week 14, question 2

I can think of a situation where my fiancé and I were arguing about what we should do on the weekend. I wanted to go to the Giants game and she wanted to go to parents. Well after a long drawn out discussion we both decided and came to a consensus of going to her parent’s house but I get to watch the entire Giants game un-disturbed.

Obviously there are going to be situation where it always isn’t win-win. For instance, my sister can be such a pain that she will not budge on some things. So in most cases it winds up in a lose-lose or a win-lose situation. There is nothing more frustrating than someone who won’t compromise in a given situation. You can sit there for hours and not come to a consensus.

I think when you’re on the winning side of a competitive conflict then that would probably be the more satisfying win. But since you can’t always win the collaborative process will be a small victory for everyone.

Chapter 13, Question 3

I particularly took to the section on analogies. “The use of an analogy is a comparison between things that are similar in some respects but quite different in others, helps open our perceptions to other useful concepts.” (Pg 192)

I use analogies all the time when I am trying to describe something to someone. I use them a lot in arguments in order to solidify a meaning for someone who may not understand what point I’m trying to make.

For instance I might say something like, “Telling me no to argue is like telling a fish not to swim, it just isn’t going to happen.”

Although not the greatest analogy, it usually simplifies a statement I was trying t make that the receiver may not have fully understood. I find this an extremely useful tool to use in arguments. It changes the receiver’s state of mind In a way that they might now accept your point rather than trying to fight it.

Week 13, Question 1

Our book describes creativity as “the power to originate, to break away from the existing ways of looking at things…” (Sack, 1995, pp. 241-242). I feel I have had many chances in my lifetime to be creative as have many of us.

I can think of one time where we were doing a team meeting for Best Buy and it was boring just as it always was. ME and a few other were chosen to do a presentation of the new Geek Squad roll out best buy as doing in order to give our people some knowledge on where the company was going. So we got out materials and read through and decided it was way to boring to go through slides and just read off of them. So instead we put a skit together and dressed up like geeks and acted out the slides instead of just reading them. This was the first time one of our meetings was actually fun.

Week 13, Questions 2

There are a few cultural barriers to creativity according to Harris.

1) Requirement for conformity
2) Expectations of practicality and efficiency
3) Particular arenas for competition or cooperation
4) Expectations of politeness and following social order
5) A trust in the power of reason and logic

These could cause a couple problems for a group’s creativity. The requirement for conformity might squash the ideas that some members may have. They might feel pressured into thinking like the group rather than outside the box.

I myself have experienced some of these barriers. Particularly with the conformity issue. It happened in high school where conformity tends to be at its highest. I was within my group of friends and we were sitting around thinking of something to do. An idea was thrown out and I wanted to follow up to add onto the idea but refrained because it was out of the norm of the group.