In my mind, this culture change project/initiative was going to take some time. I estimated at least three or four weeks. That is what I had proposed to the President/Owner of the company. Initially, he was on board with that plan, however after the first three-day trip to that company, he abruptly pulled me from the project, stating that I should have been able to change the culture and neutralize the complaints in two to three days. I pushed back stating that I felt like this was a slower process to create lasting change. My input on how change should occur was dismissed, my process was overridden in practice, and quickly my role became untenable, not because I lacked the skill and experience to do the work, but because I was no longer permitted to do it the way I knew it needed to be done. I quickly understood that he had expected me to come in terminate the complaining parties and expect that general manager to “know how to lead.” It was this decision that became a very unexpected turning point in this initiative and ultimately my career that I had built over the past twenty-three years in this organization. I realized that although he and I had similar goals for the success of the organization, our means of obtaining that success were drastically different, and these differences challenged my own personal and professional values as a leader.

             It reminded me of one of the initial readings assigned in my Organizational Leadership program, Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In Chapter 4, Freire distinguishes between cultural invasion and cultural synthesis. (Freire, 2001) This distinction seemed to align with my experience with the outcome of this project and the cultural invasion that my superior expected of me. This difference in leadership philosophy was so profound that I found myself two days later in his office handing him my formal resignation. While I am saddened by the outcome of this project, I am proud of how I have developed as a leader and person throughout this experience. I walk away from this experience and this leadership education feeling stronger, more self-aware with a desire to lead in a way that is more aligned with my personal values. In the past two weeks, I have transitioned to a new career that is incredibly meaningful to me personally and allows me to continue to exercise the leadership skills and concepts I have honed while studying at Gonzaga University. I remain grateful for the challenging work experience and take great pride in the opportunities that I had been given as a leader, and the respect I earned from my peers in my previous organization. This was obvious in not only the President/Owner’s plea for my reconsideration to stay, but also in the celebration given to me by him and my EMS peers for my twenty-three years in the organization.