ABC

Affect

During this course, I have to admit that the emotion I most felt was stress. That being said, it wasn’t a negative stress overload like some classes cause. It was the stress of hoping that I was understanding everything correctly and ready to contribute to each project as expected. This is class functioned under an organization model that is very different than the one I use in my personal life. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m not saying this was a negative thing to happen to me. I feel that it was an opportunity to learn adaptation skills and work in a changing environment.

The group work is what mostly caused that feeling of stress as the seemingly chaotic block quickly came to a close. As part time students after full time work, we each felt the strain of making schedules and ideas work with other group members. But I feel that I needed to learn more of this skillset to enhance my career and leadership methods. Although it seemed difficult to keep up with each assignment and new concept, I understand that this is your teaching method, and it added a new dimension to my education.

In the other class I took during this block, we learned that to truly change anything in an organization (or a person), it is essential to feel the need for the change, rather than simply hear why it is important. During this project management class, I have felt the need to learn new styles of projects, work tasks, leadership methods, and teaching types. Being able to feel, instead of hear only, has been beneficial in my quest for constant improvement

Behavior

I feel like I was one of the few members of this class that does not regularly participate in project management of some sort. As unrelated as it may seem, however, I am an event and project planner at heart. I am always planning and creating some type of party, reunion, work events and trainings, etc. Last summer, I planned my family reunion of several hundred people for three days. As I look back at some of the methods I used to make sure everything was in order, I realize that several of the tasks and tools taught in this class can help me more successfully plan and coordinate my future projects even better.

For my actual job at DMBA, even though I don’t manage any projects, I am on several teams that are working on different projects throughout the department. I noted several tools and methods that we could start using to better communicate and coordinate tasks among team members. I think there are several projects we do that would benefit from using something like Asana or Trello to help create a work breakdown structure. One area I see that we can improve is having a clear identification of what is expected of each team member.

I have been working on a project over the past few months that involves reorganizing and restructuring the training and recertification in our department. Since I was taking this class during this project, it was helpful for me to break down the tasks of the project and separate them out into clear and precise pieces. This was something I learned in class. When it came time to present my work to leadership, they were impressed in the detailed steps I had listed to achieve the goal we are trying to accomplish. I appreciate the insight gained from this class.

Cognition

Since this was the first project management experience I have really had in a formal setting, I came away from this class with a lot more knowledge than I had before. I really didn’t know anything about any of the crucial pieces to putting together a successful project. For example, I had never heard of a stakeholder analysis, work breakdown structure, or many of the online tools we learned about in class. I have used things similar to these ideas in several work and school project without really knowing what their official names were and why they are so important.

Beyond just learning the mechanics of a well-organized project, I think more about the process of each task, and I never really used to focus much on these aspects of a project. During the planning and creating ideas portion of a project at work, I now recognize what parts of our goal is weak or what project piece we are missing to fully capture the scope of the project. Similarly, with school projects, I now know some good ways to assign and follow up in a project that requires several different people to be working on various tasks.

Overall, one main thing I have learned during this class is that sometimes, it’s okay to feel a little stressed while projects and due dates seem to loom. As I mentioned, this class was run using a different model of organization than I prefer, but that doesn’t mean that it is bad. It means that I have a lot to learn about different learning models. I think this class has done a good thing for me.

Personal Introduction

There are a lot of things that have influenced the me of today, but I think the most important influences up to this point would have to be my belief in my religion, my large family and farm upbringing, and my wonderful wife and children. Frankly, this is the small list of things that I could not live without. There are obviously other things I enjoy in life, but these things truly define me. Luckily, I have an old blog from a class a few years ago that I plan to revive for the entries due in this class. 

I grew up in a small town near Boise, ID called Kuna. My dad is a farmer. He farms potatoes, sugar beets, peas, beans, corn, mint, alfalfa, and several other crops. I worked hard at my dad's side during all the years I lived at their home. I am an accomplished pianist, and I started my first business teaching piano lessons to more than 20 students during high school. I have 7 sisters and 1 brother, and I cherish my relationship with each of them. 

I earned my bachelors degree in 2013 from BYU in Latin American Studies. As part of my major, I taught business classes in southern Brazil for four months. Our goal was to teach natives how to become more self-sufficient and even start their own businesses. 

During my time at BYU and after I graduated, I worked in the security department at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. After supervising the training of this staff for a few years, I began my current employment at DMBA, where I coordinate payments for LDS church activity accidents. I have always been an event planner! Although I have little formal project management experience, I have been planning events and projects for years. This is definitely a strength of mine. I am a confident speaker and leader, I like to meet people and make new friends, and I am very dependable in everything I do. 

I am a pretty boring person, so the only relatively interesting thing I can think of at this moment (and some have heard this) is that my second daughter was the 3 millionth resident of Utah. She was born last October, and since she was selected to represent the idea of Utah reaching 3 million residents, the governor came to meet us at the hospital, and we were interviewed by several different news agencies. It was a fun experience. 

I really do hope to gain valuable knowledge in the field of project management. As I mentioned, I have not done a lot of formal project management, but I am excited to put in the effort to learn. This class appears as though it will be a bit complex with the many different assignments done in various ways, but I am up for the challenge. I think it will be a good addition to the classes I have already taken for the big picture of my MBA. I have never turned in a late assignment in my whole life, and I certainly do not plan to start now. I am committed to excellence in whatever I take on.