Communication via Blog

The blog assignments assigned to us in class I feel is a great way in building communications throughout the students in the class.  It is easy and an effective way to connect everyone together outside of the class.  For people that have a lot to say but don’t often get the chance to speak up, the blog is a perfect place for them to express all their thoughts.  The blog also gets us to think back and reflect on what we were exposed to in class. Any activities we did we would report back on the blog about it.  It gave us time to go back and really think about what we did, giving us the opportunity to learn and get a better understanding of the material.  A lot of the blogging we did came from our own thoughts.  It wasn’t necessary to research any material post about that.  It was a way for use to tap into the creative sides of our minds.  This was an easy way to manage 20 percent of your grade, that of course if you managed to stay on top of the due dates and post a well written entry.  This doesn’t apply to everyone, and I would probably include myself in that category.  There were times I grew lazy and posted late on entries a few times.  Other times I would just forget an assignment was due.  In situations like that that 20 percent can easily be affected by those kind of mistakes and in an event of that I would say maybe having the blogging portion of the grade to be 10 or 15 percent.  After this blog has ended I probably will not continue to post.  I am not the type of person who does blog.  Even though I did enjoy writing these entries, I do not see myself writing blogs for fun.  This is a great tool to use in upcoming classes as it does give way to letting students connect more with the matter of the subject. 

Managment Haiku

To guide and support,
An effective manager
Is where success lies.

Influential and Conscientious

Last week we had done a class activity which was a test that told us what kind of leader/manager we are.  The test consisted of 28 questions in which we answered questions based on what we felt were the personality traits least and most associated with us.  In the beginning I was looking for a trend depending on what kind of letters I had picked to see if there was any correlation but it was pointless.  It was fun going through the whole process because I never thought about myself with being associated with the words given on the test, so I had a chance to see what kind of person I was.  The four ways we could have been classified was being a Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Conscientious type. 

            My dominant type was I.  It states that I make a favorable impression when I am in contact with people.  I am articulate with my words and generate enthusiasm.  Also it says that I create a motivational environment and entertain people.  I believe this type works well with me because it defines the kind of person I am.  Rather than being more demanding and direct in a leadership situation I like to be friendly to convey a message to get things done.  I am a sociable person and use my words as a means for people to cling onto my ideas and instructions.  I was also classified as being the C type.  I find myself to fit in well with this category.  It says my “emphasis is on working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and emphasis”.  It says that I am a person who concentrates on key details and is very analytical.  I happen to be very analytical indeed.  I’m a person who really enjoys math, so being precise, accurate; systematic is a way I already am.   I am diplomatic and like dealing with people’s issues to resolve conflicts. 

The Power of Vision

Growing up I had a lot of visions in life.  Looking back now I’d say it wasn’t that serious.  A lot of it was just a dream for the most part but back then it’s what I had really wanted at the time.  But I realize now that without action this vision cannot be completed.  To play in the NBA, requires a lot of dedication, it’s what I wanted when I was young, but sadly just a dream.  My parents always wanted me to be a doctor but I was just about confused all the way straight through senior year of high school.  I didn’t know what I wanted, but I wanted to enter the world of business. Therefore I ended up at Baruch College. 

           

I have always had a strong interest in math.  I decided to look into the field of actuarial sciences and I am pretty set on making this my career.  I hope to pursue a career as an actuary.  A vision I have is two have completed the first couple actuarial exams before I graduate and land a job at an insurance company.  I will need to study extensively to achieve this.

            Another vision I have is being financial stable by the time I get married.  I want to be able to support my wife and any kids I shall I have.  I want my family to live a comfortable life.  I would also like my parents to retire so I can provide for them as well and have them live comfortably as well.  To achieve this I will dedicate a lot of time into my career. 

A third vision I have is to give back to my community.  I want to help others through services I can provide through a non-profit organization.  Getting one started would be a great feeling for me.  To achieve this I would like to be in the in the later years of my career. This would be a change and a different path in my career so I experience new things.

Decision Making

After we had received our grades from our first exam our professor had allowed us to decide amongst ourselves what we had wanted to do with the scores of the first exam.  We were also given the opportunity to make suggestions on how we wanted the next exam to be designed.  He gave us the power to make a proposal that the class would 100 percent agree on which he will grant if everything goes as planned.  If one person disagreed the proposal would be thrown out and we would be stuck with our old grades. We were given roughly around a half hour to get this completed.  Our final proposal consisted of receiving a curve, extra credit worth up to 10 points, and dropping the lowest test among the first two.  The test format would remain the same, however the essay would be marked as extra credit instead. 

Power rested in the hands of the students as it was up to us to come up with the proposal.  A couple of students had taken roles of leaders standing up in front of classroom picking on people to voice their ideas.  This created some sort of control in the room as opposed to people screaming left and right.  The time constraint definitely created more stress in the room.  Things overall were going smoothly a far as ideas were being thrown out.  There wasn’t much disagreeing although there was a lot of clarification that needed to be done.  People didn’t fully understand the ideas that were being proposed.  Personally I felt I did not say much openly in front of class. I didn’t feel the need to speak up since I felt everything I had to say was already being said, since majority of the people were speaking were the people that needed to get a better grade on the test, and I felt I was in that category as well.  However, I was speaking more amongst the classmates around me and did propose to class about combing all three ideas for the grade of exam.  There were people competing to win, those who strongly were fighting to get rid of the essay.  Overall I felt the decision making process in our class wasn’t that bad.  With the leaders in front of the class keeping things in control and having the final say in things made thins less chaotic and more organized.

An Eggs-cellent Way to Plan

The activity we had on planning in class was a very useful one, as it taught us a lot about the planning process.  It was a good way to get us engaged in a hands-on activity to go through the steps involved in getting an objective completed.  The 5 steps of the planning process include defining your objectives and goals, determining the current status and comparing to objectives, developing premises and several alternative strategies, analyzing alternatives and making a tactical plan, and finally implementing the plan and evaluating results. 

We were given eight straws and two feet of tape.  Our goal was to build a contraption for the egg so that when dropped 10 feet off the ground it would survive a crash with no cracks.   At least 50 percent of the egg shell had to be shown at all times.  We had 15 minutes to discuss our plan and 10 minutes to build the contraption.  I felt our group clearly defined the objectives and goals.  We had to come up with a name for the egg, come up with a sketch of our contraption, assign a leader, and distribute tasks equally.  Although we knew what needed to be done, we did not do everything we had to in the planning process.  We did not have a distinct leader in the group.  Everyone kind of just voiced their input and ideas as part of the discussion.   We did not have an alternate back up plan in case the first one did not work when executing it.  There was not enough time to think of multiple ideas.  So as we brought up an idea we just added on to that thought and grew from there.  When it came time for us to execute the contraption it was not clearly defined the tasks to be carried out by each individual.  It seemed as if whoever grabbed their hands on whatever materials first decided to work with that.  At times I felt I had nothing to do.  The blueprint we had of our model was not exactly the same as we had built as an end product.  We had to change up our plan last minute due to the lack of time.  Overall I felt we did get done what we had to do, but with more organization which would have helped with a defined leader, and clearly defined tasks for each person, we could have been more time efficient leading to a possible success.  However, our egg did suffer a crack!