Managment Through Poetry

Motivating and inspiring people to accomplish goals
A leader, monitor and negotiator are a few of my roles
Need to make decisions at the end of the day
Ability to identify problems can go a long way
Going the extra mile will make everyone smile
Everyone's strengths and weaknesses kept in a mental file
Moving past barriers of communication
Extreme creativity leading to innovation
Need to be productive and efficient as can be
That's what a manager is to me

To Blog or Not to Blog

            Upon learning about this blog assignment I was not too thrilled. I had previously blogged in other classes and I knew the responsibility and effort that it entailed. In other classes there had been one class blog that everybody had to post on, a few people assigned to each topic. This blog assignment took it to the next level and made each student create there own blog. Although it involved more work I believe it made the assignment a lot better. Towards the beginning of the blogging process I still wasn’t really into it but as the semester moved along I was beginning to see the positive aspects of having this blog.

            The individual blogs allowed us to be creative and get a little of each of our personalities on the blog. By looking at all of my entries I believe you are able to get a glimpse at who I am, and I can do the same on the blogs of my class mates. This was very useful in a class as big as ours. I was able to meet and get to know many of my classmates through looking at their blogs and commenting on them. Without these bloggs I would not have made these connections. Besides our group projects the class doesn’t provide too many opportunities to socialize, and even when you do socialize students act differently in the classroom setting. The blogs provided us with this extra opportunity to socialize and we were able to see the other side of our classmates. The blog assignments definitely added to the communications in class. The bonds built on the blogs in some form carried on into class. They made me feel more comfortable talking with the people whose blogs I visited and having a little information on the type of person they are made conversation easier.

            The blogs also allowed us to remember out classroom activities better.  Our class room activities tend to come up on the tests and this is a good way to prepare for the tests. When I write stuff down I tend to remember it more, and when trying to remember what we did in a certain experiment after writing about it on the blog it was a lot easier. Looking though others peoples blogs I was also able to realize certain aspects about the experience that I had previously missed. I found myself saying thing like good idea I hadn’t really thought about that various times.

            The blog served as a way to see other management techniques that our specific groups were not involved in. Maybe another group had a different strategy or experience during one of the group activities, though the blog you were able to experience what they experienced without actually being in their group. Through the professors blog he was able to give us additional information about management which I thought was helpful. I was introduced to many terms that I had previously never heard before.

            Overall I feel like the blog was a great and easy way to secure 20% of our grade. It may have required a little more work but it is not as stressful this way then if we would have simply been graded on out tests. The blog seems like it could help bring your grade up a level if everything was done correctly which is great. The only thing I didn’t like about the blogs was that we were forced to blog on at least 3 peoples blogs for every blog. This was very difficult at times because for some blogs there were very few people that blogged and I had to go through various blogs in order to get three. I understand why it was done though, I do not believe I would have checked out as many  blogs as I did other wise and the experience would not have been the same.

            I do not really have plans of continuing the blog only because the only people that look at it are the people in my class, and once the class is over im sure most people wont continue to look at it so I would basically be writing to myself. I believe im more open to class blogging now then I had been before the start of the class however, and actually hope that I have the opportunity to blog in one of my future classes.

My Personality Profile

            Throughout my life I have taken a few personality profile tests and every time im skeptical but surprised by their accurateness. I have never taken this specific test, however, nor was I aware of the fact that companies use tests like these to make important decisions such as appointing a managerial positions. According to the test I was a Dc type, standing for Dominance Conscientious. The D types as described have an emphasis on shaping the environment by overcoming opposition in order to accomplish results. They tend to Welcome challenges, make quick decisions, and basically like taking charge. I believe that out of the four choices this is where I would fall. I usually am not too talkative in situations but when necessary I do like to step up and get things done. I usually come up with solutions and believe that they are the best . This usually comes off as being seen as stubbornness. I have been given a few opportunities to lead in the last and I welcomed them and liked the sense of power given to me through them. Although im happy with being a D I think or would like to think that I have a few traits from each of the other groups such as the power of persuasion typical of the I’s and accuracy of a C. I was a little disappointed when I found out that a D makes a good leader but not as good a manager but ill take leadership.

I believe it is helpful to know a persons management type. In a work environment these types of test can lead to increased productivity by placing employees in strategic positions based on their types. If  you find that D types don’t work well together and delay progress then through this test you will be able to know who is a D type and plan accordingly. If a D type needs to work with a C type in order to provide quick and accurate information then this type of group can also be formed using this test.

The test also could be helpful in other aspects of life such as in a marriage as the professor pointed out. You can see the characteristics of the other types and based on this you can see which type you seem to be most or least compatible with. A test such as this seems like it would help in most personal interactions, and can explain why many people seem to click instantly and why others may not.

We Love to See You Smile

            At first site of the requirements for this extra credit project I was in disbelief. I think I could say with confidence that this was definitely he most creative extra credit project I have been given in my life. Staring at the paper I thought there was no way im going to be able to complete this order, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as well done fries, but I knew I had to at least give it a try. I wasnt willing to give up 10 points of extra credit.

  On November 6 2010 I put McDonalds 1992 slogan of “what you want its what you get” to the test. As a child the mere site of a McDonalds would fill me with joy, this day however there was not even a trace of those feelings, instead they were replaced with feeling of anxiety. I was thinking about how the McDonalds clerk would respond to my bizarre order and already planning on which McDonalds I was going to visit after the manager tells me they could not fulfill my request. Upon entering I first scanned the place and saw which of the clerks I thought would be the best to take my order. I decided to go with the only guy clerk feeling that I would be able to express my order clearer and get a little loud with him if I had too. This ended up being a great decision, I believe I got one of the nicest McDonalds employees ive ever met.

Once it was time to order I began by telling the guy that my order was going to be pretty specific and that I needed everything written on the receipt. Even with this warning I do not believe he was ready for what was to come next. I started with the hamburger with exactly 5 pickles on it stressing that the 5 pickles needed to be shown on the receipt. He then asked “you’re whole order is going to be like that?... 5 pickles?” when I replied yes he told me to give him a few seconds so that he could find out how to write that on the receipt, and told one of the cooks not to prepare the order that comes up until he explains it to them. He went to ask his manager how he could write my order and im guessing he was told to hand  write it on the receipt. I completed my order adding the small fries well done with the side of Big Mac sauce the receipt was printed and he began writing in the missing parts of my order on it. When I noticed this I asked him if there was any way he would be able to get it printed on the receipt because that’s how I needed it. Instead of going back to his manager who I guess he felt was no help he decided to try and figure it out on his own. The only part that seemed to give him trouble was the 5 pickles, which was weird because I would’ve thought that the fries would have been the most unusual part of the order. He came up with the idea of just showing each pickle as “add pickle” and adding “well” to the fries which he said was how they indicate well done, and that seemed fine to me. He then went to go talk to the cook to explain my order to him. I saw him personally place my fries back into the deep fryer for a few more seconds, and make a unique creative holder for m extra big mac sauce using some sort of container and covering it with an upside down soda cud lid.  My order was placed and completed in approximately nine minutes, which is not close to the 58 second wait time displayed on the register but acceptable given the complexities of my order. Upon examination my order was completed correctly and the cashier had completed it without the attitude I had expected, and without even questioning the bizarreness of my order. I sat down and began to eat the well done fries with big mac sauce I had been waiting to give a try.

As a management consultant of this McDonalds I would have a few complaints but would not be completely disappointed with the performance of the employees. The order placed was not a typical one and there were able to satisfy the customer in a time that wasn’t horrible. When dealing with the organization of the McDonalds I would say that they are not prepared sufficiently for an order such as this. The order was able to be completed but in a time that is not typical of a fast food restaurant. It seems the employees are trained to handle the typical orders, and when an order out of the ordinary comes along they choke. The reason for this maybe that in an establishment such as a McDonalds you get many different employees coming and going making it hard to properly train each one of them for every expected event. I was not surprised to see that the employee had never received an order such as mine and expected to wait longer because of it. To correct this problem however I may focus on getting more fulltime workers then the typical high school part time workers. I understand that this may result in increased wages but it will also provide more efficient workers and happier customers.

In the communications field I believe the cashier did an excellent job at expressing what he had to to his manager, the cook, and to me ( the customer). He made sure he understood the order and wrote it exactly as I wanted it, and then made sure it was made accordingly. If there were any complaints in the communications department it would have been with the managers communication with the cashier. The manager didn’t seem to really try and help the cashier or pay as much importance to the issue as she needed to. If I requested the order to be printed on the receipt I do not believe she should’ve taken the easy way out and told him to write it out, but rather took the time and showed him how to correctly print it on the receipt. To correct this problem I believe better training is necessary and better screening for management positions should exist. Its not only about the amount of experience a person has, in an industry such as this experience is nothing without proper communication skills.

I believe overall more training is what was needed to deal with orders such as this. The cashier basically had to come up with a solution to satisfy the customer on the spot, I was lucky that I had gotten this cashier that logically thought through the problem and used what he knew to come up with a solution. I feel with someone else many more complications would have arisen due to this lack of training.

If any one would have been described as a leader in this situation I believe it would have been the cashier. He stepped up to the plate made sure my order was recorded as I requested and then personally made sure my order got  completed as I requested taking it upon himself to prepare my well done fries with a side of big mac sauce. While waiting for my order I had also seen him ask his manager if he would be able to deliver an order to a table of elderly women so that they would be able to sit down instead of having to wait at the counter. I believe leadership is a quality needed in a place like McDonalds. Leadership increases productivity, creates order, and most importantly provides a happier customer. Such drive and desire to go above and beyond requirements is something you don’t really see in a place like McDonalds making me believe that the employee was just starting. All employees should act like he did however especially the manager to set a good example.

 Looking back on this assignment I realize it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a great learning experience, provided me with a good story to tell and how many people can say they’ve eaten well-done fries.

Looking towards the future

After watching the video "The Power of Vision" last week in class I was shown that vision plays a key role in a successful future. Vision in this sense refers to an outlook on the future. I believe this is something a majority of people have whether they realize it or not. Most people have goals for what they want to be in the future and some sort of plan as to how to get there. I personally have a few goals im looking to reach in the future. The first being getting a job in one of the top accounting firms in NY. To accomplish this goal I am currently pursuing an accounting degree at Baruch and trying to get an internship at a top accounting firm that will teach me the skills necessary for a career in this field. Hopefully by building my resume in this way I will achieve this goal shortly after graduation. Hopefully by accomplishing this goal i'll be able to accomplish my next goals of owning a home and car of my own. I believe this is a very common vision, for Americans anyway, and although the prices of homes seem to be rising year by year I am looking to buy one hopefully a couple years after I obtain a full time position. Owning a home seems like it makes more financial sense then renting because instead of losing money every month to rent your investing it. Another goal of mine is to have a family at some point. Im not exactly sure at what stage I want to reach this goal but its definitely after Im financially secure and all of the other goals are in the process of being completed. I believe my goals are pretty common and as you can see they are not very specific. This is because although I know where I want to be in life there are many ways to get there and its important to remember that if one plan fails there are always other plans you could try to achieve your goal. Life has many variables which can affect the time and the manner in which your goals are completed.

Decisions Decisions

After going over the decision making process I was surprised to see how closely the class had unknowingly followed its structure. In our activity the professor had purposely created a decision making conflict, and according to what we learned in class there are a variety of ways in which people behave when dealing with these types of conflicts. I personally believe I followed the compete to win path and tried to get the class to hear my ideas. At first I had tried raising my hand and when I was unable to successfully get the attention of the class I found it necessary to go up to the front to get my point heard. I believe I chose this method because I thought I had an idea which would benefit everyone and wanted the class to hear it. I also guess I wanted to persuade the class to see things my way.  I do not believe I was acting in a selfish manner however I really thought I had a good idea that would help the whole class and one that the class would agree with. Compete to win seemed to be the more popular method within the class. A lot of people were fighting for attention to try and get their views across. A few others followed the route of avoidance, choosing to not partake in the activity because they didn’t see any chance of getting their point across. I do not blame these individuals seeing how the environment made it easy for a person to lose hope. One guys said he had been raising his hand for about 5 minutes before being recognized.  This method is not very productive however. When people decided they were no longer going to take part they basically only agreed to whatever the rest of the class came up with. They felt forced to go along with this choice and didn’t feel like they really got what they wanted. It seemed to have brought a negative vibe to the process. There were also a few people who acted as compromisers, trying to bridge the gap between two extremes to try and satisfy two majority groups at once. I don’t really think too many people followed the accommodation path being that nobody did exceptionally well on the test everyone this decision was one that would affect everyone. Those who let others decide for them I believe would have been practicing avoidance rather then accommodation in this case. Looking back on this activity the method the class should have used, but I did not see too much of, was collaborating. I believe the environment was too disorganized for this to happen and a more authoritative leader would have had to been designated the role. If everyone had stayed calm and spoken one at a time I believe more ideas would have been heard and a greater compromise would have been reached. We could have let everyone that wanted to get an idea across speak and write their idea on the board, and afterwards come up with a way to incorporate the ideas that would help the majority of people. I do not believe it would have ever been possible to get the whole class to be 100% happy with the final decision but at least in this way everybody could feel that there idea was heard and that they played a role in the decision. Overall I was happy with this activity and the results that our class had. I was a little worried at the end when that one girl didn’t raise her hand but it all worked out in the end.

The unbreakable egg

I found this activity to be very entertaining and feel that it helped teach us alot about the planning process. During the experiment it seemed that my group wasnt really as concerned with following the planning process as with getting a good idea together, but looking back I see that we did actually follow a majority of the steps. In regaurd to step one "defining your goal and objectives" our goals and objectives were pretty much laid out by the professor and befor begining the process the goal of the activity was made clear to everyone in the group. As soon as the time began we had a working idea and we continued to work on that idea in order to make the most efficient apparatus possible. We came up with the idea of letting out apparatus hang from the strip of tape pretty early and spent a great deal of time planning out the container part in which the egg would be held. We didnt really state all of our stregnth as stated in group two but they somehow managed to come out. One member began explaining the physics behind the design we should make another more artistic member took the role of drawing out the apparatus, one took the role of engineer, another a leadership role etc. During the planning process step 3 was definately met, having at least 3 alternate models for the egg holding device. We went over each device judging it based on how much impact it would be able to absorb, how well it would hold the egg ect and choose the final design accordingly. We then began considering how we would make this structure keeping in mind that we wanted a majority of the tabe to be left over. This would count as step 4, analyzing the alternatives. Once the planning time was over and it was time to start building we began step 5 and quickly got to work on our plan. The time went by pretty quick but we got everything done on time, or so we thought and we were pretty happy with our design. Then it was time to test it. Our design was one of two that actually ended in a sucess and didnt crack the egg however we had one major flaw... we forgot to write our names on the paper disqualifying us from the competiton and teaching us one valuable lesson, pay attention to detail. We were so caught up in designing the model that we failed to pay attention to the smaller details such as writting our name on the paper. In the future I believe if we have someone specifically there to ensure that we follow all of the steps and stay on track things will go alot smoother. We had good team dynamics and I beleive after learning from this mistake our team will preform much better in the future.