Jello cough drops, Jello lip balms,
Brainstorming,
No right or wrong.
Eggs crack, one got saved,
One team won,
Planned the right way.
Test grade better
One huge class got together
Decision making process.
Blogging topics, timely basis
Reminded activities
Lecture related.
Activities, Blogs
Only in this class,
Something unique;
Something I’ll never forget.
For a diagnostic test, this test took a long time and I found myself getting irritated when the test was almost over. The test mentioned I am a C-D which is an acronym for Conscientiousness and Dominance.
I was a bit shocked at the results. It’s nice to think that type actually describes me but I feel as if I’m more of a C-S (Conscientiousness and Steadiness). When it comes to group projects, I’m the type who favors following the rules and also acts a team player. I also like to get the work done early so there can be more adjustments to be made later on if needed and allowed.
I would like to be more of a D type because I want to be more of a risk taker. I believe it’s possible to become another type if I work really hard on my leadership skills.
I honestly believe there are flaws regarding these kinds of test. For example, while choosing the right adjective to describe you, you pick one that you might think it’s absolutely you but in reality, it’s not. For me, I don’t think a test can just determine who you really are as a type of leader. A better way is to actually go through hands on experience and evaluate yourself and let others evaluate you regarding your leadership style. Even though there might be bias opinions, learning to take criticisms would also help you become a better leader.
Blogging was actually one of my favorite requirements we had to do for class. The blog topics were very interesting and wasn’t a hassle to deal with. For example, I love the power of vision topic. I’ve been meaning to actually sit down and really think about my main goals in life and having this assignment finally helped me accomplish it.
I am among those quiet individuals in class who for some reason has a hard time speaking my mind in front of a huge group of strangers (which I know I have to work on) and having these blog assignments does help me speak my mind.
I also enjoy reading other blogs and scanning other people’s point of views about the same topics I wrote about.
In the first place, I thought that the activities were not just fun but obvious that they relate to the lectures in class. So I thought the blog isn’t really needed to make that point but it is useful in a way that we think about it more. I haven’t really done these kinds of class activities before so I end up thinking about them anyway after class.
Professor Kurpis’s blogs were actually interesting to read even though I’ve yet to make a comment on them. My boyfriend always hands me these self-improvement tapes (like david allen, brian tracey & so on) that relates to topics that were covered in the blogs and they do really help. So definitely reading those blogs are chicken soup for the mind.
I actually have my own online journal already so there’s a slight chance that I might use this for random blogs. I don’t mind the blogs being part of the course. I am definitely pro-blogging and have no problem with it.
My boyfriend and I went to McDonalds at around 6 o’clock in the evening and when we got there, it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. There were two people at the registrar, two people ordering, one guy at the drive thru window, manager was in the front talking to one of the employees, and three workers in the back. So my boyfriend stood by me on the side while I ordered. It was finally my turn and the guy who was taking my order seemed relaxed and had a smile in his face. I told him to listen carefully and he bent over a little bit just to be funny I guess and then I told him my order. I emphasized that I wanted four pickles and well done fries with no salt. He said jokingly back if I’m sure that I wanted seven pickles instead of four. I replied with a “haha” and said that I really wanted four.
I also told him I will not take the food if my receipt doesn’t mention two extra pickles and well done, no salt. He replied with an “oh” and went over to his manager. His manager told him to deal with the guys in the back about my order. The guy shouted exactly four pickles twice to the people in the back. Then the manager took over the register and asked what I wanted on the receipt. Then the manager told the boy who was close to the fries fryer about my order and dealt with it. Then guy from the beginning went back and told me the price. Since I only had $2 in my pocket being the smarty that I am, my boyfriend took out $50 to pay for my $2 plus tax order. He took the money and brought it over to his manager and came back and said, “I’m sorry we can’t accept this, it’s considered fake.” My boyfriend’s face was about to turn completely red and the guy immediately said he was joking and gave me the receipt and change.
The fries were ready and the boy put it into the bag and gave it to the manager and he also looked into the bag. Then he gave it to our guy. Our guy took the burger from one of the people in the back and he personally opened it and checked it himself if there were exactly four pickles. Then he closed it, put it into the bag, and handed it to me. I checked in the bag and everything was good. The fries had no taste and boyfriend enjoyed the burger.
Overall, I was actually treated well while I was ordering at this McDonalds but I definitely remember instances at some of the McDonalds in the city where I had to deal with rude people behind the register even without a special order. This felt like the first McDonalds experience where my order-taker was actually joking back at me.
I think the management process for my order was fair. They got my order done without waiting so long for it. It’s good there weren’t a lot of people at this McDonalds. I thought just shouting the order to the people in the back twice wasn’t really needed. I would have thought since they had screens of the orders in the back that one burger would emphasize it needed two extra pickles. The manager was a bit everywhere and kept checking things. I thought there were a fair amount of workers in the back and I definitely like the light humor that the guy had who dealt with my order.
If I were a consultant who was brought to McDonalds, I’d probably suggest that the workers should be extremely trained on how to work the counters efficiently so that they wouldn’t have to ask for help. I also suggest that each worker has clear role of their specific job function. For example, instead of the people behind the register to also deal with food assembling, why not have other workers deal with that area. Last but not least, according to past experiences, I also suggest that the nicest people would be the ones working in the front and who can also tolerate stressful situations.
As of now, my first goal is to be a controller after I graduate. I need a BA degree in accounting or finance. Right now, I’m taking necessary actions by taking classes that involves both accounting and finance in order to get that degree. At the same time, I intend to do at least 3 internships by the time I graduate that involves accounting-related work. By the time I graduate, I need a year or 2 of experiencing real financial accounting and work my way up to be the controller of whichever company I choose to be in. First, I’d like to experience working in different kinds of companies that deals with different sorts of businesses to be able to compare and contrast which organization I feel comfortable to and satisfied to work in.
A personal goal of mine is to travel back to the
When I finally have my career goal in my hands, depending on how many vacation days I can acquire, I will plan out the countries I want to visit and experience their culture and of course their food. First, I will do an extensive research and create a long list of all the countries I want to visit. Depending on the proximity of the countries, I could visit a few at once, but make sure I have enough time to enjoy and see sites I want to see. Of course I have to be financially aware and figure out how much money I have to bring. Things I would consider when I’m planning to trip includes weather condition of targeted sites, flight duration, expenses which includes tickets, transportation, hotels, food, light shopping and emergency money. It also wouldn’t hurt to bring a companion along to explore these places. I will let them know about a month in advance of my planning.
All of these visions are mostly dreams as of now, but I think the first step of acting on these visions is planning. These goals of mine might not be precisely detailed but as each day passes, adjustments will be made for these goals to be more specific. Even if my planning changes, my main priority is to reach these goals even if it takes constant alterations. I can’t wait to achieve these goals in the future and maybe even further advance them.
Even though I only voiced out an opinion once during that semi-chaotic decision making process for our test, I felt like I handled the conflict with more of a compromise rather than a withdrawal. The combination of ideas integrating into one decision felt like the most sensible thing. But to be more reasonable, there were so many ideas being put out there so it was really hard to combine what everyone wanted. Just because ideas were approved and denied back to back didn't make me want to withdraw from the decision making. I basically participated in eliminating or sticking to these ideas by raising my hand. My grade is affected by the final decision so might as well participate in the poll.
I think collaborating feels like the most sensible method to use because the decision isn't only for me, but for the entire class. It would have been nice to form small groups first but since we were under time pressure we just skipped this process. Although that step was skipped, we still ended up combining two sets of ideas: extra credit and dropping the lowest grade, to create a combination that everyone seemed to agree on (unless others were forced into agreeing because people were just worried about time constraints). It felt like everyone was competing to win in the beginning and then eventually collaborating which turned into a seemingly win-win outcome.
I did have doubts that we will not be able to come up with a decision on time but having a leader made it more organizable and put the process more at ease.
In my opinion, I think our group did a moderate job in the planning process even though we failed at creating a successful egg protector. First off, we missed step 1 which is defining the goal and objectives. I think we felt that we’ve already processed the goal in our heads and so we went straight to brain-storming due to lack of time. Our group didn’t have a specific leader because it seemed like it wasn’t one of our priorities. Our main priority was to have an idea of how to build our protector.
We didn’t really touch on step 2 either which was identifying the resources because the resources were already discussed earlier. Also, we already knew that each of us needed an idea of how this protector should look like so all of us just kept throwing ideas, either going against it or agreeing to it.
Discussing several alternative strategies and any mishaps that may occur were definitely mentioned (step 3). One mishap that was discussed and that actually happened was the egg rotating when it was dropped straight. The idea of the egg rotating was scratched out because we felt that if the egg were to drop straight down, the yolk would be at the bottom of the egg and light part of the egg will be on top, creating a straight down fall. False. That theory didn’t work. It’s interesting and funny looking back at it.
The tactical plan approach, which was stage 4, was definitely followed. Each of us knew our role as to who will handle the specific job in this process. We also implemented the plan and evaluated the results, which was stage 5. While we had the actual necessities to build the protector, our group still kept throwing out ideas and finding ways to modify the plan.
A reason why we failed in creating a successful protector was that we didn’t really focus on if there’s a loophole to this activity or we didn’t really “think outside the box.” We focused on a more obvious idea and finding ways for that obvious idea to work. Other reasons were not determining the leader of the group and time-pressure.
I give my team an A for effort and 10 extra points each for the test because even though our egg protector didn’t work, we worked well as a team. But too bad that's not my decision to make.
