socdim - workshop 2

The second workshop we had is in connection with the last film we watched, which is the movie “Apollo 13”. In the workshop, we were divided into three groups, and those three groups have to identify the people, process, and technology that had happened during the course of the film. Our group was assigned to “people”.

When we say people are the things that people had done as part of Apollo 13. Like for example the decision making that the captain of the land crew which was firm and precise. That if not for his steadfast actions the space crew might not have survived the mission and would be dead during the process.

socdim - apollo 13

Had our last film for the social dimension it’s the movie starring Tom Hanks the title is “Apollo 13”. It is a true to life adaptation of the astronauts that boarded the Apollo 13 mission. The mission failed to land to the moon but had returned safely to earth with minimal resources, just their will to live and their ability to follow instruction given to them by the command center.

The movie showed how to survive by following instructions by the dot sequentially. The movie showcased the how a leader should act in times of trouble. A leader should not panic, should have a straight mind, and should not doubt giving orders especially if the orders are based on facts and not assumptions.

The movie is worth watching. It will give you a sense of leadership. It will show you how a leader should act in times of crisis. And never gives up if any problems arise.

socdim - tools and models

Part of the subject social dimensions is to have an individual/group report on either tools or models. This was done every week and every group or individual should provide 3 examples of either of the two. My group was to report on tools and my part of the report is presenting the tool CRM. CRM is also known as Customer Relationship Management. It is used to organize contacts of persons that you are in business with. It organizes schedules with different persons to prevent overlapping of schedules. It is also keeps record of the important things that you should know with the person you are transacting with.

This tool is very helpful most importantly in our office. If it is only present in our current system, our work will become more efficient and accurate. I hope someday this tool will be implemented in our office.

socdim - workshop 1

Our first workshop is in connection with the film we watch which is entitled “The Inconvenient Truth”. The workshop mechanics is sight the cause and effects of global warming. We were given a piece of Manila paper where we will write the things that we think that may be a cause or effect of global warming. The workshop is fun and interesting. Fun because everybody helped or contributed by enumerating the cause and effects of global warming. It is very interesting that every effect leads to death. These only points out that global warming is a serious issue that should be taken care off, if it is not well addressed it might be the end of the planet we call mother earth L.

socdim - The Inconvenient Truth

We had another film to watch its entitled “The Inconvenient Truth” it is a documentary by former US Vice President Al Gore. The documentary is all about the drastic climate change happening in the world.

The documentary shows how fast the climate change is happening now that is destroying the world we live in very rampantly. Al Gore points out how we can prevent if not slow down the face of decomposition of the planet earth by proposing less use of technology that greatly contribute in the production of green house gases that makes the temperature of the earth more warmer, thus melting ice caps, resulting to floods, earthquakes, abnormal season change and other forms of disasters that is contributing to the destruction of mother earth.

The movie has shown awareness that if we don’t act now it maybe too late to save our beloved planet. The movie has showed that although technology helps our daily lives much more easy and comfortable, we should monitor or limit the use of it because it may cause harmful effects. The lessons in this documentary are also applicable in management decision making. That in every decision we make we should not only think of the positive things that may happen but also of the negative side. That we should weight everything so that everything good we do should have less or no negative result.

socdim - a bug's life

We watched our first film in social dimensions. It’s the movie “A Bug’s Life”. Its all about a colony of ant’s saving food for the rainy season not just for them but also for a group of grasshoppers. The movie showed how the ants stood up against the grasshoppers and prevailed.

The movie showed not just unity between the ants, but also many aspects concerning technology and management. It showed how innovation can help to ease work load. It also showed that traditional procedures may be improved by using technology. Management skills was also showed where the ants followed step by step procedures given by the queen ant and create a bird that can possibly drive out the grasshoppers.

All in all it was a great film that has much useful information in management and incorporating technology as a tool to have a productive and systematic work flow.

Session 7 - Managing Structural Capital: The Dynamics of Knowledge

On this session in MICMGMT our group ( badette, marga, ate eva and me (of course hehehehe) was about to report about "Lessons Learned". It took us several weeks maybe two to finalize the report hampered by deadlines in work and other extra curricular things that filed up! (damn!). We are all set to report we are 2nd to report for the class, as the report was short not as we intended but because we did not comply the requirements or what sir Gerard is expecting for our report to be or should be. It lacked on how to convince him to use the Lessons Learned as a Knowledge Management process. So in short... we have to re-do our work on Christmas vacation... The Irony of these is our topic is about Lessons Learned and we did not "learned our lesson" (hehehehe). Lesson Learned should be a process that involves observation, analysis and testing to prevent flaws or mistakes. Our report actually is half baked we did the research, no problem with that, but we lacked in arranging the report with requirement given... Oh well, at least after the report that day I'm sure we learned our lesson :P.

Session 6 - Knowledge at Work:The Structural Capital

Usually to start things off with our session Sir Jerald always gives up exercises or trivia's to get the class started. With this session he gave something to solve. He drew a square on the whiteboard emphasizing on the corners by putting up dots. He asked the class " Is there anyone that can make this square twice its size by only moving two dots and re-connecting it to make a newer one?" I gladly volunteered. Because even before i like solving riddles, puzzles because it challenges the capacity of my brain to think. Just like the game chess riddles and puzzles sharpens your memory. So i get up from my seat took the white board marker and studied the drawing. For around twenty seconds (I think) i have solved the problem. I just moved the upper left hand dot placed it beneath the lower left hand dot in its diagonal (90 degree angle) then I moved the lower right hand dot and placed it on the upper right hand dots diagonal. Making a shape of a diamond with equal sides (which is still a square).

I have learned that paradigm shift is solving problems out of the box. Thinking of new solutions to problems which is not by the book but is following your gut feel or instinct on a certain problem.

Session 5 - Leadership in the New Economy

This session date in MICMGMT is the day that we have to report on some short stories. Our topic is Susie Wong. I think we did quite good on this report for it is almost self explanatory why Susie Wong was not promoted on her job although she has the credentials (very good credentials) to back it up and she does perform in her job excellently. It is because she doesn't know how to
be a team player or to work with other people. The learning on this story is that even though you are smart intellectually you can lead, sometimes you have to know how to socialize with your co-workers to get their feelings. You should have the "carisma" to be a leader. Arrogance will get you nowhere.

Another topic discussed by the other group that I liked the most is the story of "short pants". It was very hilarious, that the long pants that the character requested to be trimmed was overdone and turned the long pants to short pants. The lesson learned in this topic is that miss-communication almost all the time creates disaster. That we should be keen in giving and following directions. :p

Session 4 - Empowering Knowledge Workers

In this session we where to rate our selves and co-workers with in our given unit. I gave my self a value of easy to replace with high value added. Why do you say i gave my self this kind of rating? For starters my position in the office according to my TOR (Terms of Reference) is mostly clerical( that's what it says but the hell with it) which is very easy to replace. When I accepted this job my only interest is the "salary" although its not that lucrative but on my experience with my other works before CHED its pays more. Yes my first job is related to my course I was a Maintenance Supervisor in a Plant. (WOW! first job and already a supervisor) but the catch is it pays poorly lets just say i get more allowance when I was in school. So upon entering CHED I said just one year and I will look for another job, although I did look for other jobs, I've started to enjoy and understand our work. That made me stay this long in the Commission.i also gave may self a high value added, why? because it is not purely clerical. Yeah I admit on the first few months it was very boring photocopy, encode, photocopy. But as it goes by they learned to trust me in my decisions, I am currently with the Technical Panel for Information Technology Education, which my course is an allied field of ITE (BS ECE). So I can adopt very easily and I can share opinions from what I learned in the Industry. Now although the position did not change I am very involved in the decision making in our unit not just doing the clerical stuff, giving me a "high value".