W1Discussion 1 Capstone

Walden University MMSL 6905: Capstone: A Case for Leaders as Change Agents

Photo Credit: Hero Images / Hero Images / Getty Images

Course Introduction Welcome to MMSL 6905: Capstone: A Case for Leaders as Change Agents.

This course sets out to bridge the gap between theory and practice. As such, it presents you with an opportunity to put all of your leadership skills to the test as you engage in one of two tracks from which you will select your Capstone Project, compile your Portfolio of Visions, and prepare to present your social impact idea in a professional manner.

In this course, you will select one of two project tracks. The first track of the Capstone Project, referred to as the Proposal Track, will provide you with an opportunity to identify a service, program, or product (existing or non-existing) that you believe will have a social impact in your organization, neighborhood, city, state, country, or globally.

The second track of the Capstone Project, referred to as the Research Paper Track, will provide you with an opportunity to explore a social impact research interest in depth, which will be manifested in a 25- to 30-page paper. You will identify one or two research questions and a problem to be solved and then explore the subject matter with academic rigor.

To be completed by all students, the Portfolio of Visions paper is intended to help you coalesce your thinking about what you have learned while participating in the MSL program, consider who you are becoming as a scholar-practitioner, and conceptualize a future vision for your life.

You will be introduced to the concepts of Multipliers and Diminishers in our text Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (Rev. ed.). This resource will provide you with opportunities to explore two leadership styles. Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations, while developing and attracting talent, cultivating new ideas, and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. Diminishers are known as those who can drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them, otherwise known as the idea killers, energy sappers, and the diminishers of talent and commitment.

Throughout this course, you will be expected to complete your assignments and meet the deadlines set in the classroom and by your Course Instructor. You will also have many opportunities to both provide feedback to, as well as elicit feedback from, your peers through Affinity Group and through

whole-class discussions of coursework.

Always remember Anthony Robbins’ words: “The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.”

Please take some time to review the information found on the course navigation menu. You may also wish to introduce yourself to your colleagues in the Class Café. If you are new to Blackboard, be sure to review the information on the Course Home page, which explains how your course materials are organized here in the online classroom.

If you have questions, contact Technical Support or your Instructor before the question becomes a problem. Once again, welcome!

Rubrics Week 1 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 1 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 2 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 2 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 3 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 3 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 4 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 4 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 5 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 5 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 6 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 6 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 7 Discussion 1 Rubric

Week 7 Discussion 2 Rubric

Week 8 Discussion Rubric

Week 1 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 1 Assignment 2 Rubric

Week 2 Assignment Rubric

Week 3 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 4 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 5 Assignment 1 Rubric

Portfolio of Visions The Portfolio of Visions Paper is intended to help you coalesce your thinking about what you have learned while participating in the MSL program, consider who you are becoming as a scholar- practitioner, and conceptualize a future vision for your life. This is based upon the idea that most successful people in the world plan their current lives and their futures. The MSL program has been designed to bring a rigorous academic experience together with the student's desire to become a consummate scholar-practitioner committed to producing social impacts in order to better the plight of humanity. This is done with the full knowledge that you are most whole when you live an integrated way of life with a desire to always becoming a better "self." To that end, the Portfolio of Visions provides you with the opportunity to bring these disparate parts of your life into to a focused way of being.

Download the Portfolio of Visions template to see the parameters for the project and begin working through the assignments.

Proposal Project The Capstone Proposal Project Option

Week 6 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 7 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 8 Assignment 1 Rubric

Week 8 Assignment 2 Rubric

Document: Portfolio of Visions Template (Word document)

The Capstone Proposal Project provides you with an opportunity to frame a social impact project that could be funded by a foundation, corporation, venture capital firm, government agency, or other capital resource. The method used for this Capstone Proposal is to identify a service, program, or product the student believes will have a social impact in their organization, neighborhood, city, state, country, or globally. While you are encouraged to think on a large scale, you are advised to create a pilot program that if successful can be replicated on a much larger scale. For example, if you want to develop a leadership training program for a school district, the pilot might focus on one particular school, allowing you to work out the flaws and to learn from the smaller experience before moving on to the larger entity. Likewise if you have a product you believe is worthy of introducing into a market, you would be advised to field test the product in a representative area before trying to market the product more globally. In addition to being a prudent business strategy, funders or financial backers often want to field test ideas before fully investing in them on a much larger basis.

If on the other hand, if you are working for an organization, you might want to take an existing idea, service, program, or product and expand it. Then you already have in effect "piloted" the program and service and are looking to now broaden its reach.

In either case however, you must look at the larger picture and think in the larger more macro context as part of writing the proposal: From the larger idea comes the pilot.

The emphasis for this Capstone Proposal Project is a proposal designed to create a real-world social impact should it become funded. Therefore, you must write a well-organized proposal that has real- world potential for funding. The proposal must match criteria outlined by a foundation of your choosing. There are too many potential grant makers to provide a comprehensive list; however, a brief list of selected potential funding sources is listed in the resources section of the course to give you a start. For foundations not included on the list, use the Foundation Center link in the Syllabus to obtain information on foundations of which you might be more familiar. Other helpful source links are also provided to give a head start on finding funding. You can also obtain information for venture capital firms by using the business and government libraries as an initial source.

The format for this project proposal will help you develop a general proposal that can be tailored to meet the funding criteria for a major foundation proposal after the conclusion of your program here at Walden University. Every foundation and funding source has its unique criteria and application processes. However, by completing this project proposal format you will be well on your way towards being able to submit a proposal to an actual foundation.

Download the Capstone Proposal Project template to begin documenting your work throughout the duration of this course.

Research Project The Capstone Research Project Option

The Capstone Research Paper provides you with an opportunity to explore a social impact research interest in depth. You will identify one or two research questions and a problem to be solved and then explore the subject matter with academic rigor. You will then write a paper that is a minimum of 25 pages and does not exceed 30 pages on the subject of your choosing as long as it relates to some theme studied in the MSL program. (The length of the paper does not include such things as title page, abstract, list of references, appendices, etc.) This is a summary narrative form of paper and should not use questions as headings or lead-ins to the narration. Graduate level critical thinking and writing should be applied when writing this paper and the use of questions should be minimized and focused.

This paper will be well grounded in the literature and the subject must be a real-world social impact problem to be solved. You are strongly advised to write about a problem with which you are truly familiar and to apply theory to solve the problem. It is envisioned that you will write about an organization, community, or social issue with which you are intimately involved. You will cite at least 20 sources from refereed journals, 15 of which must not have been used during your course of study. You may also use textbooks for the remaining five sources to complete the 20-citation source requirement.

The purpose of this paper is for you to demonstrate depth of knowledge and the ability to function as a scholar-practitioner. You will use the APA 6th edition as the source reference for formatting and writing the paper. This paper is a rigorous study of some phenomena and you are expected to stay on point with the subject and to produce a final paper that is worthy of publication. In addition to the APA guidelines for formatting papers, you should use the chapter headings from the downloadable template below.

Academic Integrity

Document: Proposal Project Template (Word document)

Document: Research Project Template (Word document)

Walden University considers academic integrity to be essential for each student’s intellectual development. Therefore, students and faculty should familiarize themselves with the university’s Code of Conduct, which includes the policy on academic integrity, as outlined in the Walden University Student Handbook. You should also be familiar with Walden’s Technology Policies.

More information about the Code of Conduct is located on the Support, Guidelines, and Policies page.

A violation of academic integrity is any action or attempted action that may result in creating an unfair academic advantage for the student or an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any other member or members of the academic community. A violation of academic integrity can include, but is not limited to:

Plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source. Plagiarism includes using the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment as well as misuse of your own scholarly work. Cheating. Cheating is defined as fraud, deceit, or dishonesty in an academic assignment. Providing False Information. Providing false information includes fabricating or altering information or data and presenting it as legitimate as well as providing false or misleading information to an instructor or any other university staff member. Copyright Violation. Walden recognizes and respects intellectual property rights and requires all members of the university community to use copyrighted materials in a lawful manner. Misrepresentation of Credentials. Any statements made and documents supplied by a student or applicant regarding past or current academic programs, degrees, or professional accomplishments must be complete and accurate. Theft or Damage of Property. Theft or damage of property includes, but is not limited to, obtaining a copy of an assignment or exam prior to its approved release by the faculty member. Alteration of University Documents. Examples of alteration of university documents include forging the signature of an instructor or university official on a document and submitting an altered transcript of grades.

For more information on and examples of the above violations, as well as the review process for Code of Conduct violations, please refer to the Walden University Student Handbook.

SafeAssign Policies

Walden University Student Handbook

To review Walden’s policy on academic integrity, visit the Code of Conduct in the Walden University Student Handbook. More information about the Code of Conduct is located on the Support, Guidelines, and Policies page.

Thank you for your commitment to and partnership in maintaining academic integrity.

SafeAssign Drafts Within the classroom, students can submit drafts to SafeAssign during a course, to be proactive in checking for potential inadvertent plagiarism issues or incorrect APA 7th edition style citations. Please note that this area is for drafts only; and students must submit the final copy of their assignment in the appropriate area in the classroom.

For more information on how to use SafeAssign and interpret originality reports, please refer to the following resource:

Click the “SafeAssign Drafts” link below to begin submitting drafts.

Doc Sharing

As we collaborate with each other throughout the term, you may wish to support other members of the class by sharing documents or other files. Doc Sharing encourages us to collaborate and help each other to be successful.

Click the “Doc Sharing” link to begin sharing files or return to “Course Home” from the slide out menu, and then click “Doc Sharing” from the Blackboard menu!

Walden University Student Handbook

SafeAssign Student Tutorial

To submit your SafeAssign Drafts:

SafeAssign Drafts

Webliography

Similar to Doc Sharing, you may wish to share hyperlinks to articles, web pages, presentations, videos, or other items that are already on the Internet. Posting Webliography items is another great way to help each other to be successful.

Click the “Webliography” link to begin sharing hyperlinks or return to “Course Home” from the slide out menu, and then click “Webliography” from the Blackboard menu!

To participate in Doc Sharing:

Doc Sharing

To participate in the Webliography:

Webliography