Communicating via Blog

Communication is an art and has lots of varieties of means. Communication via a blog was a new tool for me, which I was first presented and had to learn because it was part of the class requirements. This part of the class requirement seems very attractive to me for many reasons.
Firstly, it’s interesting and unique. Usually, writing assignments are very formal and required to be done in the traditional way: three, five, seven, or more pages of a research, essay, or other project, to be done so and so, following the traditional format. The blog assignment had different requirements and I felt that the professor expected us to be more creative and to concentrate rather on the communication, new ideas, and feedback than on the format.
Secondly, it presented us with new skills of communication and technology. Although I read other blogs before, I didn’t participate in responding or creating my own blog. I felt a little uncomfortable and scared using it, because I didn’t know how blog worked. This class made me comfortable and confident using blog. I’ve got some experience in using it, and feel that it’s a big plus to my other knowledge that I am receiving in this college.
Thirdly, I feel that it helped the students in the class to feel a part of the big group and to be able to express their ideas as well as to respond to other students’ ideas. It created a friendly and cooperative atmosphere in the class. After replying or getting a reply to a blog entry, I felt like I got to know students better.
Fourthly, it helped me to understand better some activities that were performed in the class. For example, when we wrote a blog about four personality types, I could relate to other students’ opinions or could see that they felt the same way as I did. When their opinions differed from mine, it made me critically think over my opinions, which was very productive.
I definitely think that blog has been a very good and interesting experience. I’d like to thank Professor Kurpis for making it part of the learning experience and believe that other students benefited from this unique learning tool. I am very satisfied with the way this assignment is organized and believe that it should remain as a component of this class. Not that I feel it needs any improvement, but just to contribute with a new idea, I would make one or a couple assignments based on the group work. Instead of answering to any three or five students, I would suggest to group students in 5 or 6 as teams, and ask them to communicate on a topic or a problem, discussing it on the blog, and to come up with a group decision.

McDonald's experience

I don’t usually go to McDonald, but decided to go this time because of the extra-credit assignment and extra experience, which was a unique one. I knew that I needed to place a special order and didn’t know what to anticipate: how I would be treated, what would be the reaction of the staff, how long it would take to be there, would I have to ask them to do over or correct the order. I entered McDonald’s and joined the line waiting to order. When my turn came and a guy, who was taking orders, said “Who’s next?” I came up and wanted to be very clear. So, I told him that I had a special order and wanted to make sure that it would be done just as I requested. I pronounced my special order: “a small hamburger with exactly four pickles on it, ”stressing the word “exactly” and repeating that I wanted it to be reflected in my receipt. The guy looked at me very carefully, entered the order into machine and was going to leave. I said that it wasn’t all yet and I wanted to order something else. He said that he would be back. I saw him going to the kitchen area and telling them something in a soft voice, so I wasn’t able to hear what he was telling, but it wasn’t like usual “do this or this.” He came back and asked me to repeat, I repeated it. He looked at me carefully, then left the counter again, and went to the kitchen area. When he came back, I continued my order: “A well done French fries and no salt,” stressing again that It was important that he would do exactly as I wanted. He excused himself, left the counter and went to the kitchen area. I saw him giving the order to the staff and explaining something. They looked at each other and at me, and started making fries, although I saw that they had some ready. When the guy came back again, I stressed out that I wanted the details of my order to be shown on the receipt. Then he asked a girl who was serving other customer, where was the manager. He left the counter again, and soon came back with the manager. The manager looked at me, then went to the kitchen area, and said something to the staff. She came back, looked at me again, and was going to ask or say something. She cleared the entries in the machine, and started entering my special order, while the guy, who served me, was carefully looking at the monitor. Soon they brought my order, I checked it. They were watching me a little suspiciously. I thanked them and left the McDonald’s. I felt that I brought some disorientation in their organized routine production. The guy seemed not being able to complete my order at one time and had to stop a few times. It took a little longer that it usually takes to complete an order – about 15 min. The staff, though, was very patient and polite.
Watching the process, I noticed that each individual had his or her narrow duties. As soon as the order exceeded even a little the frame of one’s duties, the personnel didn’t look that skilled and confident. The guy wasn’t able to put the whole order at ones: he was confused and I had to repeat him a few times before he was able to enter it somehow in the machine, although later his manager had to reenter it. I wasn’t able to watch very well the process and reaction of the kitchen staff, but it took them extra time to complete the order. Despite some hassle I brought in their more or less routine process, the customer service was good. I cannot complain. If I had to make some recommendation to McDonald’s concerning handling special orders, I would suggest that the staff should feel more independent in completing special orders and be trained to act more creatively. I understand that to make it happen, the staff has to take additional training, and this could affect prices. So, my suggestion would be that there was a trained person at the counter, as well as someone in the kitchen area, who would be able to handle special orders like mine. I would also put an encouraging logo like “Even if your taste is very different, we will be happy to process your special order.” These orders could cost extra money, but they might also attract new customers.

D I S C

The test result showed that I’m type C & I. This was very close, although I think that I also have some qualities of the type S; the test showed it very low. When doing the test, I noticed that sometimes I struggled, which characteristic to choose because two or sometimes three matched me, but at another time, none would match, and I had difficulties picking up the one that would describe me accurately. Anyway, I like these kinds of tests and used to test myself a lot. This helped me understand myself better as well as the others. I believe that depending on the situation, I can change and be more of other type. In survival situation, which we discussed in class, I would prefer to have a leader of type C, who could be able to analyze the situation carefully, weighing pros and cons, and would make a right decision. I believe that all types are good and valuable, depending on the situation. I like my type, but greatly value other types as well.

The Power of a Vision

I believe that a vision has a strong power to our actions. Vision helps survive, vision helps endure hardships, it moves a person or events when something seems unrealistic ally hard to carry out or achieve. It empowers… I believe that without a vision a person has no direction. It’s a blueprint, which a person has in his or her mind and steadily follows it. It helps a person to be more confident and firm in his or her actions. People, who achieved big thing in their lives, had strong visions. The stronger the vision, the higher can be the achievement of the goal.

I have some visions about my professional and private life. Maybe they are not too high, but I try to be realistic. I am going to share two of my visions. My vision for my professional life is to graduate and get a good job in a financial company or a bank. I am a positive thinker, so I believe that the economic situation will improve soon, and I will be able to get a well-paid and satisfying job, which will allow me to grow. For this, I have to study well and to try to get good knowledge and skills as well as good GPA. So, I am on the road to it.
I have another vision, and it is a humanitarian one. I believe that people should not only look for their own benefits, but also think about giving to those who are in need and bring a drop of happiness in the world. To me, the most vulnerable people are children, the sick, and elderly people. I have a vision to do something for children, who have no parents. I think of starting with sponsoring a small orphanage or at least some programs, in a poor country, and if I will be able to raise money, maybe I will be able to sponsor a bigger orphanage. I had a small experience in doing it, and it felt great when I saw that I could make a difference in someone’s lives at least for some moments. To achieve this, I’d need to 1) decide what orphanage to sponsor, 2) contact people in charge of the place, 3) put aside the sum of money I’d like to contribute, 4) involve my friends in the project to raise more money or to participate in some other ways, 5) find out about the biggest needs and bring the project, which would help to satisfy at least some of those needs. I’d like to start with small realistic contribution and try to grow.

These are two of some of my visions. I believe that everything is possible if one has a vision, which is good, big, and if the person takes actions.

Decision Making

Decision making can be a hard task, whether it is made by an individual or by a group of people, especially if the group is large like our class. People approach and act differently to making a decision. Decision making can be frustrating, it can lead people to withdraw or disengage, it can prone to self-serving behavior, it can be challenging under time constraints and uncertainty, it can require people to think deeply about problems, it can require an interplay between leader and group.

In our case, I think that all these components of decision making were involved. Because our group is large, there were very many different opinions. I believe that those students who did the best on some sections, wanted to retain those kinds of assignments and to eliminate the assignments that were the most challenging for them, whereas other students wanted to keep those “challenging” assignments because they were good at doing them. Some students were more active than the other, and some simply withdrew. I didn’t actively participate because there were too many voices and I didn’t want to add up one more voice to already very active discussion. Besides, I agreed with some thoughts that were already expressed.

I liked the fact that many students remembered ethical norms in offering changes and didn’t want to take an advantage of the offered right to make changes to the next tests. I think that the most challenging task in our decision making was to handle a big number of various and sometimes even controversial proposals of the huge group and to come to some mutual decision. The student who facilitated the process did very well, to my mind. As another way to handle asimilar discussion, I would suggest to break the group in smaller groups and to ask each group to come up with a number of suggestions. Then, to accept the most popular and reasonable suggestions. This would allow more people to participate and have their voices heard. I believe that it would also make the process smoother.

Egg-Cellent Management

How to through an egg from an arm's distance and not to crack it? Our group didn't manage this assignment... and the egg cracked! To analyze what went wrong, we received another assignment to identify each steps and how we did it.

Step 1. Define your goals and objectives. Our group was not bad at this. We understood our task - the egg shouldn't get cracked. We spoke about various ways of protecting it from the impact and cracking. Our group, though, had a few opinions and by the end when we were pressed by time, we didn't choose the best set of offered actions. In this case, I think, we needed to have one leader, who would be responsible for the project.

Step 2. Determine your resources and current status vis-à-vis objectives. Our group understood very well that we had limited resources at our hands to cope with the assignment. It was a little stressful to understand the limitation of time and resources, and we valued any opinion. We also tried to plan how we could efficiently use our resources.

Step 3. Develop several alternative strategies. We discussed what might happen and tried to improve every idea.

Step 4. Make a tactical plan. The roles were allocated to every member of the team and everyone was very helpful and tried to do his/her best.

Step 5. Implement the plan and evaluate the results. I believe, this was our weakest part. Because we had very little time left, we started panicking and actually didn’t have time to complete what we wanted to do.

Even though we didn’t do the assignment successfully, I believe, we had a good experience of working as a team and listen to and value different opinions, to respect other member’s opinion, and think critically.

Management experience

I am going to share my recent experience of managing and will be happy to get your advice. In the company where I work, when our manager is absent for some reasons then her assistant is in charge. And when it happens that they both have to be absent then I am the next one who is in charge. Last and this week I’ve been experiencing “managing,” as I’ve been in charge during this time. On the one hand I like my co-workers and I am on good and friendly terms with them and want to stay that way. But I am also a responsible employee and try to do my best at work. During this “managing” time, I noticed that one of my co-workers and a friend was a little “idling” and at first I didn’t do anything hoping she would understand. But then I asked her which I believe was in a nice, not official manner, more like to a friend, suggesting that may be she should work on something that she had to do. She got offended and was trying to avoid me the rest of the day. I actually tried to protect her as well as myself because there is someone in the office who always “reports” on someone. I thought it would be fair to tell her personally rather than pretend that I didn’t see anything but to say about this to the manager. I hate lying and I don’t do it well. I didn’t feel that I was lying when my manager called later asking how the things were going on, and I told her that everything was good and everyone was working well. I could say it because it was actually so. Did I act right or what was a better choice to do in such a situation?

About me

Hello and welcome to my blog. This is my first experience in blogging. I feel it’s going to be a fascinated one. My name is Eugenia and I’m originally from Russia. My family and my friends call me Jenya, so feel free to call me this way. I am majoring in Finance and Investment at Baruch. This is my second college. I have a degree in linguistics and education in Russia, and decided to change my career for one in a business field. I’ve always loved math even when I was a child. Math was part of my games; I “played math” not “studied.” I love classical music, reading, and many other things but now I don’t have much time for hobbies because work and school takes much of my time. I feel that this class can become one of my hobbies because it’s very interesting.