Decision Making...

On the Monday after our Exam. We received word that what had been billed as an easy exam produced results that overall were less than mediocre for most. I was included in what seemed to be a sizable group; my grade was only one point above the average. What surprised was that the professor opened up the floor for discussion of our failures in the exam. The consensus seemed to be that it was difficult, confusing, and long.

I did not raise my hand to give an opinion like many others. I had accepted my grade, and was not about to form excuses as to why I had done so poorly. I felt the exam was fair and I with only 2 hours of study the night before, I had set myself up for defeat. When everyone who felt wronged got a chance to voice their opinions, the professor decided to allow us to propose a solution so as to improve our grade. A formidable task considering that everyone in the class had to agree to said proposal (at the professor's discretion). We were to have until 7:05 to form a proposal.

Once the time had commenced, everyone was stunned and decided to form little pockets of conversations discussing what just had happened. Two seconds into 20 little conversations around the room, a guy from the front quieted everyone down and opened up the floor for discussion. I got the task of writing the proposals down, ( a job I didn't expect considering I was now in the role of mediator). I now had to consider the concerns of all affected parties. I wrote down those proposals I felt had some weight and agreement by other students. Hands went up in every direction, with other students outbursting when I had given the floor to another student.

How did I handle the conflict that arose?

I saw my role as that of Accomodation. Like I had mentioned before I felt the exam was fair and I was unprepared. I received the average grade so I didn't feel that a considerable amount of students were more prepared or less prepared than me for the exam. I would have been content with taking my 70, and actually studying and improving my grade come the next exam. By the screams and arguments going across the room, I felt that the issue was more important for others so I annotated the proposals that won a considerable amount of praise ( NO Essay, ACTUAL multiple choice, considerable REVIEW, etc.). They all seemed good proposals and I'm sure if we won any deal above the 69 average the class originally received; I would have been perfectly content.

In this exercise, I felt a role of Compromise would have been much more effective. Many people wanted their own proposals to be included, at the expense of those that had considerable weight but would have provided no benefit to them. Given more time, it would have been great to have little committees that would lobby their proposals with each other, actually COMPROMISING to the benefit of everyone.

Considering the decision-making task was thrust unexpectadly before us, and our limited resources (one or two moderators, limited time). I think our reaching consensus on something was commendable. I think we received a GREAT deal once the Professor accepted our proposal and the class voted in absolute favor.

The Egg named Shelldon

Shelldon was the name given to our egg in the "An Eggs-cellent Way to Plan" assignment. Although it appears that there isn't consensus as to the actual spelling of the egg. I side with those that want to make the pun obvious.

In any case, although the project we would undertake would be fun, it was necessary to follow a certain protocol in order to be able to "land" the egg without any harm. In reviewing the 5 Stages of planning, the process appears to be somewhat organic. Although we had been introduced to the planning process, we didn't feel constricted or aware of a set regimen. The presence of the deadline element definitely streamlined the process and before we knew it we were active participants in the planning process.

The 1st Step: Define your goals and objectives. This step was more implicit in the assignment. We all had access to the rules and the final product required of us. The group members which did not grasp all the requirements were made aware during the first 25 minutes of the planning process. It was evident that the most limiting restriction was the low level of materials to build the egg-preserving machine.

The 2nd Step: I think there were two camps in our group. Those which understood the limitations of the materials, and those which underestimated the limited use of materials. I was in the second camp. I didn't realize that 2 feet of tape was extremely restrictive in producing a complex machine. Yet, those group members who visualized the restrictive lenght and low number of straws made the others well aware that some of our ideas would simply not work. Our group had a considerable debate as to how big a straw was, and whether we could make a modified parachute out of it. One of my team members immediately got up, brought us a straw and by seeing the actual size scrapped some of the most resource-heavy proposals. Communication was also difficult. Some people had great ideas and their conviction of how it would work was contagious, but needed visual clarity. Committing the idea to paper proved discouraging. Other people listened carefully, visualized the suggestions and quickly sketched the idea, therefore allowing every team member to gasp audibly in approval and concord.

The 3rd Step: The first 25 minutes went by pretty smoothly; ideas were thrown around bouncing off one team member to another one. A practical idea was appropriated by another team member therefore improving the chance of success. What I admired about our group was that when a certain idea was mentioned (a modified parachute device) it wasn't quickly dismissed but rather we all went over the specifications, thought about its negative aspects and we all realized that we lacked the resources to execute such a device.

The 4th Step: One team member came up with a practical solution and another member promoted it vigorously. This idea would then become the one which we would implement in the 10 minutes required in producing it. I was skeptical of the idea but realized that given the circumstance this idea would probably work. I therefore yielded to these two team members and they were the ones which delegated the roles. (cut here, tape this, etc.)

The 5th Step: This step would prove to be the most difficult one, considering we were allowed only 10 minutes and had to run around the room chasing the one scissor available. I failed in retrieving the scissor to make the last needed splicing of the straw but someone my team managed to take the vision and make it a reality. Upon viewing the other devices, many of our team members were quit confident that our plan would work...and it did, with the exception of a small crack crawling on the side of the shell. Such a small crack that it took the professor 2 minutes to disqualify our invention.