Workspaces

As I mentioned in my presentation last week, workspaces can have an impact on the creativity of a company.  In the endeavors of my research I came across a journalist that wrote for the New York Times.  Nancy Holt  wrote a column called "Workspaces" which talked about a featured manager or CEO in each article.  Her workspace articles can be found on ProQuest through the KU library website.  The one that I found the most interesting was the one I mentioned in class.  I found some of the pictures in my presentation from an article here.  What caught my attention was the conference bike.  An as it is stated in the article, it is not a workspace.  However, it brings up an interesting point.  Could something like a conference bike   really help brood creativity?  Would another group activity inside the workspace help?  Or are things like this just a giant waste of time and people just need to sit at their desks and get their work done?  I am personally a fan of group activities that promote collaboration.  On the other hand I am not necessarily a fan of wide open workspaces.  Honestly, I think that has something to do with the fact that I can get easily distracted.  I would like to hear more from everyone about their workspace's.  Are you allowed to decorate your workspace?  Does it help you get through your day?  What would you change if you could about your companies workspace?

Red Tape

Once again it is that time of the week.  Time for yet another blog from yours truly.  And yet again it took me forty five minutes to figure out what I was going to blog about tonight.  Thats when I started looking for ideas online and came across this idea.  Red tape is probably a concept that many of you are familiar with.  I think that this is something that can be seen in all businesses.  I found the topic of Red Tape from this website: here.  All industries are regulated by the government in some way.  There are some that must deal with stricter regulations than others but the red tape is still there.  Many times the red tape aggravates us.  The government or more specifically here at the university have a lot of red tape.  These bureaucratic road blocks are probably needed for someone at some time for some reason but to us here and now it seems very unnecessary.  As I did some research into this term I found that it has been dated back to the 16th century.  If you go here, you can find the short Wikipedia article on the term.  What I found most interesting was that the term is referenced on The West Wing, which I used to watch back many years ago.  What I would like to know is: what kind of red tape do you face every day in your jobs?  Is red tape worse in some industries compared to others?  How can a manager deal with red tape when they get asked about it?

When is it Time to Quit a Job?

I was looking around trying to find another topic to write about and this is what came up.  I found this article that talks about when it is right to quit a job.  I found the picture at the top of the article to be humorous as well as very true.  There is a ramp up of saying that you love your job and everything is happy.  Inevitably there will be down sides in your job.  As I am sure everyone agrees, a job is a roller coaster of ups and downs.  The key is to know when their are more downs than ups.  At that point it is time to get out.  As is mentioned in the article there is one situation that this would not fit and that is relying on the job to stay in your home.  I feel that this issue is of importance in this economy where around 10 percent of our population is out of a job.  It is an issue that I would like to get your responses on.  At what point in a career is it best to cut ties and more on?  Is an annoying coworker enough or does it need to be completely unbearable?  Should we be completely grateful just to have a regular paycheck?

“The Customer Is Always Right”

I was working on some more research for my paper and I came across this link. Here is the link.  The article is titled "Top 5 reasons why “The Customer Is Always Right” is wrong" and it talks about how that slogan is basically going out of style.  I am curious to see what others think about this topic and how it relates to their businesses.  Personally working with entrepreneurs daily I am kind of in the middle of this debate.  It is very difficult to tell a client that their idea is not feasible because even the craziest ideas can work.  On the other hand, if a client feels that they can get a billion dollars from a bank then it is my responsibility to give them as much information as possible to show them that there is no way on Earth that a bank would loan them that kind of money.  The author does make good points though.  Especially when the employer sides with the customer every time.  Saying that employees have to listen to customer complaints all day and then get told that they are right no matter what does take a toll on employees.  This is because there are times when a customer is flat out wrong and they must be told so.
I am also wondering what others think about the woman who didn't like any part of Southwest Airlines and continued to fly with them.  It makes me wonder if this woman was just looking for arguments or if there was something else wrong.
Another thought that just occurred to me is that my circumstance may be different because I work in an environment where my services are free to the public.  Does this have an impact on whether the customer is always right?

Radiolab

So a few weeks ago my friend introduced me to Radiolab.  Here is a link to it.  If the link doesn't work it's real easy to get to at radiolab.org.  So anyway, Radiolab is a program that is put on by WNYC.  It is basically a talk radio show hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.  They have podcast that are either 5-25 minutes long called podcast shorts or they have the full length hour long shows.  These shows are really interesting to me because they discuss topics that I wouldn't think of but still grab my attention.  One that got my attention the other day was titled "Is Free Will Really Free?". Here is a link to the specific podcast. As I listened to the 20 minute podcast I started to think, how does this influence different aspects of our business lives.  When someone goes into an interview and the interviewer has been drinking a cup of hot coffee, is that a good sign that they will like you?  Are we making decisions based on credible information or do we make our choices based on things that happen to us every day that we just don't notice.  I am interested to see how I would have reacted to the study that was conducted.  I feel like I wouldn't be swayed by simply holding a cup of coffee for about a second.  On the other hand I do understand what they talk about when they say that we naturally look to and are comforted by warmth since we were a baby.

Managing Creativity Abstract

Managing creativity is something that all managers should be aware of and thinking about.  This is because no matter what field a manager is in, creativity is within all employees.  Sometimes creativity deals with businesses such as advertising but often it deals with managing the way all employees use their own creative talents.  The problem is that many managers do not know how to get the maximum creativity out of employees.  This paper will discuss what makes a good manager of creativity, how to manage creativity and some examples of managing creativity in different industries and environments.  The paper is a general overview of the topic to be used as a tool for managers.  This paper will give managers an insight into creativity management that can be taken to the office and applied.

The Water Cooler

The water cooler has long been a topic of debate.  Some managers seem to think that it has a negative effect on productivity or the bottom line.  I like many love to "chat around the water cooler" with fellow employees and even management.  It seems to me that managers in my old job were more okay with side chat when they were involved in the conversations.  On the other hand, if employees were talking amongst themselves it was seen as less productive.  This is something that I have found to be not so true.  As the following link shows, a professor at Arizona State University agrees.  Here is the link.  The article talks about how managers should encourage the interactions between coworkers.  He says that it is more important to employees to have a good working relationship with the coworkers closest to you than it is to have financial rewards or to like the company that you work for.  I agree with this because it is the daily interactions that take the biggest toll on your stress.  The author also makes the comment that it is hard to put a worker in this management position if they do not have proper coaching and training.  I also understand that you can not put all to much focus on this idea.  Too much time spent talking over the coffee maker or water cooler can lead to a lack of productivity.  This boils down to a basic idea that is used everywhere.  "Everything comes in moderation"

What I learned this Friday

This weekend was a rather enlightening one.  I started my Friday evening at the Kutztown Tavern.  Normally this would just be an hour or two having a beer with some friends.  What made this Friday different is that I decided to dive head first into the world of spicy food.  I was considering trying the Tavern's Ghost Pepper Wings.  When I opened my menu I found a whole new level of spice.  They are called Grim Reaper Wings.  The Ghost Pepper Wings are basted in a sauce that has a honey base.  These wings are known to be hot.  I was originally considering these.  Ghost peppers are the hottest pepper that you can grow.  They are more commonly known as Jolokia.  Well the Grim Reaper Wings are not made from a honey base.  They are made from a ghost pepper base.  These wings are so spicy that the Tavern requires you to sign a waiver saying that I understand that I am eating this and that I know it can cause skin damage and not to get it in my eyes etcetera etcetera.  Now, some if not many of you are probably thinking that I am crazy and probably stupid for doing this.  Well let me tell you, your right.  It was a crazy impulsive thing to do, but it was definitely worth it.  The reactions I had to these wings ranged from a rather upset stomach to a burn in my mouth that lasted about 20 minutes after I finished eating.  ind you this is after eating just 10 of these wings.  I would caution anyone to take part in something like this.  As was stated in the waiver I signed.  If I was to offer anyone any of those wings or any of the sauce that I would have to warn them about how dangerous it could be.  Well, I just thought I would share a bit of advice to anyone who may have seen or thought about Ghost Peppers, Jolokia or spicy tavern wings. On the other hand you should definitely go down and enjoy a drink and a meal at the Kutztown Tavern because it really is a great place to eat.

The second blog of the week

As I sit here in the library I am finding it slightly difficult to wrote this blog.  I have had the page open for a while and could not think of a topic so I decided to just start writing.  I am sure that my lack of a blog idea is partially related to the fact that I am sitting here with friends.  Another part of this inability to write a blog is because I just spent three hours looking at an operations management test that probably went pretty bad.  At least in that regard I do not feel alone.  As I was taking the test I did the usual glance around the room to see what others where thinking.  It seemed pretty unanimous that no one really knew.  There wasn't even that usual person in the class that always knows everything.  This was slightly reassuring.  Still as I sit here blogging away about nothing I have decided that I should at least leave whoever it is that is reading this something worthwhile.  As I was looking for something that would be inspiring I came across a quote from my favorite Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go".
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Here is the link to the site I found this quote and many more from various people.

Goal Setting

It is almost half way through the semester and its about time for evaluations at the office.  One of the biggest topics of discussion seems to be goal setting.  I started thinking about this last week.  I am not sure what my true thoughts are about goals and how useful they are.  I pose this question to everyone: is it OK to go through life with no long term goals?  Is it frowned upon in the business world not to have long term goals?  A few of my friends have made comments.  They said that vague long term goals are good to keep you on track.  The best piece of advice I got was to keep a few short term goals.  This way they are able to be accomplished and with less time means less chance of unpredictable twists and turns.  The best long term goals are goals that you are truly passionate about.  This is why I started this entry.  I am not sure what I am truly passionate about.  My interests seem to change to often.  Basically I guess I don't know how to go into an evaluation if I don't have long term goals.  Is it OK to say that I don't want to have long term goals and that I would rather just take life as it comes?  I found this link about goal setting and found it to be pretty interesting.  I'm not sure how I will go into this evaluation but I'm thinking that this will be a good topic of conversation with my supervisors.

Procrastination

I, like many on this college campus and around the world have this undesirable attribute known as procrastination.  I tend to like to wait until the night before something is due to work on it.  Or on the rare occasion I will finish an assignment the day or even the hour it is due.  For example, this post is due in 1 hour and 12 minutes.  I find that I do this for a few reasons.  One being that I get easily side tracked.  Like now, I am sitting in the library and no one is around and yet I can't help but to look around me to see if something does happen.  I want to be the first to know if something changes around me if it will be more interesting than what I am doing.  This is why I am still working on the RL Wolfe case study.  I, like others, found the holiday to be just another day to sit around and watch TV instead of work on the three case studies that I have due this week.  This also reflects on some of my fellow classmates blogs.  I tend to find a lot of time to do things that I enjoy and push off things that I don't.  I can't imagine what it would be like for me if I had to work a 40 hour week and raise children like so many of you do.  I must take a quick moment to commend all of the parents in this class who have the time for so many things.  I guess that is part of why I chose to go directly into my MBA right out of my undergraduate degree.  That and the fact that I had very little interest in getting into the real world and the economy didn't help.  Which is interesting because I just remembered how I used to like working over the summers because I would be spending so much time working and getting paid and didn't have to think about work when I left.  Yet when the actual task of getting a job and accepting the real world comes, I fight tooth and nail to keep it at bay.  I really hope this changes once I get my masters and go to find a job in the real world, advertising if possible.  Well I guess I have bored everyone sufficiently.  Just so you know, only 1 hour and 2 minutes before these are due.  Back to my original topic though, procrastination is a bit of a detriment usually but sometimes it gives me the added time I need to get away from something so that when I return I have a clearer mind to be able to complete the task better.  Other times its just a big waste of time.  One hour left!!!!

Work place unity

I was talking to my supervisor right before I left today. He is going to be in the golf outing tomorrow that is being hosted by the accounting club.  Him along with at least two other coworkers will be in this outing.  It brought me back to when we had a few of our own SBDC outings.  We liked to call them team building exercises.  One of the most successful outings we had was what we called SBDC March Madness.  In short we all went down to a basketball court and played each other for a few hours.  It was some of the most fun I had ever had with coworkers.  I find that it relates to last nights conversations specifically stereotypes.  Looking back now I know I had certain dispositions and stereotypes in my mind before the games began.  I know they are wrong to have but at the same time as it was said in class they started for a reason.  So anyway, when we were talking today about the golf outing it got me thinking that we need to continue having these outings.  I think that events outside of the work place such as these outings help build unity and team cohesion.  

This whole idea started me thinking about how other managers try to build team unity and cohesion.  What other companies use games or other friendly competitions?  Should more companies use this type of team building?  Here is a short blurb if you will, on team building.  I find the organizing of a day trip to be a great way to incorporate everyone and see coworkers outside of the work environment.  I also know that it is a lot harder to organize these types of things when there are so many individuals.  Not only must you account for everyones schedules but also all of the different interests.  We were lucky to get so many to come out and play in the basketball game.  It was a great way to see the talents that can't be shown at work.  I think that it was also a great way to find the leadership abilities that some have in different settings.  All in all, I find these events both fun and useful.  

What to write about

As my title infers, I had no idea what to write about in this blog.  I came to thinking that the best way to figure out something to write on was to peruse the text.  As I was looking through the chapter headings I found a chapter that mentioned rewards.  It is chapter 20 if anyone cares.   As I was going through the chapter I found something that was very interesting and directly pertaining to this university.  It brings up the idea of rewarding for one thing and wanting another.
The part of the article is titled In University.  It goes on to talk about how universities reward for professors to do research and to publish more than they reward for being a great teacher.  I found this to be very interesting.  This link is a short rebuttal to Kerr's article.  I can understand where both sides are coming from.  In the issue of universities I think that it might help if rewards were more equal for teaching and research.  The whole idea of rewards seems like a great way of getting something out of employees.  As many others have said, it doesn't have to be monetary rewards, a simple pat on the back or "Good job" is as much a reward as stock options.
The Chapter goes into details in several areas but the university really stuck out because although the topic is not under business it is still a business.  I don't know about everyone else but I didn't choose Kutztown because the professors here are published.  I am interested in anyones inputs on the topic because I know that this issue goes well beyond what I know on the topic.  I would also like to know what the managers in our class think about this rewarding for a and hoping for b.

How to Manage Creative People

As I was looking for research and background information on my topic I came across a list of papers by a man named Charles Warner.  Many of his papers may be very helpful for my paper.  I have only read one of his many papers at this time.  The one I read is titled How to Manage Creative People.
This paper was very informative on my topic and it gave me something very important for my paper.  That being a way to define creativity.  Another great thing about this article was the way in which Warner breaks the paper up into three sections.  It also helps having a great example at the end of the paper.  One thing that I really agree with is that to manage creative people they must be given a lot of leeway and freedom to make mistakes and learn from them.  I wish that I held more of the characteristics of a creative person.  I must admit that the two biggest things that I do not posses are the high tolerance of ambiguity and the unusual ability to concentrate.  Especially with this view:

They are numbers 17 and 20 on the list of characteristics truly creative people have.
The best way to sum up the second point of the article is to say that creative people need space.  For creatives to work well they need to be able to go where they need to go and do what they need to do.  Something thing that was not touched on until the 3M example was the need for communication. By this I mean that for me to attempt being creative I work the best when I have 1-2 other people like myself to bounce ideas and get insight from.  The closest I saw to this was that employees of 3M are able to call anyone in the company to get expertise on any specific topic. I found this paper to be very useful and I look forward to reading his other papers.

Managing Creativity

As I have mentioned before I am interested in creativity and advertising.  I am looking for a topic to do my research paper on in Org Theory and started to look through our text book.  Chapter twelve is about managing creativity.  Managing creativity sparked my interest so I started to do some preliminary research to see if I could get enough information about this topic.  Some of the things that I found included a dissertation on the topic and then I found Ten Tips for Managing Creative People. 

I found this article to be very interesting.  It seems as though my boss has read a few of these because it relates back to some of the changes that have been made in the office this semester.  Specifically the tenth tip.  At the office we filled out papers for our personal development.  I think that this is a tactic that should definitely be implemented in more offices.  It relates back to the idea that happy employees do better work.  Some of the tips seem more like common sense in a way but at the same time they are things that seem to get overlooked or ignored. 

Number seven on the list seems to be a topic of debate a lot.  As I recall we even talked about it on our first night of class.  I believe that getting recognition and praise for good work is a great thing to have.  You don't need to be told your doing a good job all of the time because after all it is your job.  But on the other hand its such a small thing to be told your doing a good job and every now and then it is such a morale booster.  It is that little sense of encouragement that can spark that extra bit of creativity to make a good job a great one.

A little bit about me

My name is Justin McCurdy.  I am a first year grad student.  I am also a graduate assistant at the Kutztown University Small Business Development Center.  I received my undergrad degree from Kutztown last May.  I majored in Marketing with a certificate in Advertising.  My favorite sport to play is Ultimate although I will play almost any sport.  If you don’t know, Ultimate refers to Ultimate Frisbee.  I also love to just toss the Frisbee around so if anyone is interested just let me know.  My blog name refers to Don Draper of Mad Men.  If I could work for him at Sterling Cooper Draper and Price I definitely would.  If you have never seen the show I definitely recommend it.  If you couldn’t tell I am interested in advertising and hope to be a creative director some day.  That is sort of why I am in the MBA program.  I think that having an MBA will give me the ability to be well rounded and also give me the edge. 

When I was in high school my dad helped me work on and restore my first car.  It took about two years to fully restore a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback.  It is one of my biggest accomplishments.  It is painted a dark metallic green with white racing stripes.  Unfortunately I don’t get to drive it much since I am here at Kutztown.  If you have any questions about it just ask.  This leads me to say that I am from New Jersey.  Please don’t hold it against me.  I’ve endured four years of it already.