Week 2 Review - Not as Easy as it Looks!

And So It Begins

Never As Easy As It Looks!

Evening All,

It seems this evening my identity has been uncovered by a few members of the course, if this is the case, ALAS, this may be my last post & chorus so to speak. I have tried in vein to keep this blog a vestitute of anonymity and ability that lay therein to challenge the thoughts of the course from day to day may now be gone! If not HAPPY DAYS see ye all tomorrow night!!

My apologies for not getting a meaningful review of last weeks "action" up sooner, it was so draining I was asleep until just after 2pm today! When Brendan's Nazi style personality analysis started. It was very subtle but you just know the weak among us could be led to the Gas Chamber at any stage!!

Taking a look back at last week, I suppose its best to continue on from my last post where I looked back at Geraldine's rubber ducky and De Vito's project! That brings us swiftly on to David Staunton on Tuesday afternoon! (Would it not be better to give the "social drinker's" among us the Monday morning off, instead of Tuesday! just a thought)

David started on a rather funny note talking about 'Fuzzy Front Ends' (projects wise) now I am not the fussiest of listeners, but I tuned out for about 5 minutes after that opener! Also during this presentation I was slightly frustrated by David going back to the old teaching mantra of 'There's no such thing as a stupid question'! Sorry David, you're a smart guy', but yes there f***ing is and its compounded by the fact that the 'stupid questions' had often been answered in either the slide on the projector or the last 5 mins of the lecture! And yes it could be a Corporate Governance issue (you know who you are), but that's like Father Jack once said 'that's an ecumenical matter'!! Venting over! Of course we were reminded as possible future Project Managers of our 'Sacred Responsibility to Disappoint' when has that happened in Ireland except after the proverbial horse has bolted!

"There are no Stupid Questions, only Stupid Questioners!" - Anon

We move on to the final day of the week, Wednesday, where we have a Geraldine - Frank double header and where you must have your wits about you! It's a long day! We started with Geraldine who began by outlining the tools required for the business analysis process. The importance of interpreting your business analysis findings and also the context in which they are arrived at.

The importance of context was no more ably demonstrated than by Geraldine's comment:

"If they are straddling each other, it's Ok"

Now those of us in attendance knew she was talking about the factors in PESTEL analysis, but hey if you just walked in!!! We moved on to review Key Success factors in business and also Key Drivers for change! Overall a great lecture & plenty of food for thought!

We move on reluctantly to Frank Munnelly's appearance with his trusted sidekick in tow!

Now I am sure Frank can do a lecture on his own, but then who would carry his Ego! After Frank had finished his impression of a stripogram by emptying all but his clothes onto the desk we began by exploring Innovative Thinking and after a cautionary tale of the Tragedies of Logic we began to drift to the Men-A-Porche (male version of the menopause!!) Frank are you trying to tell us something!

Key Points;

1. Defer Judgement
2. Strive for Quality
3. Seek Wild Ideas
4. Build on Other Ideas

Our final task of the week was to solve world hunger and oh the Irony McDonalds mentioned more than once!!

Until my next bout of verbal diarhea,

Good Night & Safe Home,

The Blipping Student

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