Finally, from my point of view, the beginning of the exercise was a little chaotic. I think we should have had a leader from the start but of course it is difficult to have a leader when no one knows what to expect. After some people stepped up to the task, we were able to get a little more focused on what actions needed to be taken to finally make a rational decision.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Decision Making
I personally took a compromising position in the decision making exercise we did in class. I chose this method because I believe everyone has their own valid reasons for the solution they thought would help them out best. You cannot discount anyone for wanting to get a better grade and you also cannot discount the people who actually did get a good grade so it was a tough decision for everyone involved. Additionally, everyone is taking this class for a reason. For me personally, even though this class is a requirement for me, I want to learn how to be a better manager both at work and personally. I am the type of person who wants to achieve that goal and if it means that once in awhile I have to make a compromise and not get everything that I had actually wanted then so be it. What I am learning is how to take a step back and allow others to voice their opinions and listen to their ideas because I know that my ideas may not always be the best idea for a particular situation.
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5 comments:
Having a leader in such a large group is definitely a necessity. That's why we have our professor! But for this particular exercise our professor wanted to teach us about working in a large group and to show us what we have to face to reach the consensus even when all of us are working towards the same goal. It's kind of like we had a political debate to better something in the economy: everyone has the same goal, yet different parties have different approaches to it. The additional challenge we had is that we needed everyone to agree. I think if we had a leader from the start, we would've been much more productive; but I guess that was another process that we had to go through to, once again, learn something.
I think if we were told our grades and then had a day off to each think about what we wanted it would have been a lot more organized. That is not how things work though. We were given an opportunity to help our grades and it had to be down right then and there. We should be happy we even got this opportunity and we seriously did get a lot of options. I thought in my mind there was no way he would accept all of this, but he did. He is showing us that you can get anything you want if you can make a right decision with 90 people to agree 100%.
I agree that it was a difficult task because there are people who did well on the test and did bad. So there were differing agendas to what everyone wanted out of the task. This caused different participation behaviors. Those who needed a better grade were more proactive. I think you had a good attitude because you can't always get what you want. You have to consider other people's opinions. You want to learn how to be a better manager which is good motivation for the class. learning is a rocky road because you don't always get what you expect. There will be difficulties. But what you get in the end from the class is what ultimately matters.
I think that the reason why we didn't have a leader at the beginning is because mostly none of us have ever commanded a class of that size. Learning to moderate or lead a 80+ group of students is tough work, when we are not used to that amount of power or influence. Difficulties might be that one fears not being respected and listened to. I think some of the people who tried to lead the class were treated like this. Some thoughts might have been that he is just a student like us, so it is ok to talk over them.
I simply love that "Decision Maker" wheel. Many of my decisions are made just so!
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