Week 2 - Down to Business

Down to Business

A Day for Searching the Soul!

Afternoon All,
Firstly thanks to Brendan today for putting the details of the Blog and Twitter feed up for the class to see, this is an opportunity for the whole class to interact and comment on the days events. While I will attempt to throw my opinion on the days info, I am far from infallible and always be receptive to the critical and constructive views of my peers! Plus this is meant to put a lighter point of view across.

We started the day with Innovation Management, with Geraldine. Today's class had much more of a college feel to it and I was immediately aware of the more focused approach to the course content and the stark realization that we were in fact here to learn! But I have a bone to pluck with Geraldine, Archimedes with a Rubber Duck in the Bath, c'mon! See Below the picture relevant to Archimedes discovery of Mass,

The picture of Archimedes with the Rubber Duck shows him discovering the Law of Buoyancy, attention to detail! Despite this rather discommoding cock up the rest of the lecture went pretty well, with us discovering more Eureka moments from inventions past, Thomas Eddison and the Lightbulb (eventually) & Pringles among them.  

The afternoon saw the introduction of Brendan Martin to proceedings a man with an enigmatic charm comparing to that of Danny DeVito , our research project leader for the course. He started his presentation with his own introduction, straight forward enough, he went on to look for the class' support in his pursuit of personal  constructive criticism with regard to his presentation slides and also reminded us to be very critical indeed of all the lecturers PowerPoint slides. He was insistent that we at every opportunity ensure that his work is of the best standard, outlining that slides should be no more than 35 words long, clear concise and without too many bullet points to ensure the reader has clarity of the message being delivered.

BRENDAN,

SLIDE 1 - 63 Words +

SLIDE 2 - 65 Words +

However when we got down to business proper Brendan gave us the QUOTE OF THE WEEK,

"Get out of yer Box"

We went on to explore our personal profiles and were sent on our way today with HOMEWORK!, now that's a new one. We have the Jung/Myers psychological profile to complete which will give us a guide to how well we play with others and interact at work. For more insight into this pretty common HR tool CLICK HERE, it will give you a guide to your responses and the Personality Type you are. It is definitely a bonus to understand the results of this test and how you can apply it in teamwork, career and interviewing. 

The practical research project represents over half the marks for the course so in reality we will be depending on the lectures and guidance of Brendan over the next couple of months to help us all get across the line with this one. I am sure I am not the only that does not know quiet what to expect from the placement phase of the course and the Team work aspect of same! I have worked in productive and destructive teams in the past and can find it very hard to conform to the politics of the workplace and the dynamics of teams, I say what I mean and mean what I say and if that upsets or offends (which it often does) then Tough Sh*t. I have a feeling the competitive nature of  teams & people and necessary confrontation that will bring about will be new to some of our class mates, but if it is taken that it will be a personal development tool we must embrace it and as Brendan highlighted we rarely get the opportunity to select our workmates and that may be similar for the tasks ahead.

With all that said it may be prudent to take the Personality Profiles a little more seriously and then evaluate ourselves and those around us to ensure where possible we create balanced teams. Ensuring all the necessary skill-sets are addressed within your team. Napoleon Hill's famous early 20th Century book 'Think and Grow Rich' highlighted the importance of 'Mastermind' groups where we ensure that we pull together people around us that will help, advise and develop us personally and professionally to ensure success. This is a task we must complete here.

We move on to Tuesday with the enlightening lecture in Project Management from David Staunton, a little bit more information on our project management lecturer HERE.

Until my next bout of Verbal Diarrhea,

A BLIPPING STUDENT