LECT01

INTRODUCTION


This course of Principle of Organisation and Management is being taught by Prof. T Prasad, known as Prof Mandi. Before my first class of this subject I thought that it would be a boring lecture on management but sir proved me wrong. It was one of the most intellectual and thought provoking classes i have had. As lifelong learners we are continually having experiences, processing them, and using the new knowledge in future experiences. This is experiential  education. When the learning goal is to provide a lively, interesting, and meaningful learning experience  that participants will personally  internalize, experiential learning  provides  an  excellent  learning  tool. This is what Dr. Mandi is trying to do and has done it very well.


He started the class by showing us a video of Pink Floyd 'Another brick in the Wall' which was not just for entertainment but for teaching us the importance of novel ideas of teaching and lamenting the age old method of teaching which suppresses a child's creativity.
Then he made us realise that we are here after spending 7 lakhs of rupees and we should earn each and every penny we spend. We then talked about Mandi and Hamara Dhandha which are entrepreneurship activities at NITIE.

ACTIVITIES

SCIENTIFIC TOYS


Later in the class he showed us some toys which were very basic scientific toys such as newton's craddle. these toys should be available in every school and institute where science is taught but its an irony that we dont have a single shop selling such items around IIT Bombay or NITIE campus. This shows the attitude of our society towards practical learning.

GOAL SETTING

Goal setting is a powerful way of motivating people, and of motivating yourself. The value of goal setting is so well recognized that entire management systems, like Management by Objectives, have goal setting basics incorporated within them.

In fact, goal setting theory is generally accepted as among the most valid and useful motivation theories in industrial and organizational psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior.

Many of us have learned – from bosses, seminars, and business articles – to set SMART goals. It seems natural to assume that by setting a goal that's Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, we will be well on our way to accomplishing it.

To better understand goal setting we did a tower building activity in class:-

TOWER BUILDING ACTIVITY


Then a student was selected from our class and he was asked to make a tower using his odd hand and some cubical blocks. The whole class was asked to guess a number upto which they think the student might build the tower. I guessed 20  but he built till 17..
Next sir asked to guess a new number upto which the same student can build with his eyes closed. Most of the class including me guessed a number less than the previous one. But sir explained that i should always aim high and be positive about the result. This activity taught me the following goals

a) Ambitious Goals: Goal Set is higher than what you think is Attainable.

b) Realistic Goals  : Goal Set is less than or equal to what you think is Attainable.

I realized that teaching should be done in the most interactive way as it was done in this class. It  was a learning experience which i would cherish all my life.  


LEARNINGS

• To reinforce planning, cooperation and to realize that perceived boundaries might not be real.
• Learn from failures as well  as successes. Stating objectives is invaluable in planning  experiential learning, but  the objectives do not always have to be reached  for  the learning experience to be  a rich one.
• It will help me to develop the attitude, values and the critical-thinking skills that i need in order to take critical action in appropriate situations, including situations beyond the classroom when necessary.