brainstorming | Colin Luck

This is it! The final blog entry. I cannot believe that this is the last one. It is a bittersweet feeling. I have enjoyed the concepts that have been taught in this class, as some of the topics that were discussed have really given me a broader perspective on group dynamics and leadership. Here’s my top three concepts that will be useful in my future career in business, were enjoyable to learn about, and were really intriguing.

Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
- This social interaction concept between two or more individuals was really interesting to learn and discuss about. The concept is used in not only psychology, but economics and politics as well; it is very versatile in its conceptual use. In the example below, it is obvious that it would be of the best interest for both participants to cooperate, as this equally gives them the least amount of time they would have to serve in jail. However, due to our selfish tendencies we have as humans, it would be of better interest for one of the prisoners to confess and the other to stay silent, and then one of the prisoners go free. This great example of game theory was perfectly executed in the game we viewed in class, Golden Balls, where one of the participants backed the other in a corner and came outright with his stance, no matter what the other had thought. This would be useful to me if I ever decided to commit a crime and have a partner during this crime. It would also be useful if I have a career in economics or politics. This concept is just a part of the conflict chapter that I thought was very interesting, as it requires a lot of cooperation and mutual trust.
Bystander Effect
- The rape and murder of Kitty Genovese was the perfect, and rather morbid, example of the bystander effect. While this woman was being attacked and raped in her own home and there were witnesses around, most bystanders took no action. Instead, they thought someone else would take action, as they did not want to get involved. While this attack went on for many hours, not a single soul out of the 38 witnesses said a thing. Because the witnesses thought that there were others that were capable of helping in the situation, they did not act. If it had just been a lone bystander, he or she would have been more likely to help as a single person feels like they had a duty to act accordingly. I’ve even seen this countless times before. The situation wasn’t as brutal as the Kitty Genovese case, but it was when a student was asking for help on their homework and no one helped that student due to the feeling that someone else might help them. This is just another example of this effect. Social influence at its finest. Another time that I have seen through this was when I witnessed a carjacking at Phipps Plaza near Lenox Mall. There were plenty of witnesses to the carjacking, but no one called the police due to the fact that the assailant had a lethal weapon. It isn’t necessarily something that can contribute to my success in the business world, but it is still a useful concept to touch on.
Babble Effect
- I feel like this one pertains to me the most. As an avid talker, I can relate to this one hundred percent. This is the tendency for individuals who talk more have a higher chance to emerge as leaders in a group setting as opposed to those who do not talk as much. I have seen this firsthand in my classes that have group projects, particularly last semester in my Honors Principles of Microeconomics class. We had a group project report on a business that had to be a minimum of 20 pages. At the beginning of the semester, I was nominated as our group’s project leader due to my copious amount of ideas I spewed out at our first group meeting. This led to me doing the majority of the work as far as drafting and editing goes. That class taught me that quantity matters more than quality through my immense amount of discussion and the fact that I drafter 15 of the 20 pages single-handedly. This would be the most useful moving forward as I now know that I can always talk a lot and move up in leadership capability within a group. This would be great during the brainstorming stage on a marketing or business team, as the more you talk, the more you contribute, according to the babble effect.

All of these psychological theories and effects I have learned throughout this course on group dynamics has changed my perspective, as the theories discussed were intriguing, interesting, and outright fun to learn about. Some of the theories will also be useful in my prospective future career and leadership position in the business world.

When I applied to be in the LEAD with Honors cohort, I expected to have guidelines, structure, and design already planned out for us for our four year journey. While we do have some of that, such as our course structure, the way we govern ourselves was just messy and sloppy. Because of this course, however, we were able to answer questions that were all on our minds at our monthly meeting this past week. With that being said, had there been structure before we joined the cohort, we would have been able to have better group performance instead of wasting away all last semester on what our structure was going to be. Because of our sloppiness and indecisiveness last semester; this is most likely the direct reason we saw a decrease in membership by nearly 20%. As of now, we lost almost 30% of our original members, and the numbers are just going to keep dropping. It might be inevitable, or it might be something else that we need to discuss to make sure it doesn’t happen again for the future cohorts.

To maximize group performance, we will need to have someone just draw the line and take a vote on something, rather than bouncing around an idea for 45 minutes at each meeting. I know we want to have all our ideas on the table, but when we just keep brainstorming without deciding on what we want to do, it can drive a lot of attention away from our main focus during our meetings. We already have a leader during the meetings, but we need a monitor to make sure that we decide and come to a consensus instead of just leaving ideas in the wind and moving on to the next segment of the meeting. Also, there just seems to be a lack of interest among about half of the cohort, as some never contribute to the overall discussion and just choose to stay silent. That may be their personality, but personally, I would like it if we heard everyone’s ideas, instead of just staying silent and going with what the majority decides. This may be me playing devil’s advocate, but I feel as if it is necessary for our group discussion at our monthly meetings. Also, we seem to still be fuzzy on our group roles and assignments, and clear rules should be laid out accordingly to each position, so we know what to do to facilitate a better structure. Ineffective team meetings, role confusion, lack of interest and participation, and unresolved issues are all problems that we face in which we need to overcome to become an effective cohort.

For the next cohort, I’m glad that their structure will be a little different than ours, as their HON 1000 class will be a minimester. That would have been the best thing for us last semester, but there is no reason to dwell on past issues. The course structure for the next cohort is already better, and I feel as if they will probably have a better structure overall for both curricular and extracurricular purposes. We just need clear roles and effective team meetings in which I believe will enhance our group performance.

Colin Luck

Archives: brainstorming

Reflection Journal #7