Frisbee Golf is no fun!

So this week in class, we had the opportunity to play an exciting game of Frisbee golf. To be honest, I was not too excited about throwing a Frisbee all around campus. But, if anything, I discovered that no matter how much you don't want to do something, it will always be there and there is no avoiding it. In the book "Self-Directed Work Teams" there is a section that talks about Theory X and Theory Y which compare management Assumptions, theory X saying that most people and lazy and controlled, need to be motivated, and not very smart. While theory Y says that people like to work, they have self-control, they are smart, and they want to do a good job. The difference is that the employees will most likely agree with theory Y, seeing as it shows trust where theory X sees the employees as sheep. In our game, we had to decide if as a team, we were going to motivate each other, or end up playing babysitter.

In the book, "Leading self-directed Work Teams" Fisher talks about how our "thinking affects our behavior." Unless our opinions of people or the game change, we will be stuck in a bad attitude. During Frisbee golf, there were many of us who took the game seriously and were truly interested in winning. While some of us, including me came in with a bad attitude and therefore put forth minimal effort. Something I learned is that is the whole team is not giving 100% then no one can win. Same in the business world, the whole team need to be a part of the game.

"Expert power comes from perceptions of expertise or knowledge." In Frisbee golf, there was really no purpose in my leadership seeing as I have no skill in the game, however, David and Ethan knew exactly how to play and therefore held an understandable authority. In leadership positions, it is vital to know when it is appropriate to lead and when to step back.

Take 1..Take 2

In "Mind your Business" I was reading about Heresy and Blanchard’s situational leadership. They talk about how different kinds of people require different levels leadership and involvement. On Monday in my team’s class Sara and Ryan asked us to break up into small groups and each record a portion of a commercial. Following the Situational Leadership theory, they were able to delegate the task, and let us perform according to our abilities. The task was like a game, so it did not require a whole lot of urgency, besides a time constraint, and the maturity level of each member was high enough that Sara and Ryan were not holding anyone’s hand.

Another article in "Mind Your Business" talks about an exercise called "Lost on the Moon" in which a group decides what would be the most essential items if someone was stuck on the moon. Thinking about creating that commercial, we had to decide as an entire class what were the most vital facts to be included in the video and then in our small groups we needed to again break it down. If I was leading a group in he corporate world, it is just as essential to know the direction that I'm heading, and what the project I am working on requires. The difficult part is trying to get everyone your working with to agree what the most vital parts of Leadership are, which was what are commercial was themed around.

One of the best things about Monday and making the commercial was that I really think we all felt pretty sure of what the goal was and how to put the project into action. In the book, "Managing Teams" one of the cautions that Lawrence Holpp gives managers is how important it is to "move slowly with teams." He talks about "planning your objectives, goals, structures, needs, and potential problems." In our discussion of the "how" and "what" our commercial was going to be, Ethan Lunn played an essential devils advocate by pointing out a problem he had with the basic format. I really do think that if no one disagrees, it’s like the "going to town" example, that we will just let it happen.

Overall, I really did enjoy this activity, I think that in leadership there are going to be many times that we, as leaders, will find ourselves all being called to work together to create, direct, follow and serve. And as simple as making a commercial may seem, it really did test each of us as individuals on how and where we were to fit into the task.

Ultimate Frisbee is more than a game of skill...I guess.

For my leadership class we are reading this book called "Leading Self-Directed Work Teams" I find it fascinating that all the ideas in this book seem to slip their way into every action that we perform throughout any activity. In the book, there is a section in chapter six that talks about how critical meetings and training are for a team. Last Monday in class it seems like we spent a whole lot of time playing the game with little preparation and absolutely no game plan. I guess the assumption is that "hey, we're college students, we know how this works," when honestly I had no idea how the game was truly played.

I think it can be quiet overwhelming for a team, if their leader stands up in front of a group and reads an internet "how to" print out of the game plan and then sends them out full force. Even though this was just a game of Frisbee, I can imagine what a disaster this would have been if it was a business project, or even more dramatically a strategy on the battlefield. Sure we would have a few guys who knew how to shoot a gun, some who could map out a target route, but if there is no training, are we not setting them up for a slaughter? So if the game we "learned" on Monday was real life, we would have been screwed. (To put it in the nicest terms)

With a little more training, and if the history had been relevant, this may have been a beneficial day of leadership. But I guess, since I learned something, then it was beneficial. I think I am just beginning to get what this class is about, it's more than the actual three ours of sports, but a day to relate to the rest of our lives, in the work force and in the symbolic and literal battle field. Figuring out how to take leadership, break it down, level the playing field, and figure out what the games are really about.

snoooooooooooooop Step with the five P's

Last Monday in our team’s class, Katrina and Laura lead an unusual day of rhythm. We followed the idea of “stepping” and had to create a routine using our hands, feet, and mouths. The purpose was well rounded; we were a project, task-based team that was overall self-managed. We had to work together to create this team with very little dictation from either Katrina or Laura. The difficulty was the place; each person was randomly selected to perform a different motion, a few for the mouth, a few for the hands and a few for the feet. The problem was that most of us lacked the ability to perform fully in the area assigned. But overall we pulled together and formulated a plan to be as efficient as possible. Luckily there was hardly any power struggle for so many leaders to have to work together, each of us did well keeping an open mind and using creativity.

One idea on Chapter two of our Managing Teams book discusses using small work groups within each team in order to better balance out the leadership and creativity. It says that if this is done successfully then they can operate with little supervision, which I believe that we accomplished.

Looking at idea of social facilitation, our team had to be considerate of the abilities of each member when choosing the moves and positioning of each person. For example, for those who really lacked hand coordination, it was necessary that we create a steady beat for them to follow, the same idea with the mouth, and those who could beat box separate from others who can not carry a tune. Over it was an interesting and building experience, each week we seem to get to know our own strengths along with the other leaders around us.