Your Journal

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Just as a private pilot's license or driver's license signifies that the individual is ready to carry on with the process of flying or driving - thereby learning the skill better without endangering others, so it with a university degree. Once the degree is attained, it is a sign that we are able to carry on with the process of learning without endangering others (ideas are potent weapons). So that you may better understand the process of learning - and thus make it safer and more beneficial for both ourselves and our peers and colleagues, I ask each of you keep a informal journal - a record of this part of your journey though the educational process. It works best, I suspect, if you simply write me letter and keep adding to it each week or every few days.

While you are learning any new topic, it is beneficial to keep a journal, even when it is not a course requirement. In your journal (best kept in a computer file or loose leaf binder) comment on your learning process and its progress; record questions you would like to have asked me (or someone else) had I been around at the time. [Keep a separate section for substantive notes on the course but do not turn those in.] The purpose of the journal is to help you better understand your own learning process. If done conscientiously, I find that it accelerates the takeoff and growth phases of your learning curve.

Challenge the material in your readings if it sounds strange, or statements I or your fellow students make. If your authors seem to be parroting common sense and calling it management (or some other) theory, say so in your journal; then ask yourself why you believe as you do and write down your answer. Comment also on organizations you see around you, examples of good strategic planning - and plans gone awry. Then briefly answer the question "Why?" Why do you feel the way you do about the issue or subject? Why do you agree or disagree? Why do you think it is not important? Why do you not want to study? Etc.

As noted elsewhere, I encourage people to use the Kaizen approach of answering the question "Why?" five times; that is, go five layers deep into the underlying reasons. [For example, in response to falling sales through the Sears Roebuck Catalog - Why (1) was it a general trend? If sales were rising through other catalog merchants, why (2) were Sears sales falling? Perhaps the products were not attractive or attractively priced to enough people. If they were not attractive, why (3) did the market move without Sears seeing it in advance? Perhaps certain people in Sears did see the market move, but their views were suppressed Why (4) were the views suppressed? Perhaps Sears is trying to be too many things to too many people. But then why (5) are such a wide variety of catalog sales merchants handling such a wide variety of goods being successful? Can it be that specialty catalogs are read and the old 'wish book' is out of fashion? --- and with such a complex problem, one can go on and on for many levels past five following false trails at times, but narrowing the gap between truth and conjecture.]

As important as "Why?" is "How?" Here to, we need to peal back the layers of the onion - dig deeply into a subject. Get to primative operations on which we can all agree a procedure. For example, how do you drive a car? Everyone is slightly different. How does one turn a sharp corner? How do you know when the engine is running properly? How can you tell when you have reached to limits of your driving skills (short of having an accident)? And so on.

When you have a "How?" question, explore your own procedures and speculate on answers to questions you put to me.

Keep in mind that the process of learning should never stops. A conscientiously kept journal can help you benefit more from this course and set you on track to get more from each learning experience. While it is particularly appropriate in graduate and upper division undergraduate courses, it is acknowledged as useful for all those involved in 'distributed education' - that's us. We need to develop further the habit of challenging the ideas of others. You need to be consistent in keeping your journal entries up-to-date. Allow 10 minutes at the end of each chapter to reflect on 'remarkable' items you have highlighted as you read the chapter. Take a few minutes each week to jot down some comments on your observations of strategic management in action or inaction. Develop the habit and use it both to help and to compete with your contemporaries.

Please email your journals to me or bring them to class on the date specified in the course syllabus along with a self-addressed and appropriately stamped envelope. If you will not be in class, make sure that I receive your journal on that day by post or by hand. I will review them, make comments as needed and return them as quickly as I can. I will not be looking so much at length, but at quality and an honest effort to take an active role in developing yourself and learning how to learn the subject.

For DE courses, please post your journals in the assignments section of WebTycho on or before the due date.

PS. Make sure that you have identified the course and yourself on your journal prior to submission. Thanks.