Blogger me this and blogger me that,
Who will make a plan so the egg will not crack?
Tick tock, the clock now must stop,
Manage time wisely to get to the top.
Get an idea and build up the Lego’s,
Need some help? Here, try an Eggo.
Combine efficient use with time and a plan,
And you’ll be known by your peers as the management man!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Communicating via Blog
Okay, I'm going to be very honest - when this blog assignment first began, I used to think it was a drag. I didn't see the point of it and thought it wasted my time. But as the semester is coming to an end, I wish I would have utilized the blog more and used it to get to know some of my classmates better, since after reading some of their blogs, they seem to be quite interesting.
Also, the blog gives us the chance to further discuss the activities or lectures we covered in class, if you are one of those people who don't like to share your opinions in a classroom setting. We also get the chance to see what others thought of the activities as well, and comment on their thoughts and views, thus creating some sort of interaction.
So just a side note to Professor Kurpis -- the blogs are a must! I think you should keep including them into your lesson plan each semester, seeing as how it allows interaction outside of the classroom.
Also, the blog gives us the chance to further discuss the activities or lectures we covered in class, if you are one of those people who don't like to share your opinions in a classroom setting. We also get the chance to see what others thought of the activities as well, and comment on their thoughts and views, thus creating some sort of interaction.
So just a side note to Professor Kurpis -- the blogs are a must! I think you should keep including them into your lesson plan each semester, seeing as how it allows interaction outside of the classroom.
The ABCs of DISC
Upon evaluating ourselves, my result was a D (as in Dominance). I sort-of-do and sort-of-don't agree with this result. You see, around friends and people I know, I tend to be the one who takes initiative and give out orders; but around people I don't know, I tend to remain quiet and reserved. In my opinion, a dominant person is one who acts with dominance no matter who they're surrounded by, which is not me. I am more of the I, or the Influence, which is the second result that I got, meaning that I try to shape the environment by influencing or persuading others.
The fact that managers use this method to determine what kind of employee they may potentially hire is ridiculous to me. There are so many areas of this "test" where things can go wrong, such as that the person taking it can be giving answers on how they view themselves, instead of how others view them, which can completely alter the results. So to answer another question - no, this test would not help me in other personal interactions. I think you can tell what kind of person someone is just by casually interacting with them or asking them a few basic, unstructured questions.
The fact that managers use this method to determine what kind of employee they may potentially hire is ridiculous to me. There are so many areas of this "test" where things can go wrong, such as that the person taking it can be giving answers on how they view themselves, instead of how others view them, which can completely alter the results. So to answer another question - no, this test would not help me in other personal interactions. I think you can tell what kind of person someone is just by casually interacting with them or asking them a few basic, unstructured questions.
The Power of Vision
Like [hopefully] many people, I too have goals that I wish to achieve after graduating from Baruch this June (finally!!). One of those goals begins this summer, since I have just booked a 2-month trip to Europe. The first month-and-a-half will be spent in eastern Europe, where I plan to visit family and friends in Bosnia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. During this part of the trip, I hope to spend as much quality time as possible with the people that I love, seeing as how I haven't been back home in 3 years. The second part of the trip will be spent in western Europe, in Spain, France, and Germany. For this part, my goal is to see and learn as much as I can about the cultures of these three countries, and to meet many interesting people along the way. In order to achieve this, I plan on keeping an open mind and trying out new and different things.
My second goal is to find a full-time job that has a pretty decent starting salary with the chance to get health benefits, starting in September. I'm not exactly sure what kind of job I want yet, but I just want something that will be sufficient enough to support myself. I have already started this goal by applying online at STARR Career Center and websites such as monster.com.
The third goal is in case my 2nd goal doesn't work out, and that is to apply for grad school. If I can't find a job within six months as of September, I want to apply to grad school for either International Logistics or Sports Management. If I pursue Sports Management, then I would hope to move out to southern California since that's where they have the best programs for this field. To prepare for this goal, I would have to study for an take an MBA exam, as well as gather recommendations and/or write an entrance letter.
My final goal is to move out. Although I am happy to be living with my parents (what's not to love - I get free housing and food), I would like to experience living on my own. But in order to do that, I would have to complete my second goal in finding a full-time job.
My second goal is to find a full-time job that has a pretty decent starting salary with the chance to get health benefits, starting in September. I'm not exactly sure what kind of job I want yet, but I just want something that will be sufficient enough to support myself. I have already started this goal by applying online at STARR Career Center and websites such as monster.com.
The third goal is in case my 2nd goal doesn't work out, and that is to apply for grad school. If I can't find a job within six months as of September, I want to apply to grad school for either International Logistics or Sports Management. If I pursue Sports Management, then I would hope to move out to southern California since that's where they have the best programs for this field. To prepare for this goal, I would have to study for an take an MBA exam, as well as gather recommendations and/or write an entrance letter.
My final goal is to move out. Although I am happy to be living with my parents (what's not to love - I get free housing and food), I would like to experience living on my own. But in order to do that, I would have to complete my second goal in finding a full-time job.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Decision Making
After taking our first midterm, Professor Kurpis let the class decide what we wanted to do with the results and what format the second exam should be in. He gave us the entire class period to come up with one main decision as a class. This is a large class and fortunately for us, someone stepped up right away and decided to take charge. She went up to the front and asked us each to give our ideas until we came to a conclusion.
I personally used two methods to handle the potential of chaos during the class decision making exercise: compromise and collaborating. We used compromise because we were under pressure to make a decision, given the fact that we only had about an hour to come up with one decision that the entire class agreed on. Also, all members of the class were equal and had a fair voice in the decision, so that if one of us didn't agree with something, it wasn't an option. We also used collaborating because we had to bargain and negotiate amongst a large group and all all insights were considered. Another way to have handled this conflict would have been to split the class up into groups of 6, had each group come up with one decision, and then have the entire class vote on one decision. The reason I choose this method as an alternative is because I felt as though we had too many options up on the board, thus making picking one more complicated; so by minimizing the options by splitting the class up into groups, we might have created less chaos.
All in all, thank goodness we had a group leader otherwise the entire class would have started talking at once and we might have never came up with a decision!
I personally used two methods to handle the potential of chaos during the class decision making exercise: compromise and collaborating. We used compromise because we were under pressure to make a decision, given the fact that we only had about an hour to come up with one decision that the entire class agreed on. Also, all members of the class were equal and had a fair voice in the decision, so that if one of us didn't agree with something, it wasn't an option. We also used collaborating because we had to bargain and negotiate amongst a large group and all all insights were considered. Another way to have handled this conflict would have been to split the class up into groups of 6, had each group come up with one decision, and then have the entire class vote on one decision. The reason I choose this method as an alternative is because I felt as though we had too many options up on the board, thus making picking one more complicated; so by minimizing the options by splitting the class up into groups, we might have created less chaos.
All in all, thank goodness we had a group leader otherwise the entire class would have started talking at once and we might have never came up with a decision!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
An Eggs-cellent Way to Plan
During this class activity, we were split into teams of six to work on building an egg-protector so that when dropped from ten feet in the air, the raw egg would not break. Although unsuccessful, I did feel as though my group had some benefits to it. We had a team leader (or two) who took initiative in getting the ideas rolling. That's where I believe our downfall happened: we had too many ideas and only 25 minutes to plan, so by the time we picked an idea we didn't have much time to fully construct a great way of exercising it.
Our team completed all of the steps in the planning process. We did Step 1, where we defined our goals and objectives. The goal was to build a successful egg protectant so that our egg would not break when dropped from ten feet in the air; and we had 25 minutes to come up with a strategy. We also did Step 2 - we identified our resources (6 group member, 8 straws, tape, and a raw egg). We also decided who was the more artistic one of the group that would draw the picture at the end. For Step 3, we had many ideas for how to build the egg protectant. We suggested anything from building a circular cushion around the egg, to setting up some sort of fort at the bottom to catch the egg. We also generated alternative scenarios for what may happen to the egg for each idea when it was dropped. For step 4, we decided that the best thing to do was to build the circular cushion around the egg and see what happens. We evaluated how strong the straws might be in protecting the egg and how strong the tape would be in holding the straws together. We also decided how to bend the straws and tape them together so as to have half the egg showing. For the last step, we stated who would do what as soon as we received our resources, and how we would go about building the egg protector (who would start bending the straws and taping them together).
My group's planning process was pretty successful, although our actual egg protector was not. The only thing that I think would have made a difference is if every member of our group would have participated, seeing as how some people just let others do the planning. Other than that, the project was lots of fun and I enjoyed seeing what the other groups came up with! :)
Our team completed all of the steps in the planning process. We did Step 1, where we defined our goals and objectives. The goal was to build a successful egg protectant so that our egg would not break when dropped from ten feet in the air; and we had 25 minutes to come up with a strategy. We also did Step 2 - we identified our resources (6 group member, 8 straws, tape, and a raw egg). We also decided who was the more artistic one of the group that would draw the picture at the end. For Step 3, we had many ideas for how to build the egg protectant. We suggested anything from building a circular cushion around the egg, to setting up some sort of fort at the bottom to catch the egg. We also generated alternative scenarios for what may happen to the egg for each idea when it was dropped. For step 4, we decided that the best thing to do was to build the circular cushion around the egg and see what happens. We evaluated how strong the straws might be in protecting the egg and how strong the tape would be in holding the straws together. We also decided how to bend the straws and tape them together so as to have half the egg showing. For the last step, we stated who would do what as soon as we received our resources, and how we would go about building the egg protector (who would start bending the straws and taping them together).
My group's planning process was pretty successful, although our actual egg protector was not. The only thing that I think would have made a difference is if every member of our group would have participated, seeing as how some people just let others do the planning. Other than that, the project was lots of fun and I enjoyed seeing what the other groups came up with! :)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Turkish Culture Shock
During the summer of 2009, I went to Fethiye/Oludeniz (Turkey) for the first time in my life. Although I had heard a lot about Turkish culture, it was different when actually experiencing it. One of the first things I noticed is that the people there are more laid-back and less sensitive to time than are Americans. I was interning in Fethiye for 2 months at a private school called the American Cultural Association, where I was to teach English to students of all ages. The date/time of the classes were made up as the days went on, and there weren't any lesson plans; you just make them up as you go. The bosses and employees would order and have lunch together, and there was even a pool table so that students and employees can play together during breaks. It was definitely more of an unstructured workplace than any I had experienced in the U.S. thus far.
The Turks are also big on tea; they drink it anywhere between 2-5 times a day. It was a little hard for me to comprehend at first why people drank hot tea in 115-degree weather, but then I learned that it actually helps during the heat because it quenches your thirst. Also, people greeted one another with a kiss on each cheek instead of a handshake, even people they were just meeting for the first time. So imagine meeting your boss and one of your employees at the airport for the first time and getting greeted with a kiss on the cheek: definitely caught me by surprise!
That's all for now, hope you learned a little something!
The Turks are also big on tea; they drink it anywhere between 2-5 times a day. It was a little hard for me to comprehend at first why people drank hot tea in 115-degree weather, but then I learned that it actually helps during the heat because it quenches your thirst. Also, people greeted one another with a kiss on each cheek instead of a handshake, even people they were just meeting for the first time. So imagine meeting your boss and one of your employees at the airport for the first time and getting greeted with a kiss on the cheek: definitely caught me by surprise!
That's all for now, hope you learned a little something!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
