Monday, August 10, 2009

Celebrations and Inward vs Outward Directed Control

For my own excited news, Sydney Uni announced their AUG's teams and I have been lucky enough to be selected this year. I am definitely excited about this, though it scares me how soon it is already, only 6 weeks to train up. The trials were stressful, turned out finding out today the roster size is 18 didn't need to stress toooo much but it will be interesting to see what Sydney Uni chooses to do with this new change.

This semester I'm doing two fun/arts subjects Management - which is how to make people do things for you that they don't want to do, and International Business, which is about how to recognise differences in cultures and making changes in your own behaviour to make the most money possible.

In Ibus, they are teaching us various perspectives on ways to catergorise cultural differences. One example discussed today was inward directed control vs outward directed control.

This concept is based on the way people react to their environments. An inward directed control is more about making their environment change to solve their needs, while outward is about how to work/adapt well to the environment.

One particular area this shows up in how competition, particularly sporting is approached. And inward directed person would have little concern on who their opponent is, aiming purely to just overwhelm them with their own ability. A person or team that is inwardly directed would care quite a lot who their opposition is and aim to believe success is oriented around knowing your opponent and finding their weaknesses and exploiting them.

Obviously both of these things would be ideal to have, but I think often people will fall into a habit of one or the other. Sydney Uni in particular I feel in the past has been too much inwardly focused! Hopefully this year will be different.

I am so excited.

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