Blogging Topic 5: Negotiation and Conflict

Last week, I asked about manipulation vs. influence. It's a hard question, knowing when you cross the line to doing "bad" manipulation vs "good" influence. Like most ethical dilemmas, the line is fuzzy and moves a lot. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a ethical dilemma. We'll continue to revisit ethical dilemmas as we go through the semester, with the idea that keeping an eye on your core values will help you resolve them.

In class this week, you engaged in a negotiation. Did you think you did well in the negotiation? Were you surprised at your actual score on the negotiation compared to the scores of your partner and other members of the class? What kinds of information and influence did you try to bring to bear in the negotiation? Did your preconceived notions of your negotiation partner influence approach? Do you think your performance in the negotiation reflects your general approach to conflicts in the rest of your life? Were you satisfied with your performance? What can you learn from this negotiation (or from the role play you are working on) that informs you interactions with people around you?

Ethics and Influence- Josh Malament

I believe the difference between influence and manipulation comes down to intent. The intent of manipulation is to basically to trick someone into getting what you want. It usually benefits only the manipulator who uses aggressive conniving behavior to reach their desired outcome. The intent of influence usually is a common goal or desired outcome. Influence carries a much more positive connotation than manipulation.

A leader can influence his followers in striving for the common goal. A leader uses his power of influence to motivate others to help attain goals and visions that are generally good for the majority of those involved. A leader abuses his or her power by manipulating others and tricking them into making decisions by misleading and misdirecting them into thinking it is good for them when the leader can really care less about their well being. The line is between good and bad is pretty simple. When someone misleads and misdirects others into making a decision against there will for their own benefit, that is bad. Using power to influence others towards decisions that benefit the majority, that is good.

My core values are strongly opposed to manipulation. To deceive others for my own benefit would make me sick to my stomach. I believe it is unethical to do so. This is probably why i never became a salesman. In sales, a person straddles that line between influence and manipulation. How do you really sell someone something that don't really need? if the person wants it, they will buy it. of course, most salesmen are good people, but there are some that are driven too far by the money, and don't care what they do to make that sale.

I think as long as the influence is being made in good intentions and for the greater good, there is nothing wrong with it. Misleading someone in order to reach that end result is where the line has been crossed. Manipulation is influence's evil stop mother. It will lie, deceit, and steal to reach the desired outcome. These weapons of influence when used correctly and ethically are very powerful tools in business and in everyday life. But when abused, can be even more powerful.

Ethics and Influence - Christine Cho

There is very little difference between manipulation and influence, except that manipulation has a negative connotation while influence is the opposite. When people are manipulated, they don't even know it is happening. On the other hand, when people are being influenced, people are somewhat aware of what is happening. People play politics to advance their careers or personal agendas. There is a definite line between bad and good. The way we find our lines for bad and good is to think about our core values. Everyone has a sense of right or wrong, but each person's gauge on what's wrong and what's right differs.

Everyday I am faced with decisions that blur the lines between right and wrong. I work in Quality at a biotechnology company and I make decisions everyday that have implications on the patients that use our drugs. The world is not as black and white as we think it is. I think it is possible to use our weapons of influence for good. At my company, our core values are to ensure safety to our patients and be science based. Whenever I make decisions at work, I outweigh potential risks and make recommendations. It seems pretty easy, but it is never easy. There is always a threat of walking out of the building in an orange suit for making a bad decision.

Fortunately, the guys at Google don't have to worry about going to jail for withdrawing from China because they don't agree with the country's policies. I think that people with power should use it if they can influence positive change. Celebrities use their power and influence in positive ways to bring attention to many issues that would be overlooked otherwise. After I graduate and am even more successful, I hope to use my power and influence to bring attention to social issues. Maybe one day, Myanmar, the country my parents are from, will be a safe place to visit and people don't live in poverty everyday. If I could use the weapons I learn in this class to have positive influence, then I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

TOPIC 4: ETHICS & INFLUENCE by Onder

I think manipulation is a form of influencing where the tactics used by the influencer are devious and deceptive.  The manipulator victimizes someone and gains something, while his victim loses something or does not get what he thought he would.

There are different theories of ethics.  The ethical theory/principle that I like in this respect is the “greater good “one.  It roughly says that it is okay to harm some individuals for the benefit of the majority.  My beliefs tend to align with this principle.  If a leader is working to the benefit of the masses, he may use some of his “weapons” to harm or manipulate the few who may be blocking his way.

My beliefs about this subject have a lot to do with my study of M. Kemal Ataturk, who is known as the “Great Leader Ataturk” in Turkey, or the “Father of the Turks.”  He envisioned a “Country of the Turks” arising from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, which was defeated at the end of World War I.  The empire had surrendered to the British, the French, and the Greeks; the country was divided up and occupied by the victorious.  That is when M. Kemal left his post in the defeated Ottoman army, “escaped” to Anatolia, and started his journey toward his vision.  He went from one village to the other and talked to the Imams (priests).  He told them that “the heathen” had occupied the country, the future of Islam was in danger, and he had a plan to fight them.  The Imams made sure that all able men in their villages enlisted with M. Kemal and joined the “resistance forces.”  M. Kemal was not a religious person at all.  He believed that the religion was responsible for the collapse of the empire.  In fact, one of the first things he did when he founded Turkiye was to exile the “Khalif” (equivalent of Pope in Islam) and all his family, and declare the country to be a secular republic. [Did imams feel manipulated?].   Within six months he had built himself an army, but did not have any weapons.  He got the weapons from Russians (Bolsheviks).  After he reached his objective, he told his people:  “Bolshevism is your greatest enemy.  Kill it.” [I wonder how Bolsheviks felt about their investment in him].  He fought the French, Greek, and the British forces, and recovered what is now Turkiye- Country of the Turks.  He formed a secular republic, and started a series of social reforms to convert a backward country into a western-oriented, secular country.  He got resistance from some people; they did not want to give up their turbans.  He had them hanged at street corners. [Nothing ethical about executing people for wanting to wear what they want].

He is the Great Leader for Turks.  But, not for all the Turks.  Islamists hate him and cannot wait to erase his name from history.  I think his pictures will continue to hang everywhere in Turkiye, until he is not the Great Leader of the majority any more.

M. Kemal had a vision for his people and used every possible “weapon” in his arsenal (including influence, manipulation, false promises, and force) to have people adopt his vision and follow him to get there.  The ones who opposed him got killed.  The people who think he was a great leader totally overlook all the “bad” things he did.  To them, it was the price of the freedom.  But, just think:  What if he turned out to be another Stalin or Hitler, or worse?  How would his followers feel?

Ethics and Influence (Eric Dodge)

Manipulation and influence are similar in many ways, but they differ in a few key areas. These differences are what make influencing people much more acceptable than manipulating people. I feel like the key difference between manipulation and influence is that when you manipulate someone you get them to do or feel something that they really do not want. Manipulation toys with someone's emotions and beliefs in order to achieve something that the person would never choose otherwise. Many times there are threats, or other unfavorable consequences associated with manipulation.

Influence is similar to manipulation in that many times it does involve bringing someone's emotions and other beliefs into the equation. But with influence, you try to convince someone that a certain choice or action is the best one for them. Influencing does not involve threatening people. Instead it involves showing them that the most favorable outcome will result from a specific course of action. Sometimes influence can be used for more unethical reasons, and this is when influence turns into manipulation. When someone is being influenced they still have the final say in what they will do. But when someone is being manipulated they lose that final say because their thoughts and ideas have been corrupted in some way by the manipulator.

In some situations it can become hard to distinguish between manipulation and influence. At work it is important to play the politics game, so that you can make allies and make sure not to upset the wrong people. But this is different than intentionally misleading people for your own personal gain. For me the line between influence and manipulation is the point where the person being influenced is no longer thinking for themself. As long as the person being influenced still makes his or her own decision at the end of the day, then it is completely ethical. But when that person's decision is severely affected by thoughts planted in their head by others, ethics become a concern.

One of the most important core values to me is that I do not want to make anyone do anything that they really do not want to do. So manipulating someone would be strongly against my core values. Despite this, I feel like I am pretty good at influencing people when I want them to see something in a different way. When I influence people I try to make them see a situation from a different point of view, and hope that this could start the process of changing their mind. I may try to use someone's emotions to help this process, but I never try to make someone do something that they do not think is a good idea themselves. As a result I feel like I stay true to my core values, even when I try to influence people to see things differently.

Blogging Topic 4: Ethics and influence

This week we had a great guest speaker and we talked about social influence. He mentioned that at Google they are looking at people who have an array of influence skills and strategies. He also mentioned that, as a corporate entity, Google is fighting to maintain a positive public image. Related to that, here’s today’s blog topic: What is the difference between manipulation and influence? When does it become playing politics and misdirection? Where is the line between bad and good – and how do you find that line? As this class arms you with more “weapons” to influence others, we must also take into consideration our ethics. Can you use these "weapons" of mass influence and still stay true to your core values? And, if the easy answer is that it is okay to use these weapons if you are using them in the service of your values, do you need to take into account the people you are using these weapons on? For example, if Google were doing things with their search that influenced people, but for the people's own benefit, would that be okay?

Display of Emotions

The emotions coding game was very interesting. Combining an awkward sentence with an emotion that you aren't really feeling was a difficult task. I come from a long line of thespians, and i consider myself to be fairly diverse in the skills of acting and entertaining. This helped quite a bit and I was fairly successful in the game. I consider myself a good reader of others' emotions as well. I believe the non-verbal communication is just as important as the verbal communication, and observe both before deciding what an individual is feeling.

I am also an emotional individual, so people are usually able to understand and acknowledge exactly what I'm feeling through both verbal and non-verbal communication. This isn't always a good thing. I have a difficult time hiding my frustrations in both my professional and social life, which sometimes leads to a negative situation. The game as well as the readings have helped me better understand how and why to control emotions. It is essential to both professional and social situations that an individual is in complete control over their emotions in order to act rationally and logically instead of letting the emotions and feelings dictate the actions.

In many instances it is critical that you hide your feelings and emotions, and in others the opposite. The emotional coding game and the readings helped me realize when, where, and why this is necessary.

Displays of Emotion (Eric Dodge)

I liked the Emotion Coding game and felt like it was applicable to situations in all parts of life. The game was quite difficult because the sentences were very awkward, and some of the emotions were a little hard to act out. This is what made the game challenging, as well as good practice for real-life situations.

When it comes to life situations, we will not have to portray an emotion while reading some silly Dr. Seuss rhyme. But there will be times when we need to portray emotions that are different from the ones that we are truly feeling. This game was good practice for that because we had to display different emotions based on the cards we drew. Each time we had to read a sentence, it was for a different emotion, that we probably were not actually feeling at the time. The fact that the sentences were so ridiculous added to the difficulty because most of the time the sentence had nothing to do with the emotion we were portraying. This made for better practice because the more difficult it was during this practice, the easier it will be when we have to do it for real.

I feel like the main goal of this game was to practice controlling which emotions we show. This can mean showing an emotion that we are not feeling, or hiding an emotion that we are feeling. Both of these are important skills in the business world because there will be times when something makes you angry, sad, disappointed, etc., but it will not be a good idea to show that you are feeling this way. On the flip side there will be times when you do not feel very strongly about an issue, but you will have to act to others as if you feel a specific way about it. It is a very valuable skill to be able to only show the emotions that you want others to see. I try to control my emotions in every part of my life, and only show the emotions that I would like others to see.

Although the game represented an extreme example of showing different emotions, I feel like it was good practice. If you can learn to show a variety of different emotions, while saying some nonsensical sentence, you should be able to portray whatever emotion you like when delivering real communication. The trick is to think about which emotion you would like to portray, and how you can achieve that.

Display of Emotion by Onder

I think our behavior patterns- how we respond under various situations, how we express our thoughts and emotions, how we deal with adversity and conflict, and how we generally interact with others- are formed early in life. They are strongly influenced by the family and the socio-economic environment we are born and raised in.  If and when we move into a radically different environment, we face the challenge of modifying our behavior patterns to fit into the new environment, or be an unhappy “misfit” forever.  Of course, in order to modify our behavior patterns, we have to first be able to acknowledge that there is a problem, and then self-evaluate and diagnose what needs to be modified.  Some people never get around to doing it.  Others enroll into an MBA Program :)

I did not record my performance in the Emotion Coding Game.  So, I could not evaluate which emotions I was able to encode or decode better.  I will write about what I think I know about my way of expressing emotions, and I may like to compare it with the game scores later.

I was born in a radically different culture than the one I live in now.  My family was poor and not highly educated.  We lived in various locations in the country, some not very desirable, as my Father was in the military.  Due to difficulties of “making the ends meet,” my parents were unhappy most of the time.  I do not recall having birthday parties, sleepovers, camping trips, vacations away from home, or receiving presents.  Love and affection was not expressed openly, but anger was.  Our core values were hard work and honesty.  I was expected to work hard so that I can achieve a better life than they did.  And, I was expected to be honest and speak the truth under any circumstance.  As the only time I observed happiness was when my parents proudly announced to their friends that I was first in my class, I worked very hard to keep it that way.  And I was honest, even if it would kill me.  I can hardly be critical of my parents, as I ended up going to graduate school in U.C. Berkeley because of working hard and being a very good student.

It took me many years to become aware of some problems with my behavior patterns.  I quit a good job when my boss tried to tell me that not everything in life was black-and-white, and I should learn how to work in the grey area (I was insulted by that suggestion).  I classified people into two groups: smart and dumb.  I could work well with the former and offend the latter in no time.  I was arrogant, as I was really good at what I did.  I would dismiss other people’s “dumb” ideas outright, and humiliate them with sarcasm.  First thing I would say about a new idea was what was wrong with it.  I excused myself saying that this was a trademark of engineers; we were supposed to find and fix all that can go wrong ahead of time so that they do not do so later.  I would get into senseless arguments with my friends about trivial things, as I had to be always right.  I lost several friends that way.  I was rarely happy and cheerful, but angry quite often.  As a result, I was not a happy person.

I eventually met and married a very happy, lovely lady (who was very smart too).  She had a loving relationship with her parents, and she had the most wonderful relationship with our daughter as she grew up.  She was an optimist and she had no problem with things that were not so perfect.  She had many friends who loved her and could not wait to talk to her.  Living with her, I began to realize that I did not know how to show love and affection, but I expressed anger very well.  Being the “best engineer in town” was not the most important thing in life, but happiness was.  Things did not have to be perfect in order to be acceptable.  Nobody liked and arrogant person and sarcasm of any sort was not acceptable behavior.

Enrolling into this MBA program was part of my efforts to expand my education into non-engineering subjects and to improve my social skills.  I wish I had done it earlier.  But, I feel that it is never too late to improve yourself and your relationship with the people around you.

Displays of emotion - Christine Cho

The Emotion Coding game does not reflect my ability to encode or decode messages in real life. Considering that the exercise was a game, it was challenging to try to act out sentences that one would not normally say in real life. The musical tone of Dr. Seuss naturally put a smile to my face every time I tried to read a sentence during the game.

I've worked at my company for 6 years and have a good read on most of my colleagues and vice versa. I've had a close relationship with the people I have worked with and can tell when someone is having a bad day or if I'm about to be delivered some bad news. Similarly, others know when I am upset or unhappy with the outcome of a project or situation. Part of encoding and decoding is the ability to read what people say and don't say. The ability to read a person depends on many factors, including how long you have known the person.

The emotion coding game gave us an opportunity to act out different emotions. When I pulled the emotion "enthusiastic," the rest of my team knew the word I pulled without me having to say anything. It was easy to act the part because I'm normally a happy person. I had a hard time acting out some of the other emotions that were negative. If I was really upset or had to deliver bad news, I can deliver a message and appear serious. The other day I was babysitting my 1 year old nephew. After having a couple of sips of milk from his sippy cup, he exclaimed, "Done!" In my most serious voice, I said, "You're not done, drink more." My nephew picked up his milk and continued to drink his milk. Even as a "fun" aunt, I do have to show my nephew who's boss once in awhile.

At the office, I spend most of my days leading meetings and project teams. I am very approachable, however when a meeting starts I have a reputation for being "hard core." People who attend my meetings know that I expect participants to be engaged, prepared, and on task. The ability to adapt to the situation is a large part of the signals that one sends, even if they don't know it.

The goal of the emotion coding game is to demonstrate that as leaders we all need to be prepared to play roles that we don't want to play. The game is helpful in demonstrating which emotions we naturally lean towards, however if we were really in the heat of the moment, I think each of us who participated in the game could show feelings of disappointment, enthusiasm, etc.

Blogging Topic 3: Displays of emotion

We'll leave behind the Blind Square this week (finally) and talk a little about Emotional Intelligence and the related concepts.

This week in class, you played the Emotion Coding game. Like most of the games in this class, it was designed to challenge you and make easy success unlikely. For some people, it might have been hard to "be onstage" and for others, it might have been difficult to express emotions. In this blog topic, I'd like you to reflect on the Emotion Coding game and how your performance in this game is associated with the rest of your life.

For example, I remember my mom saying (over and over and over) while I was growing up that it "wasn't what you say, it's how you say it" and I cultivated a fairly sarcastic tone of voice during my high school and college years. I didn't realize it until people started saying I was cynical or unsupportive. To me, a core value is being dependable and supportive. If you need, I'll be there. And, another core value is being positive and believing that everything will work out. So, it was hard to hear people think that I wasn't authentic or that I view the world (and the people in it) in a negative way. I had to check myself and what I was saying, especially when making first impressions, to make sure that my values were coming across. I grew up in an environment in which positive emotions were not frequently or easily expressed (or any emotions, really), because that was not my family's way. Realizing that I have this particular cultural background has helped me bemore aware of my emotional expression habits.

Blogging Topic 3: Displays of emotion

We'll leave behind the Blind Square this week (finally) and talk a little about Emotional Intelligence and the related concepts.

This week in class, you played the Emotion Coding game. Like most of the games in this class, it was designed to challenge you and make easy success unlikely. For some people, it might have been hard to "be onstage" and for others, it might have been difficult to express emotions. In this blog topic, I'd like you to reflect on the Emotion Coding game and how your performance in this game is associated with the rest of your life.

For example, I remember my mom saying (over and over and over) while I was growing up that it "wasn't what you say, it's how you say it" and I cultivated a fairly sarcastic tone of voice during my high school and college years. I didn't realize it until people started saying I was cynical or unsupportive. To me, a core value is being dependable and supportive. If you need, I'll be there. And, another core value is being positive and believing that everything will work out. So, it was hard to hear people think that I wasn't authentic or that I view the world (and the people in it) in a negative way. I had to check myself and what I was saying, especially when making first impressions, to make sure that my values were coming across. I grew up in an environment in which positive emotions were not frequently or easily expressed (or any emotions, really), because that was not my family's way. Realizing that I have this particular cultural background has helped me bemore aware of my emotional expression habits.

Values and Vision - Christine Cho

In the Blind Square exercise, the frustration of being a non-new person in our exercise was not being able to share our lessons learned from our previous experience. Non-new people were only allowed to answer questions. Given that the non-new people were not allowed to talk, I thought this was an opportunity for the new people to learn the task and work through their leadership skills. As someone who spends most of the day leading teams at work, the hardest part of being a leader is to allow others to develop. I thought the blind square exercise was an opportunity for people who had not participated in the exercise to develop a solution and lead the group into forming a square. It is very difficult as a leader to stand back when you see someone struggling, but I think it is best to allow people to have the experience and then provide feedback at the end on how things could have been done better.

I don't believe that incentive is required to do a task well. I am motivated through competition. If we were told during the blind square exercise that we should try to beat our previous time, I would be fired up to perform the task. Loyalty and teamwork is normally what motivates me to do a good job. I've worked with my current team at work for the last 3 years and I will always do my best so that I don't let anyone in the team down. I know that they count on me to be the cheerleader of the group and to push them to do their best as well.

The blind square exercise did not represent my core values. I believe in working as a team and doing my best. After reading "Cognitive and Behavioral Strategies for Managing your Emotions," I could have behaved consistently with the emotion I wanted to feel rather than being grumpy because we were performing an exercise I've already participated in the warm heat. If we performed the blind square activity again and I wasn't allowed to talk, I would still try to participate in the exercise to ensure that the group had the best square and formed it as quickly as possible.

Values and Vision

I believe that practice makes perfect, so repeatedly participating in the Blind Square activity will increase the odds of success. The activity allows you to practice leading, following, listening, problem solving, and many other skills that need to be practiced and polished so an appropriate response in a real world setting is available to you.

i briefly discussed the frustration felt form being a slightly experienced Blind Square individual in the last post. nevertheless, the frustration came with not being able to participate in the beginning and listening to the newcomers dig themselves into a hole. Once we were able to speak, it seemed that the newcomers had finally gotten on the right track and were being productive, but still struggling a little bit. i don't believe there was a lack of incentive, as much as there was a "finish what you started" attitude.

Success is incentive enough in most cases, and the learning experience is also incentive. I usually learn more when i don't succeed than when i do. In a lot of cases, payment becomes the primary incentive because there is a lack of intrinsic motivation or lack of a clear vision of common goals and how everyone's participation and job is essential in reaching that goal. i feel that I'm self-motivated and my pride drives me to learn as much as possible and succeed whenever possible. If monetary incentive was the only line of motivation there would be a lack of production based purely on the thought of being undervalued. I believe that i am undervalued and underpaid at work, and im sure that many others feel the same way. Without intrinsic motivators and incentives, this would lead to everyone doing just enough to keep their jobs.

My actions during the Blind Square activity did not reflect my core values at all. I did not feel like i had any responsibility for the success or failure of the activity, i kind of just went through the motions. This is the complete opposite of my core values. I am dedicated, motivated, and aggressively active in the pursuit of success in almost every aspect of life. Along with being tired from long day at work, I think the not being able to talk or voice my opinion in the beginning of the activity killed my motivation to participate. Although my core values drive me for achievement of success, i don't feel that I'm a person that has to lead and will do anything to be in that leadership role, which explains my passive actions once we were able to speak. i believe that applying ideas late in the activity may have hindered the small progress that had already been made by the newcomer group.

Values and Vision (Eric Dodge)

I have now done the blind square exercise two times, and I still do not think there is any easy trick to doing it well. I have learned that participation from the whole group is necessary to do a good job. Probably the most important thing is that some people step up and take leadership roles. The other people in the group also need to be able to accept that these "leaders" will be telling others what to do. If everyone in the group trusts each other and goes with a plan that is agreed upon, the exercise will be a success.

There is frustration that comes with doing this exercise for the first time because it is new, and you do not really know what is going on. But there is also frustration for people that have done this exercise before. This frustration comes from the idea that you think that you know what to do. But in reality I did not feel like I had any more insights than the people that were doing the exercise for the first time. I had done the exercise before, so I was a little frustrated with myself for not being able to help out more.

For me the intrinsic value of a job well done is very important, maybe even more important than payment for a job well done. I felt like I did not do a very good job during the blind square task, so I was disappointed in myself for that. But it was a group task, so the main goal was for the group to succeed. I was happy that the group did succeed in forming a square at the end. I do not think that some type of reward for doing well in the exercise would have made me work any harder on the task. I think if anything, it may have hurt the exercise because too many people would have tried to step up and lead. This would have created chaos. Overall I think that most of the people were motivated to do a good job for themselves. The idea that a reward is necessary to do a good job may be more of an excuse than anything.

I do not feel like my behavior in the blind square exercise were completely in line with my core values. But I do not think that my behavior was that far away from my core values either. I did not feel like I had very much to offer in a leadership role during the blind square exercise. For this reason I did not try to take on a leadership role, which is in line with my core values. I do not try to take over a situation where I don't think that I am a good person to be leading. But at the same time I did not help out as much as I probably could have during the exercise. I definitely could have helped out with the people around me a little more, and maybe I could have come up with some ideas that could have helped the group.

Blog Topic 2- Values and Vision- by Onder

I think the team-building aspect of the Blind Square Exercise can only be realized with repetition. The first try and the follow-up discussions introduced everyone to the problem, the challlenges, and the possible solutions. People in the team started to learn about the other team members, they had time to reflect on their own feelings and actions, and they observed and/or heard about how the others felt and acted. These are likely to lead to substantial improvements in the individual and team performance in subsequent exercises.

A very important requirement for good team performance in this exercise is that all team members must participate in the exercise wholeheartedly. Non-participation or reluctant participation of few team members would make the task difficult or impossible. This means, everyone must be highly motivated to participate in the teamwork.

Why would some team members not be highly motivated to fully participate in the exercise? After all, by enrolling in the MBA program they have demonstrated their desire to learn and improve themselves. And, they must be in this class to improve their leadership skills. So, what could be the problem?

This is my last course in the on-campus MBA program, and I have worked on team projects with quite a few students. Most of my past teammates were intrinsically motivated: They wanted to learn, they worked hard, and did their best for the team projects. Those projects were indeed rewarding and fun for all of us. Unfortunately, I had a few teammates who did as little as they possibly could, and did not care if the project was less than perfect- so what if we had a few typos on our slides! My guess is that they were here primarily for the rewards the MBA degree would get them, such as a promotion and higher pay, and not for the knowledge and personal improvement.

Now that I picked on some past teammates (hopefully without offending anyone here), I need to point out that the on-campus MBA program does not offer many choices for elective courses due to our budget problems. It is possible that some students in this class are not fully motivated, as they would have preferred to take some other class if they had a choice. If they are here not by choice but out of necessity of fulfilling a requirement, they may not be very enthusiastic participants in the class activities. This is where the personal core values come into picture. Some people take pride in doing things well and they would do things well even under less than desirable circumstances. People who value teamwork and team spirit would also put out their best for the success of the team, even if they personally did not enjoy or benefit from the activity.

I do believe that "if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well." I also believe in "continuous improvement." Even when I am doing something I have done many times before, I try to find a better way of doing it. Like many of us, I did not do well in the first exercise. But, I tried pretty hard. Next time, I am likely to do better owing to my experience and insight gained from the first exercise.

Blog Topic 2: Values and Vision

Here's the thing about the Blind Square Exercise - you'll probably see it again. It is a classic team-building and ice-breaking exercise. So what you can learn from doing it repeatedly? Many of the veterans understood that the frustration of being a new-person at the task is important, but what about the frustration of being a non-new person? Can anything be learned from that? Moreover, thinking about Onder's comment in class - you all apparently failed miserably at the task last time, so what wisdom did you have to impart? Some say there was no incentive for doing the task again - how about to do it successfully? So, you believe that the only incentive for doing anything well is payment? What about the intrinsic
value of a job well-done, of pride? We'll talk about it later in class, but consider what makes you do the things you do and consider whether
if everyone only did things based upon an economic calculation of personal benefit would result in a functioning society?

How did your behavior in the Blind Square task fit with your core values? How do you reconcile your actions there with the visions you have of yourself as a leader?

Introductory Blog - Blind Square by Christine Cho

I think the group was successful at forming the blind square.  The group experienced the “forming, storming, and norming” process.  Although the group took awhile to complete the task, the group did not give up, even in the hot weather.

If I was a new person, I would have felt frustrated with the situation because it did not seem like the group was working together to form a square.  In addition, it was very frustrating that the group was tangled.  Having performed this activity, I wasn’t allowed to speak which was really frustrating for me because I knew what we had to do to accomplish the task.  In order to make the experience better for other group members, I could have been more engaged in the process.  I wish I didn’t let the heat and fatigue get in the way of the group’s success.  I could have pulled the rope and the people surrounding me closer to the rest of the group.  When we first began to form the square, the participants were very far from each other.  

 I wish that the team members who had never performed this activity agreed on a solution before we began counting off numbers.  There seemed to be multiple people who were trying to lead the group and we may have been more successful if we had one person guiding us instead of several people trying to talk over each other.

I am proud  I did not try to take the lead in this exercise.  I could have been more engaged, but I am glad that I allowed others to take the lead.  If I was allowed to talk during the activity, I would have probably added to the confusion because I would try to lead the group.  This could have taken away from the experience for those who were new to the exercise because I would have tried to form us into a square.  Part of being a leader is recognizing that others need the opportunity to develop.  By allowing others to take the lead, other  members of the team were allowed to practice their leadership skills in a safe environment.

Introductory Blog Topic- by Onder

I agree with Eric that the group was successful, as it did reach the objective of forming a square. I also think that we took too long to achieve the objective. In a real-world competitive environment, some other group would probably have done it faster and we would have lost the competitive advantage of getting there first.


I think I helped the people around me with getting out of the "figure eight" configuration, which was essential for forming anything that resembled a square or rectangle. Afterwards I felt a bit helpless, and even gave up trying to assume leadership, as the group was split into two and the other group did not seem to pay any attention to the group around me. They kept "counting" without explaning what it was for, and seemed like there were several people carrying on a conversation. I think counting was actually the right thing to do, if only it was used as part of an overall plan that everyone understood. The square could have been formed much faster if everyone counted and the people at four corners were identified. If the four corner people pulled the rope to form ninety degree corners while the others held the rope loosely and moved with the rope, the square could have been formed in a few minutes.

If I had done this before, I would have already thought of a good way of accomplishing the task. I would let the group know, perhaps with a loud voice, that I had done this before and I had a plan to get them to form the square. However, without the ability to talk such "experience" would not have been of any use. Without ability to communicate, I can't imagine how one can hope to assume leadership.

How do I wish the game was played? I wish the first thing the group did was to take a few minutes to think about the problem and how to solve it, and then let those with good ideas speak up. Then, I wish they would collectively agree on the most promising solution, and follow the leadership of the one who proposed it. This might be really wishful thinking, as the group did not know each other and might have not been willing to follow a "voice." But again, there would at least have been a process through which a leader could emerge.

In retrospect, I was also guilty of communicating only with the people around me in an effort to get them out of the figure eight. I could have tried to get the attention of the "other group" as well, and make sure that everyone was on the same page.

I heard someone say today that the voyage, not the destination, mattered most. I am proud that I participated in the game and tried to do my best.

Introductory Blog Topic (Eric Dodge)

I think that the group was very successful in the fact that we accomplished the task of aligning ourselves into a square. When we were finished everyone had both hands on the rope and we were in the shape of a square. I had done this activity before and in that group we were unable to align ourselves in any shape that resembled a square. But this time the activity took a while and there was a lot of confusion. I think that I was successful as part of the group, which was successful. But individually I do not think that I was very helpful. At the beginning of the activity I was only allowed to answer questions because I had done this before. But even after I was allowed to talk, I did not do much communicating. I always called out my number and tried to help the people directly around me a little bit, but I never addressed the group as a whole. I think that the main goal of the exercise was really to communicate well as a group in a difficult situation. In that respect I do not think I was successful as an individual, and neither was the group collectively.
I probably could have been a little more vocal and tried to help people get a little more organized, once I was allowed to talk. This may have helped the people that had never done the activity before. It would have been beneficial for the group to start the activity more efficiently. The first problem was that the rope was tangled when everyone closed their eyes. So we had to untangle the rope before we could even begin to make the square. This was made more difficult by the fact that most of the people did not even know that the rope was tangled. The other problem was that no one or two people emerged as leaders that people would listen to. If a few people would have emerged as leaders, I think the group would have listened to them and we would have been much more organized. At the beginning of the activity I was unable to talk so I could not have emerged as a leader, but later on I definitely could have. I am not especially proud of myself for anything that I did during the exercise, because I know I could have done a lot more to help. I am happy that I was able to help the people around me a little bit, and in the end we ended up in a pretty good square, so I am proud of the group as a whole for that.

Introductory Blog Topic

Last Wednesday, we did our first activity as a large group: the Blind Square. We had a mix of experienced and inexperienced people in the group, and various obstacles were placed and then removed. Do you think the group was successful? Do you think that you were successful? Imagine the event from a different perspective (e.g. if you had done it before, imagine it from the perspective of a new person, and vice versa). What could you have done to make the experience better for them? What do wish had gone differently in the activity, and what could you have done to make the activity go differently? What are you proud of yourself for doing?