Managing people is not an easy task
After complete this management course
Nothing is easier than
A for Apple, B for BOSS
God’s willing; this should cover everything we need to know
Enter into the new world with newly found knowledge
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Communicating via Blog
In the beginning of the class, when Prof. Kurpis announced that we have to do a blog assignment for the semester and it accounted 20% of the grade, I think it is too much. First of all, believe it or not, I never use and don't know how to use a blog. Let put it this way, I don't know what a "Blog" is! I heard about the word "blog" but never bother to find out what it is.
Few days before the due date of the first blog, I had no choice but learned what a blog is. I asked my friends and did some research about it. I followed the instruction from the handout, I created my blog. It was my first time to use blog. Every week or two, I have to post a new blog and leave feedback to others. This is my experience of learning and using blog.
I would not say it is useless or annoying. I think it is helpful to me. At least, I learned how to use blog. By blogging, it make me think about the class activeties and how it relates to the book or the lecture. I know more about my classmate since it is a big class, you don't have chance to know everybody in the class. By reading others blog assignments, I explored something that I never thought about in the class, the thoughts and ideas of other classmates, the feedback about the class activities. By reading the Prof. blog, I can learn something not in the book. Sometimes, I felt it was hard for me to understand the Prof. blog, it took me longer time to understand and got the point from the article. May be English is my second language, I suggested Prof. might consider to pick something more easy to understand.
By assigned 8 assignments, I think it is a little bit too much for me, at least. I am a full time student and a full time employee. Everyday I go to work, after work I go to school. By the time I reach home, it is already 10 or 11pm. I don't have energy to study or do homework. I really have no time but to squeeze out some time from other class to do the blog. I know there is no free lunch, I have to work hard for it. It is 20% of my grade. My suggestion is every two weeks one blog is reasonable.
I think I will continue to use the blog after the class over when I have time.
Few days before the due date of the first blog, I had no choice but learned what a blog is. I asked my friends and did some research about it. I followed the instruction from the handout, I created my blog. It was my first time to use blog. Every week or two, I have to post a new blog and leave feedback to others. This is my experience of learning and using blog.
I would not say it is useless or annoying. I think it is helpful to me. At least, I learned how to use blog. By blogging, it make me think about the class activeties and how it relates to the book or the lecture. I know more about my classmate since it is a big class, you don't have chance to know everybody in the class. By reading others blog assignments, I explored something that I never thought about in the class, the thoughts and ideas of other classmates, the feedback about the class activities. By reading the Prof. blog, I can learn something not in the book. Sometimes, I felt it was hard for me to understand the Prof. blog, it took me longer time to understand and got the point from the article. May be English is my second language, I suggested Prof. might consider to pick something more easy to understand.
By assigned 8 assignments, I think it is a little bit too much for me, at least. I am a full time student and a full time employee. Everyday I go to work, after work I go to school. By the time I reach home, it is already 10 or 11pm. I don't have energy to study or do homework. I really have no time but to squeeze out some time from other class to do the blog. I know there is no free lunch, I have to work hard for it. It is 20% of my grade. My suggestion is every two weeks one blog is reasonable.
I think I will continue to use the blog after the class over when I have time.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Special Order in McDonald's
Every once in a while, I will go into McDonald’s for an order of French fries, including at the McDonald’s near my home in Staten Island. Because I used to order French fries without any special request, I worried that the server will give me one kind of look. I know that the fastest way to send a fast-food restaurant into chaos or hold out the line is to make a special request. When I reached the restaurant, I saw a couple of people at the counter waiting to place an order and another two people standing near the counter waiting for their take-outs. There was only one counter open. The McDonald’s employees are taking quite a long time to fulfill the take-out orders. It took them more than 10 minutes to clear the two take-out orders. One person only ordered one Kids’ Happy Meal and the other person ordered two sandwiches and a Kids’ Happy Meal. I wondered what holding them up. Since there was only one counter open, a long line was form behind me and I worried people behind me will be furious with me for holding out the line.
When it was my turn to order, I was greeted promptly and the McDonald’s server was friendly. I placed an order as a to-go order. I ordered from the ‘Dollar Menu’ for one small French fries without salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I stressed to her that I want four pickles with my hamburger and she just nodded. She entered my order promptly into the system without batting an eyelid. I presume she got my order correctly but when she told me my order was $3.24 instead of $2.16, I was so sure that she got my order wrong. When I asked her to repeat what I have ordered, she got it wrong. She placed an order for four McNuggets instead of four pickles for the hamburger. I politely told the woman that it was the wrong order and she quickly apologized and delete the McNuggets from the order. This time, she got it all right. Since I asked for four pickles for the hamburger, I presumed I will get charged for them. When I asked her about the extra charges, she just shrugged it off, “There will be no extra charges, sir”. She repeated my order stressing on fries with no salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I paid for my order and then waited near the counter to receive my food. The whole ordering process took less than 4 minutes.
Since McDonald’s employee salts all their fries as soon as they are cooked, there are no cooked fries without salt ready for me. She told me that I had to wait for my food because she needs to make a fresh batch of French fries. She put a basket of uncooked fries into the deep-fryer and a button was pushed to start a timer. In 30 seconds later, the timer beeps and she shake the fries before putting them back into the fryer. One minute later, the timer beeps again and this time she take the fries out and drain them in the basket above the fryer to let the oil out. In 30 seconds later, she takes the basket and dumps the fries out onto another tray as the existing tray already laden with salt. My order was served promptly; however, to my disappointment, my hamburger came with three pickles and not four pickles as I have ordered.
I quickly get hold of my server and point it out to her that there should be four instead of three pickles in the hamburger. Basically I was worried she will roll her eyes and look at me like I was a lunatic for complaining about one missing pickle in the hamburger. She just calmly took back the hamburger and told me to wait while she gets a new hamburger for me. She went back to the kitchen and in 30 seconds later, she emerged from the kitchen with her expressionless face and gave me the freshly made hamburger without saying a word. I said thanks and gladly accepted the hamburger and in my mind, I hope they put the correct number of pickles in the hamburger this time. I do not wish to make a scene in the restaurant for just one missing pickle. Thankfully, this time they got it right.
Throughout the process, there was only one person communicated with me and it was the same person that puts the order into the bag. There will be another person prepared my hamburger in the back of the kitchen and another person takes care of the Drive-Thru customer(s). Based on my observation, when the drive-thru window has no customer waiting, the employee who tends to the window will walk away from the window and went to the kitchen to chit-chat. She continues to chit-chat with her colleague and it is obviously that she is ignoring the fact that it was short-handed at the counter and any extra help would be appreciated. I believe if she helps to assemble the orders while the other person enters the order, this will improve customer wait times. It will be recommended that there should be at least two persons for each cash register to help ease the waiting time. One person will put the order into the system while another person helped out by assembling the order. This will cut down the waiting time tremendously and avoids backlogs that cause customer waits. Furthermore the restaurant should open few more counters to serve the customers instead of just one counter. This is especially important when you have a long line is forming and you have another group of customers waiting for their orders. Since the special order process went smoothly and the register system already pre-set the regular menu with limited special orders function, I would recommend a small modification to the system where it allows the employees to key in extra information that are not pre-set in the system. For example, it will allow employee to manually key in ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE - 4’ instead of just of the pre-set ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE’.
When it was my turn to order, I was greeted promptly and the McDonald’s server was friendly. I placed an order as a to-go order. I ordered from the ‘Dollar Menu’ for one small French fries without salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I stressed to her that I want four pickles with my hamburger and she just nodded. She entered my order promptly into the system without batting an eyelid. I presume she got my order correctly but when she told me my order was $3.24 instead of $2.16, I was so sure that she got my order wrong. When I asked her to repeat what I have ordered, she got it wrong. She placed an order for four McNuggets instead of four pickles for the hamburger. I politely told the woman that it was the wrong order and she quickly apologized and delete the McNuggets from the order. This time, she got it all right. Since I asked for four pickles for the hamburger, I presumed I will get charged for them. When I asked her about the extra charges, she just shrugged it off, “There will be no extra charges, sir”. She repeated my order stressing on fries with no salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I paid for my order and then waited near the counter to receive my food. The whole ordering process took less than 4 minutes.
Since McDonald’s employee salts all their fries as soon as they are cooked, there are no cooked fries without salt ready for me. She told me that I had to wait for my food because she needs to make a fresh batch of French fries. She put a basket of uncooked fries into the deep-fryer and a button was pushed to start a timer. In 30 seconds later, the timer beeps and she shake the fries before putting them back into the fryer. One minute later, the timer beeps again and this time she take the fries out and drain them in the basket above the fryer to let the oil out. In 30 seconds later, she takes the basket and dumps the fries out onto another tray as the existing tray already laden with salt. My order was served promptly; however, to my disappointment, my hamburger came with three pickles and not four pickles as I have ordered.
I quickly get hold of my server and point it out to her that there should be four instead of three pickles in the hamburger. Basically I was worried she will roll her eyes and look at me like I was a lunatic for complaining about one missing pickle in the hamburger. She just calmly took back the hamburger and told me to wait while she gets a new hamburger for me. She went back to the kitchen and in 30 seconds later, she emerged from the kitchen with her expressionless face and gave me the freshly made hamburger without saying a word. I said thanks and gladly accepted the hamburger and in my mind, I hope they put the correct number of pickles in the hamburger this time. I do not wish to make a scene in the restaurant for just one missing pickle. Thankfully, this time they got it right.
Throughout the process, there was only one person communicated with me and it was the same person that puts the order into the bag. There will be another person prepared my hamburger in the back of the kitchen and another person takes care of the Drive-Thru customer(s). Based on my observation, when the drive-thru window has no customer waiting, the employee who tends to the window will walk away from the window and went to the kitchen to chit-chat. She continues to chit-chat with her colleague and it is obviously that she is ignoring the fact that it was short-handed at the counter and any extra help would be appreciated. I believe if she helps to assemble the orders while the other person enters the order, this will improve customer wait times. It will be recommended that there should be at least two persons for each cash register to help ease the waiting time. One person will put the order into the system while another person helped out by assembling the order. This will cut down the waiting time tremendously and avoids backlogs that cause customer waits. Furthermore the restaurant should open few more counters to serve the customers instead of just one counter. This is especially important when you have a long line is forming and you have another group of customers waiting for their orders. Since the special order process went smoothly and the register system already pre-set the regular menu with limited special orders function, I would recommend a small modification to the system where it allows the employees to key in extra information that are not pre-set in the system. For example, it will allow employee to manually key in ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE - 4’ instead of just of the pre-set ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE’.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The ABC's of DISC
I am the C high D type in the test. I think it is quite right. The C type, conscientiousness, "emphasis is on working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and accuracy" and D type, dominance, "emphasis is on shaping the environment by overcoming opposition to accomplish results". Currently my major is accounting and I am an accountant of the company. I love accounting job, it needs to reconcile and analyse all the data and number or play with the number. It needs to be organize and accurate. Although sometime you find it is boring to deal with the number everyday but it is fun when you successful find a solution or finish a project.
I think it is helpful to determine people's management type to understand people but it is not 100% dependable. From the test you can find out what type of the person he/she is but it is not necessary suitable for him/her. For the test in the class, most of the classmate are type D, dominance, it doesn't mean all of them can be the leader or manager. It involves many other issues. For my experience, it is necessary to take some times to know and understand a person. Is he/she fits into the position or able to handle the assigned job or function.
I think it is helpful to determine people's management type to understand people but it is not 100% dependable. From the test you can find out what type of the person he/she is but it is not necessary suitable for him/her. For the test in the class, most of the classmate are type D, dominance, it doesn't mean all of them can be the leader or manager. It involves many other issues. For my experience, it is necessary to take some times to know and understand a person. Is he/she fits into the position or able to handle the assigned job or function.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The Power Of Vision
I am an accountant of an online company. My future goal is getting my master degree and CPA license. I either want to open my own accounting firm or be an executive officer of a company. I want to get a house with big backyard.
I have been working for long time and work in many different fields, from sales to purchasing, from bookkeeper to accountant, from East coast to West coast to Midwest. I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge from all those years. With my knowledge and experiences, it is not hard to find a job with good pay after I get my master degree and CPA license. After a year or two, I should have enough saving to get a bigger house. But before that, I need to work hard to finish my school and get my license. I know it is not an easy way but I am so confident that I will accomplish it in five years.
I have been working for long time and work in many different fields, from sales to purchasing, from bookkeeper to accountant, from East coast to West coast to Midwest. I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge from all those years. With my knowledge and experiences, it is not hard to find a job with good pay after I get my master degree and CPA license. After a year or two, I should have enough saving to get a bigger house. But before that, I need to work hard to finish my school and get my license. I know it is not an easy way but I am so confident that I will accomplish it in five years.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Decision Making
During the class decision making exercise, Prof. gave us the 90% freedom to make our decision except a few restrictions. At the beginning, there were few people tried to speak up with some opinion, after a while, it became a mess, few people tried to speak out at the same time and shouting each other. Finally there was one classmate came out and lead the class. It became better for a while and gone wild again.
From there, I found out since Prof. gave us limited time to come out a group decision, there were people misbehavior, frustrating, shouting and there were people very clam or silent. For my opinion, I think whoever lead the group should write down ALL the opinion from the group no matter he think it works or not. Then everybody should vote and pick the top five options. But from what I observed, the people who lead the group only write down whatever they think were benefit themselves and ignore the rest. This is not the right way to be the leader or manager. You can't ignore any opinion or any person in the group or you will get skru.
At the beginning, I was compromise to get the best decision for the group interest but then there were some students tried to compete to win some option for their own interest. When Prof. told us there was one of the option that we had were hurting the class the most but since it benefit a small group of people included those who lead the class. We tried to took that out but they ignore us. At the end I had to collaborating with the leader to remove that option.
From there, I found out since Prof. gave us limited time to come out a group decision, there were people misbehavior, frustrating, shouting and there were people very clam or silent. For my opinion, I think whoever lead the group should write down ALL the opinion from the group no matter he think it works or not. Then everybody should vote and pick the top five options. But from what I observed, the people who lead the group only write down whatever they think were benefit themselves and ignore the rest. This is not the right way to be the leader or manager. You can't ignore any opinion or any person in the group or you will get skru.
At the beginning, I was compromise to get the best decision for the group interest but then there were some students tried to compete to win some option for their own interest. When Prof. told us there was one of the option that we had were hurting the class the most but since it benefit a small group of people included those who lead the class. We tried to took that out but they ignore us. At the end I had to collaborating with the leader to remove that option.
Monday, October 1, 2007
An Eggs-cellent Way to Plan
When I saw Prof. Kurpis took some straw, tape and egg into the class, I knew there were something going to happen. When he announced the project, I was wondering how could that be? I started thinking hard of how to make it happened. Finally, I had an idea. When we discussed in the group, I realized that my idea would not working same as few other classmates. There were people went to the front to check the material that we were going to get. We kept giving output and input. Finally, we all compromised for a solution.
We stared drawing plan and assigned job to each other. When we got all the material, everyone were working on the job that assigned to. There were one or two that were not sure how to complete their own job but other were helping them. We were able to complete our assignment on time.
Everyone were so excited when one of our group members dropped the egg. WE MADE IT!!! We were one of the only two teams that were able to drop the egg without breaking it. Even thought other teams think we were cheating but we followed all the guideline and able to accomplish it.
We stared drawing plan and assigned job to each other. When we got all the material, everyone were working on the job that assigned to. There were one or two that were not sure how to complete their own job but other were helping them. We were able to complete our assignment on time.
Everyone were so excited when one of our group members dropped the egg. WE MADE IT!!! We were one of the only two teams that were able to drop the egg without breaking it. Even thought other teams think we were cheating but we followed all the guideline and able to accomplish it.
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