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Interprofessional Communicationand Leadershipin Healthcare unknown, outside the village's or hero's experience. What called to you when you enrolled in WGU? What happened that marked it as the time to go to school? Journey begins (trials and approach): The hero needsto search for a solution and begins the journey, sometimes reluctantly. Most heroes do not just begin by acting heroically. They struggle. They learn their most important lessons from turning their biggest failures into their most redeeming strengths. When you have tried something new, something worth doing, has it everstarted off easy? Did you have to work for it? Did you have to build some new skills or gain some discipline? Think about a specific example and how beginning that journey felt. Face challenges (crises): Something blocks the hero from going forward: the hero encounters threshold guardians. A guardian is something or somebody who stands in front of a door the hero wants to enter, blocking the hero's progress with a test or challenge. This forces the hero to use tools and gifts to overcome the challenge. How the hero answers the challenge will turn the guardian into an enemy or an ally. For example, the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz issues a challenge by picking a fight; Dorothy's response turns him from an enemy into an ally, and they all end up able to help each other. What is blocking you from being your true self? Is there a moment in your life when somebody blocked you from somethingyou wanted? How did you respond? Did your response make an enemy or an ally out of that person? Discover gifts (treasures): Through meeting the challenges presented by the guardians and circumstances, the hero discovers gifts, tools, or strengths that are needed by the village to heal. Think of an example whenyou found a gift or strength you did not know you had before but used it to deal with an obstacle in your life. Right now, what gift or strength do you feel you need? What gifts and strengths do you have? Greater challenges: The hero tries to use the gifts and tools with increasing success. As the successes become greater, though, so do the challenges. The hero encountersincreasing obstacles and tests and more compelling guardians. In some cases, established habits with friends and family can presentthemselves as challenges to the hero's resolve. Consider the example of a crab pot. Crab pots do not need any tops because after a crab falls in, if it tries to get out, the other crabs pull it down in their attempt to get out; in the end, no crabs get out. Think about the obstacles in your life. How are these obstacles challenging your gifts and strengths? Increased skills (result): The hero finds the strength to use the gift consistently, until the hero can finally overcome the greatest obstacles hiding in the scariest places and achieve the greatest reward: the thing that will save the village. Recall a time whenyou found a gift that was difficult to develop, but ultimately you used it for the good of all. Was using this gift for the first time easy or scary? How did it feelto use this gift well? Return home (new life and resolution): The hero saves the village and now must return to the ordinary world a changed person. The hero has answered the call to adventure and faced the challenges by becoming a different person than the hero once was. Think of a hero story or a WGU ¥® A NEW KIND OF U.