2nd Team Meeting

Brenda Cooper's rejects are doing spectacularly. We have decided on an individual part of our overall theme of immigration. Many of our sources dealt with the Arizona immigration law, and we decided to focus on that. In our presentation we decided to show a few clips and a powerpoint where the class assists. We hope to do the required presentation for this project, we feel as if it will be easier to do it earlier, so we don't need to deal with it later in the semester. So far all our members have been doing their work, it's a great group to be in.

-Hannah Heninger, Marissa Shields, Claire Vaterlaus, Jordan Groff and Jared Ballard

ID page for JCOM 2010: Me, Myself, and I

My name is Michaela Ann Ferguson. Although my name looks like Michael-a it is said Mckayla and yes there are a number of ways people try to say it. I am a junior in college and have finally decided what I want to major in. I started out in business but realized I chose that major because I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do. I plan to switch my major to Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations and to minor in Psychology.

I was born in SLUT (I have always wanted to use that because I find it extremely funny, especially when in class on Thursday we talked about how Salt Lake City is the vainest city with all the plastic surgeries.) I was raised in Layton and my family currently resides there. I have grown up in a family that loves physical activities and have been snow skiing since I was 5 and solemn skiing since I was 9. Other activities I enjoy include: running with my dogs, sewing, being out doors, finding new adventures with my friends and family, and one of the most recent adventures my family has discovered is the love for SCUBA diving. A few years ago we went to Fiji where all we did was SCUBA dive. In Fiji, while SCUBA diving, the guide had us; underwater, remove our breathing devices in order to allow shrimp (like in Finding Nemo) clean our teeth. This was an experience I definitely won’t forget and I have a hard time explaining the feeling in words.

I also love music and anyone that can sing or play an instrument captures my attention. I would have to say most my media use comes from the internet for research on topics that interest me, I have to research for school, and finding new music. More often than not though I find myself also watching T.V. to gather information about the world and what is going on.

Michaela Ferguson

(801) 663-1976

Michaela.ferg@aggiemail.usu.edu

Mary Caraccioli Interviews John Huntsman

I really loved Jon Huntsman's book Winners Never Cheat Even in Difficult Times. Here is a video of him answering a few questions about the book and his past experiences. I really enjoyed the interview, especially this part.

"When there is fear, anger and frustration, there is a tendency to want to cut corners. There is a great tendency to let stress outreach ourselves. Then we do something very very foolish that we may spend the rest of our life regretting. The way that determines our character and integrity most is when we are under stress. This is a wonderful time in our life to be honorable and straight and ethical in all of our dealing." -Jon Huntsman

I agree, stress causes stupidity often times. If we can develop true character and deep integrity, then no matter how stressed out we are or how difficult circumstances are, we can decided not to cheat. I 100% agree with that that principle. Everyone needs to live there life and make decisions based off of principles, not circumstances.

James Stephens

Entrepreneurs can change the world

I really like this video about Entreprenuerial Spirit. I think it applies directly to what we learned in class from Professor Dave Clark. He taught us about looking for things that are broken and what how we should constantly be aware of things that need to be fixed or can be improved. This video talks a little bit about how "turbulance creates opportunities for success." It teaches that all you need is a single brilliant idea in order to make a difference. It promotes the idea that individuals can make a difference and I definitely agree with that. Just good be aware and observe and come up with ONE brilliant idea.

James Stephens

My Blueprint

I am so glad that we were able to do the blueprint assignment. It has completely changed my way of thinking. As I came in to school, I had no idea what I was going to do as a career. As the semester went on, I started to get more and more lazy. When we were introduced to this assignment and told we had to have it done in a week, I was really upset. I was really against it and was fighting it as much as I could. But I had to do it in order to get points. So I sat down and just hammered through it. The more I got through it, the more I got interested in it. It was at that moment that I realized how behind I am in planning my education. When you get in to school, there is always a little bit of time to figure things out, but my time was up. The time is now for me to look in to a career. I had not taken time to figure this out. I was just going through the motions and doing the work. As I did my four year plan, it got me excited about what I was getting myself into. My generals were pretty much all finished and it was time to pick a major. I found a whole new excitement and fire to finish out school. The reason I was getting lazy was because I was getting restless and bored with classes that I had absolutely no interest in. If I had not done this assignment, I would still be stuck in that deep hole. I would have no idea what I want to do and still be walking around in circles chasing my tail. Dr. Fawson, if you are reading this, I would definitely keep this on the list of assignments to keep on for next semester. It has helped me out immensely.

Seek first to Understand....

Throughout my life, I have always held my friends high. I have always tried to be the absolute best friend that I could no matter what the circumstance. But now that I have taken a step back and looked at what I do to them, I realize that there is a lot that needs to change. I noticed that I haven't really been listening to them. Whenever I would talk to them about a rough time they were going through, I would always say that I know how they feel. When in all reality, every one's situation is completely different than anyone else. That is what we are taught in 7 Habits. If we learn to actually listen to people, we will become very effective at communicating our thoughts and feelings to others. This obviously has to do with Seeking to understand, and then be understood. It has completely given me a paradigm shift in my life and things have really changed. I have grown closer to my friends because of this simple tool. It has been an amazing experience and I am going to continue to use it for the rest of my life.

Britt Crane - Law of the Harvest

I love this video.  I just bought a car and this video helped me to put things into perspective.  I felt like this would be a good video to show everyone because most of us are poor college students and we all have or will buy a car.  The point that I want to bring up is that too often we feel that we need things now that we truly do not.  The story of the golden goose is still one of my favorite stories and it applies well with this video.  We always seem to want super nice things, who wouldn't? But we see more and more people going into debt for ridiculous reasons.  We need to learn to be patient and the value of hard work. Its like we think that we need or deserve things NOW, right when we want them, without ever having done anything to get them or be deserving of them.  I feel like this is a dangerous pattern in our society. The Inside Job comes to mind.  And like this video points out if we can just be somewhat patient and work a little we can get what we want and come out on top.  First things come first.

Reply to win win

I liked dylans post about win win. It can be hard to always be thinking win win, but thats how everyone can work as a team and get things done. I found this video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HOA66raW1I and it was really good, he talked about what thinking win win can do for us and how much it can help us. Everyone should check it out.
You have to be very unselfish to always be thinking win win, but in the end if your a team player you'll have a much better outcome.

7 Habits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPt5fMFxSw
I've been watching youtube clips on the 7 habits book. It is a really good book! i am glad we had the opportunity to read it.  The hardest thing is applying what we learn from the book. I like how the work book helped us to apply it daily.

Each chapter is dedicated to one of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:

The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e. self mastery)

• Habit 1: Be Proactive

Synopsis: Taking initiative in life by realizing your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Taking responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow. Getting things done.

• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Synopsis: Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. It is always better to try and foresee situations. Predict outcomes and then think of worst case scenarios, will help come up with informed decisions.

• Habit 3: Put First Things First

Synopsis: Planning, prioritizing, and executing your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships elaborated in Habit 2. Prioritization is the key to the success of any business or in any walk of life. Being proactive rather than being reactive leads to success.

The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e. working with others)

• Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Synopsis: Genuinely striving for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Valuing and respecting people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way. Everyone will feel inclusive and involved. A better environment of trust and loyalty establishes.

• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be understood

Synopsis: Using empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving. This can also avoid situations where the problem does not actually exist and its just a matter of misunderstanding. It is always said that listen double to what you talk since we have 2 ears to listen and one mouth to talk.

• Habit 6: Synergize

Synopsis: Combining the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. How to yield the most prolific performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership. Everyone is a master of something and not everything. Positive potentials can be put together to achieve better results.

The last habit relates to self-rejuvenation;

• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Synopsis: The balancing and renewal of your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable long-term effective lifestyle. This is constant improvement of one's self in order to be a better human being and to sharpen one's skills in order to achieve better results.

the art of communication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWLF7JjU1sc


i think this video really speaks for itself, but communication is more of an art than anything.  I feel this video has a lot of great insight that relates to many of the principles that we have covered in class, especially the Covey Principles.  It is something that is improved over time, and really can accomplish the most important things in life such as business initiatives and personal relationships.  I also really enjoy how he presents this information.

my team

By working in a group I found it easy to bring together a lot of great and newer ideas. I felt that our group did great on our project. We all had different and unique ideas that eventually became one...our final project. Every single person in our group made a significant contribution. We did not have one person that stood out and therefore we successfully teamed together and worked as one. I am sure we will all receive a good grade on this assignment.

sometimes new inventive ideas dont work....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QU-AR4YtNY



this is kind of a non-realistic scenario, but i think its super funny.  Also, i think it brings up a good point, that sometimes new ideas that are far-fetched don't always work or are even necessary. I chose this particular example because of our last group assignment to create a renovated bathroom.  Our group came up with a lot of good ideas, but some of them we ended up throwing out either because they didn't fit our criteria of efficiency or realistically wouldn't work.  This was an awesome exercise to improve the thinking process for any type of project or assignment in the future. aannndd i like robots:)

Response to Procrastination

Thanks for sharing that video! It described my problem, and apparently yours as well perfectly! I have a huge problem with procrastination. I always seem to wait until the last minute to get things done! One thing that I have found useful is coveys own first step to organization and putting first things first. Making Lists! Since I started making lists each day about things that I needed to do that day I seemed to get a lot more accomplished. It was also fun to do it was kind of like a game to see how quickly i could get the things done and before i knew it I was getting a full nights sleep and free time every night. Hope this helps!

Seek first to understand then to be understood

At the beginning of the semester I had a problem with this concept. I was always the kind of guy who thought that my way was the best way. However after reading covey's book it really opened up my eyes and enhanced my listening skills. Since doing so i feel as though i have become a better friend, student, and co worker. I now choose to listen to what other people have to say BEFORE I say something instead of after. It has honestly opened up my life and makes me happier over all.

Thinking win-win

A major problem that we have as students is learning how to think win win with each other. Everyone lately seems to be looking out for themselves and trying to figure out their own futures. What we all need to realize is that in order to create a better future for ourselves we need to work together. One single person cannot change that much on his own. If we all band together and work as a single unit we can come up with some really good ideas.

Britt Crane - PROCRASTINATION

I chose to post this video because it fits perfectly with what I am presently displaying.  Posting videos hours before the cutoff date.  I am horrible with procrastination, probably one of my favorite sections in 7 Habits was first things first.  I have always waited till the last minute and I still struggle with this addiction.  The reason that I chose this video is because it talked about different ways we can procrastinate and put less important things first in our lives and waste time.  Too often I miss out on great opportunities because I have procrastinated.  I usually look back and I cannot figure out why or how I talked myself into doing something absolutely meaningless instead of working on something of actual importance. Even after reading Covey and getting mad at myself for procrastination time and time again, I still seem to fall into the same destructive procrastinating patterns?  I know many people procrastinate just as I do but I have never really heard any success stories of people who conquered it.  If anyone shares my addiction or has somehow conquered it please comment and share your story…please!

Motivation

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2VC7zD/www.thatvideosite.com/video/well_drawn_explanation_on_what_motivates_us

This is a really cool video on what motivates us as students and just as people in general. If we have dreams and aspirations they do nothing for us without motivation behind it. We need motivation to get us up and moving and working on improving the current world we live in. As business students its our job to create new things to help better everyday life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

This short video is amazing. Its cool just to see how your attitude can effect others for the good. I was reading Dale Carnegies book How to win friends and influence people. He talks about how just smiling will help you win friends. Business is about communicating and be likable. People are more likely to trust you and do business transactions. the movie maybe long but i highly recommend it.

Listening

I have learned a great deal about becoming a better listener. Seek first to understand section of Coveys book is helping me to become a better listener. The part about not formulating a response while the other is talking is something i have found myself doing a lot i have worked on it and it has helped me in communicating with others. Changing these little aspects of communication have helped me in expressing my self to others and vise versa.

Planning

Something that i used to absolutely hate is planning but i have started to like it. Coveys beginning with the end in mind has helped me this way. If i just set aside just 10 minutes of my day it can save me hours of time the next. I can be where i need to be on time and be more efficient. I have be relying on my plans and it have helped me to be a more effective person. I guess that old saying is true "you fail to plan you plan to fail."