QUITE AN EGGS-PERIENCE

It is always a difficult task to simply be thrown into a situation and be required to produce something demanded from that. More or less this is what happened in Management class on September 24, 2007. The task was to use 8 straws and tape to make sure that when an egg is dropped it does not break. Sounds easy right? Not really. This task took a great deal of planning to make sure that the group was going to be successful. First, we defined our objective. This pretty much means we all made sure that each and every one of us knew what needed to be done. It also means we had steps planned out which we followed and we kept track of where we stood at all times. That leads directly into another planning process which is determining our current status. This involves knowing what needs to be done before we began and knowing what resources we have to complete it. Another planning process that was fully discussed is developing a premises regarding future conditions. The group certainly did consider alternative methods of making sure the egg would not break and we discussed and even documented flaws or positives that could come about from them. Then it came time to make a plan. We chose the path that we would take and fully understood what we needed to be done to implement our decision. Jobs or roles were not exactly handed out specifically but certain members of the group took charge and knew what they needed to do and in that process no positions were overlapped. It finally came time to implement the plan and when we did we were successful. We took no corrective action because none needed to be taken. Our results were as clear as day because we not only succeeded in making sure the egg did not break but we also received the reward of extra credit for our proper completion of the task. I feel that the group was very effective in our planning process. The best judge of an effective planning process is an effective outcome and here that outcome was reached. One way the group could be more effective is we had assigned jobs earlier on. That would have created a smoother task completion. All in all it was quite an experience and a pleasing one at that.