Decisions Decisions...

So we all came to class wondering how we did on our first management test. I for one, got the grade I was expecting. Not too bad for not really studying I must say.

Within the first few minutes of the class, I had a feeling our professor had something up his sleeve, and sure enough he did.

The group project for the day was to agree unanimously on what type of "gift" we were going to receive from our professor regarding test 1 and a possible future test. It was a daunting task, but I felt like 50 minutes was ample time for 75 people to agree.

We needed 49 minutes and 59 seconds. You've got to be kidding me.

I made the apparent mistake of thinking I could organize the proceedings from the start. Apparently my democratic vision wasn't shared everyone. To be blunt, we have a lot of immature people in our class. I heard a lot of whining when things weren't going their way, and I heard a lot of people simply trying to talk over people. Honestly, it was one of the most stressful classes I have ever attended. I can only hope for their sake, that the immature students we have don't act that way in the business world, because if they do, they won't get far.

Now, back to the assignment...

Ultimately, the group did use collaboration to come to an agreement, although it came at a cost greater than what we should have paid (i.e. stress, raised tempers, etc.) Multiple insights were used, and there was a level of bargaining (if you can call it that) involved.

Interestingly, a mixture of competition, avoidance, compromise, and accommodation were also used.

A few students (in an attempt at a utilitarianism approach) offered to go along with the groups request and not hold the decision back. Many avoided participation all together, and many people clearly "competed" to get their voice heard.

I think collaboration is the best approach. However collaboration is only as good as the collaborators involved. People need to negotiate and discuss in an orderly, professional manner. We're all adults (I think), and I think we could have reached the agreement we did a lot sooner if we simply acted like one.

If you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs...

...that's the phrase anyway, then again, we weren't making omelets!

The egg/planning activity we performed in class last Monday was both fun and challenging. Even though my group wasn't ultimately successful, I feel we had a solid plan and worked well together. In terms of our steps in the planning process; here's my take:

1) Defining goals/objectives: We certainly knew what our goal was, and we clearly understood the deadlines. In fact, one of my main focuses was to keep tabs on the timer and help/urge along members of the team accordingly based on time challenges/tasks at hand.

2) Determining resources: Our group quickly established who would do which tasks, which helped make for a sort of assembly line/Santa's Workshop system!

3) Develop alternative strategies: We planned ahead accordingly if our "fishing pole" system didn't work properly. However, plan B didn't work either!

4) Make tactical plan: This sort of goes along with step 2 in our group's case

5) Implement plan/evaluate results: We implemented the plan alright.....directly into the garbage can!

Again, even though our egg broke, I do feel we worked well as a team in creating strategies and overall production of our concept. The one area I feel that perhaps we could have improved upon is the implementation plan, however in terms of testing. We feverishly worked right up to the final second, and if we had an extra minute or so, perhaps we could have tested our design.

All in all, it was a great experiment!