About my writing - The Rock Band Project

For my research, I decided to write a paper on rock bands as an organization.

When we think the music as their products and band members as the employees, rock bands can be said that they are part of the world's biggest companies, and the important part is that the products are made by close cooperation of members.

As I was researching, I found a very interesting website, which is called "The Rock Band Project". This is the introduction movie of the project.

Not only that this website will be inspiring for my research, but also this will be fun for everyone who likes music and have interest in managing teams. It is really worth visiting. 

Down below is my research proposal.

Shackleton Ch.2 & 3

It's been a while since I last posted my blog....

Chapter 2 of Leading at the Edge was about giving right speeches at right time, using vivid and memorable symbols, demonstrating the leadership through action.

What I was reminded by this theme was the strategy Matthew Calbraith Perry, who we know as ペリー, used in the negotiation with the Bakufu officials. It is kind of a counter-example of being visible.

Perry never came out of his room, and did not show himself up at any negotiations. What he thought was that by not showing himself up, Japanese officials will fear and respect him.

The strategy can be said that it was a success, because
Japanese painters drew Perry in a demon-like way.

If he did otherwise, the fear would be much less. If you are a leader and want to make the team members fear and respect, this can be one of the tactics you can use, but getting friendliness and respect would be much better, so you should not do it, mostly.


Chapter 3 of Leading at the Edge was about being optimistic, spreading and maintaining the optimism, seeing the chance in danger, and making your feet stay on the reality.

Personally, I'm quite a positive thinker. However, it's true that I sometimes, (or maybe often) think about the deadlines too positively. So what happens is that..... you know. 

Actually, keeping the reality may be the most difficult and essential part of optimism.

I've got nothing to say

Week3: Negotiation and Power Pose

As I was looking for something I can write on my blog, I got interested in good negotiators in the past, and I found this article.

The title is "Four Negotiating Skills We Can Learn from 'Lincoln'".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcamp/2012/12/10/4-negotiating-skills-we-can-learn-from-lincoln/

Lincoln as a negotiator

There are four skills introduced in this article, but the most interesting was the 4th one.

It is about making the person you are negotiating comfortable and relaxed. It says that making too big gestures, which we may know as power pose, makes you seem aggressive and makes the opponent negotiator feel uneasy. 

We learned that making power pose and good gestures makes a good presentation, but the reason this works is maybe that presentation are often made one-on-many, but negotiation is made one-on-one.

Unlike presentations, negotiation is where people communicate with each other. Of course presentations are communication, but negotiation often includes much more intense exchange of words with smaller distance. Gestures and postures for presentations would make the other side overwhelmed and harmed.

To make the both sides satisfied more easily, making a comfortable mood and conducting the discussion smoothly with right gestures and physical communication would be very useful.

Week 2: My Personal Vision Statement

My Personal Vision Statement is:

I, Kengo Aihara, living at my highest and best, am empathic, determined, creative, sharp, and joyful. 

So, in my highest and best,  I can be kind to others. I can make others' sorrow smaller. I will have a strong will, and nothing will make me give up and get down. I can make something that no one has ever seen.  I can think. I can always have fun at any hard time.

I will do my best to be a man like this.

Actually I made this last year, but hadn't post it until today. It's because I thought it was kind of embarrassing to show my internal faith, but I don't really care now. 

To say the truth, I was pretty much indolent since the new year started. I didn't write reports, didn't post to blogs, didn't practice guitar. But as I re-read my personal vision statement, I remembered how powerful I felt when I composed this piece of writing. I was satisfied, and felt that this passage shows my ideas perfectly. 

So, I've changed my mind, and my new year has started. This post is a message and a lesson for me.

Week 2: LE Ch.1 Vision and Quick Victories

The first strategy introduced was to "Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on short-term objectives".

so in this picture, ultimate goal will be the "GOAL" and 

short-term objectives will be the puzzle pieces.

The lessons related to the strategy were: don't cling to the past and be ready to change long-term and short-time goal, doing something even it is meaningless is far better than doing nothing, maintain a balance of your need and team's need(ex. need to defuse anxiety), prepare a routine so that people can feel safe, and working makes anxious feeling distracted.

In this post, I would like to confirm what my goal and objections are in this RW class..


In this research writing class,my long-term vision is to write good passages, and to be able to write accurately and correctly.

So the Short-term goals for the vision will be; getting used to writing by posting to the blog(which isn't I'm not really doing for now...), and to read a lot, know useful and cool expressions.

My English teacher in high school once said in class that writing something for seven minutes everyday is a good exercise for writing(I don't remember why it was 7 minutes), so maybe I can do that by my blog.

 In addition to long and short term goal, I thought of  Superlong-term vision, which is to make my English usable in even difficult and complicated circumstances. Being able to write and communicate will be big steps to this ultimate goal.