Nurturing Creativity in Business

M- management!! It is one of the most fun classes I have taken!

A- A is the grade that I hope to get!

N- Negotiate with people, communicate between groups, right planning for the project

A- Academically, I know what to do as a leader! BUT in the real world, am I going to be?

G- Great leader is able to coomunicate a direction

E- Establish a vision with intuition

M- Motivate and inspire people

E- Engage team members to work together!

N- Now, I am running out of things to say...

T- Thank you all!! It was a great class!

Communication via Blog...

I think using blog for out of class discussion is a very good idea - especially in Professor Kurpis' class that has lots of activities! Because of the activities, we didn’t really have much time in the class to really share with other classmates (or even our groupmates) what we thought or felt about the activities. Through the Blog, however, I was able to understand how other classmates felt about the activities and what happened in their groups. I could easily see where my group went wrong compared to the groups that received extra points. Unfortunately, one problem was that not many people posted on their Blogs straight away. That made it hard to really get to know what others thought about the activities until much later. The other difficulty I had was that I didn't know the names of many of my classmates... that led me to keep going to same Blogs of people who I know or are in my group.

I actually did not know that the Blog assignment covered 20% of my grade. I did not read the grading of the assignment because I thought the assignment was one of those interesting side assignments and I didn't expect Professor Kurpis to really care about Blogs this much! Had I known I would have totally focused more time on the Blog!

This was the first time I've used a Blog and I like it a lot. It is so useful not just as a class tool but as a communication too to post ideas, photos, video and interesting links. I have another class that also requires me to keep a journal of our class field trips. I decided to make my journal a Blog and the professor for that class has been very happy with the result. I now have two different Blogs under my name that I will be able to keep for as long as I want to.

Customer Service at McDonald's

I had to wait until the day before the due date because I was so nervous of doing this assignment. I was really scared how the cashier would react and whether the McDonald’s employee would yell at me and kick me out. Until the moment I began ordering, my voice was shaking and I couldn’t look at the cashier’s eyes. However, either I picked the perfect cashier or the perfect location, because placing the order was actually quite easy.
The McDonald’s on 58th St. and 3rd Ave. wasn’t busy when I went there. When I asked my order for a burger with only four pickles, the female cashier asked me to repeat the order and looked a little surprised. However, when I asked for fries without salt and a receipt for my order, she did not seem to have any problems. I think I was lucky because when I ordered my fries, they happened to just run out and were in the middle of frying a new batch. My cashier got the burger first from the burger section and left it by the French fries section while the fries were being cooked. She mentioned something to a co-worker who was responsible for preparing the French fries which I assume was to not add any salt to the batch currently cooking. When the fries were ready, the lady called my cashier over who packed my fries in it paper pouch and placed it with the rest of my order. After my fries were taken out of the batch, the lady responsible for the fries continued her usual process of salting the fries and packing them into paper pouches. All together, 3 staff members were required to complete my order which took about only five minutes in total.
The receipt and my order were perfect. It says exactly a burger with extra pickles and French fries without salt on the receipt. I was very satisfied more than I thought I would be. I imagined McDonald’s not having great quality of food and bad customer service given its focus on “fast food”. I was surprised how that turned out not to be the case. The casher was professional and communication between staff members in the kitchen worked very well. The process was very smooth making me think that my special order was something they regularly dealt with in the past.
One thing that could be improved on was the computer system that orders to the kitchen. It did not have the ability to specifically put how many pickles were requested, only that “extra pickles” were ordered. That is why my cashier had to physically go to the kitchen to tell them the specific details of my order. However, the distance from the cash register to the kitchen and French fryer was close and the adjustment was quick enough that I had no problem with it.

The ABCs of DISC...

I have to say the test is pretty much right. My type is high C and low D which means I have high "conscientiousness" and low "dominance". I actually think I am more "half C and half D". When Professor Kurpis explained the DICS system, I thought I was going to be 100 percent D. After taking the test and finding out that I am a mix between C and D, I actually think that makes more sense.

The reason why I thought I would be type D is because I have always seen myself as having a strong personality. I am not afraid to speak up if I have something to say or afraid to share my opinions when at work or in a group. Also, I am very clumsy and very far from having detail or accuracy. I also like to have freedom. I know most people will say that they "like freedom", but I think I actually try to run away if I feel like I am trying to be controlled by someone or put under supervision. I usually get bored easily.

I am definitely a challenging person that would rather be the lead of small group than a follower of a big group. In addition, I do think analytically... perhaps too much sometimes. I analyze both my own and others people's actions critically, which can be both good and bad.

I don't think I can learn to become another type of person because this is the personality I was born with. Which is okay, because I am happy how I am and at least I am not a 100% D! I didn't notice other people's personalities, but after everyone took the test, I could totally see their personality and a lot of the test results made sense.

Decision Making!!

During the class decision making exercise, I used the "Accommodation" strategy. I didn't want to fight for my idea if the rest of my group had a different opinion on direction. Moreover, I wanted everybody in my group participate in the activity. I thought the best way to make people participate is by listening to their ideas and incorporating them into the solution so that the group's work is no just one team member's work. I wanted everyone to feel like they contributed to the group's answer.

In hindsight, I think using "collaborating" would probably get a more desirable result. If group members approached the task by collaborating, the will have the chance to explain why they think their ideas works over others. While they are explaining, others can add their opinion and the result is that one might find out that someone else's idea is better than theirs or that a combination of two ideas make an even better idea. With all member's brainstorming together, the ultimate result must be better!

I have to admit that I handle confict differently when I am at work. At work I more often use a "compete to win" strategy which does not always end up with the best result. I want my co-workers to understand why my idea or opinion makes sense and is valuable. I feel I need to fully explain my idea until they understand my point of view first. If they understand and choose to go another direction then I don't mind letting it go. Also, When I have a different opinion with someone else, I always try to understand where they are coming from and mention that I understand what they are saying. Before I debate against someone's idea, I always try to highlight the good points of their idea so that I don't make anyone upset. Once I do that, I feel it is easier to try and make my point about why I think a different direction makes more sense.

Egg protector!

Our team went through step 1 (define our goals and objectives), 2 (determine our resources), 4 (make a tactical plan) and 5 (Implement the plan and evaluate results). We knew exactly what our goal was, which is to not break the egg, so our whole plan started from there. We determined our resources (straws and tapes) before we even began planning by checking how strong the straws were, how long the tape was, and how we could use each to cushion the egg’s fall. Using this information we put a plan in place and divided the tasks of who was going to do what parts since we knew we had limited time. I knew dividing up the tasks would be a helpful way to get everyone involved.

We definitely bypassed step 3 (develop several alternative strategies) which was a mistake because we didn’t end up having enough ideas. We ended up having only 2 ideas that ended up being similar enough that we just ended up combined them into one final plan.

While our plan didn’t end up keeping the egg from breaking, I am ultimately satisfied with the group effort and team work. Dividing work during the planning time really helped us succeed in putting our plan in place. While the plan wasn’t successful in the end, I was happy with our execution of it.

Management challenges...

One management challenge that I have now is with the working relationship between one of my co-workers. I have been told many times that at any job there will always be at least one person who will be difficult to work with. I know that if I can’t overcome challenges like this, how will I learn to survive at other jobs where I will probably meet the same kind of person again? In this situation, I have a co-worker who is only nice to me in front of other co-workers. When no one is around, she ignores me and just tries to find something I do that she can criticize. When she finds something, no matter how small, she always to make me feel like I do not know what I am doing. But I do know what I am doing because I have done this job for a number of years in Korea. We may have different approaches to the same problem, but that doesn’t mean her way is right and my way is wrong right? I know this will be a hard challenge to overcome, but I also know it is a fairly common workplace challenge and that learning to manage my co-workers will be important in having a successful career.