Jake Whittingslow

Professor London

Leadership

2/17/20

PAA #5

Concrete Experience

An experience that I had recently that I felt was interesting and resonated to this class was

during a fall lacrosse practice. While lacrosse is a spring sport, we have a certain amount of

practice days that we can fit into a five week span of time during the fall semester in which we

are legally allowed to work with our coaches under NCAA rules. We have gone through the

whole period of practices with our coaches but my fellow seniors on the team and I had been

organizing extra practices for the team without the coaches. During one of the practices last week

we were doing a competitive drill between the offense and the defense. This happens a lot and

there are often words exchanged between players on each side in a way of healthy competition.

Where this didn’t work out very well was when the “trash talk” went a little too far and two

members of the team started to get in each others face on the verge of physically fighting one

another. Being a senior leader on the team and being close to the interaction, I decided to step in

and separate the two players so they wouldn’t do anything they would regret later and then I

talked to each of them to try to help the situation. During the interaction I was confused because

I didn’t know if I should actually step in or let them handle it themselves. I also had a feeling of

anger during the moment because it frustrates me to see two of my teammates and friends fight

with one another as we are trying to be as tight-knit of a team as possible.

Reflective Observation
 After the experience I thought it would be worth it to take a step back and think about it

from other people’s points of view. The other people that I interacted with during this experience

were my teammates. I would imagine that for just about everyone else that was involved in the

experience there was also a feeling of confusion. I think that this confusion stems from the fact

that we are usually a very close team and we are all friends with one another so to see two of us

verbally and physically show resentment towards each other is not very common and is a bit

alarming. I think that the two players that were involved in the scuffle definitely were feeling a

sense of anger just like I did but for different reasons. The two of them had a feeling of anger

towards each other while I had a feeling of anger towards the situation in general rather than at

any people in particular. While I was angry, I don’t blame either of the two for the situation. In

the heat of the moment in which you are expected to be competing it makes more sense that

emotions can get the best of you. I see things like this happen all the time in other college sports

and even professional sports. Looking back at it, this experience meant a lot to me because it

made me really feel like a leader for stepping in and it showed some maturity in myself because I

am usually one to always avoid confrontation and conflict of any kind.

Abstract Conceptualization

This experience that I had closely relates to part of what the textbook talks about in the

“Managing Organizations” section. The textbook states that “it is only by discussing differences

of opinion about those answers that an understanding can be reached and which people in an

organization can then duly share and sustain.” (551) While in my situation it was a little less civil

than just a mere discussion of differences of opinion, conflict resolution is the overarching theme

that we see in both situations. In my situation I acted as the facilitator in the differences in
opinion between my teammates and I would agree with the text that once there is an

understanding that is reached between the two parties, the organization as a whole is better for it.

Active Experimentation

The practical lesson that I learned from this experience is that I can have a positive

impact on people’s lives as long as I put myself out there and be willing to help. It has taken me

to my senior year of college to fully mature and embrace a leadership role because I now know

that I have other people on my team that rely on me and they actually value what I say and do

because I have earned their respect. One practical action step that I can take based on what I have

learned is to be more vocal around my team because I have realized that I am often thinking of

the same thing as other people but they might not have the confidence to say it just like I didn’t

when I was an underclassmen. Doing this will lead to me being able to help resolve more team

conflicts that could possibly happen in the future.