So You Think You Can Manage.

Browsing the web one day, I came across an interesting article on msn.com that seemed to really showcase the reality of what goes on in the workforce. Not necessarily awful working conditions and things like that, but more in the sense of the people who have themselves on the highest pedestal there is while being as oblivious as somebody can be regarding what they can do or have done. We've all had to share an office with them, probably have had to be bossed around by them more than we would've liked and as if the raised eyebrows and stifled urges to tell them off aren't enough of a giveaway, they still continue to insist they do everything right and 'flaw' is just another word to describe the little people with which they have absolutely nothing in common. Reading point by point, I came to see that everything illustrated in the course can be found within this very article as they list the components of bettering your boss-self or simply improving on already-good qualities if you haven't landed on somebody's hitlist just yet:

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12 Traits of a great boss,
By Rachel Farrell, Special to CareerBuilder


For many people, a cardinal sin is thinking they're perfect. Job seekers think they're not making any job-search mistakes. Employees "always" do the best they can. And bosses are always great.


Right.


Unfortunately, in real life, nobody's perfect -- not even you, Mr. Boss Man. In fact, many bosses assume they're doing a good job at managing their employees when the opposite is the reality.

"Such situations occur frequently, quite simply because the boss does not have accurate feedback," says Sandra Naiman, author of "The High Achiever's Secret Codebook: The Unwritten Rules for Success at Work." "Often, employees don't tell him or her what they really think."

In reality, being a good boss isn't as easy as it sounds. Just because you're the boss doesn't mean that you can tell people what to do and they'll do it, Naiman says. And even if they do, that doesn't make you a good boss.

"The role is really one of supporting and motivating people to do a good job. This means you have to understand what motivates people, be constantly available to them, be a role model and adjust your style to suit each individual direct report," she says.


Here are 12 things that good bosses do, according to Naiman and Vicki Salemi, author of "Big Career in the Big City."

1. Ask employees how you can best support them in doing their job. "This ensures that you are doing your best job to help your employees do theirs," Naiman says.

- Straight from the textbook's pages, a manager is defined as "somebody who directly supervises, supports, & helps activate work efforts to achieve performance goals of individuals, teams and an entire org." If a manager isn't supporting, they shouldn't be managing, the end. They want good results? Show some good and support.



2. Make sure that employees have all the information, resources and support they need to do their job. "It also demonstrates that you see yourself as [being] there to support them," Naiman adds.

- Nobody should sit there and expect his or her employees to have a magic stash of information and resources hidden in an adjacent filing cabinet. If they give them what they need, they'll give the bossman/bosslady what they want. Give them nothing and they're getting nothing in return. Plain and simple. Be there or be square. Be nice or they're not going to be.

3. Give continuous feedback, both positive and constructive. "This helps the employee develop [professionally] and avoids surprises during performance reviews," Naiman says.

-This aspect of sufficient management seems as though it should almost go unsaid. If the manager's employees don't know how their work is coming along, how in the world would they know where they're headed? If they're coming along fine, they should be told. If they're not showing as good of results as the manager would like to see taking place so that the organization maintains its efficient way of business, the employees need to be told or everything's going nowhere fast. Managers of the world, communication is key. Learn it. Love it.

4. Provide opportunities for professional growth. "This lets employees know that you are in their corner," Naiman says.

- Something awful that tends to showcase in many companies is a manager giving their employee that silent implication that a desk-job is all they're good for. Dear manager, let your employees grow. They wouldn't be working for you if they didn't have something good going on upstairs so let them show you what they've got, let them shine. An employee deserves to know that they're good for plenty and with a bigger responsibility comes more confidence which then radiates onto the company in the best way. Happy employees who actually want to work = good.

5. Don't let employees know of your own job concerns or challenges or problems in your personal life. "This prevents employees from feeling that they have to take care of their boss," Naiman says. "A good boss is perceived as competent and there to support his or her employees."

- It's something i've heard from the very beginning of my start of any internships I've taken: leave your problems at the door. That's not to say that an office is no place for a little sympathetic-esque mannerisms but as somebody in charge of managing an entire organization, a manager needs to excel in the art of composure and managing himself/herself before walking through that office door and calling shots. They need to be the stable base of the organization, no wobbly woe-is-me business because the poor employees who have problems of their own won't know what to do with themselves.

6. Create trust. "A good boss is a trusted boss. So, keep promises, follow through on commitments [and] never betray a confidence or talk about others in the organization, except in a favorable way," Naiman says.

- The way i see it, there's nothing worse than working for somebody you can't trust. In a friendship, trust is crucial. In a relationship, trust can determine all. At work, trust can very well be the distinguishing factor of whether employees will actually devote themselves fully to the job or not. Maybe their efforts won't be in a state of flux (or maybe they will) but a manager with a history of lying or breaking promises employees hoped they had an intention of keeping can very well find themselves in situations where all of their subordinates turn against them completely because employees see that they're in the hands of somebody unreliable and untrustworthy. It all comes down to work ethics and general morals: "don't do anything to somebody you wouldn't want somebody to do to you." Even the smallest of white lies is capable of spreading and infecting the entire organization.

7. Show compassion. "Treat employees like they're people. Not employees, but people. If one of your direct reports had a death in the family or even a bad day, be human and compassionate," Salemi says.

-"It's nothing personal, it's just business." That line needs to come with a pamphlet describing when it can and cannot be used. Friends of mine have told me of instances where they needed to immediately take off at least a few days from work for a family emergency yet her boss refused to let any of her story stick, letting it swim straight into one ear and out the other and sent her on her way with a direct claim that he needed her there to make sure business didn't falter. Even the most stern and rigid of managers must have some sort of compassionate bone in their body; if not, that's where the 'lack of respect' comes into play and once a manager's reputation has been tainted with the horrible stench of somebody without a heart who disrespects such personal needs of an employee, it'll take alot more than an apology to get the stain out.

8. Listen. "One of the best traits of a boss is someone who not only goes to the wall for their employees but who also listens to them," Salemi says. "Sometimes team members just need to vent and get things off their chest. A good boss will listen."

-A manager has two ears for a reason and should be utilizing them in the best possible way so that employees find themselves in an environment encouraging open communication. Not to say that tips on insider-trading should be disclosed freely left and right but if an employee is suffering from something that acts as an impairment to their daily functioning at work, at home, etc, a manager shouldn't just be that figure of authority around the place, but rather, a friend, somebody to talk to. Somebody who doesn't judge and knows that every employee is human and thus, bound to have a bad day.

9. Give frequent feedback. "Instead of waiting until an annual performance review to give feedback -- good or bad -- a sign of an excellent boss is proactive behavior," Salemi says. "A fantastic boss will get the most out of his or her employees. Giving positive feedback and acknowledging a job well-done often results in more good work."

- I mentioned it briefly just prior and figured I'd emphasize once more on how crucial any kind of feedback is. An employee wants to know that they're on the right track and if they're not, they want to be re-situated until they are. With that said, everything an employee contributes to the organization should ellicit some form of feedback - positive or negative- from the bossman or bosslady and there should be no later sign of 'Well I had no idea this wasn't coming along the way he/she would've wanted it'..Managers, be proactive, join the party, give your input and expect a better output.

10. Understand your employees' jobs. When you don't completely understand what your employees do or how they do it, it's more difficult to help them navigate their job if they need more resources, Salemi says. "Plus, a good boss should go to bat for his or her employees. If they don't understand the magnitude of their direct reports' job responsibilities, this may be harder to do or convince the higher-ups of their worth."

- This is kind of brought back to the listening aspect of what a good boss should provide for his company. If there is no common ground between employer and employee and there is no open realm of communication to grasp some sort knowledge on both parts, there really is bound to be nothing at all. Not necessarily an implication that a manager should be able to spit back every nook and cranny about his worker's doings in the office, but some sort of understanding as to what the employee may need or find helpful to maintain good performance progress surely shouldn't be any kind of rocket science. This could ultimately transition back into the feedback-element: if a boss really doesn't put forth a great effort in learning what it is that his workers entail to keep up with good work, he can't reiterate what it is that they need to work on or maintain.

11. Live and breathe by the company rules. If you show up late, take long lunches or are not available at certain periods throughout the day, people notice, Salemi says. "Rules aren't just for direct reports to abide by. A good boss will know that their behavior is to be emulated," she says. "If the rules don't apply to them, who should they apply to? A true leader takes this very seriously."

- Something that should be set in stone in every single organization: exhibit A. From what I've encountered or have heard of, bosses seem to be under the impression that since they make the rules, they're exempt from following them. Dream on. A manager is just as responsible for following corporate policy as is every other employee-Jane and Joe, and may as well just climb down from their high-horse now before things get any more out of hand. Personally, I think this trait of many managers just goes to show how low their level of respect is for their entire company and the fact that they really don't seem to care, to be blunt about it, because they are basically the face of the organization: somebody to look up to, an expectation to be one step above the rest so that employees can learn well and benefit. It becomes a vicious chain reaction that could lead to the demise of any company:
Rules don't seem to apply to the boss + The workers decide that these rules shouldn't be applicable to them either = Nothing good can come of this.

12. Acknowledge your employees' work. "Recognize their performance. Even as employees go through a busy season or may be inundated with job sharing in this economy, a good manager will keep them motivated by putting wind in their sails and, more importantly, keep turnover low," Salemi says. "If you have a good boss, you're golden, you won't want to leave. When you know your boss is on your side, it makes a difference in your productivity, morale and overall workplace happiness."

- Even though everybody in the workforce has already graduated from elementary school and knows that their hand is not going to be held while they work just to find out how they're keeping up with corporate standards. Yet, just like anybody else, an employee would like to continuously be given some sort of heads-up or motivation to keep working. A good manager doesn't breathe down employees' necks, per se, always finding something to comment on, one way or another, but an occasional 'good job' or 'maybe you can just try things out this way, it'll make your life a little easier but aside from that, you're set.' It really does go to show how something as simple as a boost in confidence can make all the difference in the world, or at least in the office.

Management in poetic form.

The qualities of a manager may often vary
From being a shoulder to lean on, to being a disciplinary


They generate better performance through work quality
Not to mention, through communication and thinking critically


Through lifelong learning, a manager takes in knowledge through experience
Learning to sustain positive impressions and earning an employee's instilled confidence.


When it comes to others, a manager must be about to work effectively
Egos must be set aside so that they operate thoughtfully and ethically.


A manager should be an influence and encourage diversity
Treating contributions equally, and have a tolerance for ambiguity.


They should be ready to take action strategically
And according to Katz, they should be skilled conceptually and technically


Different situations may call for different roles
One is informational, another is interpersonal, and lastly is decisional
All are designed to achieve each of three performance goals
Some are for the teams, others are for the individuals and the rest are organizational


Though all business, they make time to be human and not hide behind authority,
the best kind of Joe and Jane always creating an enterprise of versatility and creativity.

Got something to say?...blog about it.

As somebody who’s seen her fair share of blog entries based on personal takes on a movie, music, a day in the blogger’s life, or just any aspect of current events, it wasn’t particularly easy for me to associate blogging with being a fundamental educating component of a course. Of course, when I was younger, I had a little journal I would scribble away at, and at the time of my freshman year in college, my communications professor insisted we blog about what was going through our heads prior to and subsequent to presentations made (Were we nervous? Did we focus on notes/outlines to get through our speeches?, etc) With that said, when it was known that a large portion of our grade in this management course would be dependant on several blog assignments, I really didn’t know what to think nor what these blogs should entail.

Putting two and two together each time a blog entry was instructed to be completed and posted, it become clear that he was delving into the importance of being able to communicate our personal standpoints on a lecture, an in-class activity. After all, it goes without saying that without standard ability to get a point across in any scenario, professional or informal, there’s no basis for growth. In this case, the growth not only signifies a grade-boost but a growth in our thinking capabilities in general; the growth of being able to relate lectured concepts to our world outside the classroom. With that said, though not exactly a way I pictured taking time away from other courses, this blogging-method proved very effective and enjoyable on a number of aspects:

[1] In terms of the basic communication-task at hand, I do believe it gave us as students that opportunity to voice ideas, feelings and thoughts that we may avoid sharing outright with the rest of the class during in-class discussions. Some people are clearly more timid than others and often keep to themselves rather than engage (I can safely say I have those days) so this kind of gives those students, and even those who do voice their stance on things, the opportunity to say more than they often want to in class without any restrictions. Additionally, these postings give way to learning more about one another rather than directly asking each other questions in class as we often don’t have time to do. Reading blogs and noting that some may have gone about an activity a different way or had a different way of thinking about a topic addressed in class, it gives us as open-minded individuals a chance to take in more than we often find ourselves doing and discover what we should probably think or do next time such a task is presented just for the sake of varying things up a bit, something I totally took to.

[2] Whatever the blog posts had hoped to accomplished intellectually, it did all of that and then some. Something that allowed students to not just go through an activity and call it a day, it provided us with a means by which we could actually see the lecture notes come to life and we had a hands-on approach in the process, leaving us with only a better grasp on the concepts rather than mindless memorizing from the textbook. Furthermore, the blog-postings gave us an opportunity to bring whatever was going through our minds in the midst of each activity and share it with classmates, often finding that many were in the same boat, in terms of initially not necessarily knowing how to approach the task at hand but eventually delving into it to learn so much more than just of one’s capabilities of working among others in a group.

[3] Aside from reading postings of fellow classmates, it was interesting to read over the entries posted by Professor Kurpis himself, just to see how he went about those little things we would subconsciously think about but never really give too much thought to. Things that were a step away from anything discussed during class time and those things we had probably never thought to consider before were definitely a great way to explore horizons of what else the world has to offer and whatever else there is to think about when we have that second to spare. I could’ve sat there and read those posts countless times because there were quite a few to choose from but a post that stood out to me was the mention on failure, something that success quite frankly does not exist without. While that may be obvious, I can’t say I actually took time to think that prospect through and to see it there in writing makes it something to think about in the long-run.

[4] I felt the blog assignments were perfectly reasonable in terms of how much time was given to complete each entry and how much of our grade it would represent. As long as we could set time apart from the rest of our studies to let ourselves complete these assignments that I felt were so much more interesting to get through than 95% of what other courses ask of us, it didn’t really seem like too much for Professor K to ask of us. Of course when exams come into the picture and other assignments for other courses surface, it gets a little tricky to manage ourselves and these postings accordingly but when there’s a will, there’s a way. It was a fun way of ensuring 20% of our grade would not be lost and it wasn’t on the one-way-street basis of just typing our thoughts up in an E-Journal, it paved the way for interaction with peers, as mentioned prior, thus making it all the more enjoyable. Though if anything, I would’ve liked at least a bit of feedback as to how we’re doing with our entries: should we put more/less emphasis on something or other, are we capturing the essence of what was asked of us, etc.

[5] Never really having this kind of perception of how interesting and actually, pretty enjoyable, blogging can be, despite having been assigned things to blog about, I may just decide to continue posting little updates here and there. Additional articles I may find relevant to what this class has left me with, the usage of concepts lectured/applied to in-class activities on a day-to-day basis from here on out; the list goes on and on really but I surely don’t see myself abandoning this means to communication and keeping track of how I’ll continue to go on about my life so that years from now, I can look back on this blog – reading a few entries of my own for the sake of amusement and curiosity of how much of a difference a few years can make or perhaps, the level of consistency over the course of the years.

All in all, the blog was a very helpful course-component primarily because it gave us an opportunity to apply whatever we had taken from a particular lecture session/class activity in such a way that it worked for us, rather than a meticulously assigned course paper. Some may think otherwise but for me, the blog assignments helped me get a sufficient grasp on the material because I made it relative and applicable to myself, interpreting it and thus, memorizing the foundations of each chapter more efficiently. As I'd briefly mentioned prior, the only thing I really would suggest was to provide feedback subsequent to each posted entry so that students can get a better understanding of whether or not the structure of the blog fits the basis of what is preferred.

Conscientiousness with a side of steadiness.

Just days before, a little something known as a 'Personal Profile System' helped us identify ourselves based on a series, 28 sets to be exact, of personality traits towards which we decided which of the four in each set captured our essence most and which was a stretch from how we took ourselves to be. Whether we felt we were more daring and less cautious, there were plenty to choose from and each trait had two correlating letters (Z,Q,X,W, or Y): one for the Most column and another for the Least column. After careful consideration and progressing through each set of traits one by one, we were left with a page-long list of letters and no idea where we'd be headed with it. With a few little calculations and plotting a few points on a graph, we were able to see what we fit the mold of most and what was a close second. The four possibilities were: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientousness, and what I came to see was that I was mostly Conscientious and quite Steady, a Cs, at that. Each characterization had a brief walk-through as to what described each kind of person/potential manager and the first thing going through my mind when reading that was: whoa.

The guidelines for interpretation definitely got it right in terms of how I am when it comes to life at work, at school and anything I do apart from those settings. Conscientiousness involves working in such a way that ensures quality and accuracy in the circumstances at hand. If that's not me in a nutshell, then I don't know what is. I tend to be about as conscientious as one can get especially at work, always finding something to be meticulous about, always wondering what can be done to better the present situation, and being way self-critical all the time as well as equally weighing out the pros and cons whenever that can be done. When i'd started out at my internship, even to this very day and it's been several months since that first day, I would spend time focusing on the little aspects of the given task as well as the generally significant ones almost to a point that it seemed like I was finding reasons to critique something about what I was doing but in my defense, it was all in the name of a good impression for a dedicated intern who just wants things to be done the way they should be done.

In regards to conflict, I can take a step in bringing it down to a minimum; if it just so happens to be a decision-making one, i'll either collaborate or accomodate but will I be the first to take a stand and bring everybody's attention to the fact that there is a conflict to begin with? Not the majority of the time and it really is something that strikes me as not so great because that's something that I should be able to do effortlessly as a part of the workforce so in terms of what i hope to be, that would be a dominant D who can say what needs to be said and enforce what needs to be done whereas I'm stuck in my bubble of being subtle and often indirect. I also tend to become a systematic thinker when approached with a problem, meaning that I approach those very problems in a rational, step-by-step and very analytical fashion. Everything to me is fact-based, always asking myself like "how do I know this is the way it is?"...it gets a little ridiculous, I can admit that freely. Organization and planning is key to me especially at work; when I feel like i have enough organization and things laid out accordingly in front of me to the extent that I can continue on with whatever it is, I will.

Then there's the Steadiness quality. Consistency is a big thing for me but I do like to vary it up every now and then; a day at the office filled with the same structured task for eight hours straight can make even the most steadiest of people lose it. I like to think I'm a pretty patient person and if there's a voice that needs to be heard, I'm the ear to listen. The ideas of 'sincere appreciation' as well as enlisting others to encourage my creativity, as the section of Steadiness points out to be something a steady person prefers and must have in order to prove themselves a little more effective, I don't think that's really the case with me. If it just so happens that my work is appreciated, that's all fine and great but the effort put in wouldn't diminish if that were to not be the case. Also, I'm a firm believer in being creative whenever you can be so encouraged creativity is unnecessary for me because whenever i can 'sass something up' or step outside of the box, that's a chance I'll take.

I wish, I wish, upon a star..

We were all children at one point; a fair share of wandering minds, curiosity for days, our heads in the sky that was our only limit from where we stood wishing we could be big and strong and famous when we grow up. Of course as any child could attest to, we'd been told our dreams would get us nowhere fast because we needed to quit dreaming so big and be realistic for a change, though how many of us actually listened? I sure didn't - but rather, just went right back to what I'd been doing all along and that meant keeping my head in the clouds until I could get a grip on what could happen realistically. To this day, I still find myself in “la-la land” from time to time, that little curly-haired dreamer I was so many years back but now with that tad of realism. A dream is just "a wish your heart makes" unless it is fulfilled; a plan to make the dream into so much more than just a ‘what-if’ twirling around in your head. Sometimes our dreams are pretty generic while others are specifically drawn out to a T of what one wants out of their life. A vision is strong, a vision is good to have but what do you really have if you don’t motivate yourself to put this dreamed-of plan into action? Hence, the adage goes the way it does for a reason: Vision without action really is just a dream. Action without a purpose-filled vision is a waste of one’s time. The combination of a vision with an accompanying action leaves the world at your feet and things happen.

I like to sit back and just think my way into tomorrow as much as the next girl but I think I’ve found my fair share of visions that I’ve held close for quite some time now:

(1) First off, I would love to just graduate college with a great GPA and an accounting degree while with a minor in psychology, to set forth a future that I’ve dreamed of for so long. I’d been interning at CB Developers, a real-estate/construction firm with quite the bundle of personalities that has genuinely taught me so much about accounting information systems, accounting in general and the real world, in the short amount of time that I’ve worked there. Perhaps, my already-there knowledge plus a degree would make quite the impact on my future yet there's no telling what my future will actually hold. Maybe that future is going to consist of my own firm or working for someone else’s or using a Bachelor’s degree in accounting as the basis for a Master’s degree in something totally different like marking or maybe even psychology but as I always tell myself: only time can set everything in stone. Of course I know it’s not going to take a simple degree or a license to make something out of the life I want for myself: building upon networking connections is crucial, striving for more internships rather than relying on only one to teach me the know-how’s of the world away from the intern desk. I was once that person who just aimed for the stars because those stars are going to lead me to a career that would make me more money than I can ever hope to spend but years have given me more wisdom than I could ever hope to use and I see that unless I absolutely love my career, there’s no point in starting one up so that’s become more of a vision than a well-paying career ever would.



(2) As mentioned in my first point, working for a firm - well-renowned or that little business that could – would really put everything that I’ve taken from school and my internship to the test by means of throwing me into the real world where there really is so much more than studying a few chapters or getting coached through writing checks and deposit slips and taking messages for a boss about business meetings. Though New York has been really good to me so far, I’m a big traveler with a wandering mind. I love to just sight-see and people-watch and basically explore horizons that even a diversity-filled New York City hasn’t quite shown me. Ever since my 13th birthday, the summer before my last year of junior high, I’ve dreamt of traveling to Australia, Italy, London, Greece and even to my parent’s childhood home in Moldova, Russia to see what they called home when they were my age. It really is a sense of amazement; hopping on a plane and then setting foot on foreign soil where I can then observe cultures at work and later perhaps build a career in the field I’d pursued a degree in or change my mind on the spot but at least I'll know that possibilities are practically endless when there's so much beauty and diveristy taking place at your fingertips.



(3) Aside from the basic business career and travels around and about, I hope to revisit a big aspect of my childhood - dance: ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, jive; you name it. I still keep in touch with a few childhood friends of mine that I’d taken those dance classes with and they’ve all abandoned it the second they “grew up” and averted their focus onto bigger and better things. I let it go briefly to focus on studies and such but after watching episodes of televised dance shows and seeing just how thrilled each and every person out there on the stage is once they’re in their element; that was the little birdie that told me to not lose interest quite so fast. I took up dancing again in high-school then did it for the first two years in college and in the long-run, I hope to perhaps open up my own little dance studio just like my former dance instructor did and as she also did, give little girls and boys another hobby that may or may not become their life in the future. It goes without saying that it'll talk more than just a "want" to make this happen: a business license, a spare space to build the studio on, a "business sense" to run the studio as well as building upon my knowledge of dance in the process. The very moment I stepped foot on a hardwood dance-floor after all of those years and listening to the music I left behind for whatever the reason was so many years ago, I knew I would be ready to make this into something more than just a hobby.

(4) Last, but certainly not least, is a goal that I've struggled with and hopefully it'll come easier as the years go on: staying healthy and keeping stress at an all-time-low, if humanly possible at all. It can be relative to the business goal / personal goal I've set for myself of being financially on-point while loving the career I pursue and take on in the future. I've always sort of noticed that I find reasons to stress about something, over-analyze and basically come close to 'thinking myself into a coma', as I've been told i have a tendency of doing. I don't like to do it, I don't purposely do it but for some odd reason, I just can't let the simplistic scenarios stay simple and I get myself worked-up to the point that it's difficult to come back down. It's been getting a little easier to just let things go the way they go by staying more organized when it comes to schoolwork and time management, and taking time out of an already-hectic school and work schedule to devote to "me-time": not necessarily splurging on the latest blowout sale on fifth avenue but rather, a nap here and there, drowning out worries and relaxing - the only surefire way I can achieve this long-term goal in the long run. Aside from the very obvious stress-factor, I want to live a healthy lifestyle, which I strive towards by spending time in the gym doing a little bit of yoga or the treadmill when I can and steering clear of food that I know I'll indulge in far more than I should. A little innocent indulgence is okay from time to time but even though I haven't learned the wonders of time management yet (a goal to consider), food management has gotten handled rather well, at least I think so.

Oh decisions, decisions, decisions...

Just before class really started on the 13th, the overall vibe was a cross between worry and ‘what happens, happens’. However, it was quick to take a turn for the worst when we could actually see by how Professor K was acting that we weren’t going to like what we were going to see and I was seriously expecting the worst of the worst failing grades. Nobody was really clear on how his grading ways were and the exam wasn’t exactly something, I’m sure, many of us felt genuinely optimistic about. Though I passed, it just wasn’t okay with me and disappointment ran high in the classroom. Just then Professor K threw an idea at us: we could freely decide the format of the next exam as well as left it up in the air with however we felt was a reasonable enough way to boost up our scores a little more. It was a proposal that he would have to agree with and with that, he sat back and let us take over, manage ourselves and the given task at hand. Looking around at whoever wanted to put in their two cents first, it was obvious that some people were doing the whole ‘you first..no, you first’ thing but when everybody finally spoke up, I was worried. So many people, so many ideas, impossible to comprehend each one individually with the way it was all thrown out there.

There wasn't much order initially because many just had so much to say while others may have faded into the background, taking on the avoidance-method to dealing with such a presentation of decision-making. It was pretty funny how it was all for the taking, everybody had let it all go while the professor just sat there watching it all take place. After all, how possible is it to just step in the middle and expect to restore anything to a calm way of negotiating whatever was up for negotiation. Of course, in due time, we’d all have to come to some sort of an agreement by the time class was over but at the rate we were going, we'd need some major leadership to help come to terms with anything. It seemed like two classmates, Abe and Julian, figured that enough was enough and took it upon themselves to bring some order to all of this, taking on the roles of compromising mediators and making little notes here and there of all that seemed logical for the professor to consider, which was just what we needed with time running out. While everybody was pretty aggressive and making sure their point was gotten across, it was nice for some hope for mediation and soon enough we were actually getting somewhere when we narrowed it down to three suggestions we’d all (finally!) come to a consensus on, deciding on an extra-credit assignment, a curve and the lowest of our two exam grades would be dropped as the ultimate reasonable package deal and we hoped it would sit well with Professor K at the end.

Through that whole ordeal, I feel like, as somebody who’s not necessarily aggressive, I wanted to just let everybody else talk it out and pull the avoidance-card because I truly felt like we were getting nowhere fast but decided to turn to compromising and collaborating instead since we all were really in this together and this was just as important to me as it was to the rest of the class. Just when I thought everybody was on the same page, then came the process of deciding upon the format of our next exam and we had a reenactment of what had happened just seconds before, everybody with their own idea in mind and only one conclusion to come to. I felt as though, for a moment there, I had gone back to my avoidance-mentality but eventually pushed that aside and took part in collaborating with classmates and compromising until everybody had finalized a decision, a test format identical to the one just prior except the essay would be made optional as a way to rack up some more points.

It was a nice change from how things started up because I could see people gradually being brought together, those who wanted a completely spiced-up format and those who wanted the format to stay the same minus the essay. Looking back on it, I think we should’ve appointed mediators from the get-go instead of waiting for a sign that everything would be going downhill quickly and then turning to them for help. Either that or we could’ve turned to the professor giving us a few options we could vote on and then just go by the show of hands who was on board and whoever wasn’t, we could calmly address their concerns. Then again, we could’ve gone off of the priorities of the group: who wanted to accomplish what? Did their initial priority lie in results or actually becoming knowledgeable, taking something from the exam and its material? I feel as though with any of these, we would already be able to have a general idea of who wants what and hopefully, it’d all be conducted in a calm manner where it wouldn’t take aggression to accomplish anything.

Pebbles' eggs-cellent legacy will live on.

So coming into class on the 27th, I was really at a loss as to what to expect since just days before, we were told of an in-class assignment to be conducted that was not to be missed. Needless to say, I was interested and looked forward to seeing just what the professor had in store for us. Just then, I took note of what was sitting on the desk: a package of drinking straws, a carton of eggs and a roll of masking tape. The first thought that shot through my head was ‘I think I’ve seen this before and from what I didn’t miss, things got interesting yet messy’. I had an idea as to what was going to be going on because just years back, I caught some children’s show on TV where students were instructed to build somewhat of an outer-shell of an egg so that, when dropped from a height, it would be the straw protection-device that was banged up rather than the egg itself. Immediately, when I had seen the set-up we’d be working with to build, what I assumed would be what I saw on TV that day, I started thinking back to what kind of design actually kept the egg safe and sound with those students and hoped my memory was fresh enough to draw it up on paper and then actually execute it.

After we were shown a quick little diagram of what it means to plan and then bring something from being on paper to life, the overall concept of this activity was explained and the group and I got to work. If at all, the group effort mattered more than the overall outcome because if we could’ve put several brains with several ways of creating and thinking together, we were bound to come up with something efficient and effective eventually. We collaboratively knew that the single purpose was to protect the egg yet still keep it remotely visible to ensure we wouldn’t be trying to cheat our way to a victoriously-alive egg. So we each started by just throwing ideas around in regards to what would keep the egg centered so that our little contraption was what suffered a blow from the ground while the egg sat comfortably inside.

Clearly we knew what we wanted and how we wanted to get there yet now it was only a matter of getting there without any little bumps along the way. As told to do so, we’d assigned tasks to each of the group members, selecting a leader, somebody to draw up a sketch of what it was we had in mind for our protection device and then for somebody to actually drop the egg as we all kept our fingers crossed our egg, that we named Pebbles instead of, say, Omelet, wouldn’t plunge to its death. Assigning titles to group members didn’t really make as much of a prominent difference as maybe it would’ve been in some other scenario because nobody really took the time to lead among others as we all contributed equally to what we felt would be best, taking turns drawing up a little sketch that the “sketcher” then drew up on a separate sheet of paper as our end-goal of what our creation would be, fool-proof and guaranteed to work. We were each able to kind of, picture the straws and amount of tape we had to make use with and came with this, sort of, mental image as to how the egg would settle in and if we could actually bring this plan to life.

It all seemed well and great, we were all genuinely confident about our design, which started off as a cube with straws acting like the fencing, an itsy bitsy barricade, around the egg while it was cradled in the very middle by pieces of taped straws. Ready to start building, a member of our group through another idea out there that we could’ve used as a backup plan but since we had already come up with what we felt was a surefire source of success, we put that on the backburner and started building our little boxed contraption. It wasn’t until we had gotten about half-way through, maybe even less, that we realized time was running out and we were getting nowhere fast. Just then, with probably like a minute or so left to spare before time was up, we quickly switched over to the second-best thing we could’ve done, keeping the egg enclosed in something shaped like a barrel made out of the straws. At first when the idea came up, we the majority of us were kind of turned off by it just because it didn’t seem like something that would fully keep the egg in one piece without something or other cracking or breaking with the impact possibly being stronger on such a design than had we gone with something cube-ish. Rationalization had gone down the drain and we were working against time by that point; taping and snipping the straws away as quickly as we could and hoping that the egg would, in fact, be as visible as it should’ve been, we had eventually made something out of the contraption and went up to try out the ultimate test. Unfortunately, we’d gotten disqualified since Pebbles wasn’t as exposed to the world as she should’ve been. Regardless, we were given a chance and in due time, Pebbles had a life well-but-short-lived as the egg fell to the ground and broke instantly.

Despite the outcome, I felt that our group had worked wonderfully with each other, each member doing his/her job in bringing something new to the table and sharing their thoughts on what would be effective and what should’ve just been left behind and forgotten. Though, I felt that maybe the ideas we came up with sounded better and looked better when we’d mentally drew them up and looked great on paper but in the end, something other would’ve been better of an idea but no matter what, it was truly an experience to remember. All in all, we had a great objective, a great plan we’d follow through with to fulfill our goal even though it hadn’t worked out well as the egg didn’t live on.