Decisions, decisions...

This was a very interesting and chaotic class session. We as a class were allowed to come up with a solution to our first exam's overall low scores. As a class we had to come up with ideas on how to fix our exam grade, and what we wanted to change for the next exam. However, for these ideas to come into effect, we had to have a 100% approval from everyone in the class, and of course it had to be a reasonable suggestion to gain our our teacher's approval.

Chaos broke out as our class started yelling out suggestions and trying to be heard. Someone took the decision to go to the front of the class and be our leader, which was a strong thing to do. Throughout this process we gained more and more leaders, which we at some point had many of, at the front of the class. It was not very organized even though we had leaders, and those who stayed in their seat and raised a hand to be heard was not always granted time to talk and be heard.

I think that many people in our class entered the "compete to win" mode and were trying to find a way to improve our grades, which was something that most people were interested in. Not everyone were aggressive, but most of us were assertive and showed interest in making a difference. I was in this group as well, and I tried not to yell out suggestions. At one point I was raising my hand for quite a while, while chaos was rising in the class, and after some time of not being able to say my opinion, I walked up to one of the leaders and told that person my suggestion. There was just too much going on, and it seems like we weren't even able to get to that suggestion either. Why I chose to be a part of the decision-making and in the "compete to win" group was that I really cared about the outcome and it was important to me to be able to raise my grade in that exam. I work hard in school and strive for good grades, so when the exam results turned out lower than expected, I wanted to be a part of the possibility to raise the grade. I think that many people in the class were surprised over the outcome, and we wanted to improve our grades. Since some of the steps that we agreed on are optional, not everyone have to participate if they don't want to, so agreeing to the decision (to get our 100% approval) seems like it would be beneficial to all students in the class no matter what they end up choosing in the optional steps.

Another thing that went on was "collaborating" where some people would encourage ideas to find the best possible outcome and possibly alternatives. We negotiated and tried to find our best options. Sometimes the group would go back and forth, but then someone would point out that we already made a decision on that point and that we should move further with the next part. I agree that this is also a good step to include in a decision-making process, as we really should encourage various ideas, which I also did in this event. I was curious to see what options we had and what other people were thinking, but of course it might be hard to settle on one solid idea since people view things differently. Overall, it seemed like a big part of the group was encouraging various ideas, possibilities, and alternatives.

Other behaviors that I noticed during this class was "avoidance," where some people would not be talking, but just listen and watch the whole process. Some people were quiet and sat calmly in their seats and seemed to not contribute to the suggestions. I also noticed some "compromise" behavior from some of the leaders, that would work as mediators and "try to get something" out of this, and to find the alternatives that we all would agree on. They would remind us all that we can benefit from this and that we should decide on something that we're gonna agree on. Sometimes they would also do a "pre-vote" to see how many people were interested in that alternative and if it was worth moving the specific suggestion further. Other factors that seemed to have contributed to the chaotic decision-making process were clashes of personalities, which influences a lot, such as how someone acts in that setting or interacts with others as a group. It was noticeable that some people were very outgoing while some people were quiet and withdrawn.

It seems that a better way to have handled this conflict would have been to agree on a leader, and let that person lead us properly. It would have been better if the group had stayed quiet and only spoke when they were called on to speak, and hopefully that would have been more systematic. More people might have had a chance to voice their opinions and suggestions, and it would likely have been calmer. The chaos increased at times as more and more people voiced their opinions out loud. When it seemed like they still weren't heard, it escalated more, and too much was going on at the same time. We as a group should have communicated better, and let the leader lead us. It would have been great if we all could have listened to each idea properly, then possibly write them all on the board, and then take a vote in a non-chaotic way. Those options that seemed to be most popular could stay on the board and would be examined and discussed further. It seems like this would have been a more effective and calm way to make the decisions. Overall it was a very interesting task, and people got really involved. There were times were many of us probably got nervous, such as when it seemed like we might not get a 100% approval among the group and consequently lose our chance of improving our grades, but it worked out and we ended up with a 100% group approval in all of the points of our decision. Even though it was chaotic at times, I think that we did a good job together in making the desirable alternatives possible.