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FINAL WEEK!!!

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So after two and a half months, we are finally done this project for Tommy Thompson Park. Our presentations went really well, not just for us, but for all the other groups that presented. Our audience, which was filled with parents, high ranking people from Tommy Thomspon Park, including Rhiya, people from Rotman, our teachers, and even the dean of Rotman were all very proud of us and the long journey we have gone through. In the beginning of this course, no one really knew each other, and no one really wanted to work with each other. But after some time, we broke the ice and flourished not only as friends but as a family. These past couple months we have got to know one another, and all share our stories. As a group, we have bonded and formed a relationship over the past two (and a half) months that can never, ever be forgotten. We will grow up remembering all the funny moments we had with one another. All the laughs and giggles we shared. And all the work we had to do. ...
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Week 10 - Practice, Revise, Repeat And Nogha

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In week 10, most of the time was spent on practicing, revising and practicing again for our final presentations. We also had Nogha, from the Rotman program at the University Of Toronto come by to give us some pointers on how we can improve our presentation so that when we present for good, it goes without a hitch, and is just flawless.  For our presentation, we did a lot of revising because it was not up to the standard of what we wanted. When we looked at some of the other presentations that the other groups made, ours looked very messy and unprofessional. Nogha and Mr. Essabhai both said that the slideshow is an information overload and that it needs to be redone. They also said something similar to our script. The problem for our script was that we kept going on and on and the presentation just ran too long. The reason for why this had to be fixed was because the presentation needed to be under 12 minutes. In the end, everything was revised and looked absolutely...
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Week 8 and 9 - WINTER BREAK!! and Scripts

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!! So after spending an amazing time with family and just enjoying the holidays with them, we knew we also had to get work done. Over the break, we worked on making our scripts, making the slideshow, and practicing our presentation. For the scripts, we each split up parts evenly and got an outline of what our line was supposed to be about. This was much harder than you think because we had to squeeze all the work that was done over a span of 2 months into a 12-minute presentation. The hard part of this was going in depth of what we did but also keeping it short. And everytime we practiced, we kept going over the 12-minute mark. Speaking of practice, this was definitely one of the most amazing experiences as a group. Since it was too cold outside, and no one really wanted to leave their house, most of the practicing was done over facebook messenger, video chatting. The funny part of this was that even though we were really trying to practice, most of ...
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Week 7 - UNKNOWN WORDS??, Solo Interviews, and BUTTONNNSSS!!!

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Week 7 was smooth sailing for our group! Our main goal was to come up with words that describe the essence of our private model and the essence of our public model. Due to our prior struggle with the Bella Simulation, in regards to having to come up with a word that defines our model, we wanted to go beyond foreign languages. We came across an article discussing obscure sorrows which is a dictionary that puts your feelings and experiences into single words. This was fitting since our trip to Tommy Thompson Park was more of an experience than anything. With some difficulty, we finalized our public model as Deja-Visite  & our private model as Onisim. While finalizing our word we were also finishing off filming our solo interviews in Mr. Mohamed's studio room. He allowed us to use his room and lights which is great since we were able to get away from distractions and focus as a group. The process of filming also ended up being a great bonding experience for our g...
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Week 6 - Post Rhiya Visit, LINKZ and Recording

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Week 6 has ended and we are chugging along. After getting an amazing visit from Rhiya from Tommy Thompson Park, we knew there needed to be a lot of work done on our Propro Chart. The problem with our propro chart was that most of the opposing models were built on assumptions and not the cold hard facts that Rhiya wanted. So for a good chunk of the week, we spent the time revising the Propro Chart so it would be up to Rhiya's standard. In our propro chart, we also made links with our opposing models. The most important links to us were the opportunity to teach youth which came from within our private model and welcoming all visitors, which came from our public model. The reason for why the opportunity to teach youth is so important is because youths minds are very impressionable. Youth tend to remember and intake information really really well, which could mean the information the park shares with youth could spread to adults and maybe further generations. ...
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Rhiya's Visit to John Polanyi

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Today we had an in-class visit from Rhiya whose goal was to provide us with feedback.  As a group, we briefly went over our journey from initially being put into a group and given our culminating task, to where we currently are with ut propro chart. Rhiya gave us great feedback specifically challenging the way we define our public model. A public model takes shape in many different forms when it comes to parks. Baycrest Park falls under a public model where visitors are free to roam with little to no restrictions. However, Tommy Thompson Park is also a public model with many restrictions placed on visitors. There was a disconnect between what we felt like a public model was versus what others felt a public model was. We quickly realized that for our benefits to make sense we need to verbally describe what a public model means to us. Another big thing Rhiya touched on was our habit of assuming other people's actions and feelings. We did this a couple of times with our benef...
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Week 5 - ProPro chart and Stake Holder Description

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Week 5 has now passed and the Libras are killing it. For this week we worked on making a propro chart and stakeholders chart for Tommy Thompson Park. Starting off with the propro chart, we first thought of our opposing models. The models we came up were public parks vs. private parks. Then we continued to brainstorm ideas for defining the differences between the two and what the benefits are of each. From this, we moved on to our stakeholder's chart. The four stakeholders we found were most important in the parks were the organization itself, the people who come and visit the park, the wildlife in the park like the trees and animals, and the research who come to park to expand their and the knowledge of other people. From all the information we got from both the stakeholder's chart and propro chart, we put everything together to make little thought bubbles for the propro chart. The thought bubbles were evenly spread throughout the group. The job for the Libra...
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Rotman Trip

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Libra’s Take Over Rotman? Steps Moving Forward?? Libras Inc. takes Rotman School of Business - what a way to start off the first day of December huh? The trip to Rotman was a very insightful one, one that we can say impacted us in more than one beneficial ways. To our dismay, we had to meet very early, but in the end, it was worth it - we took away so much more than we could’ve ever imagined. As Calvin said, PERSEVERE! The first half of the morning we spent with Nogah Kornberg, who is an integrative thinker who works very closely with our teacher Ms. Essabhai. First, all three groups went on their journey with Nogah and vaguely went over our tensions in order to get some insight, feedback, and guidance when moving forward. Our group has finalized our problem statement: How do we create a harmonious, but welcoming, an environment where we’re preserving wildlife BUT also enhancing human interaction and recreational activities? The tensions within that that we have ...
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Bells's Ice Cream Simulation

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On Week 3 each group was given a stimulation in order to exercise our integrative thinking as well as leave us better prepared for our final project. Our stimulation was called “Bellas Ice Cream Challenge” and to sum it up, our goal as a team was to find a solution where Bellas can continue to be a brand that makes the effort to be environmentally conscious while also maintaining financial stability. As well as forcing ourselves to use innovative and critical thinking in order to come up with a solution that does not involve compromise. The stimulation lasted about a week and a half and the process that this activity entailed was much more challenging and meticulous than we all expected. We started off this challenge with a video where the CEO, Marketing Director, and Chief Financial Officer explained the situation from their point of view. We were then given the main tension within Bellas Ice Cream Company: should they choose to move further with their company that is facing ...
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Week 4 - Bella's Ice Cream, Rotman and More

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In week 4 Libras Inc continued working on our side project with Bella's Ice Cream simulation. Like mentioned in the last update, the goal of this side project was to use innovative and critical thinking alongside the tools which produce and simulate integrative thinking. This includes defining each of the models in the tensions, using a propro chart to evaluate the benefits for each model, creating links between these benefits and eventually coming up with a new and improved model that Bella's could use to save their company. The point of this exercise was to explore the tools of integrative think so they can then be used in our main project.   Some other things we did is explore the few tensions even more by emailing some local parks in hopes of gaining insight on how they run their parks. This research will enable us to explore the various models when it comes to the park industry so we can incorporate that into our final project. We also continued and finished our l...
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TEAM NAME CHOSEN!!!

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After a long awaited time, our group has finally come up with a team name. the team name that won by a majority vote is Libras INC. the reason for why we have chosen this team name is because we feel it really describes our views on the park. Since our main tension for the park is how we can create a harmonic balance between humans and wildlife, we felt that Libras would be a perfect name. The meaning of Libras to be cooperative and social, and the word Libra is a perfect way of summing up our tension in one word.
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Website Update

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Our group has made a couple of changes to the website to match the season of fall. The first thing we changed on our website is the main picture you first see when you come onto the website. The picture is of a park in the fall season with the trees changing colours. The second change we made is the main colours and the theme of the website. These were changed to something that will relate to the picture so the website seems as one, and everything looks uniform.
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Week 3 Update

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  Week three was a calm one! We only worked on a few little things for our final project, the main one being conducting research for some of the tensions we've come across in relation to Tommy Thompson Park. The five tensions we've decided to further expand and research include dogs’ vs the wildlife, cyclists vs wildlife, research vs. recreation, public vs. private and construction vs. wildlife. We have split up the research to try and figure out what are the bigger tensions out of the few. This process will allow us to categorize and place tensions within another so we can come up with one final MAIN tension which we will use for the integrative thinking process.   Through this, we have also started a simulation consultation for another company called Bella’s Ice cream. As a team, we're trying to utilize integrative thinking to help the company make the BEST choice so they can thrive moving forward. Bella's main tension was whether to go mainstream like their...
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Week 2- Tommy Thomson Park and More

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                         In our second week of the final project and we are starting to feel the pressure. We have had a pretty packed week. One thing we did was go to Tommy Thomson Park as a class and try to figure out what the real problem is and how we can solve it. We have also started our second drafts for causal models and system maps. So far everything is on time, and we are moving ahead without any delays.
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Causal Model And System Map DRAFT #1

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These are our first drafts for our 2 causal models and system maps. The first causal model is about how to get someone to follow rules. We felt the most important way of making someone follow rules is to give consequences if these rules are disobeyed and to give rewards when these set of rules are followed. Our second causal model is about is about how to make someone understand the effects of their behavior. We felt the most effective way of making someone understand the affects was by giving the person a penalty for their actions and if there is an act of good behavior, then you would want to recognize it so it makes the person feel better and so that they also recognize that they have done something good. Our system map is about all the components that take place in making Tommy Thompson Park what it is today. Some of those components are the history of the park, the location, wildlife and etc. These three models are all the first draft of our ongoing project.
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Website Development

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The process of developing our website was pretty easy. We just had to go to Blogspot, a title, theme and we were set. The part that we customized was the picture you see first when you go to the website, the font, the URL, and the colors. The picture we chose to put on the website is of the Toronto Skyline, just as the sun is about to set taken from Tommy Thompson Park. As a group we felt the most important font to pick is something unique but also something we are used to so it has a welcoming feel. In the end, the decision on the font was Josefin Slab, because it has a hint if uniqueness from cursive writing and warmth feel from Times New Roman. For the URL link for the website we wanted to get something related to our topic, so we chose tommythompsonpark.blogspot.ca. And for colors we wanted something that is easy to see, and also is in our picture seen when you first come on the website. The final decision was on a blue and white theme.
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Week 1- assign roles and give assignments

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In the first week, everyone in the group has been assigned their roles. Sage has taken on the role as project manager, Kamila is the vice project manager, Kyle is looking after the website and online work, Shabaz is the “assistant” that helps in areas where it is needed and Calvin is helping document the progress of the group. We have also assigned the work that the individuals of the group have to complete Wednesday. Kyle and Shabaz are working on the causal model about “how to make someone follow rules”, Sage and Calvin are working on the causal model of “how to make someone understand the actions of their behaviors”, and Kamila is working on the system map.
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