Virtual Mail Bag, part 2

abcde Here's the paper I submitted for missing a luncheon the day before the final exam:

abdef Personal accountability is very important in the business world. Whether you report to a boss, a board of directors, stockholders or only to yourself, the decisions you make can have a large impact on many people in the firm. As Paul Rooke mentioned in our first meeting, he is interested in people that own the decisions that they make. Now I will discuss a few decisions I made recently, the outcomes and what I learned from these events.
abcde I decided recently to take the initiative on behalf of myself and my group and request that the MBA Program place us in Session 1 of the New Product Development module in order to accommodate my work schedule. I was under the impression that this was a reasonable request since I was currently in Session 2 and the only module that this would affect would be the New Product Development module. My request was summarily denied. There was some explanation involved, but it came down to the MBA Program explaining they owned me during the course of the program. The other thing I learned was that if I need to leave by 4pm, I should say my wife wants me to pick up the kids from school. Apparently, people with families are more mature and better able to access their own abilities.
abcde The second choice I made was to not attend the brown bag lunch. While I would like to attend all the functions/meetings that arrive in my inbox, reality dictates that I make choices. In a week that contained two presentations and a final exam, going to a brown bag lunch during the mist of this was not the most responsible thing for me to do. I found it imperative to prepare for my Accounting presentation and MBA 604 final exam, so that is what I did during my lunch hour. Now I am faced with losing a letter grade because of the choice I made. My first reaction to the email I received was to fire off an email in return. I took a deep breath and decided to explore my options. My next thought was to contact the Ombud about what I felt was an abuse of power. After rereading the MBA 604 syllabus, I realized the administration had given themselves carte blanche over our grades. So I finally settled on writing this paper and submitting it to the dean’s office, which seems more intent on controlling the lives of the people in the program than educating us.
abcde It seems to me that some of the “flexibility” that the MBA Program has assumed for itself could be shifted to the mature, responsible adults that they have accepted to this program. The main thing that I’ve learned over the last few weeks is that I have to look out for number one, since there doesn’t seem to be anyone else looking out for me. I also realize that the program does not always live in a place I like to call reality as evidenced by the timing of the brown bag lunch as well as the amount of work involved for the 3 credit hours that we will receive for MBA 604.

abcde Some of you probably think I went too far. But as Ferris Bueller once said, "You can never go too far." I also left out the part where I thought a monkey with a dartboard could have picked a better day for the luncheon. So basically I was being nice. Now for a second opinion on the matter, here's a look at another paper submitted for the same reason:

abcde I would first like to apologize for missing the lecture of Randy Lisk. From my understanding Lisk lectured on accountability. Ironically, while Lisk lectured, I demonstrated. I guess you could say, instead of learning how to be accountable, I jumped in with my flippers and was accountable.
abcde Thursday during the Lisk lecture, I along with the rest of my group chose not to attend the lecture, in favor of finishing our accounting project. The decision was to put forth the best effort on the accounting project, even if it meant missing a brown bag luncheon. Anyone of us could have easily said, “our project is good enough, lets just go to the Lisk lecture and eat lunch.” Instead we made the project better. This reverts back to key point number two, effective people increase their effectiveness by investing their time and energy on things they can influence, not on things where they presently have no influence. In my case, I felt I was more influential, helping my group with the project than I would have been listening to a lecture.
abcde If faced with the same circumstances, I would once again make the same decision. Accounting amounted to a total of 30% of the MBA 604 grade. A strong performance on the project was and still is, more important to the group as well as myself than a thirty minute lecture on accountability. Maybe I or one of my group members should have ditched the group, and went to a lecture on accountability? I guess I chose not to take this route or even to eat lunch because, well, I felt accountable to both myself and my group. Apparently, the result of this effort is a three page paper on “personal accountability and the power of choice.”
abcde I believe I have greatly benefited from this program and I believe my investment has been justified thus far. The whole issue of accountability is a question of itself. There are 10,646 reasons why this university is accountable to me, this semester.
abcde Randy Lisk is more accountable to Jason Leaf than Jason Leaf is accountable to Randy Lisk. I bought season tickets to the University of Kentucky football team this season. On Saturday September 10, 2005 the University of Kentucky played Idaho State. Despite owning season tickets, I made the decision not to attend the game. To this day, the University of Kentucky still has not inquired as to why I missed the game. Now, had the University of Kentucky not shown up for the game I would have inquired why they did not show up, because despite me not using my tickets, I in advance paid money to see them play. The University of Kentucky is accountable to 70,000 fans that pay money; much like Randy Lisk is accountable to 51 students who pay tuition. I on the other hand, in both cases would benefit from attending these events, but am really only accountable to my sunk cost, either $35 for season tickets, or whatever percentage of my 10,646 dollars of tuition per semester goes to Mr. Lisk.
abcde A better question is the accountability of Mr. Randy Lisk. The brown bag luncheon is advertised to last an hour. To my surprise, after 30 minutes, our break room where we were still working on our project became once again occupied with students who had been at the luncheon. What would happen if UK only played one half of football?
abcde Personal Accountability is the “ability to be responsible for the consequences of one’s own actions and decisions, taking responsibility for those decisions and not shifting the focus to poor performance somewhere else or blaming others” as defined by the handout. I am not afraid to say I am personally accountable for missing the luncheon. I wrote this paper begrudgingly as a result. I do however feel my group took care of the obligation of accountability before this paper. Chaka Cummings, a member of my group, went and informed Marry Lee Kerr we would not be attending the luncheon before the event. Chaka informed to the rest of my group that Ms. Kerr seemed understanding of the circumstances. Once again, the result, just like the decision not to attend the lecture is a mass informal e-mail sent to all of those, who missed the lecture and a three page paper for fun.
abcde I hope this paper serves as both a passing grade and expression of my displeasure. I chose specifically to use this paper as an outlet to vent my frustration with the, in what my mind are, disturbing circumstances placed on my group. I believe a simple e-mail stating understanding of the circumstances and the importance of the brown bag luncheon would suffice your wish of greater attendance. I realize, like everything else, I am personally accountable for everything written in this paper. I guess we will have to wait and see on the results of my second accountability experience. At least, I am using proactive language.

abcde I won't presume to speak for 51 other people, but everyone that read my paper and those that heard about Jason's paper say they agree something needed to be said and done. Now whether Jason and I end up "falling on the sword" for our comrades is yet to be decided.