Even though only
two of them ended up being about sports, I thought to write about sports for
just about every post. Sports organizations, especially from high school, are
easy to analyze since they were some of my first experiences within
organizations. From what I have read, other students tended to write,
especially in older posts, about high school, presumably because they have
already been thought about. Also, as a senior in college, I have already
thought in depth about what happened. It’s easier for me to see what caused
some of the issues that we ran into after time has passes.
Sports are often
common experiences amongst people. Most people who I interact with have
experiences with a high school sport, band, or club that competes against other
schools. When people discuss jobs, or other organizations not associated with
high school, they have to explain some of the inner workings of their positions,
whereas with high school sports, we know that there is a coach (manager), other
players (coworkers), and normally a clearly defined goal (winning). There
exceptions to these rules; some teams may be more or less hierarchal or may
have a plan to not lose, but these exceptions come with the aforementioned assumptions.
When explaining an
organization that is unfamiliar with outside people, it’s difficult to choose
what information is critical to their understanding of it. In other posts that
I have read, I do not feel like I have enough information of the situation to
connect with their experiences. In my post about my business venture, I found
myself finding ways to make two sentences out of a concept that may take me three
paragraphs. I would rather not write a thousand-word blog post, and I do not
think my classmates would like to do the same. As far as my writing structure,
I find it helpful to outline what I plan on writing about before I do it.
Usually the outline is only about 100 words, but it helps get my thoughts in
order and have a flow that another person can understand. When I do a brain
dump, my points can get convoluted. I wrote countless papers and I am
especially interested in Marxism in literature, so I tended to keep that hat on
in my previous posts. Recently, I have been trying to link the prompts to
classroom discussions and recent experiences within organizations.
Furthermore, I
tend to write about the inefficiencies of past organizations, as opposed to
efficiencies. I may just be seeing the glass as have empty, but at times, it
seems like a waste to focus on the positives. In theory, it’s good to give the
positive things and the negative things equal attention, because knowing both
may yield a more objective interpretation of the organization. Also, most of my
posts discuss instances of the problem of motivation. Different people are
motivated by different things, and it is always a challenge to change my
technique depending up the situation. In the moment, it is far more difficult
to determine what will or won’t work than retrospectively.
By incorporating the positives of
organizational situations, readers will get a wider scope of the orgs I
present. For example, on my basketball team, there was a time at the end of
each Saturday practice for people to discuss problems that we were having. At
times, conversations got heated, and even as a captain, I found myself frustrated
and aggressively expressing my emotions. Our team had three captains, and I was
the “nice one”, so when I got upset it seemed to mean a lot. Everything that
players brought up did not get incorporated in our day to day operation, but at
least everyone knew how everyone else felt. As a teenager, it taught me that I
had to speak up when something bothered me, because otherwise it could go
unaddressed and make me feel worse.
Most people that I
see in class seem to be involved in at least one organization, and if they are
not, I am sure they have feelings about UofI or Illinois politics. I would not
mind a prompt where people discuss how the organizations that they are a part
of affect their college experiences.
I feel your pain about describing things to people (me in particular) who have no like experience and thus require a lot of hand holding to understand what is going on. Nonetheless, it is an important skill to acquire. The familiar, as you suggest, provides comfort. The new, in contrast, provides a challenge. Sometimes challenges overwhelm us. Other times, we rise to meet them. In either case there is more learning with that than with sticking with the familiar.
ReplyDeleteI have written on other students posts about the importance of reading good non-fiction essays to see how other writers address this sort of issue. You learn to do this better by emulating good writing that you like and trying to produce something similar yourself. There are many different possible approaches. For instance, one can start with a very simply example. Alternatively, one can start with a general proposition. How you work from there can also vary, so that produces a multitude of possible approaches.
Writing about inefficiencies - seeing the glass half empty instead of half full - is quite okay in describing how things are or how they were. But then, knowing your tendency to do that, you might spend some time on how things might be and point out where the path to improved performance lies.
The clearing the air sessions you talk about are interesting. But the way you talked about their benefit it was only about getting something off your chest. Did the issue otherwise get addressed? If not, while you weren't holding it in the team might still seem dysfunctional. If yes, that would create a good feedback loop to help resolve other team issues, by encouraging teammates to bring up the issues as they arise.
I am a little wary about getting students to discuss their political views in class. The last time I did that it didn't go well. And we've had one prompt about people's experiences in organizations. But I can imagine that we have some discussion about outside-of-class work, say via an RSO or a campus job, and whether that competes with or complements the in-class work. That might be interesting. So thanks for suggesting it.
I'm glad that you brought up the fact that you mostly focus on the inefficiencies of organizations. I feel like without zooming in on these issues, people would not be able to come up with solutions to the problems that inefficiencies cause. Sometimes I am hesitant to criticize or say something negative about an organization. However, I understand that if everyone felt the same way that I did, then no one would ever bring up the problems of an organization; eventually, the organization would completely fail or simply not be able to meet its goals. Overall I think it's really important to bring up the inefficiencies of an organization.
ReplyDeleteI also think that your idea about a prompt in which people talk about the ways that an organization on campus has affected them could be really useful. I would like to hear about the ways that RSOs, jobs, or other organizations have made impacts on the lives of my fellow classmates, and I would also benefit from the opportunity to think/write about how a campus organization has affected my own life.