Week #6: Ch. 8 Lighten Up! and Ch. 9 Risk

Reading Ch. 8, I was surprised by how Shackleton makes a normal day a celebration. One thing I noticed when I heard about this story, is that there are many celebration days in Japan (or it may not be that "celebratory" though). For example, we call 29th of every month "meat's day." Because we can pronounce 29 as "ni-ku" which means meat. Though it is a normal day(not a holiday) and some people don't even care about it, some supermarkets sell meats cheaper on 29th than other days. Then, I looked for Japanese anniversal and memorial days on the internet, and I found on the wikipedia that every single date has some meanings!
For example, January 1: the day of Tetsuan Atom (Japanese Anime Character)
                                   2: the day of moon rocket (I don't know what this is)
                                   3: the day of eyes and elopement
                                   4: the day of stone
Though it might not be really celebratory(or even might not be true), isn't it fun to just think of what kind of day tomorrow is when you are really in a situation Shackleton and his crews suffered?^^

Reading Ch. 9, I was impressed by Shackleton's and the author's courageous decision. If stays, slow deteriotation. If moves, death or ultimate safety. How were they able to make such a firm decision when they were on the edge? If I were they, I cannot.

Week #6: Managing Conflict

Today, we got into the groups of 4 and shared our memories of "conflict."
Soon after starting our talk, I remembered one of my worst example of conflict......
Well, when I was in high school, I belonged to the basketball team, and human relationship there was getting worse and worse as time went on.
When we had a conflict, we gathered in one place and discussedeach other to solve it.
But then, most of the members of the team advocated or talked too much of what they wanted to say.
And they didn't really listen to what others say. So the problem has never been solved.
What's worse, the basketball is a team sport. Though we made efforts not to bring any private problems to the court, it was too difficult not to care about it. During the practice, we always had dark atmosphere. We had never won a formal game.
One team member, who didn't talk a lot in discussion soon quitted the team.
I wanted to quit, too, but I really wanted to be in the team until the season we retired, just because I wanted the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, when retiring.
But I only felt sad when we retired.
Having experienced this, I learned it is significantly important, may be more than anything, to be patient and listen to what others say. I wonder, what would each team members and the team itself have been if all of us have read "Leading at the Edge" and taken Ken's class......

 

 

 

Week #5: Ch. 6 Core Team Values and Ch. 7 Conflict

Reading chapter 6, I was impressed by Shackleton's sense of equality. I felt especially so when reading doing lottery for getting reindeer sleeping bags. We don't usually make a lottery and do things fair when we are on the edge. For example, when there are some snacks and many people want them because they are almost starved to death, they might do rock paper scissors (I think rock paper scissors is more unfair than lottery). And I was surprised by the fact that Shackleton himself didn't participate in the lottery though he suggested to do lottery. Well, he seemed to be a very nice person, but as I mentioned before, I think he should have thought himself as more important prescence since he was a leader. He was too kind.
And reading chapter 7, I understood just how important the presence of a leader is. In case of Karluk, separation of the leader from the team caused the tradgic result. I learned a leader should never get away from a group, and also one group should never be divided. At the edge, it seems people should be all together and do same things rather than separate and do different things. 

Week #5: Negotiation Tactics and My Negotiation Style

We focused on tactics for negotiation today. Throughout the today's class, I felt negotiation familiar to me, and also we can find negotiation a lot in everyday life. I felt strongly so when I heard Ken's experience of selling a house. When I heard buyers didn't have to leave the town in haste and didn't pay by cash though they told him so, I realized they used "speed ups" and "drawing lines." But here is my question: is that morally right? They were actually lying since they didn't act as they promised. I doubt if we can call their ways of negotiation as tactics. I am also reminded of my own experience of negotiation; when I wanted my friend to come to, for example, a party, but she wasn't willing to, I often list the names of who come to the party. And I tell her "Those friends of you also come, so let's go together." I used negotiation tactic "authority limits," (though it is not a limit actually), unconsciously.
We also discussed about our negotiation style. My style is "Collaborating." I wonder if this really is my style. Since I have never become conscious of which style I was using when negotiating, I am not very sure about my style.

Week #4: Ch. 4 Stamina and Ch. 5 The Team Message

Reading chapter 4, I was surprised to know that Shackleton died by heart attack which was caused because he overworked. Shackleton seemed so perfect as a leader, reading previous chapters, like setting goals, making speeches, and being opitimistic but seeing reality also. It was shocking to me to think that he cared about others a lot and he thought well about how can all crews work as a group well, but he just didn't think about himself very much, that he didn't think of taking rest for himself. In the previous chapters, it said that he often gave a little portion of buiscuit to his crews though he himself was hungry. But I wonder what he was to do if he was starved to death during the exploration because he gave the rest of his food to his crews and didn't eat that much. I learned it is also important to care about my health and condition if I were a leader of something, and to know limitation of myself and depend on others.
Reading chapter 5, I wondered why the team conditions were so different in the situations of Shackleton's and Krakauer's. They were both in the very tough situation and it said "the Everest climbers were much better prepared than any of Shackleton's team." They might not have had a leader......Even if not, I can feel the teamwork and emotion of people really depend on leaders in my part-time work place.
In my working place, there is always one manager who decides who does what and when, and has responsibility for all what happen - a leader. A manager who is good at doing this job can make the atmosphere of other crews very good even if there is tough condition (ex. there is not enough number of crews to work, the number of customers making line, etc.). But a manager who is not good at doing this job, or who really doesn't think about other crews, or be angry at crews when they make mistakes, makes the atmosphere very strained and bad.
 

Week #4: My Research Proposal

 
Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the very-well known leaders in the history, who was actively involved in the French Revolution. He had an exceptional ability to lead people which enabled him to become an emperor of France at the age of 34. This paper will be about the details of his leadership and how it led to the success of his battles, because so many civilians of France at that time were fascinated by his power, and even today, he is famous for his achievement and contribution for his country. Though Napoleon is also known for his tyrannical side and he lost his position eventually, he was very good at motivating his subordinates and the public and gaining the trust from them, and he was always in the front line of the battle. Ralph Jean-Paul analyzes what we can learn from Napoleon’s leadership, that is written both in a good and a bad way (2011). Morgan T. Deane writes Napoleon’s leadership skills and details of his tactics (1995). Max Sewell focuses on Napoleon’s personality that made him a great leader (1995). These sources seem to support my thesis statement.

So this is my research proposal. Though Napoleon is mainly known for his exceptional ability, he also had some bad sides. For example, he became less confident after being defeated in one of the battles, and also he restricted medias strictly to avoid majorities opposing to him.
Should I also write about his bad sides, too? If so, how should my thesis statement (Though Napoleon is also known for his tyrannical side and he lost his position eventually, he was very good at motivating his subordinates and the public and gaining the trust from them, and he was always in the front line of the battle.)be changed? 
I am looking forward to seeing some comments that can help me><

Week #3: Ch. 2 Symbolism and Personal Example and Ch. 3 Optimism and Reality

Reading chapter 2, I learned a lot of detailed, but very important skills to be a good leader. For example, we negotiated "The Last One" today, but during the negotiation, I never cared about my voice's volume and the choice of words, though I cared about giving internal information and summarizing which we learned in the class. But it says Shackleton "chose the right tone -calm, confident, and reassuring." In such a difficult situation and himself very responsible, how can he keep being calm and not only care about other crews, but also even how to tell to his crews? If I were in his situation, I cannot do that. I respect him alot><
And reading chapter 3, though it says optimism is not neccesarily innate, I strongly feel that it is something you have or not. I think inner dialogue is an interesting idea, and it is better to do that than nothing. But I cannot imagine myself being optimistic than now, just by taping the phrase "You can do it!" to the mirror and seeing it everyday, when I am in a really tough situation! I think the team leader mentioned in the book was successful for doing this, because of his innate characteristics. The book says it might seem to be contrieved. But I don't think it is contrieved. I just think it is not effective for a person who is very negative, like me;_; 

Week #3: Happy New Year! and How hard to Negotiate with Snake Eggs (or chocolate balls)

あけおめ！ことよろ！

Today's this class was the very first period of the very first day of school after the winter break, and how hard it was for me to stay awake......but the negotiation problem with rare snake eggs vexed me and thinking about it easily woke me up, haha......anyways, our group had really hard time to reach to one solution. I was a seller, Atsuko was a buyer #1, and Kenta was a buyer #2. I needed total of $300,000 to keep my business going on, so I thought I at least needed to sell 1 egg by $30000, and I have to sell 10 of them. Here is our solution for each to get at least some profit: Kenta buys 10 eggs from me by $300,000. And he makes some of eggs breed, make another couples, and make eggs again. Then he sells 10 eggs(keeps other 5 to his) eventually to Atsuko by $100,000. What a great idea! (we thought at that time.)  Atsuko is not in rush, so she can wait until Kenta's eggs to be breeded. Moreover, Kenta works in Biotech labo, so there might be new technology to breed eggs quickly. To reach this solution, we calculated each profit again and again, spending hard time on doing it. Therefore, I think you can imagine our reaction when Ken said buyer #1 only needs egg white and buyer #2 only needs yolk. I wondered why they didn't tell me about that! They told me about how much money they can spend on eggs, how many of them they want, and those stuffs. But they never told me about which part of the eggs they want......Kenta told me he didn't know what yolk was. Atsuko looked very surprised to hear Ken's words.
What I had learned from today's negotiation is that we need to look things diffrently, or from different points of view. We clung to the fact that we had to make a profit, and couldn't see other factors. And it is also important to give all information you have, even if there is some that doesn't seem important.
I thought I learned some negotiation skills from the last time, when we did the orange problems, but I made the same mistake again here......that we never came to think of separating what we want!
By the way, the eggs were so delicious^^ I was suppose to sell them but somehow I came to eat them, haha. Thank you for the eggs, Ken!