Yesterday, our quiz in Information Management class is that each group will write six terms then one representative per group will be asked to guess three terms from the other group, that was randomly selected by the professor, in a span of six minutes. Each group will draw lots to determine the order of the groups in guessing the set of terms. The game is similar to "Pinoy Henyo" with the twist that the guesser will be blindfolded. The two groups to guess all three words/concepts the fastest will get a perfect score while the next two groups will get a score of 3.5 then the last two will get a score of 3.0. Here is my reflection of the activity we did.
1. You cannot be nice all the time.
One may be thinking that we should be nice to others hoping that they'll be nice to us also as what the Bible says. However in business world, that does not work most of the time. Competitors will and always will be taking advantage of everything. They'll even give you fits even if you are nice to them. In our case, we chose terms that are easy to remember or what we thought are important, but other groups would give you terms that are out of your hindsight. Fortunately, we weren't the ones who encountered the out of nowhere terms that we're asked to guess.
2. If you are going to throw fits, make sure you're ready to receive one.
This is probably why great businesses survive, when they throw difficult things to their supplier/customer, they ensure that they'll be able to protect themselves against possible threats that will be imposed to them and they have an immediate counter against these. In this case, the group who gave the most out of nowhere terms were the ones who guess the terms the fastest since they were able to prepare themselves if they were given a difficult one like what they did.
3. Be vigilant, be prepared.
Sometimes we had a tendency to be laid back on things that we thought we're assured of. In this case, our professor told us a week before that it is an open-notes exam. Probably most people are thinking that as long as you have all the notes, you're going to do fine. However, in the "Pinoy Henyo" it showed that it is not really an open notes for everybody. In fact the ones guessing the terms should actually have studied or know the terms for him/her to guess it correctly. In this case, one should still be prepared for the things even if we are guaranteed an assurance because sometimes there is a hidden clause in the contracts that we're agreeing with.
4. Be confident with your strengths.
People say that do not be overconfident with your strengths because it will backfire. This is true in some circumstances, but in a pressure situation, you have to depend on your strength especially if one of the ingredients to success of a game or project is one of your strengths. Personally I felt that the game is all about strategy, memory and luck. I know luck is not on our side that time since our groupmate had drawn to be the first group to guess. In addition, it seemed that he wasn't that confident enough for him to pull it off. I've been told by my mother and other former classmate of my ability to remember things. In addition, I read the slides prior to the class so I hesitantly told them that I'll do it since our group is quite hesitant to volunteer. It might have been a risky move as your group grade will mostly fall on your shoulders and it might sound a little brash for them, especially in a Filipino setting wherein you are not allowed to flaunt your strengths and if they compliment your strengths, you have to deny or thank them for noticing it. Fortunately, I was able to guess all the three terms before time expires.
5. Setting a trend without patent is a dangerous.
Being a first mover or the trend setter, you should be careful from threats from competitors and patent or copyright is really, really important especially in a competitive industry. If one failed to patent a product, it is easy to copy it because all they need to do is to use your product as a basis and improve it from there. Being a trendsetter, you encounter trial and error and if the competitors saw a strategy that worked in your company, they are going to do it with much more improvement. In addition, no matter how ridiculous your strategy or product is in the eyes of the competitors, they will always follow or improve it once you've proved to them that it worked even if it took you longer to accomplish it.
In our quiz, since I was the one guessing, I had a hard time getting hints from my groupmates since all I got is a "no", perhaps my lack of experience in this game is probably another factor. Instead of asking whether the term is a person, object thing especially when the terms are difficult to be categorized, I went with the strategy of stating the letters of the alphabet hoping that the first letter of the word would allow me to recall the terms easier. The strategy worked, but since I wasn't able to figure it out until the latter part of the game, I ate much time figuring things out. However, the basis of the grades is speed. Since other groups already saw how we fared and figured out our strategy worked, the succeeding groups was able to prepare themselves better and copy the strategy that you did, to the point of abusing it. In some groups, they are already asking the 2nd , 3rd or even up to the 5th letter of the word; thus guessing all the words at a faster pace. But then, in a quiz or game, you cannot request for patent since other groups can say that it was really in their mind, it happened that our group have to go first.
6. A proven strategy can make similar processes work no matter the difficulty.
Creating something is very difficult, revising it is easier. In businesses, once a structure is formed, it is easier to implement it in other areas especially when they are of the same process. It is similar to figuring out how to automate a particular data, then do it for the rest of the data available by improving it. In this game, even if the terms or concepts of the other groups are more difficult than ours, by figuring out the strategy, it is easier for them to guess the word at a faster time.
7. You cannot blame the leader or boss for all the company's flaw all the time.
In business, it is said the leader reflects the attitude of the organization. Yes the leader has a lot of responsibility on his/her shoulder, but it should be taken consideration that the people around or the board chose a leader that they think could lead them. A leader cannot function if his/her subordinates are not listening, following or even have a dialogue with the leader on how to improve their company. In this game, the representative would act as a leader and the group's grade will depend on his/her ability to guess. The representative would not be able to guess the right word if the subordinates or the other members of the group would not participate in answering whether the representative is asking the right hints.
8. Communication is the key.
In a company, even if you have a good strategy in place, if the boss and employees are not articulating their thought to each other or are not communicating with each other clearly, it will be of no use. In our group, prior to the game itself, I told my groupmates about the use of "first half" and "second half" of the alphabet to determine the first letter of the word without blurting out the letters of the alphabet. However, when I mentioned that, they probably didn't understand what I'm saying. Perhaps they were thinking that it is the first half of the session or something else. This is why it is important that you've communicated well even if you are under pressure.
In the end, I might not able to get the highest possible grade for my groupmates, but looking their appreciation for what I did is already a great relief from me since I was able to give all my best in a most disadvantage situation that was being thrown at us. In addition, I think that it's not only my good memory that enabled me to get it though, but also through my experiences as a leader in previous organizations such as quick thinking in finding an alternative to the solution, in this case a strategy of blurting out the letters of the alphabet since it is not restricted in the game. Also, learning from other groups is also important and if ever these kinds of games comes in again, I would be able to figure out on how to improve based on what I've saw and experienced.
