In the space provided briefly respond to each of the following questions.

1.  What are your personal goals for the Journey Toward Mastery and why are you interested in becoming a member of the Center for Nursing Leadership Learning Community?

2.  Share with us how you have been involved with building/participating in community.

3.  In what ways will you receive support from your employing organization for your participation in the CNL Learning Community?

4.  In what way would you like to influence the field of Healthcare in the future.

5.  What factors or characteristics distinguish excellent leaders in your environment?

6.  Do you have access to the Internet? How would you describe your computer skills? Are you willing to commit to using the computer as a communication vehicle during the Center experience?

7. The CNL Learning Community has been working on developing Dimensions of Leadership. This is a work in progress, but one that will bring to the field a new philosophy of leadership and one that will be crafted by the growing members of our community. Each Dimension has attached to it a symbolic representation to the world in which we live. Please take two to three of the Dimensions below and write an anecdote or story (feel free to use a medium of your choice) that describes the Dimension and how it is present in your professional (or personal) life.  See attached list of Leadership Dimensions for detail and two story examples.

QUEST FOR THE ADVENTURE TOWARDS KNOWING: RIVER

I grew up along the rivers, bayous and swamps of southeast Louisiana. I know the feel and sight of wide, straight and easy moving water flowing ahead towards the horizon. When the river is chosen rather than the road, I think it’s because it’s a different kind of "getting from one place to the other." Somehow the river is more inviting, and, unlike the road, the way glides beneath while the traveler slides on top. If not careful, the force of the glide will carry the traveler along with it

For me, knowledge is very much like a river. If it is not navigated well by those who ride it, the traveler will reach destinations already mapped by others. One can end up exploring places which no longer hold any mysteries. All is explained by those who have gone before

Leadership is about traveling on top of the river while being conscious of its force, maintaining the ability to move with or against the river. Direction is then determined by the traveler, the leader, rather than the force of the river’s flow

In life, however, rivers can exceed their boundaries. Floods happen. In this story, the threat of flooding mobilizes a community into a shared adventure of knowing and learning.

THE GIFT OF COMMUNITY

[adapted from an article in Nursing Management, December 1997, 28 (12), 33]

April 1997. We are in a state of emergency and the city of Fargo looks like a war zone. The Army Corps of Engineers, the National Guard, the Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard Reserves, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army are all here. Helicopters swirl around us surveying the direction of the Red River, roads are closed, earthen clay dikes are being built and throngs of people fill sandbags. The farm fields look like oceans; waterfowl of all kind tread water aimlessly, catching fish that were lost in the rushing tide of the river.

It is surreal. In the midst of all this activity there exists an incredible calmness and feeling of complete control in spite of the uncertainty and impending disaster that the raging waters present. Some of our larger dikes were failing and to avoid the possible loss of our entire city, another dike was to be constructed. We had a choice: abandon our homes and possessions or stay and try to save what we had. A quick community meeting in the street and a vote to build a dike of our own set us in a flurry of nonstop activity that lasted 48 hours.

I knew the meaning of community from an intellectual perspective; however, I gained the wisdom of "being in community" through living and experiencing its truth. As we conducted ourselves with supreme respect and honor for the river, never treating it as an enemy, we were able to match its power and take control of our lives and survival.