Week 9: Winding Down

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Ruoxi He

Finally, presentations are over, proposals are turned in, and writing assignments have been completed. After eight fast-paced weeks of class, BA 352–Leadership & Communication, has turned out to be one of the most applicable classes I have taken in LCB. Between writing my first cover letter to learning about the “Ladder of Inference”, I believe this class has given me a set of useful skills for me to apply toward my professional goals.

I enjoyed being challenged with the group assignments and projects. And by overcoming these challenges, I noticed a huge improvement in my presentation and public speaking skills. In addition, I am now much more aware of how to balance advocacy and inquiry when working with a team. Even though the changes I made aren’t drastic, I have gained a great deal of insight on how to manage team dynamics. I am also much more aware of how to effectively tackle problems and maintain team cohesion.

Overall, I am very glad I had the opportunity to work with my group and I am very proud of the work everyone has put in. Even though we all had different ideas and views on how to approach the final proposal project, we were able to eventually find the “better solution” to our problem situation. Furthermore, it was through Ron’s continuous push for us to dig deeper into the problem, where we were able to challenge our usual approaches to research and problem solving.

To my surprise, I have gained much more from this class than I could have anticipated. I am looking forward to what next term will bring me when I take MGMT 325, MKTG 420, DSC 340, and PSY 301! Looking forward to spring term and of course, the sun!! Happy weekend everyone.

Week 8: Ladies and Gentlemen of the EETF…

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Ruoxi He

As we wind up our 8th week of progress for our final proposal project, we began working on our final presentation to the Lundquist College of Business Education Enrichment Task Force.

By this point, my group and I have already gotten used to meeting up three to four times a week to work on our project. We generally have a room reserved for 2-3 hours at a time. I usually come prepared with an outline for what we are working on and we always have set goals or milestones we want to reach by the end of every meeting. I’m glad to see how much our team has improved during the last month. We have managed to work out any disagreements, collaborate on ideas, and efficiently work toward our final presentation.

Looking back to our Team Agreement, listed below, I believe we did a great job sticking to what we wrote down. We mainly communicate via group messaging on iphones, shared roles and participation for all tasks, and took votes during group decision making. For the most part, this was successful for our group to stay focused and fix any altercations.

Team Agreement from Week 3:

Roles:
We to keep each other accountable for the weekly workload and group input. We believe in sharing leadership, and delegating assignments based on strengths and weaknesses of individuals in the group. Participation from quieter members will be in the form of their contribution in other ways, whether that be writing, research, or planning for the project.

Communication Process:
Feedback will be received by way of personal constructive criticism. Our team will stay in contact outside of meetings with the wonderful invention of IPhones. Group documents will be posted to Wiggio or Google Docs for further collaboration.

Decisions:
Team decisions will be made by consensus, being directed towards assignments or more important projects. One or two team members, using their best judgment, will decide smaller parts of assignments.

Week 7: Here we go again

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Ruoxi He

After another week of research, interviews, and discussions with Ron, we are inching forward–toward finding the “better” solution to our problem. “There is no perfect solution to a wicked problem. Just good ones and not so good ones,” Ron reiterates to me as I sit in frustration during office hours. After having revisited the problem situation over a dozen times, I believe my group and I have finally touched upon the true issue. It was during Wednesday’s class exercise when we started figuring out the true problems behind the situation.

Situation: International students are not finding jobs in America, after graduation, within their allotted time.
Why it’s important: They are paying for the same education, opportunities, and experiences as domestic students, but they have to over come more challenges. It is LCB’s responsibility, as an educational institution, to provide optimal resources for all students.
Critical drivers of this issue: Legal issues, cultural differences, and stereotypes discourage employers from considering international students as valuable employees.
Goal: Raise international student’s potential to gain employment after graduating from LCB. Eventually, this will raise LCB’s reputation and competitive advantage.
Solution: Provide an International Student Liaison within the LCB Career Center to help international student’s with the legal aspects of OPT. Start an International Student Mentor Program with domestic students to help break down cultural and language barriers. Both of these aspects combined will help international students be more prepared and confident going into a job interview.

After conducting interviews with the International Affairs Advisor, the Director of the UO Career Center, and the Assistant Director of Career Services of LCB, we have a better understanding of the problem issue. I am fairly satisfied with the progress we have made over the last couple of weeks and I am excited to see it all come together in our proposal and presentation.

Week 6: Researching & Filtering

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Ruoxi He

Observe. Research. Find the problem. Research, research, research. Analyze. Find a solution. Test it.

These are the straight forward, highly-summarized first steps to our “Flipd” process of solving a wicked problem. After going through the process with my group, I realized that breaking down to the basics of the process was the hardest part. During this process, I had difficulty not incorporating my own biases and problem ideas into the conversation. Thinking objectively while researching and holding interviews proved to be much more useful than leading with previous assumptions. Prior to hunting down the students of LCB, my teammates and I had already formed ideas and assumptions about the problem topics we were assigned. To our downfall, these assumptions led our interviews, research, and solution into many dead ends. Through the continuous cycle of “Flipd”, I realized how important it is to view and analyze every situation objectively. After we changed our approach to gathered information, we were able to find much more dynamic data.

Coupled with process of gathering information, is the process of filtering information. This operation is almost more complicated than the previous. To start, you must have a detailed and clear understanding of your goal–what do you want the audience to take away? Then, after relentless hours of gathering and sorting data, you must decide which information is actually worth using. I find this process difficult, because I have a tendency to consider all data as “some-what” useful. To combat this issue, I have been revisiting my goals and objectives list frequently to make sure that I am still on track with my data research.

Think objectively. Don’t make your own assumptions. Understand the situation and the goals. –All ways to make the “flipd” process run more efficient & effective.

Self-Evaluation

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Ruoxi He

Before reading an excerpt from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy, by Peter Senge, I did not realize how many factors go into the dynamics of a team environment. With little need for self reflection, I already knew I practice more advocacy than inquiry. Although I believe I am semi-balanced in both, I weigh strongly toward being more assertive. Many times this is a great trait–I am capable of being vocal about my opinions, I am not passive, I can articulate my ideas to others–but at other times, this can create friction when working in a group environment.

While working with a team that sways more toward inquiry, my traits become much more apparent. I state this not necessarily as a positive thing, because I’m worried that my advocacy will come off as dictating rather than asserting or explaining. To combat this problem, I will start practicing more inquiry and encouraging my teammates to be more vocal about their ideas and explanations.

Week 5: Group Operation

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Ruoxi He

Looking back at the last couple of weeks, working with my group, I believe we have made positive progress toward better collaboration, productivity, and cohesion. We meet every Tuesday morning to review and work on the week’s to-do list, and during the weekends, when we have major assignments to finish. During this time, we focus on the tasks at hand, getting our parts done, and setting goals/deadlines for future meetings.

Although we have productive meetings, I wish they were a bit more focused and efficient. At times, usually when we find ourselves stuck on a part of an assignment, we lose track and get off topic fairly easily. I understand that distractions happen when working in a group environment, but I hope as the project progresses and we have more finalized ideas, our productivity and efficiency will improve. Since group corporation is a major factor in efficiency, I believe our group is very capable of utilizing our time better.

While my group works well together, I wish they would be more vocal about their opinions and ideas. After spending about 8-10 hours with my group every week, I’ve come to realize that I practice more advocacy and they do more inquiry. In general, I am a fairly open, opinionated, and outspoken individual when it comes to my ideas, but my group is just the opposite. Even though, I don’t believe anyone necessarily shies away from speaking out or answering questions, many times ideas will “hover” in the room, without discussion. I would like to see my team members take more initiative in contributing to shared ideas and insights in helping us improve our proposal.

Overall, I am interested to see how our group will work through the next couple of assignments and make progress toward creating a well versed proposal and a professional presentation.

Week 4: Wicked Problem

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Ruoxi He

This past week, the class has begun research and preparation for our problem description presentations. My group has been going at a steady pace in regards to interviewing stakeholders, researching information online, and figuring out how to bring personality and emotion to our presentation. Our goal for Monday’s presentation, is to evoke sympathy and inspire action from our audience using a personal story and strong evidence to support our claims.

Frame: International students need a way to find jobs with higher placement rates, because they pay money to learn with the hope of starting a career.

We want to address the issue regarding international students success, or lack of success, in finding jobs and becoming fully integrated in America’s job market. After stakeholder interviews with international students, we found that many of them believe LCB lacks adequate resources tailored to mentor foreign students through the process of preparing for post-graduation job searches. With 21% of the current business school undergraduates studying as international students, we want LCB to adjust its approach to preparing foreign students for joining the American work force.

Learn: It’s especially true at the Lundquist College of Business that language and writing becomes an obstacle for international students to communicate professionally, cultural barriers make interviews more difficult, and legality reasons lengthens the job search process.

After interviewing Jessica Best, the Assistant Director of LCB Career Services, we realized that many variables play into the success of an international student’s job search and employment. In addition to language and writing barriers, every foreign student to overcome the major cultural differences in America’s job market. While language and writing can be improved through academic classes and tutoring, cultural integration occurs with experience and involvement. Currently, LCB career center only provides personal advising and one workshop per year, to help mentor international students with understanding “our way” of doing business.

As a domestic student, I find internship searches, resume and cover letter construction, and professional interviews extremely stressful–I can’t even imagine if I had to do this whole process in a foreign country. As a business college with high rates of international student enrollment, LCB must put more emphasis on addressing their specific needs.

Week 3: Relationship Management

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Ruoxi He

One of my goals this term, for my Leadership Development Plan, is to enhance my relationship management skills. In every team environment, having the ability to connect with others and build positive relationships is crucial to maintaining cohesion amongst the group. As women’s team captain of the University of Oregon Club Rowing team, I know it is especially important for me to stay connected with my teammates. Even though, we spend every morning together, communication can be minimal when the focus is on circuit workouts and erg pieces.

In order to act upon my goals for this component of emotional intelligence, I have spent the last week meeting up with individual teammates and holding team meetings to reconnect and catch up with my rowers. On Tuesday I coordinated a short meeting to talk about team morale, balancing rowing practice and school work, and the importance of communication. In addition, I spent a couple days meeting up with individual rowers that seem to be having a hard time adjusting to daily morning practices and intense workouts. I shared with them my tips and experiences from previous years on how to maintain a positive attitude and good time management. As a result, I was able to successfully keep some rowers who were on the brink of quitting and build a more personal relationship with my team.

By communicating and listening to the needs of my teammates, I will be able to foster better collaboration, more solutions to conflicts, and inspire a greater team vision. Creating stronger interpersonal communication with my team will be my main goal this term–with this week’s progress, I have high hopes for what’s to come.

UO Rowing dock, Lake Dexter, OR

Week 2: Self Reflection

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Ruoxi He

Since the start of my Leadership Development Plan, I have spent an excess amount of time reflecting on my past experiences and leadership skills. This assignment has forced me to look into my participation and role in the various groups I am involved in, and pull out the components that make me a leader. Through this continuous reflection process, I have realized that I am extremely self-aware. I have a strong understand of my emotions, thought processes, and reactions to specific situations. But I have also realized, through this experience, that I have much difficulty pin-pointing my personal-best skills and qualities.

When I first started thinking about self reflection, prior to taking the Student Leadership Self-Assessment Survey, I was anxious. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to articulate or interpret my leadership experiences into tangible and specific skill sets. I had always thought of myself as a leader, but conveying my experiences into action plans or resume bullet points and cover letters seemed daunting and overwhelming. Then, after reading about the 5 Practices of Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, I was better able to categorize the type of leader I am. This was extremely helpful in my self-reflection, because I was able to see the structure of what made up a “great leader”. Before, leadership to me involved an exceptionally long list of traits, an extroverted personality, and much experience to back it all up. Now, I feel like I have much more to say when conveying my experiences into specific leadership characteristics.

Self-reflection is a continuous endeavor that I will be pursuing all term and the rest of my college career.

Week 1: Impressions

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Ruoxi He

BA 352 is one of the few classes I have taken at the University of Oregon with less than 80 students to a professor. Ten minutes into the first class, I already felt the difference between getting personal attention and direction versus a two hour lecture. From first impressions, Professor Bramhall’s BA 352 class seemed organized, well structured, and also time intensive. Since this is my first term taking a full course load beyond pre-requisites, introduction and general education courses, I know this class will be much more rigorous than my previous business classes. With that in mind, I am also extremely eager to learn the skill sets that this leadership class will provide me. My team members, Nick, David, Clayton, and Kevin also seem like a good group of guys who are self-efficient and full of ideas. If my first impressions are correct, this will be interesting and busy term!

BA352

Mon/Wed 8am-9:50am

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