As far as incentives go for doing an activity like this again, I think it depends on who you are. What I mean is that if you are taking the MBA program because you want the stamp on your record so you can enter a higher paying job role, well, then it is just a tedious exercise to go through. However, if you are looking to truly improve, then these activities can help with repetition. Deep down, I will admit, the exercise felt like a waste of time. It was also hot out and I was pretty tired, so that didn't make things go so well, but the discussions we had after the activity were unique, useful and helped me think about what we had just done. This was the reward for me and allowed me to look back and justify struggling through the activity.
I guess what truly motivates me is learning. I don't mind doing something if it means I will come out of it wiser than before. However, it is not always recognizable until after the fact. I guess this is still a bit mercenary because I am not doing something unless I get something tangible out of it, but I feel like it is a little easier to self motivate unless the task is mundane. For example, the square activity was difficult and really a pain to get through, but I reinforced a lesson and learnt new things about a common situation, however if the professor just handed us all hammers and said go pound on rocks for half and hr and then said "well this concludes the class for today, I hope you enjoyed wasting your time and money" I would be quite angry. Even though I would have learnt that this class was a joke if pounding rocks was going to be our activities, it would not be a worthwhile lesson.
Regarding the question on if everyone only did things based on an economic calculation, how would that shape society, I don't know if our world today would change all that much. We currently need money to live in this society and I feel it is hard to do something just to do it. However, what we choose to learn or understand out a situation totally depend on us. So even though I may be getting my MBA to help further my career, that is not my only motive. I am doing it for the knowledge because I like to learn and do my best not to make the same mistake twice.
As far as my core values goes, the activity reinforced the idea that if you approach a task with an open mind, or at least be willing to reflect on the activity at some later point, you will learn something and you should be able to apply it to your daily life.
As Adam observed, most of us are driven by 2 incentives in life. Be it working to earn a living or earning a higher degree towards bettering a career, the key incentive is the financial benefit. I will not be at my work desk everyday unless I was being paid to do the job I do. Also the MBA pursuit is in the hope of a better career with higher financial prospects and growth. The second incentive is learning. Communication, as observed by Adam was a definite learning through the Blind Square exercise. I feel the other learning was how to trust another person whether we knew him or not (we were all blind folded and hoping not to get hurt during the exercise). Trusting someone is a daily occurrence in a corporate atmosphere. The customers trust the organization doing the work for them, the management of the organization trust the employees and resources to produce a quality product etc. Overall I do believe the Blind Square exercise was enlightening and a good learning experience at many levels.
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