12 Chapter 12 – HOW DO MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND AFFECTIVE REACTIONS INFLUENCE MY PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT AND BEHAVIOR? (U of S #5)
This chapter supports Module 12 in which you will:
- Reflect upon how experiences and reactions can advance social justice, and how they can also blind us to others’ needs and/or approaches to solving problems.
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n this chapter, we explore how our personal experiences and affective reactions influence our professional judgment and behavior. Our experiences help us make sense of the world — but can also limit our ability to see how others navigate the world. Our reactions provide us with powerful information. However, there is a reason that the Council on Social Work Education requires that we help students process their cognitive and affective (emotional) reactions to content and situations. One of the reasons we push supervision in social work is to get outside perspectives to help us make good decisions. That can be particularly difficult for elected officials, especially as they get into higher and higher office. Elected officials can be more susceptible to being surrounded by sycophants or “yes people.” Bang and Frith offer suggestions on how to make better decisions in groups to combat groupthink. And, Abraham Lincoln who you may remember created a “Team of Rivals” for his cabinet also provides a valuable role model.
A common complaint is that elected officials forget where they came from and are more interested in the office than they are in their community. How can someone in power stay true to their work and the people they represent? For one thing, they stay their authentic selves. Barbara Mikulski provides that example for us. I think you’ll enjoy the article about her, maybe see yourself in the things she believed and did, and take with you some of what she has to teach.
We’re coming to the end of our Running for Office work. This week’s cut from Represent! provides more nuts and bolts for your toolbox with an emphasis on messaging. Effective messaging is vital in social work leadership and LWV-NE provides some really good structure and tips for effective messaging. I hope the LWV-NE videos have been helpful for you as you think about running for office (or helping someone else run) in the future. If as you read that you thought — Man, that will never be me — you have a taste of what it takes to run — and how much like all the other things social workers do, it can be broken down into a series of steps and challenges that are done with others as a team. Running for office can be much less overwhelming than most would make it out to be. (And ponder that — who could it benefit that people see running for office as too overwhelming to even think about?)
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Read
- Bang, D., Frith, C. (2017). Making better decisions in groups. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579088/
- Cassie, R. (2016). Senator Barb: How did the daughter of Polish grocers become dean of the US Senate women? https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/historypolitics/senator-barbara-mikulski-daughter-of-polish-grocers-rise-to-the-senate/
- Couto, D. (April, 2009). Leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2009/04/leadership-lessons-from-abraham-lincoln
Watch
- Represent! Running for Political Office in Nebraska Virtual Campaign Training Program1 – How to File/Run for Office & Campaign Messaging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NNFWRKB3o 1:30-2:30 (campaign messaging)
Listen
- Choose one episode: http://www.electedofficialsofamerica.com/
