Communicating Via Blog

1. I think using Blog was an effective instrument as a way to communicate our thoughts and ideas with people especially classmates of the course. I absolutely benefited from meeting others online; I learned a lot about how other students perceived a subject, and what their reactions were toward our class activities. Blog facilitated by enabling us to interact with all the students and help us to get to know more classmates (we might not be able to discuss or interact in class of this size). It offered us convenience to interact with each other: We could respond to any body’s posting in our available time.

2. Blog did effectively get me to think about and share my perceptions about what we did in class. What it did is solidified my knowledge about the subject matter, and it will enable me to retain the knowledge for a long time.

3. Frankly, I think professor’s blog postings are interesting. However, I felt it is a lot of work for students to read all the professor’s blog entries and to respond them.

4. I think the blog assignment diversified our anxieties by having our 20% of our grades. However, it was good in a sense that we had to think about the subject matter and respond to others blog entries constructively.

5. I am not sure If I will continue or not. It is most likely that I will post if I find something very interesting or I want to share my ideas with others.

Even though, I felt at times there were a lot of work to do about the blog (read a lot of blog entries to respond them), I think the blog should remain a component of this course because it will make student to stretch their abilities and get real life experience. Also, it adds another dimension in our studies.

Dimentions of Behavior (DISC)

I think, for the most part, the test gauged my management orientation right, but there is a very little discrepancy between the test results and my actual management orientation. The discrepancy exists because the options that were allocated to choose from were to the extreme of the spectrum: most and list. Usually, I am not that kind of person who stance on the extreme. Existence in moderation is my philosophy; that is doing everything in moderation is optimum except in certain extreme cases.
The test results indicated that I am a conscientious person (+5) with high in steadiness (+7); my influence is very low (-9) as well as my dominance (-5). I absolutely agree that I am a conscientious person with high steadiness in daily life. However, when I play sports I am very dominating and influential (I was captain for many times of our local cricket team). When I play cricket (an outdoor sports similar to baseball), I am very dominating as a batsman; only the bowlers (pitcher) could feel how harsh I could be (I execute any opportunity the bowlers offer). I also influence other by playing well which motivate them to do well.
Actually, I am happy for what I am. So, I don’t wish that I was another type. I think people can change if they eagerly desire to do so, but I also believe there are certain things that are not attainable by certain people. For instance, I might be able to increase my “influence” management orientation from negative nine to positive and dominance negative to positive, but I will always be a high conscientious person with high steadiness. It is somewhat important in the sense that the top authority would have a better understanding of the person (if they get the right answer), which could allow them to efficiently utilize that person’s abilities. This kind of test can be helpful in personal interactions; it would help to asses others’ personalities that would direct me to act to accommodate with their personalities.

Extra Credit Assignment

I waited on the line about one minute to place my special order. When I was called, I approached the cashier and asked for one hamburger with four pickles and a small French Fries with no salt. The Cashier looked at me in disbelief as if there is something wrong with me.
She called for the small hamburger with four pickles in Spanish (I understand little Spanish), and she went to fry her self a new batch of French Fries to fulfill my order. The burger was ready in about two minutes. The French Fries took about seven minutes since that she fired a fresh batch. She did everything herself in completing the French Fries order because somebody else might mixed up or put salt in it.
I paid for the items about after three minutes I placed the order. She did not give me receipt at all then. When she was handing me the tray (about ten minutes after I placed the order), I asked her for the receipt. She printed a receipt which did not say anything about pickles in the hamburger and salt in the French Fries. I think language barrier played a role in misunderstanding of how I wanted the receipt to look (the cashier spoke very little English). So I requested her to place four pickles under the hamburger and French Fries to say with no salt. Reluctantly, she printed another receipt which only mentioned 1 hamburger and 1 small French Fries w/o salt. She did not know how to place pickle on the receipt. As a result I asked her if the manager was there. The manager was in the counter taking others orders. The cashier told the manager about the whole situation.
The manager was a chubby Hispanic young man. He was kind of tensed and bad tempered. He goes that my request can’t be done (in harsh tone). I said, I know you gays can do this. So another staff (acted like manager) involved in the process. He is a calm and experienced middle age Hispanic man. He approached me and asked if I had asked the cashier for the receipt to show the four pickles and French Fries with no salt. I said, yes. He told something to the cashier in Spanish. After that he went on to prepare another receipt. He put one extra pickle under the hamburger and French Fries with no salt. Then I told him that I requested for four pickles, not one. He said that our system does not allow putting pickles four times. So, I nicely requested him to write down on the receipt that they put four pickles. He reluctantly wrote on the receipt that they put total three pickles, which was not what I asked for. However, I decided not to request again to write down four pickles. The whole process took about twelve minutes.
I would give 6 out of 10 the staff’s manufacturing, communications, coordination, and customer service processes because she didn’t even know how to place extra pickles in the computers. If I were brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would recommend the managers to train the entire cashiers how to place special orders, to listen carefully what the customers’ requests, and to be on the customers’ side when a mistake occur by a staff member.

The Power of Vision

I have been tending a few goals for many years, but these goals have never been concrete in terms. My ultimate goal is to become a businessman. Back home (in Bangladesh), I had to decide what I want to study when I was moving to 9th grade. I always liked to be my own boss. So, I have decided to study business (commerce) in hopping that that will lead me to start my own business. My other goals are intertwined with becoming a businessman.
First of all, I will get a decent paying job after I finish my undergraduate. My goal is to save up to 20% of my net income. I will visit as many countries as possible to get first hand experience. By the way, I love traveling. I will try to get a job in an American company that operates in foreign countries (especially in India) which will help me save money (as an expatriate). As of right now, I am not sure about doing my masters, but I will definitely take some courses time to time just to keep up with the trends.
As most people in the world, I will have my own family by the time I hit thirty—you know what I am implying. I believe family is important in once life. It requires commitment to bond a family which is crucial pursuing any agenda. On the other hand, family renders stability, patience, integrity in a person’s life which are crucial in once life to succeed.
In my 40s when I feel that I have enough capital and experience to operate a business I will start my own business. As I mentioned earlier that “my goals are not concrete in terms;” I don’t yet know what kind of business I will do. Hopefully, time and situation will tell me what to do.

Decision Making: How to be more effective.

Working with people of that magnitude and coming up to a decision was not easy. It takes motivations and leadership skills to come to a productive agreement. I personally handled the chaos during the decision making exercise by collaborating and compromising.
At the beginning of the process I was a collaborator. I stepped out of my seat, came to middle of the class room. I started to talk with the other guys about the proposal we wanted to make about the midterm one and midterm two. My proposal was to have essay questions (2 0r 3) during the review session or get couple of essay questions to chose from on the second midterm, and to have conventional multiple choice questions (MCQs). I also wanted everyone who was negotiating in the center of the class room to go to their seat and tell people around their seats what we agreed on and asked them what they think of the agreement (assuming whoever came to the front with their thoughts wanted to be team leader of his/her proximity). Thus we would be able to get a 100% agreement by writing down our proposal on the board. While I was negotiating with my colleagues about my ideas, they proposed their ideas: to drop the lower of the two midterms, curve both midterms, doing an optional extra credit assignment. I liked their ideas; they were terrific. But I did not like the idea of having multiple multiple choice questions, which would include the number of right answers. I understood from their explanations how it is better than conventional MCQs, so I agreed with them, but I still prefer conventional MCQs. My argument was that to reduce the risk of having more points taken off from conventional MCQs, we could get more MCQs questions (so each multiple choice question would worth less). If we have more conventional MCQs and anyone gets one wrong that will reduce less points as getting multiple MCQs. Also, we get penalized for circling wrong choice(s) of multiple MCQs! That completely sucks! However, I agreed to their proposal only for the sake of myself and my fellow classmates’ sake who did not do very well on the first midterm. Furthermore, I did not understand, and probably will not understand, why some people did not want to have essay topics during the review session or get couple of essays in the second midterm to choose from! Some argued that if we know the essay topics or get couple of choices in the midterm professor will make the essay questions harder. How hard could it be if you know the topic before hand? Is it going to be harder than the essay that you will have to write without any prior knowledge of the topic?
Having learned that something is better than nothing, last ten minutes was time of compromise. As I was unable to make those “leaders” understood the benefits of my ideas. It disappointed me to see that many students wanted to have essay questions during the review or have couple of choices in the exam to answer from.
Now that I know the pattern of communications, and reactions of classmates, first I would get opinion of other students from proximity of my seat. Then negotiate with other “group leaders” what we want. Thus I will have a strong base to agree or oppose with others’ ideas.

Planning and Create Egg Contraption

Egg Contraption
Our objective was clear; to make a contraption using eight straws and two feet tape so the egg does not break when dropped from 10 feet high. Also there was a pair of scissors for all the groups. Actually we have developed two plans. One plan was mine: I proposed to wrap half of the egg (the bottom half which will hit the ground) with the tape as an extra layer, and make a bed like bottom with shock absorber legs. I was not 100 percent sure if my plan would work (how to implement my ideas). So I did not push my group members to peruse it. Another member of our group proposed a plan which included wrapping half of the egg by tape (adapted from my plan) and to make a circular nest with seven of the straws and use one straw to circle the egg vertically. Most of our group member agreed that the second plan was better. So we decided to implement the latter plan. We divided the job among all of us. My part was to get the scissors to cut the straws, which I miserably failed because who had the scissors refused to let me cut the straws! So, one member of our group cut the straws with a key. However, I wrapped the half (bottom half) of the egg with tape which side will hit the ground. Another member sketched the plan and gave a name of our egg. Other two members helped the member, who proposed the second plan, to create the nest. But it did not work out as we wished. We used so much tape on the circular nest which made it heavy. I think that was one of the reasons our egg cracked. When I went to the front to drop the egg from ten feet high I had a feeling that it will crack. So, my hand started shaking when I dropped the egg and it cracked a bit. Frankly, there was no time to take corrective actions. Some resources were scarce; only one pair of scissors. Some people did not play right! They refused to share the scissors while I could cut the straws in ten seconds. However, I think we were not as enthusiastic as the other groups were, but we worked well as a group (although, our egg cracked).