Week 1 discussion
Dq1
VARK Learning Style Inventory
This week we began our study of Career Strategy by taking
the VARK Learning Style Inventory to determine our individual preferences on
how we acquire knowledge. Please comment on your indicated learning style, and
explain how you think you can put it to the best use.
Dq2
Self-Awareness and Career Success
Why is understanding yourself important in your career
development? How can you ensure that an employer will realize that you have a
clear grasp of who you are and what you have to offer?
Week 2 discussion
Dq1
Life Skills
In “What Color Is Your Parachute?” (2007, now in
its 36th printing, Ten Speed Press), Richard Bolles suggests that there are
three life skills that schools should teach but don’t: (1) How to find a
job, (2) How to choose and find an
appropriate partner, husband, or wife, and (3) How to think and how to make
good decisions. Do you think the author is correct? You do NOT need to read the
book to discuss this question.
Dq2
DISC Personality Profile
This week we began our self-analysis by taking the AMA DISC
Personality Survey (TM) to establish a personal baseline for our work in the
course. Your full results will be filed in the Dropbox by the end of Week 2.
See DocSharing for the report format. Please comment here on any perceptions or
conclusions you wish to share with the class at this point. What does this work
mean to you? Did you recognize the person described in the DISC results? From
your knowledge of your classmates, and what they said in class and report here
on their DISC, do you think this report is accurate?
Week 3 discussion
Dq1
Role Models
Class, let’s discuss any conclusions that you reached on
your research and writing about role models. What did you find that was
important to you, and what most surprised you about the individuals in your
report on role models? What can you begin to transfer to your own perceptions
of career tracks? Will there be any “shifts” in direction on your
work at Keller?
Dq2
Career Aspects
Class, let’s discuss our progress in submitting our
assignments for the Dropbox this week. How did you find 1) setting longer term
goals, 2) setting short term academic goals, and 3) anticipating obstacles?
Also, how do the results of your Stress Processing Inventory affect these three
lists? Do you have any comments you wish to share with the class?
Week 4 discussion
Dq1
Emerging Global Trends
Class, in this thread please discuss your perceptions of the
research into international organizations and issues. Let’s keep this focused
and start with three questions. What most impressed you in this research? What
emerging trends did you find that may affect your career choices? How has this
research affected your choices, either in terms of timing for transition points
in your career, for possible career changes, or for global locations for your
work?
Dq2
Career Futures
Class, in this thread we will discuss what we anticipate for
career outlooks three, five, and ten years after your date of graduation with
your MBA degree. Become a career consultant for this thread. With the
additional knowledge gained from your research this week, imagine you are
making a “time line” to advise someone with career ambitions similar
to yours. What would you tell them? While our discussion in the other thread
for this week may involve large global issues, make your recommendations here
specific. What are three key points you would make?
Week 5 discussion
Dq1
Global Leaders.
In the book Global Literacies (Simon & Schuster 2000),
Robert Rosen states :
“Leaders are kept awake at night by hard business
realities: the need to generate profitable growth, reach markets quickly,
protect their reputation, and anticipate the unexpected.
But their deeper sleeplessness comes from the human
challengers: How can they acquire and retain the best talent to lead their
companies through change? How can they promote teamwork across boundaries and
borders? How can they develop executives to lead in the world? ‘Our scarcest
resource is globally literate leaders,’ warns Alfred Zeien, chairman and CEO of
Gillette, one of the Unites States’ most global companies” (page 25).
Class, in this thread, let’s discuss key elements of leaders
operating within global organizations. What are some key skill sets and
personality traits of “globally literate leaders?”
Dq2
Meaningful Work
In the book The New
Global Leaders (Jossy-Bass 1999), Manfred F.R. de Vries (with Elizabeth
Florent-Treacy) states:
“Work in organizations, directed toward achieving
shared goals, also answers another human need: it allows us to feel useful.
Individuals need to commit themselves to something that is valuable, that has a
positive impact. Through usefulness is a highly subjective experience, it is
linked to the particular objectives and causes that drive individuals to
transcend their customary abilities. Because a search for usefulness–for
meaning–largely determines a person’s life course, it also influences life in
organizations. Once again, this poses a challenge for the global leader: how to
find a purpose or objective that employees from different cultures see as
meaningful, inspiring them to strive in ways that simplistic formulas of return
on investment and profit maximization cannot.”
Is there some truth to the author’s contention? What is it
that we would find meaningful to our life’s purpose in the midst of an
organization or work setting?
Week 6 discussion
Dq1
Leading Change
In his book Leading Change (HBS Press 1996), John Kotter
states:
“A strategy of embracing the past will probably become
increasingly ineffective over the next few decades. Better for most of us to
start learning now how to cope with change, to develop whatever leadership
potential we have, and to help our organizations in the transformation process.
Better for most of us, despite the risks, to leap into the future. And to do so
sooner rather than later.”
Do you agree with the author? If he is correct, how can we
apply that to our own career plans?
Dq2
Learning To Keep Learning
In an article titled “Learning To Keep Learning”
in the New York Times, dated December 13, 2006, Thomas L. Friedman states:
“I listened to this with mixed emotions. Part of me
said ‘Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a government that was so focused on innovation
— instead of one that is basically anti-science.’ My other emotion was
skepticism. Oh, you know the line: Great Britain dominated the 19th century,
America dominated the 20th and now China is going to dominate the 21st. It’s
game over.
“No question, China has been able to command an
impressive effort to end illiteracy, greatly increasing its number of high
school grads and new universities. But I still believe it is very hard to
produce a culture of innovation in a country that censors [Google] which for me
is a proxy for curtailing people’s ability to imagine and try anything they
want. You can command K-12 education. But you can’t command innovation. Rigor
and competence, without freedom, will take China only so far. China will have
to find a way to loosen up, without losing control, if it wants to be a truly
innovative nation.” (access through ProQuest Data Base in the Keller
library-article 94 of 239 listed therein for that issue)
Comment on how one can stay abreast of changes that will
likely affect a career plan. How will we keep up to date in time to make
effective career transitions?
Week 7 discussion
Dq1
Personal Learning Outcomes
Discuss personal learning outcomes from the class experience
that you are willing to share.
Dq2
Changing World Experience
Discuss keys to adapting one’s career plan to a changing
world experience.
