So last Monday's class was kind of crazy. Having the authority to not only influence our exam grades, but to be able to decide how our next exam was going to be structured, was a hot topic that truly concerned every student in that room. Regardless of your participation in the decision making, or if you got a 100 on the first exam, the decision to be made was going to affect everyone. It was a great relief to me that someone with a strong voice and personality stepped up early, to lead the decision making process. It was a role necessary for the decision to be made, and if no one took that role upon him-/herself early, we as a group would have lost valuable time.
In the early stages of the decision making every one got a chance to speak up and make a suggestion. This stage was fairly stress free and people didn't seem to tense about it. As the deadline came closer it seemed like the whole class became so eager to agree on something that it didn't matter so much what it was we agreed on, as long as we made a decision. I think that it was that kind of spirit that made everyone compromise, and try to find a common ground to build on. Many of the ideas were similar to each other, and some the same, so I think that a more detailed description of each alternative would have been helpful.
I think this exercise really showed the difficulties in decision making when there is no authority. Because even though we had a leader, her vote counted no more or less than anyone else. The group was very large which led to many people talking at the same time and confusion about the meaning of some suggestions. It would have been more effective if we had split into groups, as one girl suggested, where everyone could get their voice heard. This would have narrowed down our suggestion pool, which in turn would have saved some time to discuss each alternative a little bit more in depth.
My response to the chaos that was created that class, was to just listen to other peoples suggestions instead of throwing myself into the debate. Having that said I don't think my way to handle the conflict can be described as avoidance, because it wasn't as if the decision didn't affect me or that I wasn't concerned about what decision would be made. I was happy with my grade and definitely didn't want to just disregard that exam, but at the same time I understood that by dropping one exam would benefit a lot of people in the class. I think my typical way of dealing with a conflict is by accommodation, and that was my response in this case as well.
About Me
- Pernilla Ekberg
- The summer of 2006, about a month after graduating High School, I packed most of my belongings and moved across the Atlantic from the far too small country of Sweden to the Big Apple. After a year of wild partying and hard work I entered Baruch College with a dream of a degree in International Marketing. Now, almost 4 years after I entered JFK airport with everything I owned in my hands, the dream of a success career in business is still growing strong!
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I think having someone step up to lead the class was crucial in the process. If not, we would have never gotten anything accomplished. It really goes to show the amount of guidance we, as a class, as a large group, need from a leader to actually complete a task and reach a goal. I felt the same way about not feeling so stressed about it in the beginning when we were just brainstorming ideas, but when time was cutting close, it did seem like to everyone that it was getting to be a bit hopeless, not coming up with any decision on what to do about the second test. But in the end, we pulled through.
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ReplyDeleteYea I also agree that this process would have been much more difficult without someone stepping up to be the class leader. I was so surprised that the class took so long to come to a consensus about one idea. I honestly felt this would be an easy process and we would be able to leave class quickly. But I was glad we were able to come up with a decision in the end.
ReplyDeleteMaking a decision is very hard, especially when you have more than one head trying to come to 1 conclusion, i agree 100% that in the beginning it was a lot easier, and towards the end it became very hard because the time was running out and we had to come to a conclusion fast.
ReplyDeleteFrom the perspective of the person that stepped up to try to get people to make a cohesive decision, I will say I felt the pressure as time ticked away. I began to feel nervous and just as stressed as everyone else about coming to a unified decision. I am glad that people, such as yourself, that weren't necessarily going to benefit from the experience still participated and helped those of us that DID need to reach a positive outcome.
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