Reflection on Pandemic Experience

"For the past 2 months, we have been playing Pandemic game where we were distributed into teams from both our selection and the instructor's, had to work with strategies, and reflect weekly on our experiences. This blog talks generally about the past two month experience with Pandemic that includes what I've learned about leadership, management, communication, collaboration, resource allocation, and having to follow someone else's leadership and being a member of a team"

• Leadership:

So for me, I am very critical about my leadership skill, my leadership methods changes depending on the members of the team and the goal we are trying to reach. to be a leader, one's have got to communicate, collaborate, understand, and brain storm. My experience as leader in the pandemic made me re-experience the fact that a leader does not have to be the most knowledgeable in the team; they will only have to connect the dots and lead the team with shared knowledge towards said goal. Just like how I did not thoroughly understand the pandemic at the beginning but I still lead the team members to the win we were trying to achieve. Connecting everyone knowledge and asking for them opinion and to criticize me as a leader is a key for me to be a better leader. My experience is more detailed in my blog titled "Leading Pandemic Game".

• Management:

Management is the act of coordinating and organizing. which I would usually do before the game to follow my planned management in the game. In my "Leading Pandemic Game" blog; this is considered a form of management. to know the rules and objective to achieve the goal of clearing all the diseases. 

• Communication:

This is probably - or in my opinion - the most important factor that we had to learn or improve by playing pandemic together. I liked the fact that we could pick our own team members at a time and the instructor would distribute us on his own at other times. It gave me a realistic idea about when I go to the work field, I am not working with my friends necessarily I would meet different people where our characters couldn't be compatible but we would still have to find a way to work it out, and here is where communication would come. Be it a leader or a regular team member, communication is the key factor for a team to be effective. I've improved and actually implemented my idea of having to see things from other people's perspective even if I don't agree with it. Because at the end of the day it is not "me" it is "us".

• Collaboration:

Not that different from communication, almost like a branch that encompasses it. Collaborating in Pandemic game is another thing that team members also had to master if we wanted to get any closer to winning the game. For instance, someone giving 50% of the effort and for the other person to give the other 50%. A 100% would result due to the joint effort of these said parties. It lays down into the most simplest things actually! like how we all would want the class environment to be comfortable for us so - Let's say -  Abdulrahman would bring in the snacks and Amal would bring in the Karak and we would sit there as if it was our usual in between classes hang out. Plus, we would sit there and shout out tips for each other on how to win and would tease each other by the end of the rounds on who won and who lost. This, to me was an example of how we would set a collaborative environment in the classroom...... (Shout out to Mr. Adam for also being a big part of this collaboration and for setting this up 👏).

• Resource allocation:

Hacking the game into using financial - resource - allocation is what had provided this round with what happens in the real world which is why I've titled my blog "Real Life Audition". because, it is exactly what it is. Public Health Administration is -and could- not be a free service. We need money to cure, to travel, to hire, to even make plans, to set contingencies....etc. Resource allocation sets priorities and limitation to the amount and frequency of actions that one or an organization are able to do. Therefore, our strategy will have to be shorter in terms of action and smarter in terms of money distribution. I personally believe that the most important thing in resource allocation is contingency budget. Specially, if we were to be faced with outbreaks or epidemics.

Team/ and following someone lead:

Although it was the biggest challenge for me, being a team requires a lot of sharing and sacrifices. Specially if someone was to believe they are giving rather than receiving. For me however, be it giving or receiving, I though of it as a learning experience rather than a competition. Being a leader to enhance my skills to administer something. Being a follower and see how other people lead and look at their strategies. The idea reflected on this blog, how I was the leader of my own and had to look at other's to get ideas, understanding, or even to assess my performance. 

Pandemic: Real Life Audition – Budget Distribution

FIGURE (1)

Mission: win the game by curing all 4 diseases. This time; includes real life situation by using a budget which limit times of actions and the variety of choices. The total of the budget is 950,000 QR.

The pie chart will keep on decreasing as money is being used up during the mission

Firstly, the first money draw that I would do is the hiring of 4 specialists for the mission who are scientist, researcher, medic, and dispatcher. Thus, 285,000 is already gone from a total of 950,000 QR (FIGURE2). Leaving us with 665,000.

FIGURE (2)

 Then, curing all 4 diseases – most costly -  will require a total of 100,000 for each of the 4. Leaving us with 265,000 out of 665,000 that we are meant to start with after hiring. To start the game: (Figure 3) now shows all the actions that we can conduct during the game and which costs the most. It is obvious that curing a disease will be the most expensive.  Since drawing the cards and cities is a matter of luck, this will be the end of my financial planning.

FIGURE (3)

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But before that, I think the last financial planning that I would do is Draw 50% of the 665,000 as a contingency budget. I believe in a quote said by an American artist: 

Leading Pandemic Game

Last time I had a general idea about the game. This time however, my assignment was to lead the game and assign the roles of the other three players. In this blog post, I will be talking bout my enhanced understanding of the game in terms of it components and its rules while taking the game process as we used my previously stated strategy to win.

Pandemic Game contents/ Components:

• Pawns:  are what represents the selected characters - roles - by the team leader. they are color assorted to the role cards. 
  

• Role cards: consist of a medic, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine specialist, contingency planner, operation expert, and a researcher. each one of these individual role have a specific ability in which they contribute to cure all of the diseases. 

         

• Markers: include the outbreak marker, infection rate marker, and cure markers. 

           

• Colored cubes: cubes that represent the diseases to cure as they are distributed around the world alongside each card draw. 

             

• Research stations: these research station is what allows the members of the team to move from a city to another. 

        

• Player cards: these cards are what players draw in order to collect a certain amount of the same colored cards and cure the diseases. the player cards are to be shuffled at the beginning of the game and are stacked into 4 different piles so that event cards and epidemic cards are slipped into them evenly. eventually, these piles are stacked together and are placed into the player card section. 

          

• Infection cards: are cards of named cities alongside the colored cubes which the player would infect when they draw them. 

        

• Reference cards: are not used during the game however. they are used as a guideline for each player to look at when considering their next move. it includes four total actions for each player turn: 

• The board/ the world: is where all the previously mentioned contents go to their specific places.

Rules I had to revise for leading the game can be found in this website as seen in the following screenshots: 

Leading a Game:

Outline: 

A. The old game strategy
B. Progress and result of the game
C. Updated strategy 
D. Lessons learned
E. Evaluations 

A) 

Okay, so I will admit that when I first played the game a couple of weeks ago - when I thought I was prepared enough but I truly wasn't - I though that to win the game we did not need to cure all the diseases to win the game which then occurred to me that I had confused it to the fact that we did not need to clear all cubes of the board to win the game. beside this big drag that I solely believed in to win the game. My strategy mentioned in my previous blog post was that as long as the members played the role they knew best, voicing out opinions if one's felt that they can get closer to victory, keep a limited spread as much as possible (hahaha she thought!), and to only use special events cards when the spread is sever! I also mentioned how the main aim was to keep a trivial spread of diseases til we run out of player cards and BOOM: victory is here............

  

B) 

Although my strategy to win the game was solely built with confusion, mis -and- understanding of the game rules. It is only natural to (SPOILER!)  lose because it is like how a student would treat a question in a text:

Understanding the question is 50% of the answer = Understanding the game is 50% of winning 

So as the game continued, I was applying my learning as I communicated with other members of the team where I made it clear to them that although I am the assigned leader, I am not more acknowledged than any of you. and asked them if they had any intentions of interfering with my strategy - that I made clear before starting- then they are more than welcomed to. One thing I really had to give it up to myself for was that I knew what I was doing while picking specific roles for specific members. At that time I gave who I thought of as the best between us the role of the researcher which in my opinion then the quickest way to cure diseases. I needed someone who is attentive to the locations of the members and their cards so they can switch whenever possible. I had the role of a scientist - and not to say the scientist is trivial as a role - but someone who had the level of knowledge like me back then was suitable for this role, all I had to do was to collect 4 from the same color and that is it. The other two were operation expert and medic. these roles to me are the prefect combination to win the game we can build stations to help move across, exchange cards, removing all cards in one location (medic), and finally rapidly trying to cure a disease (ME!). 


Now, as we played we were never really close to victory and the main reason as i mentioned earlier because my strategy did not have any specific objective and were just directed mainly to win the game..... How? I also failed to mentioned that. On a brighter note, I believe the team communication was great everyone jumped in when the other was in trouble. I myself was learning new things about the game as it went on. literally learning new rules, realizing how I did not know a good 30% of it. therefore, since everyone was following my lead and depended on a fragile foundation (my strategy) to win the game. We had slowly lost. 

C) 

I've updated my strategy from a general to a more focused one that I will hopefully implement next time. First of all I think I will pick the same roles I've picked in the game I had lead. However, since we are 4 players. I would want each player to focus on collecting the color they had the most of from the first two rounds. For example, someone who had dominant red in their first 2 draws could focus on collecting the red with help from researcher and in terms of where they move in the map (which we did in the game I lead but once or twice). Another objective is to use the event cards as soon as possible because it had seemed to me that the sooner the better from the losing game. I had contradicted myself in the old strategy when I said: okay, keep the spread limited, but use the event cards only when necessary. Now that I know better :), it does not work like that. Keeping a limited spread is not an option simply because it is not controllable. Therefore, using the even cards accelerate winning the game. Also, it had occurred to me that not many of the members in the team were using different actions besides moving from city to city in 4 actions, we did build research centers but it completely crossed my mind that we could fly over or charter a flight or the fact that we get to P.A.S.S!! 

D)

I've learned a lot of new rules from this game with the help of the members and their reminders: I have to remember to increase the draw as the the infection rate increases. Instead of focusing on clearing out the cubes, focus on collecting the cards to find a cure for the diseases. Personally, I could change the roles in future games however two roles that must be consistent in my teams are the researcher and the medic. we just have to switch cards and we have to be able to clear any cubes as long as we cure them. I also watched games led by other classmates: I liked one where the leader wanted a member to stick to a region and clear the diseases from there until a cure was found. and for that member to only move outside their zone until necessary to help another region and go back again to their assigned locations. although that strategy was not voiced out, overtime I was able to know what is happening. At the end, we indeed won the game. But again, in terms of communication, I do believe that our team had a very effective communication or else we could have lost are early as we started. 

E) 

My strategy to win this time is more hopeful than the old one in terms of specific objective of roles, turns, where the focus would be, attention to the marker, assigning members to a specific disease and alternating when needed. more tips such as clearing out the regions where most cubes are positioned to avoid outbreaks, and remembering that a player can do more than just move to the near cities in 4 actions, they can fly and move across as well!   

Finally, since I've had evaluated and assessed my technique in leading the game my team members also had the chance to evaluate me according to certain criteria:

Note: One (I) mark for one vote from a total from three members

Leadership Characteristic	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
Communicate the plan effectively before the game started				II	I
Supported players in implementing strategy throughout the game			I		II
Kept the team focused on the objective				II	I
Listened to other’s ideas and took them under advisement				II	I
Maintained a positive, professional attitude throughout the game				I	II

As I mentioned earlier, I was only able to provide limited help to the members therefore It might have appeared from their perspective that I was providing minimum help. Beside that, looking at the criteria as a whole. I am aware of the fact that I was not able to reach the strongly agree category in all criteria due to my -Again- lack of full and proper knowledge and proper cohesive thinking of a proper strategy prior to the game. 

Pandemic Game First Trial and Strategic Plan

Pandemic is a game build on the dependence of teamwork and strategy. The game played by multiple individuals. These individuals are assigned a role from a total of six occupations. Although it clearly says in the instructions how clearing out all the diseases is not the way to win. Initially, that is what we aim for in the group. Besides the fact that mistakes occurred repeatedly, how to place the cubes – diseases – by taking 3 at first, 2 second, and lastly one was the most confusing part. The first trial had dragged out time wise.  as the cards number kept decreasing hinting at our near loss. Bearing in mind, the first time that we had played this game were more than 4 players so it was difficult to outline each individual role and the outline of how the game is processing. Therefore, the game turned into a one big confusing chaos. Hence, we have lost in the first game but that was out of pure confusion and not a strategic plan that was conducted beforehand and failed to win the game for us. Therefore, next time we play the game it is best to decide whose confident in playing what role. Also, the teamwork system should be flexible in terms of hierarchy. In other words, even if there was a leader assigned, whoever knows the next step closer to victory should share their thoughts to the leader and eventually to the group. The plan for victory is simple: trying as much as possible to keep a trivial spread of the four diseases as much as possible, and in cases where opportunity cards are present. They should only be used when the infection rate has increased. Because as mentioned previously, the main aim was to keep the infections trivial and limited sites.

Pandemic Game Components

Biography - 2019

My name is Alaa Mohamed Elfatieh Atieya, an environmental health student, I never thought that I would be taking this major but I am always up for new challenges, I enjoy hobbies like painting and reading books. Besides being an environmental health officer, I am hoping to be a researcher in the long run and if possible, an author.

I used to be a athletic kid in which I had played basketball, volleyball, running marathons, and handball. However, as I grew up my interest had entirely shifted to reading books. I read anything and everything as long as I will gain an information out of it. It is soothing and a good way to spend leisure time. 

I am very ambitious and very competitive as I love to develop my skills in every aspect continuously. I have a natural leadership skills and had learned to be dependable on my teammates these past few years. My dream and goal in life is to be a successful women in her career\path, not because I am trying to prove myself to others but I am trying to prove to my own self that I can try new challenges and so slowly but surely come out of my comfort zone to be a better person. I like to compete with the older me to a better me today till i finally reach my goal. 

Health & Safety Auditing

Monitoring isn't a foreign aspect in health and safety, but auditing is quite different than monitoring, surveys, inspections and tours. How? 

Well monitoring is more detailed, specified and it's more deep than the others when it comes to CHECKING the performance in the ACT phase. 
An Audit involves collecting information on the efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of the total health and safety management system and drawing up plans for corrective action.

You would notice that the audit is detailed when you first look at the picture above and second when you know what it actually covers and it's stages from preparatory work to on site, and finally conclusion that accommodates:

1. The Policy:

 

2. Workers Participation:

3. Responsibility & Accountability:

4. Competence and Training:

5. OHS Documentations: 

6. Communication:

Active & Reactive Monitoring

Active and Reactive monitoring are the core process during the performance assessment. I summarized & simplified it in 2 flowcharts: 

Flow chart (1)

You would think that these two can't come together because one is to be done before the accident and the second one is after the accident. I was curious myself and so when i asked my instructor about it i was told that when i am doing an inspection (ACTIVE) and you find something hazardous is when you need to investigate it. (REACTIVE). 

Flow chart (2)

For further explanation, I liked the way HSE delivered the information about this topic. where they defined both types listed them and explain how to do them.