Decision Making

First of all, I think it was very generous of Professor Kurpis to give us the opportunity to improve the grades and to change the format of the future exams. Thank you, Professor!

The discussion process was not easy and I think I was shifting between collaboration, compromise, and avoidance. It was clear from the very beginning that we would have to put together lots of ideas and lots of preferences. Therefore, a compromise was absolutely necessary. And I was very ready to compromise as long it would not make the future exams more difficult than the first one. We all attempted collaboration when we started writing down our "menu" and taking a vote. The first decision went very well, but we ran out of time on the second. This was the turning point when collaboration left the room and chaos took charge. I believed there was no way to change anything during the loud last five minutes. Besides, we already had some decision on the board. At that moment I felt it was best to go with the flow and vote for whatever would be decided when the time runs out.

Given that you know now the pattern of communications, the reactions of classmates, and the results of the decision making process, what OTHER way to handle conflict should you have chosen to get a more desirable result? Why would this have been better?

Honestly, I was not surprised by the self-imposed "leaders". These were exactly same people who talk most in every class (but not necessarily have the best ideas). I believe the guy (from the last row) who came up to the board and was commanding for the good half of the discussion was encouraged to do so by Professor. In any event, competing for authority with our "leaders" would be a waste of our precious time. What we all should have done was to manage our time a little bit better; however, I don't think it was a real possibility for a group of this size and no one in charge. I don't think I would have done anything differently.