Final reading Assignment Ch.16

Ch.16 was an interesting chapter for me. It reminded me of my grandfather. Now, my father and brother are working as craftsmen, they make steel products. They chose this job as influenced by my grandfather.

My grandfather was a typical “craftsman”, and everyone approved that it is his calling. One of the reasons is his long time working. He spent his 50 years for working. As a result, he got great techniques that usual craftsmen do not have. As Perkins says, learning takes time. Of course he started at the beginning of incompetent, but he never give up working. Therefore he succeeded.

In addition, he loved his job like Issac Stern in this book. Actually, making steel products is not an easy work. I know that he lost his one eye by the spark. However, he looked so happy when he was working. My father said “I often heard he was humming while working”. Even after his retirement at the age of 70, he often saw my father working, and said “may I help you? ”.

He worked alone, so he was not a “leader”. However, his attitude impressed a lot of people (for my father and brother, he is an ultimate goal!), so I believe he was a great leader.

6.1 Class

On 1 June, we had a presentation in class. I realized the difficulty of telling the main point briefly. My presentation was prolonged because I put too much information other than some main points in it.

My presentation is not god, but my team member tried to listen carefully and ask many questions... thank you.

I will try to do better in a final presentation!

Suzu's Personal Mission Statement

1.At the end of every day I wish to feel that I have…
not forgotten to say “Itadakimasu” and “Gochiso-sama”
tried to enjoy everything
talked with people a lot
smiled heartily
challenged difficulties with courage
never excused myself
been patient if there were bad things
been honest and kind to everyone
thanked for spending a good time today

2.Someday I hope to have…
traveled all over the world
met various people and valued them all
found a job that I can involved in
been a mother and loved my family

3.When I die I wish to believe I have
had a simple and ethical life
been generous
believed others
loved others
had a wonderful life

It was first time for write down my personal vision. That’s all I come up with now. When other articles occurred to me, I would like to add.

About 1, my recent challenge is especially “trying to enjoy everything”. I am so busy now because of many assignments, presentations and club activities so that I often feel like throwing away them. However, these are things that I decided to do because I was interested in. Therefore, I'd like to try to enjoy and do them without excusing “I cannot do them because I am busy”.

2 is my future vision. I do not have a clear vision about my future career, but I hope to get a job that I can involve in. In order to do so, I have to challenge difficulties.

Finally, 3 is my sentence. I hope to die peacefully with satisfied.

Week 6 assignment

I would like to focus on Chapter 7 “Conflict”. I was surprised at this chapter because I’d thought that all Shackleton’s team members are cooperative and gentle so they could survive. However, there is a description that “more than half of his crew consisted of potential troublemakers”, and there were a lot of terrible conflicts in fact. Even so Shackleton was close by them and respected them. I was impressed by his attitude.

From his attitude, I also learned that “trouble makers” who often oppose and criticize are needed for the team development. Sadly, they tend to be ignored and excluded… Actually, I am not willing to have a conflict with trouble makers, because it exhausts me. However, their criticisms will make team member discuss deeply and get a better solution (although some criticisms just interrupt other member, it is a bad case). I think showing disagreements is an act of courage, because we have to take a responsibility to disagree with someone. Moreover, it takes much energy. Therefore, there are several things to thank “trouble makers”.

I tend to avoid showing disagreements and compromise. So, it may be good to follow “trouble makers” a little.

Development and Leadership

I’m taking a class of introduction to development studies. In the last class, we had a guest speaker who participated in Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (青年海外協力隊). She told us her activity in Panama. Her lecture was so exciting! I thought it was related to leadership lessons.

She explained 3 important things she has learned in Panama: communication skill, flexibility and planning skill. Especially, I was so influenced by the last one “planning skill”.

She said that it is important to involve others and motivate them as a leader. For example in Panama, she worked with a colleague who has no motivation. He was a driver, but clearly he was reluctant to work. He was often late for the time to pick her. To motivate him, she suggested painting pictures on his truck with children. At first, he was not willing. However as he saw children painting pictures happily, he got to be motivated. Her planning succeeded to motivate him.

She also said that the key to motivate others is making them fun! By the example, she showed that “fun is the motivation of motivation”.

I learned how important to motivate others and to make others fun from her. It was very pleasure to take her lecture.

Week 5 assignment

  I was so impressed the section “Minimize Status Differences and Special Privileges” in chapter 6. The section is picked up in class too.

When I was in a junior high school, I was a member of tennis club. The club had a typical old-fashioned “caste” system. For example, there was a rule that younger member should come to school much earlier and maintain the tennis court for seniors. In addition, youngest students are prohibited to come in tennis court, because we have only 3 courts although there are a lot of members. Therefore while seniors enjoy tennis, youngest students just run and picked up balls. They are so tough for us.

Moreover, youngest students sometimes called and scolded by seniors after school. The reasons are various. For example, we are often blamed of being late, small voices, and not saying hello to seniors when we meet them in a passage.

Now, I thank seniors for teaching me common sense. Being prohibited from playing tennis is hard for me, but all the more I still remember the delight that I felt when I play tennis in the court for the first time.

However, I think the system should be disused, because “free-caste” will minimize resentments and stress, and make all member together as explained in chapter 6. Actually, the “caste” was so stressful for me. I really agree with Shackleton’s idea that leaders should get no special privilege. When I became a leader, I would like to make a “free-caste” team.

(In consequence, I quitted the tennis club because the “caste” seemed not to be disused. However when we became seniors, my friend changed the club into “free-caste” one. I was so happy.)

Week 4 Assignment

Week 4 Assignment

In chapter 4, the author suggests the importance of avoiding “summit fever” and keeping our emotional well-being.

 I think I tend to get to the state of “summit fever”. For example, I went skiing with my family when I was 10 years ago. I was so absorbed in skiing, so I skied all day long without meals (actually, I forgot to eat something). In the night, I came back to the hotel and took a bath. Getting out of the bath, I felt dizzy and fell down. Fortunately, my mother helped me, so I was ok. However, I nearly struck my head against the desk, so dangerous. I should not let myself be too concerned about something, because it may lead the state of “summit fever”. I have to be cool-headed.

In addition, I completely agree with the way that the president of Nissan chose. Keeping our emotional well-being is the first priority even if there are lot of things to do. When I was preparing for an entrance exam, I found that. Whenever I was exhausted and came to a deadlock, I’ve never done well. On the contrary, when I was relaxed especially by chatting with my friends, I felt my mind worked well. Reducing my stress is much more important than I had expected.

Avoiding “summit fever” and keeping our emotional well-being: both need self control. I would like to be good at controlling myself well…