For Class Session 9/30

Quote by George Orwell: “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a c...” via kwout

The example below is meant to illustrate the alignment problem, which is the big issue in managing within large organizations.  

A photo of our class room taken from the back of the room

Contrast the above, with the following.

Goals, Intitiatives & Metrics | Illinois Strategic Plan via kwout

Quiz in Moodle

There is now a demo quiz in Moodle available for you to try.  It should take hardly any time for you to complete (under a minute is my guess).  Do try to get the question right.  You will get points for that.  A correct quiz gives 10 points.  You have only one try at it.  Your grade will not show till after the quiz closes (next Tuesday at 10 AM).  That is part of the experiment.  If you learn your score immediately, please let me know.

The purpose here is to feel confident that the quiz function works so that before we do the real quiz that issue will be put to rest.  In class today we'll discuss when to have that real quiz, given that I've postponed the deadline for the Excel homework on coordination till next Wednesday.

Late Blog Posts And Students Failing To Comment

Before I get to the topic in the subject line, let me acknowledge the good work of some students who are submitting their posts in a timely fashion, responding to my comments, and commenting on the posts of their team members.  This is how it should be done by all the students in the class.  The good work of these students shows that is possible.

This week many students submitted posts on Monday or Tuesday.  As my blog reader doesn't immediately get notified of your post, I saw these only after our class on Tuesday, where the posts were discussed.  The late posts defeat the mechanism we have for the class.  This is a warning.  I will not tolerate them at all in the future.  Students who continue to be that late posting will suffer the consequences grade-wise.

Likewise, many students don't seem to be responding to my comments and are not commenting on the posts of their teammates.  This too is a course requirement.  The comments are meant to be done before the class session, as preparation for the in class discussion.

Based on my monitoring - some ideas we'll talk about on Thursday

It seems to me students don't access PowerPoints when I post them as links to calendar entries.  So I will try to make it easier that way posting some stuff in the class site.  Here are a few things we will talk about on Thursday.  This is other than what is listed in the PowerPoint for today, which will also be on the agenda.

1.  More on management -
   a.  Managing up, managing down, managing out.  How does this vary with the size of the organization?  With the nature of the work?
   b.   We talked about building trust.  What destroys trust?
         i)  How should bad news be managed?   No surprises and taking one for the team.
         ii)  Is it ever right to betray a confidence?
  c.  Coordination on (large) committees
        i)  What are meetings of the full committee (good) for?
        ii)  What motivates members to participate vigorously in the committee?
        iii)  The role of the "whip."
        iv)  The of the the committee chair.

2.  More on the course projects.  What are the next couple of steps.  Why should teams do a better job than individuals in this case?  The value and the fun in arguing (in an intellectual sense).

3.  Budgeting as an introduction to transfer pricing.

Assignment of Teams to Papers They Will Review

Below is a reproduction of what we had on the blackboard in class today regarding team assignments.

An annotated listing of the papers is available at the link.  If you are on the campus network, all the papers should be freely available to you for download.  If you are not on the campus network, you can use VPN to attain access.

Recalibrating after Today's Class - Pushing Back the Deadline on the Excel Homework.

I was disappointed that I couldn't get the projector to work in class, so couldn't go through the PowerPoint I had planned to cover.

After class I decided that my jerry rigged solution on the blackboard was particularly bad, so rather than rely on that I am instead moving the deadline for the Excel homework to a week from tomorrow.  I trust that no student will object to that.  Will talk about what other adjustments in the class schedule that necessitates on Thursday.

Taking one for the team

Ron Hunt is probably a major league baseball player who is unknown to students in our class.  When you learn about him, it might give you a different sense of what teamwork is about.  In the table below, HBP stands for hit by pitch.  When you are hit be a major league fastball, it hurts, a lot.  Think of the mental resolve it takes for somebody to have such a record.

The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches | FiveThirtyEight via kwout