Midterm Project

Due: March 27, 2018 @ 11:59pm

For the midterm, you will be assigned into teams that will conduct an exploratory data analysis using the skills you’ve developed over the first half of the semester. Teams will be responsible for creating a report that summarizes their exploratory data analysis and for giving an in-class presentation of their results. Each team will motivate their exploration by formulating interesting questions that can be answered with the dataset, which are then answered by wrangling the data into a form that allows you to visualize it. The key word here is visualize; all data transformations should be in service of creating visualizations that answer your team’s questions. Teams are welcome to supplement their work by performing basic statistics calculations, but it is not a requirement. Teams may also bring in additional data to strengthen the analysis, but please note that any additional data must be documented, which includes describing how you obtained it and how you’ve integrated it with the main dataset to further your analysis.

The Dataset

All teams will be working with the College Scorecard dataset started by The Obama Administration in September 2015. The dataset is available at https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/. The primary data file that you will be using is labeled as Most recent data. The direct link to the dataset is https://ed-public-download.app.cloud.gov/downloads/Most-Recent-Cohorts-All-Data-Elements.csv.

The data code-book is available at https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/assets/CollegeScorecardDataDictionary.xlsx, which describes all of the variables that are in the dataset. You will have to look through the code-book to understand the meaning of the variables, and this should be your starting point before you start running an analysis on the dataset.

For further information about the dataset, consult the documentation pages at https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/documentation/.

Finally, loading the dataset, you will need to specify values that will count as NA entries, otherwise it will give you errors. The simplest way to load without errors is to run

college <- read_csv("Most-Recent-Cohorts-All-Data-Elements.csv", na = c("NA", "NULL"))

For your convenience, this command is included in the setup block in your team’s project template.

This is a large dataset that is over 100 megabytes in size and contains millions of individual cells. As such, there is no one right way to approach this project. There are many different avenues that you can take, so have fun with it!

Submission guidelines

Your Midterm Project submission is expected to meet the following guidelines:

  • Your team submission will only be graded if it is on Github and in your team’s copy of the midterm project repository. Your team must also submit a Pull Request against the starting branch.

  • Your submission must contain the team’s RMarkdown file for the final report and a copy of your team’s presentation slides. The RMarkdown report file must knit to HTML and PDF without error.

  • The report is to have two sections, Cleaning and tidying the dataset, and Exploratory data analysis, see further down the document for a description.

  • The data analysis must be completed using the tidyverse tools described in R for Data Science and the plots must be generated using ggplot2.

  • Each team member is expected to formulate one question that he/she then answers in the final report.

  • Each team member must contribute substantive commits to the team repository on Github that reflect his/her own work.

  • The report represents your team’s final results and should only contain the methods used to obtain them. Do not include questions in the report that you cannot answer.

  • Your R code should be clean and readable. For guidelines, take a look at Google’s R Style Guide and Hadley Wickham’s R Style Guide.

  • Your work is to be documented using Markdown blocks. Each block of R code should have Markdown text above it that explains the code’s purpose and what is being done.

  • Teams must do a final edit on the report so that the final submission has a coherent writing style and structure. Each student has a different writing style, and it is distracting if the writing style changes from question to question, so select an editor for the team to make it uniform before submission. In addition, the code blocks should look uniform and clean upon knitting, and any spelling and grammar errors need to be fixed.

  • The report’s tone should be professional and should not read like a social media feed or personal blog. Refrain from editorializing about the project as a whole or about a specific question, this is not an opinion paper. Do not speculate, instead support your claims and explanations using data and analysis. Avoid self-narration or writing about how you felt or what you were thinking as you complete each question, instead write as if you are constructing a step-by-step tutorial for others to use.

  • Late submissions for the midterm project will not be accepted and your presentation must be given on the scheduled date, no exceptions.

Presentation guidelines

Your presentation is expected to meet the following guidelines:

  • For teams of three, the presentation must be between 8 to 10 minutes in length. For teams of four, the presentation must be between 12 to 14 minutes in length.

  • The presentation summarizes key aspects of your report, such as what your questions are, what you needed to find that would answer them, and the choices you made that led to answers. The presentation should not be a laundry list of everything you tried to do that didn’t work. It also shouldn’t contain much R code, only include the most important snippets.

  • The presentation must include slides that you created using either PowerPoint or Google Slides. Teams that are interested in using the R package I use to create the HTML5 slides from class can talk to me separately.

  • Each team member must speak during the presentation. Also, while it is understood that each team member will offer different contributions, every team member should be able to speak independently about the steps taken in your project and answer basic questions.

  • The team should be able to explain the reasoning for taking any particular step during the project.

The submitted write-up is worth 60% of your midterm project grade and your in-class presentation is worth the remaining 40%. Grading criteria for the written submission will be based on the correctness and readability of your R code, if your write-up is structured, coherent, and has proper spelling and follows standard rules of grammar, and the general quality of how you answer each of your presented questions. Grading criteria for the presentation will be based on falling within the time length, how long each team member speaks during the presentation, whether the spoken content is substantive, and the general quality of how the group presents questions and shows how they arrived at their answers. Finally, your classmates will peer review your presentations using a form, which will be averaged together and factored into the presentation grade.

You will be graded as an individual, even though this is a team project. Any team members that are judged to have not sufficiently contributed to the final product will have their grade penalized.

As stated in the class syllabus, this project is worth 25% of your class grade.

Cleaning and tidying the dataset section

This dataset is semi-structured and at least somewhat clean, but it is likely that you will have to perform a small amount of cleaning and/or tidying. A simple example are cell entries containing “PrivacySuppressed”, which may reside in columns that otherwise contain numerical data. You may need to fix the data type for some columns after dealing with the “PrivacySuppressed” entries. Also, some of the columns don’t follow the “each variable must have its own column” rule, so you will likely have to do some data reshaping before starting your analysis.

Attempting to reshape the full dataset so that it is tidy would be an involved task. To keep things manageable, it is recommended that, after you’ve written down your questions and decided on the variables you will be analyzing and visualizing, that you extract those columns using select() in order to reduce the size of the dataset. Assign the reduced dataset to a different variable (don’t overwrite the original dataset). Afterwards you can perform your tidying and cleaning operations on the reduced dataset.

In your write-up, the data cleaning and tidying section should include documentation of your procedure. This would be in the form of code blocks with explanations for why the cleaning/tidying is necessary (for example, cite the tidy data rule that you’re addressing).

Exploratory data analysis section

Each team member will construct and answer 1 question about the dataset in this section. So, for example, a team of three members will have 3 questions in total. Each question must involve one or more visualizations. Your questions must be about comparing relationships between two or more variables in the dataset, which can include how a variable is distributed across several different categories. In addition, answering the question must require that you make use of both data transformation (dplyr) and data visualization (ggplot2). Running visualizations on different columns “out of the box” without any kind of filtering or grouping/summarizing is not sufficient for this project.

In the report, each question should be clearly stated and followed by the procedure used to answer it. The procedure takes the form of both code blocks and plain text. Then, after you obtain your final result in the form of a visualization, be sure to interpret it for the reader. For example, if it’s a distribution, what is it’s shape and center? If it’s a scatter plot, what is the trend of the points? After analyzing the various outputs, synthesize it and provide a formal answer to your stated question.

How to submit

When your team is ready to submit, first confirm that everything has been saved, committed, and pushed to Github. Then, have one of your team members navigate to team’s copy of the Github repository you used for this project. He/she should confirm that the repository webpage contains the final version of report and Powerpoint slides. After confirming that the files are up-to-date, then follow these steps:

  1. Click the Pull Requests tab near the top of the page.

  2. Click the green button that says “New pull request”.

  3. Click the dropdown menu button labeled “base:”, and select the option starting.

  4. Confirm that the dropdown menu button labeled “compare:” is set to master.

  5. Click the green button that says “Create pull request”.

  6. Give the pull request the following title: Submission: Midterm Project, Team #, replacing # with your assigned team number.

  7. In the messagebox, write: Our team’s midterm project report is ready for grading @jkglasbrenner.

  8. Click “Create pull request” to lock in your submission.


Viewing entries tagged
sport psychology

Busting through the pecking order

For first-timers at this summer's super national events, being able to break through the
"established order" of rankings and seedings is a big challenge. Create the mindset of breaking up the pecking order with the following tips:

1) Trust your training. Take confidence from the hours of hard work you have been putting in over the last several weeks and months.  All the sweat, pain, and struggle has built your skills and toughness; now you have to use your training as a means of building your confidence.

2) Play with pressure, play to win. A player who states they are going to play "pressure-free" does not truly believe he/she can win.  If you play pressure-free, what happens when you find yourself in a position to close it out? Will you be ready to take on the pressure when it does come?

3) Extend the match to add pressure. Good things happen when you can extend the match while playing from behind.  The longer you can keep your opponent on the court the better, especially when he/she is favored.

4) Own the court, present strength. When you do something good, do something good; display body language of a confident player who believes he/she can win. Walk around the court with purpose; jog to and from the bench on changeovers; execute your routines between points.

Good luck this summer and find your new position in the pecking order.

Managing Emotions Under Pressure - by Dave Shear

I have had several conversations with elite athletes, Special Operation’s operators from the Navy Seals and Delta Force along with highly respected law enforcement professionals. The one universal agreeable strategy was that if you panic you are done. It is not uncommon to watch varying levels of athletes lose their tempers and go into a panic zone over fear of loss or underachievement. I have been fascinated for years on how composed some professionals and top junior athletes are while others can quickly lose control of their emotions and sabotage their chances of winning and improving. There is little doubt that as leaders, mentors and coaches it is a challenge to keep our athletes in a peak performance zone, and when they edge into the panic zone, find ways to mitigate it.

When an athlete's heart rate increases and panic-mode sets in during competition, he can slip into what is known as "Condition Black" (a more common word for this is "freezing" under pressure).  The normal resting heart rate of an average person is 60-80 BPM. I would argue that most elite level athletes maintain a lower BPM and can be registered in the sub 50 BPM range. It is important to note that when your BPM approaches 115 your fine motor skills begin to deteriorate. Complex motor skills, visual reaction time and cognitive reaction time at 145 BPM will further deteriorate according to experts. It is also known that the optimal survival and combat performance level is somewhere between 115-145 BPM. It would certainly make sense based on these variables that an athlete should be aware of their heart rates during competition and recognize the cause and affect of losing their emotions. For an athlete to diminish their cognitive processing, experience loss of depth perception, peripheral vision and near vision could be devastating in competition. Therefore, it is critical to identify the loss of emotional control as a result of pressure and how to control that emotion so you can stay in your optimal levels of performance.

I had the honor to learn how to coach tennis under one of the world’s best coaches, Hall of Famer Robert Lansdorp. His students are a who’s who of tennis: Tracey Austin, Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Linsey Davenport, just to name a few. Robert once told me how critically important is was to train for the pressure of competition. He often used the example of athletes playing up in age and how the pressure was often times diminished. He always tried to present both ends of the pressure continuum by putting his players in pressure situations during training. Playing against your peers, teams or players that you normally beat presents a different kind of pressure versus “playing up.” This was a very important training element that all coaches and players should think about in their development. Elite Special Operations personnel will always tell you that it is fine to have disagreements but in the end, if you don’t agree you better have a solution to the problem. I believe the first part of the solution to handling your emotions is to identify the problem and come up with logical solutions to increase your performance. Stress in competition will occur and we must understand how critical it is to pay close attention to how it is affecting the athlete physically as well as mentally.

Too often the fear of loss, failure of reaching the goal, and/or disappointing others causes athletes stress during competition. It’s very hard to let that go and has to be addressed as a key component in training. This could take many weeks, months and years but to disregard it would be a major mistake. Coaches, leaders, mentors and players should have serious discussions about the cause and effect of stress, emotions and how to maintain a peak performance level.  ASP has developed individual programs that help athletes overcome emotions under pressure.  These systems have been developed by being on the road with athletes and working with them in their natural training and competitive environments.  As a result, we believe no two athletes are the same so it is critical to design a program that fits the athlete’s needs.  Lastly, we also work with coaches on becoming better leaders by giving them some additional tools to use during development.

When hard work and passion collide with opportunity

At #775 in the ATP rankings, Marcus Willis was an unlikely qualifier into this year's Wimbledon main draw field.  If not for a nudge, some good old fashioned hard work, and a love for the game we may not have been able to witness his rise through the qualifying tournament and into the main draw of 2016's third Grand Slam event.  I will let you read the story above for yourself, but there are a few take-aways that all players can glean from Willis' story.

Hard-work is a pre-requisite

There are no guarantees that if you work hard you will achieve your goals.  This is one of the most challenging aspects of sport; the unknown.  However, hard work is the pre-requisite to the "opportunity" for good things to happen.  Willis grinded it out in various European leagues leading up to June, which ultimately allowed him to get the last spot in the PRE-QUALIFYING. From there he advanced into the Qualifying tournament, and subsequently was the last entry into the Main Draw.  When the pre-requisite of hard-work is met and the opportunity arises, good things can happen.

Prepare as though the opportunity is coming

The sports world is full of great examples of athletes who take full advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself.  Tom Brady comes to mind immediately.  His desire drove him to prepare each day as it was going to be the first day he could start proving everyone wrong. When the opportunity came he was physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to pounce.  We shall see if Willis can make a splash at this year's Wimbledon, but even if he doesn't, the fact that he was coaching at a country club for most of the year and was able to get into the main draw is inspiring.  Willis was preparing himself for this stage months ago, when the reality of getting to this point was a far-fetched dream.  But here he is, getting ready to take advantage of the next opportunity.

Surround yourself with positive and honest people

At some point you will doubt yourself and your path, and when this time comes look to your inner circle for inner strength.  Sometimes players need to borrow someone else's positive energy, or maybe get a kick in the rear to get across the void.  Latch onto people who can inspire you, motivate you, challenge you.  Surround yourself with family/friends/players/coaches who have high goals like you do and will be honest and direct when needed.  One of Willis' friends challenged his intentions to give up his playing career and coach tennis in the US, telling him he was "an idiot and should keep going."  The nudge was received.

Accept that the journey will bend at times

There is no straight shot to achievement. Look at a road map; do you think the engineers planned it that way? No, but they had an end result in mind and it was just a matter of solving the variety of obstacles they faced along the way. Approach your own journey in a similar way. Develop a plan and have an end result in mind, but be ready to adapt, to grind it out, to problem-solve regardless of the challenge.  If you accept the fact that your journey will bend at times, you will be better prepared for when it actually does.

"Peaking Mentally" starts now

There are about three weeks left before the USTA National Clay Court Championships kick off the summer grind.  As I work with players getting ready to peak at the summer nationals, there are common themes that should be addressed so that players can cash in on their hard work.

By now, the training foundation has been completed.  From building the physical toughness and endurance, to cleaning up the technical changes, players must now transition into a different mode for the weeks leading up to the big events.

1. Sharpen the blade:

  • Focus on your weapons and what you do well.  Win with your strengths each day of practice to build confidence.
  • Shift your focus to tactics over technique.  Ask questions that matter during competitive point play.  What adjustments can I make?  What does my opponent do well/not well? How can I play to my strengths?

2. Approach each day with purpose:

  • Create "mini-match goals" to stay engaged during competition.  Create measurable goals that relate to your game style. For instance, "Win 10 points at the net," or "Serve out wide on every first serve to the deuce box."
  • Never leave the court frustrated or mad; finish with something positive each day. If you had a rough training day then end it with a drill that you love. I like to have players end practices with finishing drills like floater volleys, overheads, or mid-court balls; they work on being aggressive, which can alleviate the frustration.

3. Execute your mental routines:

  • Use practice matches and smaller tournaments to work on your on-court presence. How do you want to look and act when you are competing at the larger tournaments? Practice being the player you want to be when the pressure arrives.
  • Use your self-talk in a motivational way.  Remind yourself of the long road you have taken to get to this point and the challenges you have overcome.

4. Use the excitement and nerves as motivation

  • As the excitement and pressure builds closer to the tournaments, keep yourself accountable for having a good attitude and work on being a positive player each day. The nerves are a good sign; you care, and you are emotionally engaged.  Now direct this nervous energy into a positive manner.
  • Remember, the tournaments are the fun part!  They give you an opportunity to step outside of your comfort zone and test yourself in new ways.

Look for the ASP Team in Florida during the Clay Court Nationals events.  If you are interested in working on your mental skills, reach out to us today to schedule training sessions.  Best of luck this summer!

Be a better player on your bad days, when you aren't "in the zone"

Throughout my travels to the top junior and professional tennis events I have seen some pretty crazy things that players have to deal with, so much so that I could write a book about it.  For example, I once saw a player who was behind 0-3 in the first set launch all three balls into a pond behind the court, and then proceed to walk slowly to the tournament desk to get a new can of balls.  His opponent just stood there in disbelief, not sure what to do or say.  One of my favorite examples is about a player who lost the first set and took a bathroom break.  A few minutes later the player returned to the court.  There was only one problem; his identical twin brother (the better player of the two) came back and began playing in his place until one of the spectators pointed it out to an official.  I could easily take a different turn with the rest of this article and discuss the character component to competitive sport, but you know what, players have to learn to deal with the adversity and figure out a way to keep charging ahead.  Is it right for opponents to do these things? No, but the reality of being a competitive tennis player is that you are going to be exposed to a wide array of different cultures, conditions, and challenges, and to be successful you must be resilient.  Resiliency is no different than any other skill; it has to be strengthened through practice.

Develop a Tolerance to Adversity

To become more resilient, players must build a tolerance to adversity, which is achieved by attacking the rough days with a different mindset and attitude.  Instead of trying to get into the "zone" each day, work on building thicker armor that cannot be penetrated by pebbles (the petty events that happen during competition).  I disagree with the notion that mental skills development is for the purpose of getting an athlete into the "zone".  Instead, I would rather help a player develop a deeper well for handling adversity. The "zone" is such a rare occurrence, and in my experience, not within an athlete's control.  The days when everything you do seems to work and is effortless are few and far between.  Instead, competition and training is full of random challenges and adverse moments.  I have asked pros and grand slam champions the question; How many matches in your career were you "in the zone"? Their answers were all very similar; a very small percentage.  One former world #1 said he would guess only about 20 matches fell into this category; he was on the tour for over a decade and played almost 800 matches in his career.

Let's say, for example, that out of 10 practices a player will have 5 good days, 3 average days, and 2 bad days.  How much would he/she improve by bringing the good days up to great days?  How much would he/she improve by bringing the bad days up to average days?  Is it easier to get your performances from good to great, or from bad to average?  In my experience, players who improve on their bad days (process-oriented) make bigger jumps than those who want to make their good days even better (perfectionism).  Forget the zone, bring your bottom end up.  You will improve much more if your mental performances are consistent from the good days to the bad days.  Instead of striving for the highest level of physical performance every practice or every match, work on day-to-day mental consistency, which means you have a high level of mental engagement regardless of how well you are playing. Once you can accomplish mental consistency, then you can turn your attention to the top 1% of performance.

Change Your Perception of the Bad Days; See Opportunity

Players who are exposed to struggle and adversity have a great opportunity to fill in their holes, but only if they choose to see it this way.  Very few players who I have worked with like the days when things are difficult, but eventually they learn to roll with it and focus on what really matters.  When you begin to look at adversity and bad days through a different lens, you begin seeking out challenge as a means of staying motivated and goal-focused.  The easy days offer few challenges, and as a result, few opportunities to build your tolerance for adversity. Which matches are you the most proud? The ones where you won easily, or the ones where you had to dig deep?  Which matches did you learn the most from or gain the most confidence?  Redirect your bad days and challenges into opportunities.

Focus on the controllables to level out performance

A player's mental engagement will often correlate with his/her physical play.  Play well and you will see a positive and engaged player; play poorly and you will see bad body language and inconsistent engagement.  While it would be great to be mentally engaged AND play well, you only need one of the two to be present to put yourself in a position to win.  If you go 0 for 2 then you are in trouble.  If you have ever played poorly but managed to win, then you know what it is like to grind out the win mentally.  It won't be pretty and you will have to dig deep, but at least if your mind is focused on the controllables (effort, attitude, mindset, making adjustments, etc.) you will be in every match you play.  If your mental engagement goes hand in hand with your physical performance then you can expect a lot of ups and downs, which can be very frustrating.  Get off the roller-coaster ride and become a consistent competitor; grind it out mentally on the bad days.

Develop your tolerance to adversity by taking challenges head on with a different attitude. Practice and competition represents opportunities to strengthen your armor; the thicker it is the more you can handle and the less your opponent can get through.

Doing the work in between points

"There's a fine line between disaster and success..." ~Lee Westwood

Commitment to the shot, or lack thereof, ultimately cost Jordan Spieth a second consecutive Master's championship.  Standing over his tee shot on the infamous hole #12, things sped up for Spieth, who admitted he started rushing through his routines and did not fully commit to the shot in front of him.  After 63 holes, Spieth had few lapses in his performance, and when he did have a misstep he battled back each time.  But bogey, bogey put him on #12 on the final day with a one shot lead, after previously holding a 5 shot lead with 9 to play.  Pressure. History. Overthinking. In 2014, Spieth had a similar outcome on hole #12; he found the water hazard then too, which cost him the championship as well.  His personal history with the hole created doubt in his mind, which in turn led to carding an unprecedented 7 on a par 3.

Committing to the shot is one of the most important aspects of playing tennis at a high level. Approaching the ball with a clear idea of what to do, followed by fully committing to the decision, leads to better execution and confidence in one's abilities. I venture a guess that if Spieth had committed to the shot in his mind he may still have put the ball in the water; however, the key difference is what would have gone through his mind afterward.  If he had committed to the shot and missed he could still move forward knowing that he made the right decision, but just didn't execute (he at least got one of the two right).  Instead, he didn't execute BECAUSE he didn't commit to the shot.  When you hear a player say "I got tight", this is what they are experiencing; overthinking that leads to doubt, which leads to poor decision making, which leads to poor execution.  As one of the commentators stated, "At this point in the tournament, poor play is usually a result of poor decision making."  In Spieth's situation, it led to him rushing through his routines and approaching the ball before he was ready to play.

I would imagine that the sleepless nights ahead of Spieth are not because he missed out on an opportunity to win back-to-back Master's, but rather that he didn't commit to his game in the most challenging spot on the golf course.  If he had, and even if he still came up short, I bet he would sleep much easier.

Success is "Intoxicating"

It’s so hard not to get intoxicated with fame.
— Jay Wright, Villanova men's basketball coach

Villanova, who is in the 2016 Final Four for the second time in Wright's career, is poised to win a national championship this coming weekend.  The article is a great example of the ups and downs that coaches, athletes, and teams face in sport, and how success can alter one's mindset and change a winning approach.  Wright's first Final Four appearance was in 2009, which was immediately followed by a few disappointing seasons, full of early tournament losses.  It was during the 2011 off-season that Wright confided in his assistant coach that he did not handle his program's success very well, and that success ultimately changed his approach to recruiting.  Rather than replicate the best-fit recruiting philosophy that led to the 2009 run, Wright made decisions based on best talent, which did not pan out to more wins.

Success, using Wright's term, can be "intoxicating."  Winning can bring a lot of positive reactions, like increased confidence in one's abilities and increased motivation to continue succeeding.  But winning can also lead to a shift in an athlete's mindset, where the focus is on the success itself and what it brings (social acceptance, financial gain, etc.), rather than the process that went into its development.  The emotional defense mechanisms kick in and there is a temptation to change, to listen to the "noise", to "protect" what you just earned.  These reactions are all normal, but that is where the distinction needs to be; they are only reactions, not habits.  It is important to let success sink in and pull the positives from the experience, but keep your training and thinking habits close and take the time to reflect on what got you there. It's time to set new performance and outcome goals and get back to work.


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Filtering by Category: Metaphor

How much do you trust your people?

Delta7 Change

In organisations with a ‘command and control’ culture there is the expectation that orders should be followed to achieve a desired result – rather like following the instructions from a sat nav to reach a destination. This may usually work well, but learning is limited, and the dependency on the sat nav can leave the driver lost or stuck if anything goes wrong with it.

In organisations where individuals are trusted to take more responsibility for their work people have an incentive to take more care, and can become more invested in their outcomes. They are reading the map and charting the route, and having to be alert to their surroundings. Things will go wrong from time to time, but then lessons can be learnt and better solutions found. Sometimes taking a new turning will lead to discoveries and opportunities that would never have appeared on the sat nav.

What makes a story compelling?

Delta7 Change

John le Carré really nails what is at the heart of any great story; drama. By establishing conflict in a situation, the need to restore order and balance becomes the motivation for action. The unfolding story is the journey taken to make sense of the conflict, define the challenges, and undertake the transformation required to meet them.

The drama of organisational change can be scary, so people need to be clear what's at stake for them and their organisation. When change is complex and hard to grasp, a story can help people understand the connection between cause and affect, to make sense of what is going on around them, and think about what might happen to them. It can provide a lens through which they create shared meaning around what needs to change, and help clarify what actions they need to take ownership of.

When a story speaks to people's concerns and aspirations it can be compelling, affecting the way they think, feel, act and behave. It gives them the context they need to make sense of - and take responsibility for - their part in achieving it's outcomes.

We believe that a compelling story is one of the most important elements of a change programme – it helps employees make sense of what’s at stake and take ownership of the organisation’s journey by seeing themselves within it.

Crushed and squeezed - do you recognise this?

Elinor Rebeiro

My colleague drew this image the other day after we were discussing some of the challenges employees experience in their day-to-day work environment. Does it resonate?

It makes me consider the fluid nature of the way I work. As a consultant I am struck by the dichotomy or competing forces that come into play when trying to meet the needs of each client and the needs of the people that I work with.

I quite often feel myself getting overwhelmed trying to meet these expectations - my own included (but they definitely sit at the end of the queue). I think there is something so difficult in this because it is easy to lose perspective and no longer be able to see past the thing that is right in front of you.

A lot of what I am talking about here is perceived as well as 'real' pressure, and can be triggered as much by my own work ethic as it can by my clients’ expectations. When I am in this space it feels completely real and completely crushing – mind, body and soul.

So, what stops me saying "Sod it, I’m getting out of here"? Somedays, honestly, I don’t know. I know that I love my work, I know that I also love my daughter and husband who invariably end up as one of those competing forces rather than one of my reasons for being and why it is so important for me to work.

When I look at this image I keep asking myself 'Who are these little devils?' For me they are every best intention I have, plus an obligation to my colleagues, plus a commitment to an organisation that pays me to be there. This is in part due to a work ethic, and in part due to a standard I expect of myself.

No-one actively chooses to put their head in a vice, but when you are in that vice how easy is it to take your head out again? Are you even aware that the vice is there?

The answer, for me, is to be able to step out and explore what is happening, take some time to be mindful and reflective. The double bind is, of course, that to do that I still need to be aware that something isn’t right in the first place. Perhaps more realistically it is about stopping often to reflect not only when there is a problem, paying attention to the body response and trying to notice when things seem out of sync. And having a colleague you trust enough to share with how you are feeling can make all the difference.

another way...

Chris Hayes

The power of metaphor

julian burton

Creating new metaphors

I’ve been wondering a lot about the metaphors we use as  O.D. practitioners. For example, the metaphor Self-As-Instrument helps us to conceptualise our agency and impact in service of our clients. It works as an easy anchor point to help encompass what we want to learn to develop our skills and capabilities as O.D. practitioners. Learning to be more present, self-aware, empathic and better at deep listening when we work with clients is central to our effectiveness and the value we bring to organisations.

I'm curious about how this metaphor affects how I experience myself when working with clients. What kind of instrument am I? A spade? And microscope? A calculator? A scalpel?  A dictionary definition of instrument is something like "a mechanical implement for delicate and precise work”. I don’t normally feel like an instrument that does things to other people. My experience of the complexity and richness of face to face interactions gives me a sense that having impact or influence isn’t as simple or controllable as the instrument metaphor seems to imply.

What could a new metaphor be?

For me this metaphor could be reinforcing a transactional rather than a relational attitude to being with others ; one of “doing-to” rather than “being-with”, which feels much more appropriate when working alongside clients. I get a sense that the underlying assumption of this metaphor defines people as things, and as discrete objects that can be “changed" in some transactional and intentional way, which is another implicit assumption worth shining a light on.

There is also a question for me of this metaphor about what it means to be a "Self". Am I an independent rational self with control over my will and identity? Or am I inextricably bound up with and entangled with others and the relationships that continuously form and reform me? It would be really interesting to explore these questions further and inhabit them as a way to help deepen our O.D. skills and capabilities. To inquire into how we see our selves and our effectiveness in more creative and less rational ways could be really useful.


Commercial Loans

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Round the World...

In today's world, everyone tries to be the best. Same is the case with businesses; but, at times, they don't have the funds for their ventures. Commercial loan is a bank loan granted for the use of a business.
As curious people, we all want answers to certain conventional (what, why, how) and certain unconventional (etc) questions.

What: - As mentioned earlier, commercial loan is a bank-given loan to a business organization. The borrower has to repay the sum within a period of time, usually accompanied by some interest. It may be for basic operation(s) like purchasing supplies (for production) or even for buying new machinery. Some organizations apply for renewable loans, which allow the business to secure necessary funds, repay the balance within a time frame with certain terms, and then renew the loan.
Why: - Suppose your milk man decides to launch mint flavored milk but, due to lack of funds he either thinks of buying lottery tickets and visiting temples everyday or doubling your supply even if you don’t need it or going to a bank and asking for a commercial loan. Of course the borrower (the milk man in this case) has to prove his credit worthiness by, for example showing a stable cash flow in his business.

How: - A step by step process to apply for a commercial loan is as follows:-
Know why and how much loan you would require:
Get your financial details like assets (cash, stock, inventories, property rights, and goodwill.) and liabilities (any obligation or debt) in order.
Fill the application form (available at the bank) for a commercial loan:

Relaying all the details to the loan officer and waiting for the bank to do a risk analysis.
At times, commercial loan brokers are employed by the borrower. A broker is a specialist intermediary between borrowers and lenders, acting on behalf of the borrower. A broker is employed if no prior relationship exists with a bank or the borrower is not sure about the interest rates for a particular loan.

Risk analysis based on quite a few factors like the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score, which calculates the borrower’s creditworthiness based on credit report information, typically sourced from credit bureaus. Borrowers with a high FICO score qualify for the best rates available. The DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) ratio which tells the lender how much income you expect to receive after you have satisfied your debt service requirements. High DSCR results in more attractive loans.

 1) Commercial loan is qualified based on the amount of income the property produces unlike residential loan which is given against personal income of the borrower.
2) If the lender considers the proposition to be risky, he might grant the loan but by charging more to fund the money.
3) Commercial loans require at least 10% down payment.
4) Depending on the borrower’s organization and his needs, he may apply for different amounts. This will then be analyzed by the lender. There is a lower and an upper cut-off which varies from organization to organization after checking the past record for fraudulence.


Parallel change (or expand, migrate and contract)

Introduce new functionality by adding new code instead of changing existing code. If you are expanding a class or an interface, introduce new methods instead of changing existing ones. If the behavior from the outside is similar and only implementation changes, duplicate existing tests and point them to new code, leaving the existing tests untouched. Make sure tests for existing code are still working.

Implement new functionality starting from the tests, either by writing new tests or by adapting duplicated old tests. Make sure to write new code using TDD practices. Once all new functionality is implemented, move to the migration step.

Deprecate old code and allow clients to migrate to new expanded code, or change client code to point to new code.

Once all client code is migrated to new code, remove old functionality by removing deprecated code and its tests.