You can do it - Nothing is impossible

After the weekend marathon, coming to class on Tuesday was kind of daunting as well as a bit disappointing. I did not expect to feel disappointment in seeing the class half full - yes I mean the undergraduates. I learned so much and had so much fun with them during the weekend session that I felt that the class had only half its strength.

The ball game was very thought provoking just like every other exercise we have had in this class so far. I never realised how much power this simple sentence had - "You can do it. I definitely believe you can do it even better". This actually stimulated our brains to come up with better solutions while also reinforcing the fact that as a leader sometimes your job is just to encourage and motivate your colleagues. The Carlos video again taught us the basic clashes/differences we see in our daily life while dealing with multicultural people. Finally I have to mention about the article on Microsoft. This article shows how a company that redefined the IT world is suffering because of internal politics. It is very obvious from the article that if Microsoft continues this way, it will soon be spiralling towards doom. I previously attended a session with Martin Brauns - President & CEO of Interwoven and an SJSU alumni who stressed the importance of how politics can destroy a company. He actually symbolised politics as a minefield which curbs growth and made sure his company never had any internal politics.

Eye of the Storm

Sunday's class was another thought provoking one. Even though we are not really in the eye of the storm, it was still fun to imagine how it would be for Aracruz stakeholder's. It helped me see the motivations and reasons behind the actions of each stakeholder and also realise that no one is the bad guy here. I also had so much fun doing the "acid sea". Again this exercise brings into perspective what happens when each local team approaches a particular goal on its own without respecting and taking into consideration the other involved teams. Another key take away is how typically leaders forget about the people following them and are more focused on goals.

The afternoon session was interesting for me as I had the opportunity of evaluating my peers. This made me realise things from an outsider/professors perspective. Had I been on those teams, I would have made the same mistakes as my peers. However, having a chance to look at them in a different angle reinforced the point that we have to be really observant in picking things up and putting them to action. This is because, in real life too we will not be having all necessary information handed out to us for developing a course of action. I would say that the only glitch during this class was late lunch :( .

Learning through examples/exercises

Like everyone else in the class, I was dreading the whole idea of spending the Saturday in class. However I'll take such an activity oriented class any day over idly sitting at home. The thing that I could really connect to is "Learning through examples/exercises".How does one teach someone the qualities of becoming a leader?Everyone knows that it is difficult to interact globally due to cultural differences, communication styles etc, but to actively see it through role plays, TV programs etc really drives the point home. Watching the TV program was like looking into the minds of our class. I am sure each one of us would have thought about the other as being spiral in talking or being aggressive in putting forth points, but now I feel we will view the situation in a different manner. The cards game brought us the reality of a situation where we might work together as a team but still be unaware of all necessary information leading to chaos and confusion.

The Sally Chang case was another exercise I enjoyed doing. This is typical of any company where parties involved may not even realize they are not communicating what they want to do. At the end of the exercise I really could appreciate what the professor meant by sitting back and analyzing our actions before deciding on the next course of plans. I really hope by the end of this course I learn a lot more and also make sure I apply this in day to day life

My first class - in every sense

I am excited about penning down my thoughts on my first MBA class. As I entered the BUS 297 class on 26th January, I was filled with anticipation and excitement. This was my first ever class every sense - my first class in a foreign soil as well ass my first course in MBA. Needless to say the fact that I am finally pursuing my dream of doing MBA, kept my adrenaline pumping. Once I entered the class, I was further happy to see the mix of people that I was going to study with - I mean this is what I want to do MBA for, meet up people from various backgrounds and learn a lot from their experiences besides learning from the professors.

Once the class started however, I realized I had a lot of disadvantages. For one, most of them are already halfway into the course or on the verge of completing it and hence I had no clue what the class was talking about when they used the terms - blackboard, greensheet etc. The second biggest shock was when I realised we had to debate on Globalization within 20 minutes. That task seemed to be impossible for me considering the fact that I only know the basic meaning of the word and its general implications. Only later did I realize that it was an easy feat, had I learnt the material which was posted on the "Blackboard". Nevertheless it was still interesting to see so many opinions from people who are actually opposed to the topic they are debating on. This really gives new meaning to "putting yourself in the other person's shoes". So even though some of my enthusiasm was dampened, I still was able to learn a couple of valuable points at the end of the class.