Sunday, the Fun Day

Before walking into class today, I was not sure about how long I can keep my attention span. However, the interactive / experiential learning tool kept me engaged till the end. The Aracruz simulation was a great tool practising the stakeholder dialogue. Again, one can easily use the learning from this simulation while negotiating / proposing difficult issue at work.

The cross-cultural exercise as well as the outdoor activity were effective convincing me the additional communication sensitivity needed while dealing with different cultures. What an amazing way to learn the inter-cultural communication challenges.

The presentation slides, in between, these exercises were helpful creating the theoretical framework around the real world situation(s).

Once again, cannot imagine that the weekend is over and enjoyed both days thoroughly. Shall we repeat the weekend session again and let go the weekday classes?

Wild Weekend

Kudos to all for making a daunting weekend, fast paced and fun. I had a sense of dread heading into the weekend. 2 days inside after working all week? What were we thinking? But it all worked out. Having the undergrad participate was a positive. They brought a fresh young perspective to the proceeding. I must admit my head is about to explode. Which team was I on? What was my role? When was the assignment due? What’s next? Waiting for lunch was like waiting for the airlines to announce when your delayed flight would FINALLY board…but who cares, if you have a laptop and connectivity, you can handle anything…Costa Rican style. Let’s cancel ALL our Tuesday classes and just meet one more long weekend!

Something needs to be said

Playing cards where no talk is allowed is definitely not easy. Besides the challenge I had playing cards not knowing the exact rules, I had so much fun watching hand gesturing, mouth moving and eyebrow shrugging from my teammates. At the end, it’s time to vent. What I take home is that everyone has different interpretation of things, deal with frustration and ambiguity. Because we were not allowed to communicate what we understand or what we think how the cards should be dealt, it changed the dynamic of the game. I could see that to make the best out of the situation was to compromise. Someone had to either submit to the rule of the current table or the existing players embraced the new rule that was imposed by the new comers. No table really had a win-win relation (synergy communication). To that end, I think without verbal communication it will be almost impossible to be as effective as the team would want it to be.

Immersing into Cultural Aspect

It became clear after today's marathon session that understanding cultural dimension is a prerequisite to become effective global leader. I was intrigued by cultural influence on communication styles. The card game and video session drove the point home. I will be attending those conf calls and video conf with my international colleagues with a higher sensitivity for sure.

I also believe that today's learning regarding cultural sensitivity can be applied to organization culture. Especially, when one changes job and joins an organization that has a unique culture, your success depends heavily on your skills of cultural accommodation and then achieving cultural synergy. We learned in another class on Advance Management that majority of CEO who fail in their new assignment within first 18 months are due to not understanding their deliverables clearly. One may argue that the organization culture may be the underlying factor behind this high failure rate.

Lastly, I enjoyed the food and waiting for the surprise tomorrow at lunch time.

We are the World...

After the action packed class with the intriguing debate, it was clear that we are here not only to hear but also to be heard. So, let our hearts out, and talk. I think this is a great opportunity to express one's thoughts, opinion and share views. This can be an environment where nobody is judged but understood. I really look forward to get to know all of my classmates.

I guess I am the only one from Bangladesh in the class. I would like to share a story of a Bangladeshi rural woman who's life had been changed because of the Global wave that had swept across the nation in the mid 90's. She was a 23 year old women with no education, living in a poverty driven rural area. After 3 years of marriage her husband left her and she had nowhere to go. Beaten by the harsh reality this woman thought of taking her own life when she was saved by a very kind person named, Bibi Russel. She gave her shelter and a Cell Phone. This Phone changed her life. She started a to work as a liaison between the village weavers and the Fashion Houses in the city. Initially she worked under Bibi and after a year she opened her own little company. This may seem a bit dramatic but this is how many lives in Bangladesh has been changed. But there is also darkness under the lamp. Globalization did broadened the gap between rich and poor.

Actually globalization is a process and we need to understand its virtues as well as it's vices. We sure are in a desperate need of Great Global Leaders. Hope there will be somebody from this class to lead the way.

First Class Meeting

To tell the truth I was surprised that although I am nearly copleted with the San Jose State MBA program I recognized very few of the individuals in the class. This allows for an opportunity to gain perspective from new sources. I think if the class works out as I hope I will gain additional data points that I can leverage in the future.I too thought the debate was pretty interesting. I even found myself thinking of further aurguments on the way home :)

I actually attended the first class on Tuesday, still confused as to whether I wanted to take the course or not... But after sitting through the class I absolutely had to take this course.

While usually in other classes there is a little introduction and we get straight to the lecture, I really liked how the first class was so interactive and fun filled. I also like the fact that there is a lot of experiential learning which gives us the opportunity to meet and interact with new people. I also feel that rather than learning a whole lot of theory, we would learn a lot more if we actually participated in activities and met real world global leaders who can share their first hand experiences. This class also provides a lot of room for creative thinking with the innovation project, which is some thing I'm really looking forward to work on with my team.

As mentioned by my fellow classmates, the debate was quite an interesting task. It was a great way for us to change our mindsets and forced us to think against our pre-conceived opinions. I believe this is a quality all great leaders posses, to be open and understanding to new things and obviously fosters innovation.

I'm really looking forward to more of such fun and interactive classes and working with my awesome team.

Reflections......

I thought the approach Joyce presented was very interesting. It's one thing to read the materiel and discuss it, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to defend a position (even if it was a view opposite of my own). I believe that you gain credibility in an argument if you can view it from the opposite side of the table and still be able to, respectfully, defend your position. Our "con" team really had a lot of great input too. I am still a pro globalization, but can respect the sacrifces that will made to achieve it. I'm looking forward to the class, still think the work load will be daunting, but if it was easy, anyone could do it!

see y'all for some quality time this weekend.

Tongue-tied

"...and that's why we are against globalization...and yeah!"

Those two minutes seemed to go by a lot slower once I was in front of the class representing the anti-globalization side. I sort of faced this challenge as, "Just do it." Speak and the rest will follow. We have our notes, I have my teammates with me. We can do this! Only to find myself repeating the same concept in an effort to leave my teammates some key points to "hit" the pro-globalization side. Yes, I was nervous. (Could you tell? ;)

In addition to re-examining the points for and against globalization (and wanting to play a trumpet sound after Nitin's closing arguments) I found myself enjoying the team collaboration and laughs we shared. Our entire anti-globalization team was learning as we brainstormed. We were all so supportive of each other. For those of us in front -we all knew what we wanted to say, but we stretched ourselves trying to rebut the pro side. It's one thing to write points on paper - it's another thing to debate them! I had comfort knowing my comrades were sitting right next to me. They also knew what I was experiencing!

Honestly, the most I took away from yesterday's class was basically that we each had the opportunity to lead and had fun doing it. The environment wasn't intimidating at all. It was laid back, broad, and inviting. The actual exercise of figuring things out (i.e. what to say, how to say it, what will be the most effective) was hard - but it was us leading! From listing what we wanted to learn to trying to get specifics on the innovation project - leadership is vague and in Mendenhall's words, "Complex, paradoxical, intriguing and problematic." Scholars are still trying to understand leadership and how we develop it. I think that's why we were given simple guidelines with challenging tasks. I'm excited about the project assignment that pretty much said, "Innovate!" And that's why I'm OK with being tongue-tied.

Folks - I truly enjoyed getting to know you last night. As we discover leadership together I know one thing's for sure: it will be a lot of fun.

The convergence of cultural clashes - 012610

One of so many things I am surprised and really like about American cultures that I got a chance to expose in the class is that how confident, open, competitive, and aggressive, all in a good way, people in my class are. I was raised in a completely different culture perspective to embrace silence, humbleness, and observation so as to praise others and keep myself a low profile. Of course, it is not a first time I attend a class in the U.S., but something is very special about this class where we are encouraged to express our opinion, argue and convince people to believe in it. I am neutral about globalization as I believe there are advantages that need to be promoted and disadvantages that we have to work on to mitigate the bad effects of globalization, and the process of the world globalization is out of one’s control. What we need to do is to accept it as a chance to evolve and survive, especially if one has to work in a world-wide business environment like I do everyday.

Jan 26,2010

While reflecting on yesterday's class, I was trying to figure out the relevance of the globalization debate.It dawned on me that one of the reasons behind the debate could be to emphasize the importance of looking at an issue or a problem from various perspectives. A key take-away for me is that a leader in a global setting can be more effective if that person has an understanding of both sides of the coin.

Globalization has enabled a country like India, which was bankrupt in early 1990s, to drastically raise its foreign exchange reserves by approximately $300 billion over the span of two decades. This has led to an unprecedented buying power for the Indian middle class. Additionally, it has created an economic inequality that has kept millions below poverty line and more than half of the child population undernourished. Such facts clearly indicate a mixed result as far as the impact of globalization is concerned.

1st day of global leadership

I really enjoyed the first day of the class. It was a different experience. Mostly first day of any class is where the professor talks about introduction of the course, what will be covered, whats expected out of the course and so on...I liked it when we were divided into groups and were asked to give our inputs and expectations. I think that was a great way to start the class where we can share what we expect out of the course and what our goals are for the class.
The presentation on the SHIFT magazine was also very interesting.Even though it was introduction to our assignment, it was very interesting to know what is going on in the world around us; like I didn't know that HP had a laser printer where the content of the magazine could be customized while printing.It's a great step forward in the media industry.
The most challenging activity for me, and I am sure for many others was the debate.When we were asked to pick a side for pro or con globalization, I had not only picked up a side but already started thinking about points for the debate. So we had to argue for the opposite point of view, it was very difficult for me to stop and think from a totally opposite perspective.I have faced this challenge many a times, where it is difficult for me to understand and see other people's perspective or point of view specially if it's completely opposite. This excercise was great learning experience.I believe that globalization is here to stay and I am looking for forward to a great learning experience in this class. I enjoyed meeting so many new people and I look forward to working with them.

-Jalpa

First class take-aways

I felt the debate was the most intriguing part of the first class. The debate made you look at the argument from the other point of view which I've learned to develop over the years but I always need more practice. It's very difficult to take a step back and try to see where the opposition is coming from. Once I'm able to do this, I'm able to work better with people and come to a compromise on the issue at hand. It's so difficult to have a complete understanding of the person's point of view that it take a lot of practice to let down your defensive guard and try to comprehend their culture and background. I believe I've come a long way, but I know I have more to go. Always understanding the opposition's view is a goal I have in this course as I know this is necessary to move on in my career.

Hi Fellow Bus 297D classmates,

Enjoyed my interaction with you during yesterdays class, especially the globalization debate. Again, to reiterate, globalization and outsourcing should not be confused. Secondly, we cannot stop globalization, rather we should influence its progress in the direction that can lead to win-win situation. With modern means on transportation and communication (VOIP, emails, video / web conf etc.) globalization is going to accelerate, hence lets embrace it and employ it for the best of both worlds.

One area of my interest which falls under the scope of globalization is Medical Tourism. Globalization forces were huge enablers behind medical tourism. Along with my team mate, I have developed a business plan related to Medical Tourism and love to exchange the thought with similar minded students.

Happy blogging,

Nitin

Welcome to Business 297D

Hi everyone. Please use this class blog to post your journal assignments (instructions found on Blackboard). I encourage you to read your classmates' entries and leave feedback.