..:: 642. The One With Ms Kay ::..

i shall dedicate this post to my fave tutor from my years in NBS. Firstly, she is not only inspiring but also like a mother to us. Constantly giving us feedback and I am glad that I kept all her feedback so I can share with you guys. Maybe I shall start with the more inspiring ones then the random emails she would drop us throughout the course. jiayi and yash would enjoy reading these. haha.

learning, avoiding, proving orientations

Here is another piece of OB wisdom that is practical and useful.

You all know that in any graded exercise, some people will get better grades than others. Research has found that over an extended period of time, those with the best results are people with a learning orientation.

People who approach work, life or studies with an Avoiding Orientation are so focused on avoiding failure that they are too stressed to perform well. Either that, or they fear failure so much that they refuse to try hard, so that at the end of the day, if they don't do well, they can say "It was a lack of effort" rather than "I couldn't make the grade". Big mistake because the world is full of talented failures.

People who approach work, life and studies with a proving orientation are like sprinters. Good over short distances. These people set out to prove to themselves and others that they can. They try really hard and do really well until they meet the first setback which proves that they can't (or that it's impossible... or that the system is unfair etc...) and then they stop trying. Big mistake because life is a marathon. It doesn't end till you die.

People with a learning orientation focus on the learning value of every experience. They have no need to prove anything. They have no fear of failure. These people say "Never mind if I don't get that 'A' from Ms Kay, the experience alone has taught me so much". It sounds lame but research shows that people with Learning Orientation experience more and more success as time goes by. Time is their friend.

When learning snowballs on learning which snowballs on learning... success eventually comes.

12 weeks is only a VERY SHORT relay sprint in the whole race of life. If, in the first pass, you stumble and don't get up... what can be done for you?

Student to Ms Kay

Ms Kay,

Good Evening. I hope to bring your attention towards the instruction that you sent us this morning.

In my opinion, it is a little too last minute, since it is sent during the weekend, with our presentation on Monday. This leaves us little time to respond as most of us have already done up both case studies and allocated presentation slides accordingly. Changing the focus to one case study would require us to reallocate and modify slides, which require a discussion where all team members to be present, which, in this case, be very difficult as those living in halls may have went home, and each of us has different commitments.

However, I hope u understand that I am not questioning your instruction. In fact, I was wondering if this last minute change of instruction is a test of the efficiency of our teams, or our responsiveness towards sudden changes, or perhaps providing a chance for us to work virtually. All of us will be glad to take up such challenges. I just hope you understand that giving us ample time to prepare in reaction to early instructions will give us opportunities to bring you higher case study quality and presentation standards.

Student X

Her wonderful reply:

Student X,

You have written your feedback very well. It is respectful and argues a point clearly. I am also pleased to see that you have internalized the values I promote: case study quality and presentation standards. Added to that, your email shows very obviously that you took this seriously enough to start on it early in order to do a good job. That is another value that I have been trying to teach. I notice that Infinity is slated to present only in Tutorial 8. This leads me to conclude that you actually put due diligence into the defence cases even though the grades for defence don't count. There is not only no fault at all, but excellent due diligence.

You do notice that I always give early notice of what will happen in the following week's tutorials. In some cases, notice is given 2 to 3 weeks in advance. I am just as disturbed as you at this last minute change. I was away and came to know of the change yesterday. However, as that was the consensus, I had no choice but to implement as all my other colleagues. Testing your team efficiency may be a convenient excuse and I thank you for suggesting it. However, it would be dishonest to hide behind it. If it is really a test of team efficiency, based on my Para 1 above, you already pass with flying colours.

If you should come prepared and wishing to do 2 cases, I am more than happy to have 2 presented. I will defend you to my colleagues after the fact. If you should decide to do a single case, I cannot object because every other tutor is doing so. I will facilitate a discussion and come to an agreement with the whole tutorial on what we should do in the coming weeks. I will then proceed to defend our tutorial's decision as best I can.

For the groups who have to present this week, I will have wisdom enough to account for this unforeseen event when grading. You need only concentrate on doing the best job you can as specified in 060907 Expectations.

Please do well.

All tutors must be able to defend the "A"s to colleagues too in the same way that all managers have to put up strong justification to defend a decision to promote someone. Help me justify.

Other students, please note Student X's email. Read it carefully. Learn from it. It is respectful, mature, well-written and stands on a strong foundation of a work ethic I wish to see from all of you. And it demonstrates something called "managerial courage".

Thank You.

Rest a little

I am very aware that students in my 3 tutorial groups have had to spend A LOT OF TIME preparing case presentations from Tutorials 2 to 5. This has helped prepare you for Tutorials 6-9. I needed you to do that in order to teach you the process of case application.

Critical thinking can only be taught in class... In Tutorials 6-9, I suggest that attack groups can RELAX somewhat each week. You may not want to prepare as a group.

I am all for working hard but I prefer you to work smart. You've had an intense start in AB105, so it's time to rev down a little in order to catch a second wind that will bring you the the finish line.

Instead, you may want to start spending between 10-12 hours a week working on your OB&D case report so that you produce a high quality one.

I also suggest that you CONTINUE to make personal notes of each textbook chapter (whether we discuss the case in tutorial or not) because there is no way to tell which chapter will come up in the open book exam.

Further, do note that I intend to teach the process of Critical Thinking in the upcoming weeks. You will only be able to benefit if you HAVE READ the cases prior. So, though I suggest less preparatory effort in T6-T9, please don't decide to take a complete holiday. (love the last part)

Another piece of friendly advice

Gee... you people are turning me into a nag!

From T2-T5, presentation and essay grades don't count. However, they served as teaching sessions. Those who didn't observe due diligence generally are stressed out in T6-T9 because presentation grades do count now.

In T6-T9, attack grades don't count, but again they serve as teaching and feedback sessions for me to teach critical thinking. Those who do not observe due diligence in attack preparations make a choice... but please make that choice with EYES WIDE OPEN

=)