Tips for the mid-term (MGT2010 and MGT4110)

I know that students always want tips. My general policy is not to give any tips. However, I want to reflect on what I have been doing in class.

I am not simply interested in presenting the "facts" about management (MGT2010) or organizational behaviour (MGT4110). I am interested in "empowering" my students. Empowering students means making them realize that they have control of their lives. For example,
- your personality is not fixed, you can change it
- your attitude towards things is not fixed, you can change it
- if you didn't set goals for yourself in the past, you can start setting goals for yourself now
- if you had no strategy in the past to position yourself in regards to future employers, you can start strategizing now
In many of the essay questions, you can expect something that relates what YOU as individuals can do to use the information I gave you in class to change YOUR lives for the better.

Why do we fail to develop ourselves?

An important question. We attended a great session - whether a training session or a lecture -, we valued the input but we don't change. Why? In my experience, there are two fundamental reasons. The first is fear. The second is ego.

Fear is a very important factor that prevents people from changing. People are afraid to change because change requires taking a risk. Very few people realize that they are afraid of change. Generally though, they rationalize their fear by making statements like, "I am being cautious", "I want to be sure this works before I try it out"....

Ego is a second critical factor. Often, there is a clash between the ego of the instructor and the ego of the participants. That clash of egoes is often subconscious. Neither the instructor nor the participants are aware that their respective egoes are in the way....

So what can we do? Ultimately, everybody is responsible for reflecting. If the participants are not changing, the instructor should reflect on his own attitude / ego that he brings to the learning event. If participants do not learn, they need to decide whether it is out of fear or out of ego. Once people becomes conscious of the reason why things are not happening, it is easier to initiate a positive change.