The 1 Hour Decision!

The day after the test we had an activity that resembled peers in a jury making decision. We all had to come to a consensus of how the first exam would be reflected in our average. Knowing the class average was in the 70's, there was worry that the class might lose motivation for the class. I agree that is true at times like when i get a bad grade on the first exam, I tend to be less motivated about the class knowing that the best grade I can get might be a B- or something. When the class was debating for a better grade, many people were more passionate than others while some just sat back and relaxed. Out of the different ways of handling conflict I would say I used "avoidance". I didn't use that strategy because I had no chance of winning, but I saw how the curve was calculated and I would be saisfied eitherway if we got a curve or we got to drop the lowest grade. Also I saw that tension was really high in the room, and I didn't want half the class countering whatever I had said so I just listened for the most part. Maybe if we got nothing at all I would get upset, but I guessed that the class will atleast come to a consensus on something.

After experiencing how the class reacted to this decision making process, I think it could have been done using "collaboration", where the class breaks up into maybe 4 or 5 groups and each group has their own ideas. This way it could have been more organized and the time constraint would be no bother. The leader did do a good job reminding us of the time constraint as well as represent the group unbiased to any decision which I thought was important. Opinions were respected and the leader didn't want to pressure anyone into anything. Also if there would be groups, if a group has a few people who don't agree with the decision, it would be better for the group to handle it rather than 80 classmates against maybe one person. If one person is put on the spot like that, its hard to come up with a response that accurately shows how they feel.

Overall I saw about 4 out of the 5 ways to deal with conflict used in the activity and different personality clashes. There were compete to win personalities who freely expressed their opinion, avoidance people who sat back and listened. A few accomodating people who voted for the benefit of the other students, and compromising was used to an extent, but not fully, as in the end the majority got everything they wanted. Collaborating was an idea that was brought up, but not used, I'am guessing because everyone including myself was anxious to come to a decision quick instead of working in groups. With this experience, I learned that when a group of people need to come to a consensus on something, there are multiple ways people handle the conflict and it will be interesting to see how my friends react to decisions in the future.