Some follow up to today's class session.

I did a count of the class today among those present.  I believe I got 18 students.  There are 38 students still on the roster.  There are 36 student blogs linked in the left sidebar of the class site.  At my last count there were 27 posts done on the opportunism prompt (and/or on an equivalent topic). 

If you miss submitting assigned course work, while you may feel awkward about doing so, it is best to email me about what's going on that explains it.  I like the expression - bad hair day - because it is otherwise non-specific about the issue but does communicate that things will be back to normal soon.  That is different from planning to drop the course, a more permanent change.  I'd like to know about that too and and about what option you think you are maintaining by not doing it yet if you've already fallen behind in the course.

We are now into the segment of the class on management.  For us management is how organizations handle transaction costs so they are kept within bounds and don't derail organization.  One part of management is coordination and, in particular, addressing the assignment problem - who does what.  I didn't say this in class today, but to inject some humor into the discussion, one way the assignment problem is addressed is that if an employee has done a good job on a previous assignment, then the "reward" is to get assigned more work in the future and/or to have to deal with tougher issues or tougher clients in the future.  If you're an overachiever, be forewarned about that. 

I also didn't try to distinguish management from leadership.  In some contexts the terms are used interchangeably.  But leadership can be practiced by anyone in the organization, not just by those at the top.  To me, leadership means things that raiser the productivity of co-workers or of the group as a whole. Setting a good example in one's own performance can be an act of leadership.  Working with a co-worker who is struggling so the co-worker can improve is another example.   The blog post on effective teams, which is due Friday, might be thought of as asking how can the team get everyone to be a leader?