Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Feedback on my Lecture at San Francisco State's MBA Class

I got some great feedback from the class on my lecture on Creativity and Idea Generation for the class MGMT 831: The Entrepreneurial Process.  This feedback will help me refine the way I deliver a lecture the next time.  

Lets start with The Opportunities for Improvement:

  1. Need to have more real-world examples - good point.  In the future, I will try to balance each concept or point I present with a real-world example, even if that reduces the number of concepts presented.
  2. Presentation was rushed - I had a little less time than planned, but still tried to cover all the content I had planned on.  A good learning for next time.
  3. The slides were too wordy, needed more videos, pictures, etc. - yes!  If I feel compelled to put a lot of points on paper, next time I will put them on the speaker notes instead of the main slides
  4. Need to vary tone of voice more - I hadn't realized this.  Something to be said for not watching a tape of yourself  :).  I will aim for more dynamic delivery in the future.
  5. "There were some technical words he used such as "bisocialization" where he could have substituted something more simple, if possible." - next time, I'll include definitions if I use new terms.

And now the good stuff, the things I should keep the same, or do more of  (the details are given below instead of just the synopsis, if you care to read them; the feedback is not attributed, but quoted near-verbatim with some trimming from the students' notes):

Positive feedback:

  1. I felt that he had a lot of knowledge and was a good communicator.
  2. After I listened to this speaker, I realized the significance of group discussion. The group discussion provides a working environment for group members to generate and discuss business ideas. We can draw new insights from other people, although they do not have expertise in the specific area.
  3. It was helpful to learn about the different factors of creating a new concept or new idea for a business.  And ideas that helped current business sustain itself.   After coming up with an idea, it is also helpful to share those ideas and get feedback.  There may be factors that may not have been considered.  I enjoyed listening to Vikram Singh and he seemed to really enjoy presenting.
  4. Mr. Singh did a good job of talking to the class, and not at us.  His examples were easy to swallow and the material he was presenting was easy to follow.  The strength of his presentation was in his speaking and involvement of the class.
  5. I liked Vikram's definition of Creativity: The ability to transcend traditional ideas to create a meaningful new ideas. This approach encourages people to think more and be more creative. A lot of us think we are not creative but truth is, we all are. We can be creative by observing the products we have available in the market, and transpose them to another product that provides different value.   The presentation was interesting, and having well-prepared ppt slides gave deeper impression of the presentation and the speaker.
  6. It was good to have someone who was so knowledgeable come in to speak to us.  I particularly enjoyed listening to his feedback on our team feedback regarding our business ideas.  He really emphasized the importance of teamwork and how it’s extremely beneficial to have a variety of people who think differently on the same team.  Not only did he cover the importance of a good team when starting a new business venture, but he also touched upon many important aspects of selecting a correct opportunity.  Opportunities are only available during a certain window but we must be prepared to seek out those opportunities as they unravel.  Overall, I very much enjoyed the discussion and presentation by Vikram Singh.
  7. Overall, I really enjoyed our first speaker.  Vikram seemed very informed and spoke from experience.  I especially liked when he mentioned that, at times during group meetings/discussions, you have to think "outside of the box" or in ways that contradict your usual train of thought to help advance ideas as a whole.  He also seemed up to date on the most current events in regards to his field and made me wonder where he gets his information from.
  8. It is great to have a guest speaker who is in the real business world come and share experiences with respect to the topic in the textbook. It helps me understand the concept more clearly. I liked that he let the class share ideas and opinions freely. And one of the most interesting and useful things I learnt is the "idea matrix". It can be applied to our project in helping screen out our business ideas.
  9. It was interesting as he was very excited to share it with the class. I like how he put everything in bullet points and made it easy to understand and like a "theory".
  10. I thought this was an excellent talk.  He was interesting and clearly passionate about the topic.  He provided great information.  I really enjoyed his presentation and learned a lot.
  11. I really enjoyed what Mr. Singh had to share with the class. He gave us insightful information along with examples of real-life experiences that will be helpful to us all in the future. I thought his ideas on group dynamics were very interesting along with how they compare to individual participation. I also thought his ideas on the creative process gave me a better understanding on how to foster an idea into something more.
  12. Very good presenter, I wish to have a copy of his slides. He knows what he's talking about and not just theory, but practical insights about business. Overall I liked his emphasis of team work that uses different skills of every individual to get things done. And I got a chance to talk with him after class and was very informative.
  13. The speaker raised the discussion about the roles in 6 hats. It's very useful to find that some people placed their roles by the hat. They had a chance to think and present their ideas that they may not ever realize that they are good at. This is useful to our project because each teammate has to play various roles in the group so that our work will be on the right track. For example, cautious role is very important because people cannot always support ideas which may be good but not feasible at the same time. Also the speaker gave an idea about creativity. We know that in order for us to be creative, implementing the idea is important because it will help us see many ideas, possibilities etc.. of a particular thing or idea. In addition, we've learnt that it's important to know ourselves such as strengths & weaknesses, analyze rules of the game by understand group dynamics, assertive ideas, set structure, goal, timeline and finally don't just wing it so that the idea will be effectively. These are very useful as well since we can apply these ideas to our group project and make it successfully.
  14. I think it was a good opportunity for us to have the speaker visiting in the last class. He mentioned about many theories and concepts such as the creative process and knowing yourself. Listening to what he said, I think he helped me see things in different aspects which I think are really important for the entrepreneur to obtain.

No comments: