"Management's Melody" (poem)

It's life’s familiar song
Sung continuously, sung so long
Offers positive results when sung harmoniously
Often though, goals become skewed when sung off key
From the busy little stinger to nature’s most sophisticated
Each play a subtle role in fine tuning management's melody

Communicating via Blog

First and foremost, this blog requirement was quite interesting and different from any requirements I've had for any other courses at Baruch. With that said, I'd have to agree that it was a uniquely effective approach to get value from the class overall. The mere fact that I was required to comment on our classmate's blogs forced me to see their view points in a way that opened my eyes and sometimes changed my perspective on a subject matter.

I can't say that a benefit gained from this was meeting other people online, but then that really wasn't my goal. My main focus when doing the assignments was just to get them done because they were a requirement.

One of the strong points of doing these blog assignments was the fact that it elicited deeper thought on subject matters discussed in class. I didn't just sit in class, listen to professor Kurpis lecture, and take notes. Instead, through the blog assignments, I was able to effectively share my thoughts and opinions on the ways in which the class activities paralleled the lessons.

I thought the topics professor Kurpis posted on his blog was another positive to this Blog. The fact that they weren't directly related to the course of study made them all the more interesting. They were like little management 3120 coffee breaks because they allowed me to take my mind off management for a bit and write about other valuable and realistic topics on life in general.

I must say that I clearly understood the degree to which my test anxieties could be offset by appropriate attention to my blog but unfortunately I wasn't always able to submit them on a timely basis due to my crazy work/school schedule. Nonetheless, it was clearly stated at the beginning of the course and was frequently brought to our attention during the course.

I'm not sure if I'll continue to make posts to this blog but it's something I'll strongly consider. Still, due to the nature of this Blog I do think professor Kurpis should keep it as part of a component to this class. No improvement needed.

yeS...I'm an S

My personality assessment stated that I am an "S" which exemplifies steadiness. I think this was accurate because there were certain key words listed that really does describe me as a person. Words such as consistent, patience, desiring to help others, loyalty, and good listener. These are all characteristics that I possess and I was a little surprised to see them written on a page in one overall classification.

I wouldn’t say that I wish I were another type all together but I will say this - If I could couple my personality profile with another, it probably would be with the dominance type. I think a balance of these two would be an interesting duality. There are a few characteristics that I wouldn’t mind having that dominant personalities are said to have. Some of those being the ability to cause action and the ability to make quick decisions.

Overall I think the ultimate personality is one that has a well balanced dose of all four types - dominance, influence, conscientiousness, and steadiness. In a perfect world everyone would possess all the positive attributes that each type of personality has to offer. Sadly though, they seem to be far and few in between.

Extra pickles...hold the salt!

My encounter at McDonald’s for this extra credit assignment was actually quite different from what I expected. Contrary to my expectations, it didn’t turn out too bad at all.

Before walking up to place my “special” order, I had all but positive thoughts. I was so sure I would get a lot of irritation and attitude from the cashier as soon as she heard my unique order. Still I proceeded with the plan. Before actually placing my order I forewarned the cashier that it was a special order and that I needed to see the details of my order on the receipt. I then told her what I needed: a small hamburger with four pickles and a small fries with no salt, all from the “Dollar Menu.” She first looked at me as though I was ordering lobster at McDonald’s at market price. She then turned to call her manager and asked her if it was possible to expedite the order and have it shown on the receipt. Thankfully the manager advised the cashier that it was indeed possible. Now that the cashier had the go ahead to put through my order, she yelled back to the food preparer my exact order. The food preparer rolled his eyes as he proceeded to make my burger with four pickles. He slowly and sarcastically placed one pickle at a time on the burger and then slapped the bun on top. Making the fries (with no salt) was a much less painful order to execute because it only required them to put the fries into the wrapper before salting the batch.

In total, only three staff members got involved – that being the cashier, the manager, and the food preparer. The entire order took only eight minutes to complete. With the exception of the minor irritation displayed by the staff members, they were very cooperative and were able to complete my order correctly.

The overall management process went by very quickly. The plan was simple. When summoned, the manager simply ordered the cashier to enter my order in the register. As the procedure took place, she stepped in and out when needed. I saw her brief the food preparer on what to expect shortly before the cashier yelled out my order to him. The manager even went as far as to personally make my “no salt” fries. The communication between the three was simple and straightforward. Once the manager approved the order it was as though she cleared up an uncertainty among the other two workers and got the task jumpstarted. They had good coordination and organized the process well through their quick response. Their customer service skills were satisfactory. However, they could have used some improvement in being a little friendlier. In terms of leadership, the task was lead well by the manager. She was able to rally together her staff members to get the job done right. Both the manager and the cashier double checked the receipt to make sure the order was on it. I viewed this part of the process as the control phase because they measured their achievement of the task by making sure the receipt accurately recorded the special order.

If I were brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency I would not have much to say except that they train their staff to improve their interpersonal skills and be friendlier to the customers.

I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of this assignment. The management process was done in a fairly fluid manner with no major interruptions or delays worth emphasizing. The staff members were successful in carrying out my unique request. Ultimately, as a business, they served me as a customer. I don’t think I could’ve asked for much more.

Decisions...Decisions...

During the class activity on decision making, while there were several methods being used by each student (or groups of students) to come to a final decision, I personally comprised to deal with the chaos. I compromised not because I necessarily wanted to, but because it came to a point where I felt I had no choice when we were running out of time. At that point I felt that if I didn’t just go along with everyone that there was a strong possibility that we would have absolutely no resolution. I specifically compromised on the point of having one essay option on the second test. I personally felt that having two to three essay options would’ve been more beneficial than having only one. The benefits of having options are pretty obvious and self explanatory. However, the majority of the students did not feel this way. Many thought that the professor would make the essay questions harder if he offered more than one option. I wasn’t worried about the difficulty because the way I figured it, the professor knows we only have but so much time to complete the entire exam. Therefore, with all the other parts of the exam basically remaining the same (with the exception of the number of right answers now being provided to us on the multiple choice questions), I strongly doubted that the professor would make the essay portion that much harder. It just wouldn’t be fair, and it would’ve been highly unlikely of the professor.

In retrospect, in order to get a more desirable result, I should’ve collaborated more with others to bring my opinion across. This would have been a better approach because I would’ve been able to bring some reassurance to something that was a major concern for everyone.

An Egg-cellent Way to Plan

Our goal for this activity was to build an egg-protected device out of 8 straws and 2 feet of masking tape within 10 minutes. The purpose of the device was to protect the egg in such a way so that, when dropped into a container from a height 10 feet, the egg would not break. There were specific guidelines that had to be followed in regards to the characteristics and design of the device. For instance, one caveat was that no more than 50% of the egg could be covered with the material provided. We took all of these components into consideration when building the device – all the while focusing on the time limit.

Our planning process flowed in a sort of informal and natural way where everyone just got together and threw out different ideas to jump start the task. We didn’t write up a perfect step by step layout, but we verbalized exactly what we would do. For instance, at the onset of our 25 minutes of planning, we reiterated the definition of our goals and objectives. This was a fundamental step in guiding us towards completing the ultimate goal of the exercise. The goal: build the device within 10 minutes using only the materials given to us. The objective: name our egg; develop and draw a design of our contraption; develop a plan to build the contraption within 10 minutes. Each team mate took the initiative to play the role that best suited them in the exercise. For example, one person stated that she was good at drawing and so she was designated to sketch the design. The majority of the team had some creative input in the design of the device. Interestingly enough, our final design was very different from the initial one. It turned out that we had to improvise once we saw that it would be impossible to secure the most commonly used resource – the scissors. While we didn’t initially develop alternative strategies, we were able to quickly generate an alternate design for our contraption when we realized this and pulled through with a device that fulfilled the goal.

Ultimately, my team performed extremely well. No one was overbearing or tried to outshine the rest of the team. Everyone was very cooperative. We all worked together according to our plan and successfully achieved the goal. The only component of the planning process that we could’ve been more effective in was developing other alternative strategies as a “just in case” safety net. That way, we wouldn’t have to totally revamp our thinking and planning at the last minute. Instead, with this in place, if plan A doesn’t work, we can easily move to plan B without interrupting the flow of things.