life return to just seeing things in black and white, thinking that I always knew better than others, as I once did.<\/em> And, I knew, in a \u201csad but true\u201d way, that I would now be forced to add a copy of Alice in Wonderland to my next Amazon order, just to check the quote, the accuracy of the shop-keeper\u2019s statement, and the context of the conversation between Alice and the Queens of Hearts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fortunately, T. loved her present when subsequently I gave it to her on graduation day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had started together on a pre-DOC course for people who knew nothing about Action Research; had fallen randomly into the same study group on the first day of the real course, and supported each other through the many months of confusion which followed. I had seen her grow in so many ways. Emerging from a period of shyness, always clothed in black, to become a confident, almost strident (but gentle) feminist, mother of two, important NHS research director, whose paintings brilliantly illuminated the manuscript she presented as her final thesis. This was a rigorous and original piece of research, subsequently defended at a Viva that included a tea party, which she shared with her examiners.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I will stay friends with T. forever. I owe her and the five other wonderful women of my study group so much. It was their gentle, yet sustained, probing of my masculine lack of understanding that had opened my eyes to a world that I hadn\u2019t seen before. I had learned to believe impossible things; to see things through their eyes; to listen for the silences that meant dissent, rather than consent and most of all to care about the impact that my words had on others in a way I had previously not perceived or believed necessary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nOne year on from graduation, what’s new?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How has the Doctorate in Organizational Change influenced the way you think or make decisions?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What has the DOC helped you achieve that you couldn\u2019t before?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What\u2019s been your biggest surprise about life after the DOC?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
You recently shared a story with the cohort. Can you share it with us now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n