Editing Management Principles (Winter 2026) (section)

== In Class: Discuss, Interact, Collaborate ==

Class will be split roughly into quarters: one quarter activity, one quarter discussion, one quarter spent conducting meetings, and one quarter allowing for group co-working.

=== Activities ===

When possible, class will include a range of activities and games intended to reinforce the themes we are learning. I will expect you to reflect on your experience in these activities and to apply class vocabulary and concepts to them. Therefore, your participation is expected and required.

=== Case discussion ===

The course includes discussions using the case study method: a particular form of instructor-mediated discussion. A standard "case" usually involves reading an example—an event, or about an organization or group. It is important to realize that '''I will not summarize case material in class and I will not cover it in lecture'''. I expect you all to have read it and we will jump in and start discussing it.

Cases ask students to put themselves in the positions of individuals facing difficult situations to tease out the tensions and forces at play in the case and to construct — through group discussion — the broader lessons and takeaways. Cases are a wonderful way to connect the sometimes abstract concepts taught in many academic courses to real examples of the type of ambiguous situations that you will likely encounter in your career. Generally speaking, there are multiple right answers in cases, and there are definitely poorly-prepared answers versus carefully-considered ones!

I have placed detailed information on case study-based discussion on [[User:Kaylea/Assessment#Case Discussion|the case discussion section of my assessment page]]. This describes both the rubrics I will use to assess your case discussion and how I will compute the final grades in the course.

==== Cold Calling ====

Cases rely roughly on the [[:wikipedia:Socratic method|socratic method]] where instructors teaching cases cold call on students—i.e., instructors call on people ''without'' asking for volunteers first. I will be doing this in each class. Modern technical work environments include very similar situations: very few lectures (except for "all hands" type meetings and "training" activities), and a range of types of team meetings and group conversations, where you will be expected to be prepared and then participate in key moments.

Because I understand that cold calling can intimidate some students, I will be circulating a list of questions (labeled "Reading Note" in the syllabus) that we will discuss. These will be finalized at least 6 days in advance. I will only cold call to ask questions for which you have time to prepare your answers, or where the general format / structure has been announced in advance so that you can prepare. Although it is a very good idea to write out answers to these questions in advance, I will not be collecting these answers. You are welcome to work with other students to brainstorm possible answers. Although I may also ask spontaneous questions that I do not distribute ahead of time, I will never cold call when asking these questions.

I have written a computer program that will generate a random list of students each day and I will use this list to '''randomly''' cold call students in the class. To try to maintain participation balance, the program will try to ensure that everybody is cold called a similar number of times during the quarter. Although there is always some chance that you will called upon next, you will become less likely to be called upon relative to your classmates each time you are called upon.

;Due: as made available in class
;Turn in: None. Will be assessed 'live' in class with grades released at the end of the quarter.

=== Weekly Team Meetings (1/week: Tuesdays) ===

It is typical for teams to have regular meetings; we'll do the same. During your allocated meeting time, you'll update the manager on your progress and any issues that are coming up. You'll update your team Jira and send notes to your team chat.

;Due: Tuesdays
;Turn in: All individual contributors will send notes to the team chat, and the manager will update the Jira and submit a screenshot.

=== Management Team Meetings (1/week: Thursdays) ===

I will meet with the management team each week -- management as a role will rotate among members of your group. The manager will report on your team's activities, ask questions, share feedback with me, and then share notes from the meeting back to your team chat.

;Due: Thursdays
;Turn in: See assignment-specific notes; your message will be assessed from Discord (see rubric on Canvas).

=== Skiplevel 1-on-1 Meetings (1/quarter/person) ===

It is very typical in professional life to have a weekly 1-on-1 meeting between an employee and a supervisor for perhaps 30 minutes. The purpose of these meetings is to allow the supervisor to coach and mentor the employee, provide feedback on their work, and allow for questions and discussion. Given that "management" of your group will rotate among peers, this is a tough thing to simulate exactly. Our solution will be a skiplevel 1-on-1 -- a skiplevel meeting is also a common pattern in professional life, and it means you meet with your boss's boss; these are typically not on a weekly cadence and involve more mentoring and less reporting. We will have one 15 minute, 1-on-1 meeting over the course of the quarter, scheduled during the last 30 minutes of the class (when others are doing group work); if you do not schedule this to occur during class, you'll need to schedule it during my office hours. If we put this into the language of teaching and learning, we'd call it an oral exam.

;Due: Before the end of the quarter. See Canvas for the scheduling link.
;Turn In: none -- you'll receive feedback from me.

'''Steps:'''
# We will sit in a corner of the classroom.
# You will come prepared: these conversations are friendly but are also evaluative.
# I will ask:
## A course content question (based on topics we've covered so far). This will not be a 'trivia' or 'trick' question -- but rather a conceptual question, with a range of right answers.
## How are things going in the course so far? What questions do you have for me? (Example answers: I understand x and y, but I didn't really understand topic A, and I'm worried about C).

'''Tips:'''
# My availability can be very tight at the end of the quarter. Don't wait.