I hear that when I am in management I can't be a gentlemen;
If I am one, then I would be stressing over some settlement.
But I learn that management also deals with collaboration;
Even going to McDonal can give me some inpiration.
Dream about that French Fries makes my mouth feel so dry;
Thow me a jello soda now may make you look very bright.
At the end, I walk out with an empty can in my hand;
That feeling of satifaction is almost beyond what I can comprehend.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Archer
As a result, I got the C-S combination for the Personal Profile test. I think the test is very accurate in gauging my management orientation. Both conscientiousness and steadiness well describe me as a member of a team and as an individual.
It's true that I am an analytically and accurate person. However, that doesn't mean I am resistant to taking risks. Under certain circumstances, when I am confident of myself, I would strike towards the goal. Basically, I like to stand behind people, analyze the situation, and take action only when there is a good chance. Conducting the profile test in companies would help prevent personality crashes, and make better teams. Some people may perceive me as being cowardly, but I see myself as being a clever person. Therefore, a D-person would probably not work well with me in a team, since I don't like to take risk immediately.
I am trying to work myself towards the "I" sphere in management. Sometimes I do feel the need to initiate action early and create a motivational environment. I think I am an I-person only when I work with the people I know in a team, but not in an environment full of strangers. This is something I will need to improve in the future.
It's true that I am an analytically and accurate person. However, that doesn't mean I am resistant to taking risks. Under certain circumstances, when I am confident of myself, I would strike towards the goal. Basically, I like to stand behind people, analyze the situation, and take action only when there is a good chance. Conducting the profile test in companies would help prevent personality crashes, and make better teams. Some people may perceive me as being cowardly, but I see myself as being a clever person. Therefore, a D-person would probably not work well with me in a team, since I don't like to take risk immediately.
I am trying to work myself towards the "I" sphere in management. Sometimes I do feel the need to initiate action early and create a motivational environment. I think I am an I-person only when I work with the people I know in a team, but not in an environment full of strangers. This is something I will need to improve in the future.
BLOG
Blogging is an effective communication device for our management class, mainly because of its availability that we can access Blogspot at any time, any where outside of class session. Aside from that, what we wrote on blogs are based on primary experience(class activities), rather than what's stated in textbooks. I believe this style of learning will lead the change in future education.
The blogging system creates a platform for people to speak out their opinions, without any fear of being emotionally awkward. Our class is very diverse, and people definitely have different views on management due to cultural differences. Through reading others' blogs, we as a class can understand more of each other. We may learn something that we don't see on textbooks, like the things on Prof K's blog. And it's more interesting to learn from people (the living), than the textbook (the dead).
20% grade on the blogging assignments is a fair policy. However, it doesn't offset my test anxieties much since there is still a large portion of my grade based on my test performance. I would recommend to have one of the blog assignments to be optional,or make one of the blogging assignments to allow people to write in their own languages. So people can have a little flexibility in managing their blogs/grades.
I will continue to post my thoughts on my blog in the future. This is something I started and worked on, and of course I will utilize it to gain the best out of it.
The blogging system creates a platform for people to speak out their opinions, without any fear of being emotionally awkward. Our class is very diverse, and people definitely have different views on management due to cultural differences. Through reading others' blogs, we as a class can understand more of each other. We may learn something that we don't see on textbooks, like the things on Prof K's blog. And it's more interesting to learn from people (the living), than the textbook (the dead).
20% grade on the blogging assignments is a fair policy. However, it doesn't offset my test anxieties much since there is still a large portion of my grade based on my test performance. I would recommend to have one of the blog assignments to be optional,or make one of the blogging assignments to allow people to write in their own languages. So people can have a little flexibility in managing their blogs/grades.
I will continue to post my thoughts on my blog in the future. This is something I started and worked on, and of course I will utilize it to gain the best out of it.
Monday, April 26, 2010
MD Experiment
I first thought this extra credit assignment is impossible to accomplish since the worded instructions specifically stated that the receipt has to reflect the four extra pickles and well done no salt fries. I expected that the ordering machine would not have the ability to make such unique custom order, unless it supports custom typing on the order. And therefore this custom order would not show on the screen of the list of food to be made in the kitchen. Definitely this task had created a conflict to the McDonald employees, but their flexibility in management surprised me, that they treated their customer on high priority by satisfying all my requests.
The McDonald I went is located near a train station in Queens. When I came in I saw four cashiers handling orders. Every employee there dressed in a red shirt except for one of the cashiers, who wore a grey color one. I figured he was the manager of this McDonald team. I decided to let him take my order because I thought he probably had the highest authority and he would make this task easier. First I made sure that he could print out the receipt, and then I went on with placing my special order. I emphasized that I wanted a hamburger with exactly four pickles on it and a well done no salt small French Fries, and the receipt stating this exact order. The guy didn’t question me that he seemed to have taken such unique order before, and he quickly placed the order on the machine in a few seconds. He pointed to the fries cooking station and told me he would make the fries himself to make sure it’s well done and no salt. He picked up one set of the oiling fries to show me that it has been cooking for a while already. Then he put it back in the oil and went to tell the burger making employee to place exactly four pickles on my hamburger. After three minutes, he came back with my order, but the receipt only stated one extra pickle on hamburger and the well done no salt condition on the French Fries was never mentioned. I was initially dissatisfied that he almost completely ignored my second request in this order. He said he couldn’t print out what’s not a selection on the machine. However, I got him validate this special order by asking him to make changes on the receipt and sign it. He promptly accepted my request and make changes to show my special order on the receipt. Lastly, I sat down with my food, opened my hamburger I saw four pickles and tasted one of the fries. The fry was hard and no salt was added. The McDonald team had successfully completed my special order in as quickly as four, or five minutes.
The McDonald team was effective in managing my order that they were willing to satisfy my requests without giving any negative attitude. Based on their prompt reactions to my order, they appeared to be experienced in handling irrational situations. The manager who took my order clearly knows how to get this special order done, mainly because of his knowledge of the workplace and different divisions of workers. Although not many people request print out receipt in McDonald, I still recommend McDonald to add a function to make custom receipt on the ordering machine, just for customers who needs a receipt for reporting their expenses. Instead of manually hand writing/revising the receipt, the McDonald staff could get this special request done much more professional on the ordering machine.
The McDonald I went is located near a train station in Queens. When I came in I saw four cashiers handling orders. Every employee there dressed in a red shirt except for one of the cashiers, who wore a grey color one. I figured he was the manager of this McDonald team. I decided to let him take my order because I thought he probably had the highest authority and he would make this task easier. First I made sure that he could print out the receipt, and then I went on with placing my special order. I emphasized that I wanted a hamburger with exactly four pickles on it and a well done no salt small French Fries, and the receipt stating this exact order. The guy didn’t question me that he seemed to have taken such unique order before, and he quickly placed the order on the machine in a few seconds. He pointed to the fries cooking station and told me he would make the fries himself to make sure it’s well done and no salt. He picked up one set of the oiling fries to show me that it has been cooking for a while already. Then he put it back in the oil and went to tell the burger making employee to place exactly four pickles on my hamburger. After three minutes, he came back with my order, but the receipt only stated one extra pickle on hamburger and the well done no salt condition on the French Fries was never mentioned. I was initially dissatisfied that he almost completely ignored my second request in this order. He said he couldn’t print out what’s not a selection on the machine. However, I got him validate this special order by asking him to make changes on the receipt and sign it. He promptly accepted my request and make changes to show my special order on the receipt. Lastly, I sat down with my food, opened my hamburger I saw four pickles and tasted one of the fries. The fry was hard and no salt was added. The McDonald team had successfully completed my special order in as quickly as four, or five minutes.
The McDonald team was effective in managing my order that they were willing to satisfy my requests without giving any negative attitude. Based on their prompt reactions to my order, they appeared to be experienced in handling irrational situations. The manager who took my order clearly knows how to get this special order done, mainly because of his knowledge of the workplace and different divisions of workers. Although not many people request print out receipt in McDonald, I still recommend McDonald to add a function to make custom receipt on the ordering machine, just for customers who needs a receipt for reporting their expenses. Instead of manually hand writing/revising the receipt, the McDonald staff could get this special request done much more professional on the ordering machine.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Visible Dreams
The video we saw in class is very inspiring. Some of the things said in the video are quite applicable to my own life. I agree, that having a vision is one of the significant factors to drive a person to success. Myself as a Baruch student do have my own visions, and I am being motivated to work hard by my personal desire to turn my visions into reality.
Here is a quick list of things I want to accomplish in the future:
1. Study abroad in Korea for at least one semester
2. Live and work in Asia after I graduate
3. Open my own business that sells Asian culture goods (clothes, food, chopsticks, daily use products)
The first two goals seem to be pre-goals to the last one, but I see them as individual goals/steps that I want to go through in achieving a successful life. First, studying abroad is the closest thing I can accomplish from now. I am completing all the pre-business classes this semester, and I will apply for Zicklin Business soon. Possibly next semester in fall I will apply for studying abroad. Based on my good academic standing, I should get approved.
The second thing in my mind is that I want to go back to Asia, live and work there. I haven't visit my hometown for almost 7 years. I miss my relatives and friends, especially my grandma who is almost 90 years old and wants to see the kid she raised. The best time to do that would be after I graduate from school, when I can spend several years in Asia. Now I am trying to get in contact with my friends in China and plan to visit China next year.
I also want to open my own business after several years of working. Hopefully I will have investment and expertise to maintain a business. Business in my own opinion is about trading, and trading always involves more than one person. Friends is one of the most important factors in helping me to accomplish this goal. I will continue to establish relationships with people, either from work or school, to enlarge my sphere of friends.
All these visions bring energy to my life. They are the visions of my destinations in life.
Here is a quick list of things I want to accomplish in the future:
1. Study abroad in Korea for at least one semester
2. Live and work in Asia after I graduate
3. Open my own business that sells Asian culture goods (clothes, food, chopsticks, daily use products)
The first two goals seem to be pre-goals to the last one, but I see them as individual goals/steps that I want to go through in achieving a successful life. First, studying abroad is the closest thing I can accomplish from now. I am completing all the pre-business classes this semester, and I will apply for Zicklin Business soon. Possibly next semester in fall I will apply for studying abroad. Based on my good academic standing, I should get approved.
The second thing in my mind is that I want to go back to Asia, live and work there. I haven't visit my hometown for almost 7 years. I miss my relatives and friends, especially my grandma who is almost 90 years old and wants to see the kid she raised. The best time to do that would be after I graduate from school, when I can spend several years in Asia. Now I am trying to get in contact with my friends in China and plan to visit China next year.
I also want to open my own business after several years of working. Hopefully I will have investment and expertise to maintain a business. Business in my own opinion is about trading, and trading always involves more than one person. Friends is one of the most important factors in helping me to accomplish this goal. I will continue to establish relationships with people, either from work or school, to enlarge my sphere of friends.
All these visions bring energy to my life. They are the visions of my destinations in life.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Conflict In A House Of Opinions
I think the decision making process was quite chaotic, mainly because of the fact that many people were competing to win, rather than collaborating among group. The leader who stood up in front of the class had to say "guys, just raise your hands and I will get to you" multiple times throughout this process, which it made me feel that the class wasn't acting calmly and the chance of getting a decision made was slim. I personally think all the suggestions listed were good and workable for improving my grade. I didn't have any special preference so I just accommodate with others in the class. I think it was the best thing I could do to help the class to make a 100% agreed decision.
At the end we did come up with a good decision, but we left the final exam to the discretion of Prof K which I think we didn't successfully handle the conflict well. If we broke into groups just like someone suggested in class, we would handle this problem a lot more effectively. Everyone would share his/her insights and come up with a decision as a group. The range of ideas would get filtered, leaving the best ideas on the board. Then everyone could collaborate on those ideas to make a universal decision for the class.
At the end we did come up with a good decision, but we left the final exam to the discretion of Prof K which I think we didn't successfully handle the conflict well. If we broke into groups just like someone suggested in class, we would handle this problem a lot more effectively. Everyone would share his/her insights and come up with a decision as a group. The range of ideas would get filtered, leaving the best ideas on the board. Then everyone could collaborate on those ideas to make a universal decision for the class.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Easy? Nah...
I did a similar egg drop project in high school and I thought it would be easy to "re-do" the project in Prof K's exercise. However, this time I was doing it with a team of people and there were many limitations. These factors made this exercise more difficult than it seemed.
First, Prof K posted the goals and objectives of this exercise on the projector. So we all knew that we had 20 minutes to plan how to make a protector for the egg with 8 straws, 2 feet of tape, and 1 pair of scissor shared among all groups, and 10 minutes to execute the plan. The egg also had to be 50% visible.
Then we proceed to Step 2 in "Planning Process," which we all knew the materials given to make the protector, but we didn't know the actual length and size of the straws, and size of the egg. I also told my group that I had done this before, then we went straight onto developing strategies.
In the 3rd Step, we came up with 3 alternative strategies. The first idea was to attach the tape with the egg so that when we release the egg it would be dropping from a shorter height than it suppose to be. But we figured out the tape was not long enough to make this plan workable. The second idea was to make a cushion-like protector to protect the bottom of the egg while the top is still 50% visible. However, the egg would break if the top hits the floor first, therefore there was a risk factor. My idea was to wrap around the egg with straws in different directions, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Therefore the egg would become a pointy ball. We were concerned about the 50% visible rule in this idea, since we didn't know the actual thickness of the straw. In Step 4, we decided to go with the cushion-like protector. We didn't assign any specific jobs and roles though. We waited until actual implementation of the plan to see the materials and decide from there.
Finally we got the egg, straws and tape, but not the scissor. The straws were thinner and weaker than we expected. We decided to fold the straws in half and make a nest-like cushion and put the egg on top of it. We also figured out we could put some straws on the top of the egg, just for in case the top hits the floor. So one person held the egg and we all helped him out by bending the straws and passing the tape to him. At the end we successful made a strong V-shape protector for the bottom and a few straws for the top.
Sadly, our egg broke, even though I thought the protector we made was pretty good. The main problem I figured out was that the sides were not protected. The egg was way weaker than it seemed, and very little force was needed to crack its shell. Even if the bottom of the egg hit the floor first, it would bounce to the side and break the shell. It would be more effective if we planned to wrap around the sides with V shaped straws, instead of just focusing on the top and bottom. In overall performance, I still think we did a good job in this exercise. We just didn't aware/had no knowledge of the weakness of the side of the egg. Besides that, we worked as a team, shared our ideas, and engaged in this activity.
First, Prof K posted the goals and objectives of this exercise on the projector. So we all knew that we had 20 minutes to plan how to make a protector for the egg with 8 straws, 2 feet of tape, and 1 pair of scissor shared among all groups, and 10 minutes to execute the plan. The egg also had to be 50% visible.
Then we proceed to Step 2 in "Planning Process," which we all knew the materials given to make the protector, but we didn't know the actual length and size of the straws, and size of the egg. I also told my group that I had done this before, then we went straight onto developing strategies.
In the 3rd Step, we came up with 3 alternative strategies. The first idea was to attach the tape with the egg so that when we release the egg it would be dropping from a shorter height than it suppose to be. But we figured out the tape was not long enough to make this plan workable. The second idea was to make a cushion-like protector to protect the bottom of the egg while the top is still 50% visible. However, the egg would break if the top hits the floor first, therefore there was a risk factor. My idea was to wrap around the egg with straws in different directions, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Therefore the egg would become a pointy ball. We were concerned about the 50% visible rule in this idea, since we didn't know the actual thickness of the straw. In Step 4, we decided to go with the cushion-like protector. We didn't assign any specific jobs and roles though. We waited until actual implementation of the plan to see the materials and decide from there.
Finally we got the egg, straws and tape, but not the scissor. The straws were thinner and weaker than we expected. We decided to fold the straws in half and make a nest-like cushion and put the egg on top of it. We also figured out we could put some straws on the top of the egg, just for in case the top hits the floor. So one person held the egg and we all helped him out by bending the straws and passing the tape to him. At the end we successful made a strong V-shape protector for the bottom and a few straws for the top.
Sadly, our egg broke, even though I thought the protector we made was pretty good. The main problem I figured out was that the sides were not protected. The egg was way weaker than it seemed, and very little force was needed to crack its shell. Even if the bottom of the egg hit the floor first, it would bounce to the side and break the shell. It would be more effective if we planned to wrap around the sides with V shaped straws, instead of just focusing on the top and bottom. In overall performance, I still think we did a good job in this exercise. We just didn't aware/had no knowledge of the weakness of the side of the egg. Besides that, we worked as a team, shared our ideas, and engaged in this activity.
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