What is Management?
Management is an art.
It is the art of making people more effective and efficient than they would never have been before.
Mangement is also a science.
The science of teach you how to accomplish your goal.
Therefore, everyone needs to learn mangement;
as everyone needs to learn art and science.
Don't forget to choose Professor Kurpis
if you want to get most out of the class.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
"Good to Blog"
Personally, I love to write things down. And beside the blog that I have for this management blog, I also have another personal blog that I use to write things down that happen in my daily life. I love to share all the things that I experience and the photos that I took with all my friends and families. Therefore, I don't hate to write blog.
I think that this blog is an important communications tool. People in our class get to know each other more throught the blogs. Since our class only meet twice a week and many students are rush to another class or to go back home after the class, we don't really get to know each other so deeply. But by using the blog, we share our experiences in class, our goals, our vision and so much more in the blog which allow us to learn more about our classmates. Therefore, I think that this blog is an important communications tool between students to students and also students to teachers.
When we are ask to write our response and comments for the activities that we did in class, it kind of refresh our memory for what we did in class. Also, since we are ask to write our comments and always ask us if anythings can improve, we get to rethink the activities that we did and let us to think what other alternatives that we might do for that group activities to improve our performance or to obtain our desirable results. Also, since we have to relate our in-class experiences with the activities back to the lessons we were studying when we write a blog, it helps us understand the lessons more and we know it right away whether we understand the lesson or not. Therefore, when you encounter a difficulty when you are doing your blog assignment, it might be a good indicator that you don't understand your class lesson enough.
Beside the blog assignment that we are ask to write, we also have to response to those interesting articles that post in Professor Kurpis' blog but not relate to our management class lesson. I really like those articles that professor post in his blog, especially the one that talks about the behavior of monkey. Those articles all teach us something about management but in a funny and interesting way. I would suggest that Professor should post more of this interesting articles to his blog because I think this is an effective way to increase student's interest in management. Traditionally, management seems like to be a boring subject, but after I read those articles that professor posts in his blog, I realize that the subject of management can also be interesting. Therefore, I would say that professor should post more of those interesting articles to his blog.
Also, by doing our blog assignment in a timely manner, we get to earn 20% of our grade toward this class. We only have to give up 20-30 minutes a week to do the blog assignment and we can get 1/5 of our grade. If we don't have this blog assignment, the distribution of the class grading system will be different and each of the exams will worth a higher percentage toward the final grade for this class. If you did bad in one exam, it will affect a lot to your final grade if it worth a high percentage of the class grade. Therefore, I would definitely agree Professor to keep this blog.
After this semester end, I might conside to continue to post entries relate to school, but not my personal life. Since my friend and family will never be interest to know what I learn in school and what happened in school, therefore, I will never post anythings in my personal blog relate to school events. Therefore, I might consider to post entry that are school relate to this blog so I can keep track of what happen to me in school.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Hamburgers with 4 pickles and French fries without salt!!
After I got back my exam, I was so upset that my grade was so low. However, Professor Kurpis allowed us to do an extra credit to add 7 points to our exam and he would curve it afterward. Our extra credit assignment was to go to McDonald’s and order a hamburger with 4 pickles and a small French fries without salt. We had to observe the whole management process and described how the process worked. After we ordered the food, we had to bring back a receipt as a proof to show that we actually ordered the exact same food Professor Kurpis told us to order.
On October 28 during my class break, I went to the McDonald in Park Avenue to order the food that Professors Kurpis told us to order for extra credit. Probably due to the location of the McDonald’s, I waited for almost 5 minutes in order to order. The person who took my order was Spanish and he asked me friendly what I wanted for my order. Therefore I told him I wanted a small French fries without salt and a hamburger with 4 pickles. After he heard my order, he asked me once again to confirm if I want 4 pickles in my hamburger and I answered him yes and I told him to make sure that the hamburger had only 4 pickles and no more than 4. He said that he will entered it into the computer order system and the co-worker in the kitchen who packed the hamburger would knew exactly how many pickles I wanted for my hamburger.
After we settled for the hamburger order, he told me that salt was already added to the French fries and he asked me whether it was fine to have French fries with salt. I told him that I wouldn't take any French fries with salt and I definitely wanted the French fries. Therefore he asked his co-worker inside the kitchen whether they could made a French fries for me without salt. The co-worker inside the kitchen told him that if I wanted to have a French fries without salt, I had to wait at least 4 minutes for the new rack of fresh French fries and they would packed a small size of French fries before they added the salt in it. The cashier asked me whether I want to wait additional few minutes for the fries without salt and I told him I was willing to wait for my order. Then he first graped the hamburger I want and made sure there was only 4 pickles and hanged it to me. Then, he told me to wait for a moment for the fries. After few minutes past, cashier asked his co-worker in the kitchen whether the French fries without salt was ready for me, and the co-worker in the kitchen said yes and quickly packed the new fresh French fries and hanged it to the cashier. Before the cashier handed the French fries to me, he looked at the French Fries again and made sure that no salt was added in it. After he made sure, he handed the French fries to me with the same friendly expression he had on the face when he first greeted me. I thought that the cashier was really did his best job in serving the customers; even though I make so many request for only $2 order, he still didn't give me any attitudes and even tried to satisfy all my requests. I was so pleased by his attitude toward his job and his customers, and I believed that there must be somethings motivated him to do this job well.
If I was brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would said that they should not add the salt to the French fries. They should just hanged the small pack of salts to customers when they ordered the fries. With the small pack of salts came with the purchase of French fires, people can added it on their own based on their preference of salty. So when next time people want to order fries without salt, customers don't need to wait another new rack of fresh fries and they can get the order right away. But definitely I am satisfy with the whole ordering process with this cashier except the fact that I had to wait an additional few minutes for the fries.
On October 28 during my class break, I went to the McDonald in Park Avenue to order the food that Professors Kurpis told us to order for extra credit. Probably due to the location of the McDonald’s, I waited for almost 5 minutes in order to order. The person who took my order was Spanish and he asked me friendly what I wanted for my order. Therefore I told him I wanted a small French fries without salt and a hamburger with 4 pickles. After he heard my order, he asked me once again to confirm if I want 4 pickles in my hamburger and I answered him yes and I told him to make sure that the hamburger had only 4 pickles and no more than 4. He said that he will entered it into the computer order system and the co-worker in the kitchen who packed the hamburger would knew exactly how many pickles I wanted for my hamburger.
After we settled for the hamburger order, he told me that salt was already added to the French fries and he asked me whether it was fine to have French fries with salt. I told him that I wouldn't take any French fries with salt and I definitely wanted the French fries. Therefore he asked his co-worker inside the kitchen whether they could made a French fries for me without salt. The co-worker inside the kitchen told him that if I wanted to have a French fries without salt, I had to wait at least 4 minutes for the new rack of fresh French fries and they would packed a small size of French fries before they added the salt in it. The cashier asked me whether I want to wait additional few minutes for the fries without salt and I told him I was willing to wait for my order. Then he first graped the hamburger I want and made sure there was only 4 pickles and hanged it to me. Then, he told me to wait for a moment for the fries. After few minutes past, cashier asked his co-worker in the kitchen whether the French fries without salt was ready for me, and the co-worker in the kitchen said yes and quickly packed the new fresh French fries and hanged it to the cashier. Before the cashier handed the French fries to me, he looked at the French Fries again and made sure that no salt was added in it. After he made sure, he handed the French fries to me with the same friendly expression he had on the face when he first greeted me. I thought that the cashier was really did his best job in serving the customers; even though I make so many request for only $2 order, he still didn't give me any attitudes and even tried to satisfy all my requests. I was so pleased by his attitude toward his job and his customers, and I believed that there must be somethings motivated him to do this job well.
If I was brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would said that they should not add the salt to the French fries. They should just hanged the small pack of salts to customers when they ordered the fries. With the small pack of salts came with the purchase of French fires, people can added it on their own based on their preference of salty. So when next time people want to order fries without salt, customers don't need to wait another new rack of fresh fries and they can get the order right away. But definitely I am satisfy with the whole ordering process with this cashier except the fact that I had to wait an additional few minutes for the fries.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Influence + Steadiness= my leadership style?
Last week, we did a personal profile regarding to our leadership style in management class. During the class, we are giving 50 sets of word. From each set of words, there is 4 words and we have to pick 1 out of the 4 words that we think is best describe us and 1 that is the least describe us. EAch word in each set of words are correspond to the letter either Z, Q, X, W, and Y. After we finish all 50's word, we are ask to calculate how many of Z, Q, X, and W for the most and how many Z
, Q, X, and W for the least. For Y, we do not compute. Afterward, we compare the difference between Z, Q, X, and W from the most to least; I end up having the difference as -6 for Z, 11 for Q, 8 for X and -11 for W. As we have our number for Z, Q, X and W, we are ask to plot those points in the graph of D.I.S.C. D.I.S.C stand for Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness and Steadiness. For -6 Z, I will plot the point into the D column -6 on the graph, and Q for the I and so forth. After I finish ploting, I end up having the highest point in the Influence colume and the second high in Steadiness colume. And professor calls it as I high S.
, Q, X, and W for the least. For Y, we do not compute. Afterward, we compare the difference between Z, Q, X, and W from the most to least; I end up having the difference as -6 for Z, 11 for Q, 8 for X and -11 for W. As we have our number for Z, Q, X and W, we are ask to plot those points in the graph of D.I.S.C. D.I.S.C stand for Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness and Steadiness. For -6 Z, I will plot the point into the D column -6 on the graph, and Q for the I and so forth. After I finish ploting, I end up having the highest point in the Influence colume and the second high in Steadiness colume. And professor calls it as I high S.
Then after the whole class finish plotting, we are ask to put our final answer on the board whether you are I high D, D high I, S high C or so forth. And professor Kurpis explains to us what is actually mean for being either of those. For those person who are high in Dominance, they are emphasis of shaping the enviroment by overcoming others to accomplish what they want. They like to accept challenges, take authoriy and managing trouble. They like to have wide scope of operations and they like to have many freedom from work. For those people who are high in Influence, they like to change the enviroment by influence of persuade others. They like to participate in group, being friendly to others and create a motivational enviroment for people to work. And for people who are high in Conscientiousness, they are more emphasis on quality and accuracy of the work. And for people who are high in Steadiness, they are more emphasis on working with others to carry out the task.
After hearing different characteristics of the D, I, C, and S, I felt that the test really reflecting my true personality. I am those people who don't like to overcome others to get my things accomplish, rather I like to persuade them. I think that it is more effective to ask people to do things in your way if you will be able to explain to them the rationals or logics behind it. I like to have supports from others in order to enforce my plan and this display my steadiness characterisitics.
Professor Kurpis said being D high I or I high D is the best leadership type. Unfortunately, I am not of those people. But I see that many people in our class actually display either D high I or I high D, I guess that our class is just full of potential good leaders. In the future, if I have a chance to become a leader, I must definitely look back to this chart for suggestions and action plan of how to lead under the I high S colume; therefore I can lead my followers more effectively and efficiently.
After hearing different characteristics of the D, I, C, and S, I felt that the test really reflecting my true personality. I am those people who don't like to overcome others to get my things accomplish, rather I like to persuade them. I think that it is more effective to ask people to do things in your way if you will be able to explain to them the rationals or logics behind it. I like to have supports from others in order to enforce my plan and this display my steadiness characterisitics.
Professor Kurpis said being D high I or I high D is the best leadership type. Unfortunately, I am not of those people. But I see that many people in our class actually display either D high I or I high D, I guess that our class is just full of potential good leaders. In the future, if I have a chance to become a leader, I must definitely look back to this chart for suggestions and action plan of how to lead under the I high S colume; therefore I can lead my followers more effectively and efficiently.
Friday, November 7, 2008
VISION?? What is your one?
On last monday, we saw the video “The Power of Vision”. The video keeps stress the importance of have some kind of vision for your future. Vision serves as a motivation for your goal. However, without action, vision is just a dream. On the other hand, action without vision merely wastes time. Therefore, we need to combine both things together in order to success. After I watched the video, I asked myself what kind of vision I have in my future and how many of them I actually put efforts into it to make it happens.
The first vision I have for my future is that I can be fit for life. This vision seems so ridiclus. But to me, being fit is very important; not just for appearance, but also for health. Being fit can avoid a lot of health problems relate to obese. Right now, I am still consider myself fat but I already try my best in losing weight in this year. I have already lose more than 10pounds and I hope that I can lose 10 more pounds. I have put a lot of effort in losing this 10pounds, therefore, I hope that I can maintain my current weight for the life since I have put so many efforts in losing those pounds. In order to be fit for life, I am willing to get rid of all my favorite junk foods and become a vegetarian. I am willing to write diary to keep track of what kinds of food I eat each day and so I can count how many calories I have consumed. Also, I am willing to give up at least 3 - 4 hours a week for gym. In order to become fit for life, I don't care what it cost me.
The second vision I have for the future is that I can become a well know musician. Become a musician is always my dream. When I was 2 years old, my mom said she already realize that I have some music's talent. She said that I already know how to sing a song when I was 2 years old. My mom said right before I know how to speak clearly, I already know how to sing a song. Also, she said that nothing can clam me down when I cry, but I will become quiet when she plays me some music. So once I turn 4 years old, my mom bring me to learn piano! Since my mom recognize I have some music's talents, my mom wants to develop my talent in music as early as possible. Beside she brings me to learn piano, she will also buy a lot of classical music to play at home. She wants me to expose more in music in everyday's life. And due to my mom's effort, I become addicted to music and piano. Music becomes part of my life.
However, as I start going to college, school and work already takes me most of my time. I don't really have much time to concentrate my study in music. I rarely have times to particapte my piano and I don't even have time to learn guitar. I know that my piano's technique has getting worse and worse. I know that I won't be able to become a famous musician if my technique getting worse and worse. Therefore, in order to success in be
come a famous musician, I am willing to give up my career in accounting. I know that being an accountant can gives me a stable life and earn a desirable income. However, being an accountant is not my dream. I want to become an accountant solely because of the money that I can made from it. Therefore, if my family don't need my financial support, I am willing to give up my career in accounting and shift to major in studying music. I know that being an expert in music requires a lot of time and I am willing to gives up all my time in it. Also I am willing to learn different instruements that might expand my music knowledge.
The 3rdd vision I have for my future is that I can have my own brands for apparel. I love shopping and I love fashion. Beside spending most of my time in school, work and music, I will spend my remaining time in browsing magazines and internets for the upcoming trends in fashion. When my friends go to shopping, they always like to ask for my advices in picking their clothes. They said that I have a very sensitive sense in fashion. Therefore, I hope that I can establish my own brands of women apparel. I love to see people wearing trendy and pretty and I hope that my brand offer woman the opportunity to wear pretty and trendy. In order to sucess in establish my own brands, I am willing to learn fashion from the basic. Start from learning different materials to how to draw a design, and then learn how to transform a design on paper to a real product. I am willing to work in a fashion company to learn even it might be the lowest position in the company.
I will try my best in the future to try to accomplish all 3 visions that I have in the future. As the video "The power of vision" points out, without action, vision merely wastes times. Therefore, I don't want to waste time just to dream about my goal. I actually want them to happen, therefore, I will set this vision as my guide to future!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
"What is the BEST plan?"
On monday, Professor Kurpis handed back our test we had on last week. Unfortunately, the average class grade is really low. The average grade for the class is only 68 and I personally did better than the average grade but totally not satisfied with my score. I think I would do a lot better on it since I did study but I think the test is pretty fair. I think most of the people in the class just totally upset with the score they got. Therefore after Professor Kurpis handed back all the exams, he told us to think a plan of how to deal with this exam and the other exam that is coming up. He told to think of a plan that must be agreeable upon everyone in the class in order for the plan to be implent.
The first thought I had in my mind is "Would we be possible to come up with a plan that everyone agrees on?" Since we are such a big class, I think it is just impossible to come up with a plan that everyone will agree on. So after Professor Kurpis said we can start to discuss the plan, everyone has their own idea and I realize that people start to have a conversation in a group first. I can see many people try to persuade a smaller group to accept their idea before they persuade the rest of the class. In my case, I start to talk with Jia of how we should come up with a plan that can benefit the most of us. And then as we start discussing, many people start to join us and talk about their own ideas. I think we are trying to handles this conflict by collaborating. We try to discuss our own view about the plan and each of us try to negotiate of how the plan is the best for the class. We chose this method of handling the problem is because we think that it is the most effective way to get everyone's idea and it is the fairest way for everyone to present their ideas.
However, in the middle of the class, many people just stepped up in the middle of the classroom and start to form a small group discussion. And as I and Jia saw people just form a small discussion group in the middle of the classroom, we just step up to them and try to participate in their discusion because we believe by participate in their small group discussion, we increase our chance to express our thoughts. However, our small group discussion in the middle of the classroom doesn't last long because another girl stepped up to us and told us that it shouldn't be a small group discussion and whether we should have a whole class vote on the plan. Therefore, our group just dismissed and those people who participated went back to their seat.
Then after approximately 5 minutes of people just discussing on their own, a korean guy just step up to the classroom and try to be the leader for the class. He said that he would write down all the ideas on the board and we will vote on the issue. And out of sudden, people jus
t became quite and listen to that korean guy. I don't even know why that we just percive him as our leader once he stepped up without questioning his ability to lead the class. And through his leading, our class got a compromise agreeement of having 1 test curve, drop the test with the lowest grade and let us do the extra credit to improve our grade for the class. Everyone seems satisfy with this idea.
However, many people are still having comment on the plan because they believe that the test format is a also a problem for them. Many people said that the multiple multiple choice question should be replace by the multiple choice questions which only have 1 answer for each question. However, many people think that we can get some partial credits on the mutiple mutiple choice question by having some answers right. Personally, I don't really care about the format of the test because I think the format is fair. Therefore, I choose to accomondate of their ideas on the format of the test because I believe that the format is more important to other people than me. But many people just so concern about the format of the exam and many people even get so frustrated when their ideas didn't get accepted by other. Many people just try to compete to win in this situation. Many people just start to debate about the format. However, at the end, we get a 100% approval from the class for setting the plan as drop the lowest grade test, curve the first exam, extra credit and keep multiple multiple choice question with hint of how many correct answers within the 5 answers provided. Many people are satisfy with this plan including myself. But I still see many people just compromise at the even though they don't agree with it. I guess that it is the class pressure that made them surrender to the majority's ideas.
I think collaborate is the best way to handle conflict. Everyone is exchanging their idea and we got to negotiate of which one is the best for the majority. In this way, everyone's idea is being respected and no one's idea can overtake other people's idea. Also, I believe that many people will satisfy with the plan more if we collaborating together than just having one people or small group people decide the plan. I think I will still chose this method of handle conflict next time when I face with another conflict that need to settle among group of people!
The first thought I had in my mind is "Would we be possible to come up with a plan that everyone agrees on?" Since we are such a big class, I think it is just impossible to come up with a plan that everyone will agree on. So after Professor Kurpis said we can start to discuss the plan, everyone has their own idea and I realize that people start to have a conversation in a group first. I can see many people try to persuade a smaller group to accept their idea before they persuade the rest of the class. In my case, I start to talk with Jia of how we should come up with a plan that can benefit the most of us. And then as we start discussing, many people start to join us and talk about their own ideas. I think we are trying to handles this conflict by collaborating. We try to discuss our own view about the plan and each of us try to negotiate of how the plan is the best for the class. We chose this method of handling the problem is because we think that it is the most effective way to get everyone's idea and it is the fairest way for everyone to present their ideas.
However, in the middle of the class, many people just stepped up in the middle of the classroom and start to form a small group discussion. And as I and Jia saw people just form a small discussion group in the middle of the classroom, we just step up to them and try to participate in their discusion because we believe by participate in their small group discussion, we increase our chance to express our thoughts. However, our small group discussion in the middle of the classroom doesn't last long because another girl stepped up to us and told us that it shouldn't be a small group discussion and whether we should have a whole class vote on the plan. Therefore, our group just dismissed and those people who participated went back to their seat.
Then after approximately 5 minutes of people just discussing on their own, a korean guy just step up to the classroom and try to be the leader for the class. He said that he would write down all the ideas on the board and we will vote on the issue. And out of sudden, people jus
t became quite and listen to that korean guy. I don't even know why that we just percive him as our leader once he stepped up without questioning his ability to lead the class. And through his leading, our class got a compromise agreeement of having 1 test curve, drop the test with the lowest grade and let us do the extra credit to improve our grade for the class. Everyone seems satisfy with this idea.However, many people are still having comment on the plan because they believe that the test format is a also a problem for them. Many people said that the multiple multiple choice question should be replace by the multiple choice questions which only have 1 answer for each question. However, many people think that we can get some partial credits on the mutiple mutiple choice question by having some answers right. Personally, I don't really care about the format of the test because I think the format is fair. Therefore, I choose to accomondate of their ideas on the format of the test because I believe that the format is more important to other people than me. But many people just so concern about the format of the exam and many people even get so frustrated when their ideas didn't get accepted by other. Many people just try to compete to win in this situation. Many people just start to debate about the format. However, at the end, we get a 100% approval from the class for setting the plan as drop the lowest grade test, curve the first exam, extra credit and keep multiple multiple choice question with hint of how many correct answers within the 5 answers provided. Many people are satisfy with this plan including myself. But I still see many people just compromise at the even though they don't agree with it. I guess that it is the class pressure that made them surrender to the majority's ideas.
I think collaborate is the best way to handle conflict. Everyone is exchanging their idea and we got to negotiate of which one is the best for the majority. In this way, everyone's idea is being respected and no one's idea can overtake other people's idea. Also, I believe that many people will satisfy with the plan more if we collaborating together than just having one people or small group people decide the plan. I think I will still chose this method of handle conflict next time when I face with another conflict that need to settle among group of people!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Our Egg planning
Our egg planning turn out to be a failure, however, our group are really having fun during the planning progress. When I and Jia first heard the topic about the egg's planning, Jia's first response was like "What?" and my response is "it sounds like physic!" Due to the fact that we have to actually build somethings with limited materials to protect the egg from breaking when we drop it off from approximately 10 feet talls, it likes those kind of physic concepts that I have learned in high school.
After heard the explanation, guidline and materials that we had, we know that our goal is to use limited resources to build somethings protect the egg from breaking when dropping from 10 feets tall. Each one of our group already have their own idea of how to build the design. We all explain our ideas to each other and try to persuade the other group member to accept their own idea. However, after 25 minutes of discussing, we still can't agree on the same method.
And after that 25minutes, we only left with 10 minutes to build the egg. Therefore, we all just play around with the materials and we finally comes up with the idea of surronds the egg by making some triangle shapes using the straws. We tape the egg with those triangle shapes. When the 10 minutes times up, we barely finish taping the egg with those triangle shapes. We don't even have time to evaluate whether or not the egg is 100% protected by the triangle shape.
When our group are waiting to drop the egg, I personally don't have much confidence for our planning due to the fact that we didn't come up with an idea that we all agree. We just randomly try out this idea for our planning, therefore, I didn't have much confidence about our plan. And finally when is our group's turn, we all hope that our plan is gona to work due to the fact that it will help us increase 5 points in our exam. However, our plan turns out to be failure due to the fact that we didn't aim in the bucket. Our egg just hit the bucket and it break. I really want to know whether our egg will actually survive if we aim the bucket right. However, I didn't feel very upset about failure due to the fact that I personally don't have much confidence about it.
I think that our planning turns out to be failure because we didn't follow all of the 5 steps in the planning process. I think our team did a pretty good job of following the first 3 steps in the planning process. We all know our goals and requirements. We understand that we only allow to have 8 straws and few meters of tapes and 1 egg. We come up with different ideas for the planning. However, we didn't chose a tactic plan which is the fourth step of the planning process. We just didn't agree on the same idea and we just randomly chose one idea. Also, we didn't assign the task efficiently to our group member. Therefore, we just barely finish our plan within the time frame. Also, I think that our group skip the 5th step in the planning process which is to implent the plan and evaluate the result. Since we didn't assign the task to each group member efficently, we left with no time to evaluate the outcome for our plan. Therefore, we wouldn't be able to make any corrective action for our plan and revise the plan if necessary.
After this in-class activity, I realize that the success and failure of a plan really depends a lot of your planning process. If you have a really good planning, your plan will mostly likely to success than having a poor planning. Therefore, next time, when we have another chance to do similar class activity like this, our group will sure to have a better planning!
After heard the explanation, guidline and materials that we had, we know that our goal is to use limited resources to build somethings protect the egg from breaking when dropping from 10 feets tall. Each one of our group already have their own idea of how to build the design. We all explain our ideas to each other and try to persuade the other group member to accept their own idea. However, after 25 minutes of discussing, we still can't agree on the same method.
And after that 25minutes, we only left with 10 minutes to build the egg. Therefore, we all just play around with the materials and we finally comes up with the idea of surronds the egg by making some triangle shapes using the straws. We tape the egg with those triangle shapes. When the 10 minutes times up, we barely finish taping the egg with those triangle shapes. We don't even have time to evaluate whether or not the egg is 100% protected by the triangle shape.
When our group are waiting to drop the egg, I personally don't have much confidence for our planning due to the fact that we didn't come up with an idea that we all agree. We just randomly try out this idea for our planning, therefore, I didn't have much confidence about our plan. And finally when is our group's turn, we all hope that our plan is gona to work due to the fact that it will help us increase 5 points in our exam. However, our plan turns out to be failure due to the fact that we didn't aim in the bucket. Our egg just hit the bucket and it break. I really want to know whether our egg will actually survive if we aim the bucket right. However, I didn't feel very upset about failure due to the fact that I personally don't have much confidence about it.
I think that our planning turns out to be failure because we didn't follow all of the 5 steps in the planning process. I think our team did a pretty good job of following the first 3 steps in the planning process. We all know our goals and requirements. We understand that we only allow to have 8 straws and few meters of tapes and 1 egg. We come up with different ideas for the planning. However, we didn't chose a tactic plan which is the fourth step of the planning process. We just didn't agree on the same idea and we just randomly chose one idea. Also, we didn't assign the task efficiently to our group member. Therefore, we just barely finish our plan within the time frame. Also, I think that our group skip the 5th step in the planning process which is to implent the plan and evaluate the result. Since we didn't assign the task to each group member efficently, we left with no time to evaluate the outcome for our plan. Therefore, we wouldn't be able to make any corrective action for our plan and revise the plan if necessary.
After this in-class activity, I realize that the success and failure of a plan really depends a lot of your planning process. If you have a really good planning, your plan will mostly likely to success than having a poor planning. Therefore, next time, when we have another chance to do similar class activity like this, our group will sure to have a better planning!
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