DISC Assesment

In the DISC I got results that I think do reflect my leadership type. My results were Ic. Within the workplace I do feel I influence people doing it my way but not in a dominant way. I remember a few years ago when I was a shift manager at a  call center how I’ve influenced the employees. From one side I had to keep the level of service up and that everybody will answer the calls as fast as they could but from the other side I had to decide who can take a break and when. Many times as a shift manager I had to say to people to wait with their break. I can say that most of the time the employees respected and trusted me when I said “no” because when it was possible I would encourage them to take longer breaks.  The notion was that if I’ll show that I care they will pay me back when I need them the most. I saw shift managers who were dominant and always complained I was too soft but they were amazed to see the reports analyzing the calls during my shifts. The level of service was the highest and the call center atmosphere was very good and quite. When the dominant shift managers had the control the atmosphere was bad, people didn’t stop to argue and I saw no respect in both directions. That answers why I don’t regret not being dominant and I am very satisfied with the results.

I think it is very important to know with what “types” of people you work with. My previous boss was dominant and it took me a while to understand that but when I did I saved a lot of energy and time. In the beginning when he said to me to do something I would argue he is wrong but after I understood he is dominant I started to say first “no problem, lets do it” and than lead him to the conclusion that it is wrong. In other words, with dominant boss you have to act as a “yes man” and with a bit intelligence to make him change his mind. I think this test can help in any interaction but I believe it is easy to analyze people by the behavior and directly characterize them-I don’t think I need them to answer the questions to say if they are D\I\S\C

Extra Credit-McDonalds

The Five Pickles Meal

            The first thing that crossed my mind when we got this assignment was- how will I explain the McDonalds personnel that I need exactly five pickles. I felt that if I will not be able to convince myself that it is a reasonable request, so I will not be able to convince them. After a few days of building my confidence I went during lunch time to McDonalds at 40 st and second Ave. Immediately I've noticed that during lunch hours was not such a good idea since they are trying to serve everybody as fast as they can. I thought to myself that there is no chance they are going to agree to put exactly five pickles in the sandwich.

I have been waiting for a few minutes in line and than Adriana asked me with a smile "what do you want to have sir"?. Right after I asked for five pickles and well done fries with a big Mac sauce, she smiled and said: "$2.59 please".

I was totally shocked. I  was sure she didn't understand what I've asked, but in a few seconds I heard  her screaming back to the kitchen "cinco (five in spanish) pickles" and a few seconds later she came back with a burger with five pickles and well done fries!

I was so happy to get it on the first shot so I immediately swiped the card. When I got the receipt I understood she did everything I've asked but the receipt is not good. The line was so long so I gave up for the day.

I've returned to Adriana a day later, somehow she remembered the five pickles and the well done fries with big Mac sauce. I guess it was weird for her even if it wasn't noticeable. This time I told here, just make sure to print what I have asked on the receipt. She (luckily) didn't ask why I need the receipt but she called Reyna- her supervisor. Reyna told me it is impossible to put it on the receipt. I have insisted it is possible and I got it in the past. She didn't continue to argue any further since she saw I was so confident it is possible. After a few minutes when she almost gave up, she told me she can put additional pickles but only once. I have guided here just to push this button five times instead on once and it worked. Adriana read the receipt for me five times before she printed it out to make sure it is ok,  The well done fries and the sauce were a piece of cake for her. I got my order right second day in a row.

                       

                        During the process of getting my "special order" I've observed a few significant problems that I think represent many of the fast food restaurants and especially McDonalds. The first problem is that the personnel tend not to listen to the complete sentence. The personnel stop listen when they recognizes the word that matches an item from the menu. Whatever is said right after the menu order is unheard.

My lesson is that if you want something a bit different, you should say it first and before mentioning the items. In order to solve this problem, I think the employees need to take a workshop in customer service. There they emphasize listening and guide how to be a good listener. I was surprised to see that between the employees the communication was fair. Adriana explained the problem to Reyna and she listened and truly tried to help her in order to complete the transaction. In regards to the communication with the kitchen I think they should have at least a microphone instead of yelling back because it doesn't look professional. 

            The second problem I have observed was lack of effectiveness. Even the store manager did not know how to make changes to the order. The cashier program is something the employees learn on the run rather than ordinary. I understand that it probably costs too much to send so many employees for a course but they can at least send a regional representative that will study the program and than train the employees within his region. It might be expensive at the short run but it will increase productivity and customer satisfaction in the long run.

            In conclusion, I would recommend McDonalds to emphasize customer service and to make sure the employees knows a little bit more than what is needed. My impression from my visit was positive in general because Adriana kept smiling to me even if she did not have the tools or the knowledge to help me. The problem is that I know I was just lucky to get a patient representative and it is not the typical McDonalds service. Probably a little bit of luck is needed even when ordering a Big Mac

My Vision

I think everybody has vision and a few goals they would like to achieve. Let me share some of mine.

The first and most important vision I have is to extend my stay in the USA. The first action in order to achieve it is to finish my degree. I plan to go and apply to as many positions I can in order to get a job. If I won't be able to achieve this goal I will do so by registering to graduate school and I plan to get a graduate   degree within a year and than try my best again.

My second goal is to achieve economic stability. The method of achieving it is somewhat equivalent to the actions in my first vision. When you have education it's the first step in inquiring economic stability. In addition I'm waiting to finish my degree in order to promote an internet website that can provide me long term stability when I will be able to find investors. As I said before what that stops me than going forward with my plans is the fact I have to graduate next summer in order to promote my first vision,so right now I'm taking six classes and that promotes both visions.

The last vision I have is to build a family but this is going to happened just after at least one of my first two visions are going to succeed. I have to know where I'm going to live before I do it or at least to have some money since I already have the significant other.

To conclude, I think all my visions are tied one with each other in some way that I must focus at one first in order to make the next one so whole the three can be described also as one vision:staying in the US, building economic stability and a family.

The Fascinating Decision Making

Last week I was very surprised to discover we have the ability to control our grades.

I really think it was a great experience no matter what grade you got on the exam.

Regarding the decision making process I think that in the first 5-10 minutes the class was totally in shock. Once because the grades and once again from the idea that we all have to get a decision by ourselves. Things started to move on the right direction just afterwards. The first one who took control was Ed and it really saved the class. If no one would jump to manage the thing I don’t want to think about the result.

After the process started the first weakness I observed was that people didn’t understand what is suggested. Ed did a great job trying to give everybody communicate in respectful manner to share the idea but people didn’t understand the suggestion and that wasted our time. When looking back I think we should have spent 10 minutes in groups. After that choosing from each group a leader and the class should have count on them to do the right decision.

In regard to how I acted I think it wasn’t constant. In the beginning I really didn’t have any idea beside the curve so I think it started with avoidance. After a few minutes I had the idea to drop the lowest grade. I truly thought it would serve all the class equally since a person who failed will be able to delete this grade and move on. From the other side if someone did well, he can get a double reward. After I presented my idea and I saw people didn’t think it’s a good one because they didn’t understand, I was completely in competing to win mood.

After we agreed (at least most of us) on the “happy meal combo” and moved the discussion on the next exam I’ve changed to Accommodation since after the curve and the extra credit I thought people that failed should formulate the next exam the way they will succeed the best.

When looking back I think I should contribute more in navigating the class to move to work in groups and than try to identify the students that don’t understand the ideas and explain them the ideas slowly. In other words I would like to act more collaborative.

The Egg Protector??

When we got the assignment to build the egg protector I think it took my group about 10 minutes just to figure out what can we do with 8 straws and how can it protect a falling egg.

After the initial shock we tried to pick a leader. Eventually we didn't officially assign a leader but it seems we all understood Justin must be the leader of our group. He was the only one who experienced this experiment before and therefore we thought he would be the right person. The dynamic between three members of the group was great but 2 acted like they are not willing to contribute. Justin as the leader tried to sketch something he thinks might work. I don't have any technical abilities and couldn't really visualize what the plan was but from the drawing it seems too complicated.

Justin accepted my comment and we decided to plan another one just in case we won't have time. We planned something really basic that even if we will be left with 3 minutes we will be able to get something done.

Overall, I think the planning process was good and the only think I would change is that we should have forced the two people to do something. Although I didn't stop bothering them with questions like :"do you think it can work?" or "do you have another idea?".  I can't believe they had nothing to say. I think we should have give them another paper and force them to come with some plan in 5 minutes, just that our idea generation will work better.

The execution part was ok, we tried our complicated design for the first 2 minutes we saw it is impossible to implement in 10 minutes so we moved to plan B.

In the execution part more than 3 people wasn't necessary. One handled the tape,one hold  the model and one just put everything together.

In conclusion, I think my group was fun to work with and we all listened to each other. No one forced is decision and we discussed every option thoroughly.The only thing that didn't work well was the alternative generation. With a group of five people we should have come up with at list 6-8 ideas but we came up only with two.  

My Shopping Shock

Did it ever happen to you that you started a new job and immediately noticed an ineffective task? Everybody else didn’t because they work there for years and that’s the same thing they did for the last 10 years already….

I believe that the same thing applies to cultures – only someone who arrives to a new country can really notice the unique characteristics of the culture.

The first thing I noticed, when I arrived to the USA three years ago, was the shopping culture.

When I say shopping culture I don’t refer just to the amount of time and money people spend on shopping, let alone the Black Friday tradition, but the transaction process as well.

I remember when I booked my first trip to the Caribbean a few months after arriving to the states, I saw a small box “coupon code” - I googled  it and found US$ 250 off coupon.I couldn’t understand how in less than a minute I’ve saved such an amount.

In my native country (Israel) there is no such thing and I truly believe no website or store would be able to survive if someone discovers he paid US$ 200 more for the same trip just because he didn’t have the random discount code.

This was just a small example but the whole approach is different in Israel. People’s reaction would sound something like “If the company can give the deal or product for a better price they should give it to everybody and not just hide some coupon code”.

The question that I raise is is therefore this: if a company can sell the same trip for US$ 75 less but for everybody wouldn’t it be better for all of us?

I do understand it is marketing strategy but my point is that the marketing highly depends on the social environment and not vice versa.

In addition to shopping there is one more thing that I’ve noticed and these are the customer service representatives.

In Israel every representative has a lot of authority, she or he can cancel fees, give accessories for free, and cancel a wrong charge.

The first time I stepped into a T-mobile store I was shocked to discover that in order to cancel a wrong charge the representative had to call the same call center I call as a customer. After I’ve questioned him about it he said that he can’t even activate a line. Everything is done by phone, that basically he has just a limited computer access to the customer records, and everything is handled through the call center.

The first time I went into T-mobile store was also the last time. I figured out I can call the call center by myself and get results faster.

I think companies in the USA should train their customer representative better and give them the tools and the authority to do more than answer “yes sir”, ”no sir” and just read us the company procedures.

Now, if to be perfectly honest, I do take advantage of every available coupon and I buy electronics only through a website that summarizes all the best deals\coupons (http://www.deals2buy.com which is highly recommended), but I still think things can be done better.

Regarding the customer service I already understood it pays off to ask to speak with a supervisor if I have something a bit complicated. Then again, I don’t think it is the right solution.

Introduction....

Hello Everyone,My name is Yigal.
I moved to NYC 3 years ago from Israel to work for the Consulate General of Israel as a System Administrator.I'm majoring in computer infromation system and since my time in the USA is limited I'm taking six classes this semester and for the following one hoping to graduate next summer.
I hope you will enjoy my blog-feel free to post any suggestionss\comments