So, as I'm sure all readers know, this blog is about the egg-dropping exercise from class. I thought my group's construction was very good, and I was surprised it didn't work, though to be fair, there was only a very slight crack in the egg...so I guess we came close =/
1)Which of the “Steps in the Planning Process” did your team actually go through?
Obviously, Step 1(Define your goals and objectives) was done for us. Professor Kurpis told us what our goal was.We had to find a way to protect the egg, so that it could survive the drop. He told us exactly what amount of time we had for each part of the process. Same goes for step 2(Determine your resources and current status vis-รก-vis objectives); as we planned different strategies, we kept this in mind.
As for step 3(Develop several alternative strategies), some people would suggest ideas, then let the rest of the group critique them, enough so that we moved on to another idea, until we finally settled on one. once we settled on one...we didn't have back ups. there wasn't time for back ups once the 10 minute count started. We kind of did step 5(Implement the plan and evaluate results)since we obviously did implement it.
2)Which did you bypass? and why?
We bypassed step 4(Make a tactical plan) because there simply wasn't time, since we'd spent the time going through different ideas. Once the 10 minutes began, we each just sort of took roles upon ourselves, and either started working, or waited for another group member to tell us to do something. We also bypassed parts of step 5. we finished our egg-protector seconds before the time was up, and had no time to evaluate our work, or even think about changing anything.
3)How do your evaluate your team’s ultimate performance given the effectiveness of your planning?
I think my team worked really well. We went through many ideas, and were all honest and open enough to criticize each others ideas. Once we decided on something we stuck to it, and worked very well together. nobody really took the role as leader, but we were so focused on the time/resource shortage, that we all tried hard to help each other. our planning was good, i think, given how little time we had. i think we used our time efficiently. and the results? we really did come very close to getting those 5 points.
4)How could you have been more effective as a group in the planning of your task?
I know people say there is always room for improvement, but I really don't think there was in this case. we ommitted parts of the planning process that are not really necessary or available in this situation, where we were SO short on time/resources. Also, what we were building was not that complicated.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My group also had a little tiny crack; Personally, I thought we still made it. Doesn't that just suck though? To be so close and yet still fail? I wonder if there is a class on learning to deal with failure; Maybe I can take it, because I am still a little bit resentful. You know what, I am going to disagree with you about Professor Kurpise essentially dictating to us step one and two. My argument is that as a group, many people became so focused on what he had told us, that they forgot to check on the external elements; such as the skills of the different members of the group, and perhaps even what the competition was thinking up. Personally, I know my group did have an issue that we were so concerned with how we could mee prof.k's goal that we did not pay enough attention to even the different attributes of the egg!!!! Something that is clearly valuable when your trying to drop an egg 10 feet is it's hardness, and we completely forgot to examine it! Shame on us. Perhaps in the future to deal with your lack of time you can single out someone who admittedly is not helpful to the group (we all have our strengths and weaknesses), and have them watch the time, and notify the group when certain amounts are left over; This would allow your time to at least better pace yourselves and reach your goal, while giving the individual who otherwise could not contribute, a meaningful job. Even though you did come very close to getting those extra five points, which we all ended up needing on the test, there is always room for improvement; I'm sure unconsciously you or someone in your group has already pointed out parts of the process that they did not like in your group and will now be unwilling to let happen again, such as monitoring the time better. Good luck next time, I'm sure that your group, and hopefully my group will be lucky enough in the future.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you did a good job following the planning process. When on such a limited time schedule back up plans are hard to do. Also in this case once the egg cracked what back up would you really have anyway. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteSince the time limit is one of the biggest problem, i think if we can use our time more effective maybe we can done better.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow team member,
ReplyDeleteI can definitly agree that we did a great job with the planning proccess. I still think our plan would have worked well if the egg was droped properly.