Discussion Journal #10

          This week in class (Nov 11-15) we learned about the differences in the PRT industry than those in service industries. We were shown why our industries are actually experience industries. Professor Wells stressed to us the importance of having both the Technical performance skills as well as the Artistic performance skills to create the correct atmosphere and provide each customer a great experience. She stressed to us that in order to provide the great experiences we want, we first must set up a great setting as the backdrop for our great experiences.
          It was while we were discussing settings that I became very interested. Professor Wells spoke about ensuring that when setting up an area you attempt to engage all of the senses sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. She spoke about how engaging each of these will help make the event more memorable as an example she showed us a clip from a U2 that was performed on a roof top saying that the people seeing them up on the roof, hearing them in the street, feeling the crowd grow around them, smelling the air as the wind blew. She pointed out that each of the people viewing probably talked about being there for weeks and remember it for the rest of their lives. We had also read about much of the same ideas in our reading "Be our guest"  in the reading they talk about how Disney focuses on each area. With sight he focused not only what you can see but what you can't see, by building a burm to block out the sight of the surrounding city. The reading was fascinating and informative.
        Based on what I have learned this week, I believe that when I begin to create and update the programs during my career I will pay more attention to all of the details. Even things I never thought of before such as smell. I have realized the areas that are often missed or left out of programming. Hopefully in the future all of the information that I am learning will contribute to the creating of better programming and better experiences for the guests visiting the parks I work in.

Discussion Journal #9

      The week of November 4 through November 8 flew by as we learned about leaders and managers. We learned that while both are often grouped together leaders are not necessarily managers, and managers are not necessarily leaders. Each category both managers and leaders have their own distinct characteristics about what makes fit that role. However, on rare occasion someone can be both a manager and a leader. While we talked about both, there was an emphasis put on leaders and how important they are within an organization. Prof. Bell told us that "leadership is the interpersonal influence exercised by a person or persons through the process of communication toward the attainment of an organizations goals." He then proceeded to tell us that there are three styles of leadership the democratic style, autocratic style, and the laissez faire style. The sheer amount of time that we spent learning about being leaders stresses the importance of the subject within our own lives.
     So in an attempt to help us learn more about the different styles of leadership and things that they have in common as well as the things that make them different prof. Bell continued to share with us the traits that a said to be associated with a leader. Theses traits were that they were honest, competent, forward-looking,  inspiring, and intelligent. As I look at these traits I started to wonder how many of them do I have , and how do I get better at the ones that I don't have. I would say that I believe that I have an honest person and I would also believe that I am forward-looking. I would say that I'm competent and intelligent in many things but definitely not everything. So that brings me to the last characteristic being inspiring, this is the trait I feel I probably lock the most in. I don't always work well in groups and it is difficult for me sometimes to raise up those around me. I know that this is an area I need to work in and improve.
       As I am continuing my education I hope to continue to improve on my characteristics of leadership and to make myself a better leader. This week is showing me how possessing the skills of a leader and having the characteristics can help to increase my chances within an organization to rise up and be placed in better positions. For this reason I hope that as I do proceed that i will focus more on honing my skills as a leader. To ensure that I am honest, and competent, forward-looking, intelligent, and inspiring to those around me. Also ensuring asking those around me for honest feedback on ways I can improve. 

Disscussion Journal #8

        This week (Oct 28- Nov 1) in our classes we learned about how to create effective and to the point questionnaires using closed and open ended questions. Prior to this week’s classes I had never really put any thought into the types of questions that go into surveys. Or why an organization may or may not use the questions they do. We learned how open ended questions can help a person express their experiences more clearly but often take more time to fill out and are also more difficult to log their answers into a mass data type format. While closed ended questions don’t allow much room for self-expression but can be coded easily for data analysis. All the info we received made me thing back to the many questionnaire I have filled out in the past few years and it helped me understand better why they were worded the way they were.
        So to help us understand how to create a questionnaire we all had to make one this week. On Thursday’s class we were asked to look at the data we had compiled for our projects that we are putting together, and create a questionnaire that could be used to evaluate how the program went. We were told to look at what our goals were, and to figure out how to ask questions in a way that would allow us to determine if our goals were met. The instructor told us to also try to make most of our questions be closed ended so the survey we created could be filled out and the data read off of it with ease. Starting the work on this questionnaire was at first difficult the questions were hard to think of and word properly and then once I had thought of one I would realize the data retrieved from its answers didn’t actually help me to know if any of my goals were met, so I would have to delete it and start over again. The longer I worked at it the better I became at wording the questions to fit the data I needed to know. I also made sure to ask our instructor Jeremy many questions as I worked my way through creating the questionnaire.
        I am grateful for all I have learned this week in class, as now I can create more effective surveys in the future to get feedback on programs I may be part of or running. Now that I have the knowledge of effective survey techniques I can gather info prior to and after putting on programs. Understanding the importance of running a test group to get the most effective survey also will help me develop the best possible surveys in the future. I am grateful for all I am learning in this class and continue to look forward to the information I will learn in weeks to come that will assist me in my future career.