MSLD 511 Personal Blog

Levine states that, “productivity and satisfaction, in business and personal relationships come from our ability to collaborate with others” (2009, p. 5) When you care for someone, you want to listen and hear them, hear how they are, their struggles, complaints, difficulties, etc. It is simple to be self-focused and have one million things running through your mind as your listen to others, but then you are not truly giving them your undivided attention. More than anything else it is important to be mindful of how you treat other individuals. Levine created a seven-step resolution model for the “Cycle of Resolution.” Step number three is, “listening for a preliminary vision of resolution” (p. 41, 2009). However, Levine states that listening begins in step two with listening to all side and stories offered in the conflict. Levine says that our idea and take on the situation will likely change as we learn and listen to the information presented from others. I truly try to be as act...

Within an individual’s everyday life of decision-making, one could see and pull their values and potentially their beliefs as well based on their decisions they made. Individuals assess their protected values and weigh the positives versus the negatives when making the “right” decision. Hoch states that, “People often draw a line in the sand to create values that are protected from trade-offs.' These protected values (PVs) are considered absolute and inviolable” (2001). I hold many values, as well as protected values, many that are tied to my worldview beliefs. My first protected value would be the importance of family and community. The values that I still hold today are stemmed from learning and observing family members; such values as honesty, integrity, compassion and kindness. Due to learning these values from family members and growing very close to my family, I have grown to value their relationship above all else. This starts with my husband, then trickles down into m...

All individuals have a reputation personally, as well as professionally. During communication, reputations are at high stake, especially when an individual is in the midst of negotiating. In our text Hock states, “…reputations can be formed based on either first-hand experiences or second-hand experiences” (2001). After a negotiation an individual does not hope to come out of the conversation as a liar, deceiver or push-over. Furthermore, Hoch also reveals that, “…deception in some kind is an inherent part of human interaction” (2001). Identifying these lies and deceptions within negotiations is not an easy task, but rather a skill to be learned. Individuals should not want to be taken advantage of, or have their words be misinterpreted. It has been found in one study that 28 percent of people lie within a negotiation and that 100 percent of individuals were unsuccessful to reveal an issue or lied about it during a negotiation (Hoch, 2001). One way an individual might reduce vuln...

Unfortunately, frame blindness occurs much more frequently than an individual, or company, would like to know. Hoch, Kunreuther and Gunther discuss frame blindness in our Wharton text as, “All too often, managers look out at the world through one mental window and fail to notice the views offered by other windows” (2001). Individuals can do this of course within the workplace, but also personally. Professionally and personally one wants to continue growth, however, if you are tapped by this blindness, growth will be stunted. The first aspect to avoid framing traps is to assess the current frame you are utilizing. From a personal perspective, I once had a high-stress job in sales and my managers could be very hot and cold with their personalities, therefore, I never really knew what I was daily walking into. Due to this, I try to do a frame “audit”. Hoch, Kunreuther and Gunther define a frame audit as, “...surfacing your own or your organization's frame or frames, understandi...

Effective decision-making is crucial for leaders and managers within an organization, as they are making hundreds of decisions every day. These decisions are affecting every aspect of their company, team and customers. Hoch, Kunreuther and Gunther state in their book Wharton of Decision Making, “Good decision making has often been described as following an orderly and logical process from framing a problem, assembling alternatives, evaluating them, and choosing the best one to implement” (2001). However, with natural environmental and technological growth, decision-making is a fast-paced, ever-changing environment that has greatly shifted over time. Within the admission department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, we utilize various approaches when dealing with complex, multiple stakeholders and environmental decision-making processes. COMPLEX DECISIONS First, within complex decisions, the counselors face unending data regarding potential students, past stud...

Sheena Iynegar’s discussion on decision making, selections and the various options we are faced with every day was extremely eye-opening. I am often faced with multiple decision within my personal and professional life, and I do notice the “freeze up” I encounter with the various options. Sheena reviewed four methods of helping individuals improve our experience in making decisions. Sheena stated at the end of her lecture that, “the key to get getting the most from your choice is to be choosy about choosing” (2011). From her four suggested points, this seems to be an art to acquire. Her four methods are listed below:   1.     “ Cut – less is more….get rid of those extraneous redundant options, there are increase of sales and lowering of cost for companies who do this. 2.     Second technique for the Choice overload problem, Concretization - in order for people to understand the differences between the choices, they have to be have to unde...

Throughout this first week I have quickly learned that there is much more to decision making than just finding the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ decision. As Robert Meyer and Wesley Hutchinson put it, “As decision makers we are prone to be overconfident in our occasional successes [in decision making]’ (Hoch, 2001). As humans, we often make decisions that are not always optimal due to other factors, such as personal experience (both positive and negative), emotions, biases and stresses. In this assignment I will discuss a bit about my personal approach to decision making and how it compares to the 6 step process outlined in the 6 Steps to Better Decision Making article. My professional decision making process has been honed throughout my last three years since graduating with my undergraduate. Previously I did not survey the entire situation or issue at hand before making a decision. Through trial and error, I now try to analyze every aspect of the situation before making a professional...