Saying Goodbye

It's hard to say goodbye
This semester just flew by.
We started as usual class
And ended up with interesting past.
Who knew that management lecture
Would shower us with blogging pleasure,
And teamwork trying to succeed
Will end up on blogs for all to see.
How can class be fun but exam with the twist?
Just ask you charming professor Kurpis!
Or you can also ask me-
Well, that's how school should be...

On blogging experience

As most of us in this class I didn't have a blog before-I didn't know how that works. I've been introduced to blogging through this class, so thank you professor K! I think that creating a personal blog and writing on different topics throughout the course has helped me to know more about the class material, people around me and their unique points of view. Blogging was definitely interseting part of the course and it should be assigned to all students who's taking this class. It works hand in hand with class activities, topics and communication between students/professor. Especially helpful when discussing class activities-it's easier to understand a particular topic when I have to write about past experiment and read on what others had to say. It's a great tool to conect, learn and have some fun too while keeping it a professional attitude. And 20 % of the grade?! That's a good way to earn those points if you really do the work. Will I keep my blog after this class finishes? Yes, but not sure what I'm going to blog about or who to follow : )

Personality type testing

The very first time I had personality test was long time ago back in high school. Over the years I did more tests and the results were always the same. So I wasn't surprised to find out that I'm the Di type of person. Dominant type. Since I can remember myself in the gindergarten, school or college back home, I was always a leading kid full of energy and atitude. Always participating in many activities and being in charge was natural to me. Sounds like a good thing to be leading type of person but there are minuses too. As I was making friends easily, I also had enemies. I realy hated that but I just could not be nice to everyone or put up with something that I didn't like. Basically-my way or the highway. I needed to control the situation most of the time and felt bad if I couldn't. Or not knowing what to do with myself because I had so much energy and ideas but no people to go along with me and make it happen. So I start writing for a school's newspaper, and later-for a local city paper. It felt good to express myself by working on different stories and managing my articles. By now I learned very well how to be just an employee and follow the rules without questioning. But that's only until I'm competent enough to have more responsabilities. There are times in which I step back and not get involved, it's all depends on situation. Some people are happy with the same kind of task over the years but I need some challenge, diversity. And that's just the kind of person that I was/am, nothing to do with need of beeing in power or above everyone else. I'm sure I could not change to another type - the real deal always comes up : ) sooner or later.
When it comes to working with different types of personalities - I think a mixture of all 4 types is perfect scenario. I don't see any problems to work with either of them, however, too many or absence of D's could be a trouble.
And when choosing a date, I would go for the opposite type, because more then one D is enough.

Dreams, vision and action

We all start with dreams: about higher education followed by better jobs, income, nice things to add to our home, loving family, help others in need, ability to travel and enjoy life by fully exploring our own possibilities. As I see it, the dream is the first step towards the accomlishments. By dreaming, we create a vision, begin to imagine how that dream would look/be/feel like in our future. "The power of vision" video is about positive attitude, the belief in our future. I liked the words by V.Frankel that something significant to do yet in life is what gives us the power to seek more. As all of us in this class/college I want to graduate, get the job at the good company. My goal is to be CPA. And this wish drives me forward, I know it will happen. The next step then will be to work for one of the "Big 4" for some time. Those are big plans that will require time, patience, sacrifices of some kind, and lots of work. My vision is backed up by actions, therefore - it will come to life. Absolutely. Of course, there are visions about starting a family, traveling back to Europe more often, learning how to play the piano at last. But for this, I haven't do too much of' ''action taking"...yet! 

At first I thought that to make a decision that everyone agrees to it's gonna be piece of cake - we all want the same thing! Turns out that decision making within a big group of people is a challenge. Professor said that size of the group don't matter, even two men can make this process difficult. True. But what I found interesting during the class "chaos" making the right choises for all was that I kept quite for most of the time. It's not like me. I do participate in any kind of decision making when it comes around but this time I felt it was too many "speakers". And it's not like I don't care what the result of the debate it's going to be, it's just frustrating to screem what I want loud. I have to say that making decisions IS easier in a smaller groups - for argument itself. Even though I wasn't the one who throw the ideas around but I was collaborating with others - those around me. We spoke with each other about our ideas and then one or two raised their hands to get leader's attention. I think that's better way to actually achieve some results in a such big croud. After all, timing is everyting and most of the guys were happy with the result. Most of them....

Magic of listening

Class project to plan, execute and succeed, hopefully, at dropping the egg on the floor without cracking it was a surprisingly interesting exercise. Team work can be smooth and productive but also could be a mess. My team was great-planning process involved everyone and we had fun. It's not about the egg - it's about an importance of a good plan. We  followed all steps in the planning process... except for one. We agreed on what is our goal, how to use available recouces and time, worked on ''egg-saving case'' design, even had our leader who took initiative in his hands. But there was an opinion/proposal that we overlooked.  One guy joined our team later and was trying to suggest alternative strategy how to build safer egg case ( very similar to one that winning team made ). Since we agreed already on a particular model and he missed the instructions for the task, there was no interest in what ''a new guy'' had to say on that part. Just a few minutes later he was on board and cheering for our egg to survive. Finally, as any beginner with some tinny errors, my team did a good job on planning and working together.

Cultural Differences From my point of view

  I come from a small country of north east in Europe that has a pretty conservative attitude towards anyone that is different or anything that is new. Not negative - just conservative. And I love that. But....When I landed a job for a cruise line I discovered the whole new, big, crazy, exiting and so colorful world full of different people. You see, in Lithuania 10 years ago we didn't have too many tourists or people from outside the country, not to mantion different race, religion, orientation etc. I will never forget how sophisticated those french people in Marseille seemed to me, or how handsome were the guys in Marocco, Egypt or Turkey-just because they had dark features(opposite of lithuanians). And how friendly, loud and curious was the behavior of the people in Caribbean Islands, Central America! I was shocked when native panamanians approched me in a very friendly mannier to sell something - they were so little in hight and so talkative that melted my heart. Living in New York is no different from traveling the world when it come to meeting all kinds of people everyday. In my country we don't hug or kiss a person in a cheek everytime we see him, maybe old people do that. We also don't finish a phone conversation with a friend or family member by saying i love you-which is very common here in States ( more for the girls). Americans smile a lot! To everyone-it's a part of communication. We don't do that if we don't know a person or simply don't like somebody.Smile here is a must and I find this more pleasant and efficient way to be. I have to say that Americans are one of the most diplomatic and favorite nation I have met. Because of that this country is open to everyone and changing minds of the people around the world.