The Sorcerer's Apprentice Season 4: Homecoming Edition - The Haunted Board Room

spacemt354

Chili's
Original Poster
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spacemt354

Chili's
Original Poster
The Board Room Demo
With several new folks in the competition and some minor tweaks to how the Board Room will operate in Season 4, we thought it'd be best a few days before the end of the Stanza to offer a bit of a demonstration on how it works.
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On most occasions, after the results come in to the Stanza, the last place team's project manager will be asked to nominate 2 teammates to come with him or herself into The Board Room. (The Project Manager being automatically nominated into The Board Room, taking partial responsibility for the last place finish.)

As to the tweaks from prior seasons;

1 - Judge Nominations
MonorailRed, tcool123, and myself have the ability to nominate additional members from any team regardless of placement if we observe that they are any of the following:
- inactive with no reason
- Consistently (ie more than once) take on assignments and then don't complete them
- Consistently (ie more than once) take very small roles and sit back while other teammates are forced to take on consistent large roles.

This may not happen every Stanza, but it's reserved for special circumstances because win or lose this competition is about participation and effort.

It's nice to win the Stanzas but for example @tcool123 did not 'win' a single team project in Season 3 until Project 7...then went on to win the entire season. That's an extreme case but goes to show that even if you enter The Board Room...you're not eliminated...you have an opportunity to defend your imagineering record, which brings us to...

2 - Direct Individual Questions
Everyone in The Board Room will be given one or multiple specific questions addressed individually to them from the judges, asking them about their decisions in the past project, what they think they could have done better, what to do next time, etc.

The nominees to The Board Room will have up till 24 Hours to respond. If there is no response after that time is up, it's an automatic elimination.

The goal of these questions is to invite more conversation in The Board Room...rather than simply write a plea and we decide. It should be a discussion...and a way to learn either for the next project if you remain in the game, or for a future imagineering competition.

3 - Timing
As we worked out in Stanza I -- the projects are due at 11:59 PM EST, and until around 8:30 PM EST the following day is when the reviews from the judges and individual team reviewers will come in. Around 8:30 PM EST, after the reviews, the results are announced and The Board Room begins.

However, rather than have everyone wait up to an additional 24 Hours for people to respond, the 1st/2nd place teams (or simply 1st place if we merge to 2 teams eventually) will be given the next prompt after the results come in similar to Stanza I.

The losing team with members in The Board Room will not receive the next prompt until The Board Room questions have been answered and a decision made. With roughly 7-9 days for most prompts, anywhere from a few hours to a day head start won't amount to much, and you also have Vacation Days, but in the end it:
a) provides incentive for the nominees to respond timely and efficiently so they don't hold up the next prompt,
b) a slight perk for winning teams to receive the next prompt and
c) trims the 'dead air' of the comp by up to a day each Stanza.
*For any judge nominated members on winning teams, they just won't be added to the next brainstorming PM at the start, but can easily be added in if they are still in the competition after their Board Room session.
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Next we will get into some different Scenarios to demonstrate the process
 
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spacemt354

Chili's
Original Poster
Scenarios
In this demonstration I will play the judge asking @MonorailRed (the nominated Board Room member) the questions. There will be 3 different scenarios in an attempt to cover different types of cases and how we'd generally respond.

Scenario 1
MonorailRed was part of the losing team. She was the Project Manager for the team and was not organized. She's relatively new to imagineering, but definitely has talent...she might have just been in over her head with the responsibilities as a PM. The project was to design a new land for Animal Kingdom and she took the E-Ticket and restaurant. The project finished on time, it was just disorganized and the team couldn't get on the same page.

Judge Question
Red, you were PM this round and it kinda fell apart...however you did show effort in your attempts to take on a lot of the work as the leader. For a future opportunity as a Project Manager, what would you do differently to bring the team together?
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Scenario 2
MonorailRed was part of a winning team but has not been very active. She has taken assignments, but they've been small each challenge, and she tends to save them for the last minute causing teammates to wait around for her confirmations. This challenge she didn't even complete her assignment.

Judge Question
Red, if you were to stay in the game and on the team, what would you do differently to make sure you got your assignments in more efficiently? And what new assignment would you push yourself to complete that's not just a small aspect of the project?

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Scenario 3
MonorailRed was part of the losing team and was inactive. She has been sporadic in helping the team. There was one challenge early on where she did a lot of work, but since then has either claimed she hasn't had time, or has taken on content and then had to cut it short. Nevertheless, despite the reduced role, she still gets it in on time.

Judge Question
While you definitely have talent that was shown early on with your great work, recently you haven't had a lot of time to compete. If you remain in the competition, will you have more time in the future or do you predict it will be more of the same?
 

MonorailRed

Applebees

Scenario 1
MonorailRed was part of the losing team. She was the Project Manager for the team and was not organized. She's relatively new to imagineering, but definitely has talent...she might have just been in over her head with the responsibilities as a PM. The project was to design a new land for Animal Kingdom and she took the E-Ticket and restaurant. The project finished on time, it was just disorganized and the team couldn't get on the same page.

Judge Question
Red, you were PM this round and it kinda fell apart...however you did show effort in your attempts to take on a lot of the work as the leader. For a future opportunity as a Project Manager, what would you do differently to bring the team together?

Answer

As a project manager, I would take everyone's time schedule into account. I would also give 2-3 extra days to dedicate strictly to presentation. If things are falling behind next round, rather than letting my team crash, I would probably use a vacation day or two to button up the project. Lastly, I also think it is important to play on each team member's strengths, but also be able to give more time for someone who is trying something new.​
 

MonorailRed

Applebees
Scenario 2
MonorailRed was part of a winning team but has not been very active. She has taken assignments, but they've been small each challenge, and she tends to save them for the last minute causing teammates to wait around for her confirmations. This challenge she didn't even complete her assignment.

Judge Question
Red, if you were to stay in the game and on the team, what would you do differently to make sure you got your assignments in more efficiently? And what new assignment would you push yourself to complete that's not just a small aspect of the project?


Answer
- Does not respond -​
 

MonorailRed

Applebees
Scenario 3
MonorailRed was part of the losing team and was inactive. She has been sporadic in helping the team. There was one challenge early on where she did a lot of work, but since then has either claimed she hasn't had time, or has taken on content and then had to cut it short. Nevertheless, despite the reduced role, she still gets it in on time.

Judge Question
While you definitely have talent that was shown early on with your great work, recently you haven't had a lot of time to compete. If you remain in the competition, will you have more time in the future or do you predict it will be more of the same?

Answer
I would like to compete, but I'm busy with exams. I have really enjoyed the competition and I feel bad that I haven't been able to help my team enough. I don't know, maybe I can take a small role that I can finish completely so I can help in the future. Whatever the decision, I have enjoyed my time and best of luck to the team!!​
 

spacemt354

Chili's
Original Poster
Answer

As a project manager, I would take everyone's time schedule into account. I would also give 2-3 extra days to dedicate strictly to presentation. If things are falling behind next round, rather than letting my team crash, I would probably use a vacation day or two to button up the project. Lastly, I also think it is important to play on each team member's strengths, but also be able to give more time for someone who is trying something new.​
Might have been in over their head as PM but shows that they want to use it as a learning experience and improve next time. *If it happens again though, probably will be eliminated...but for now...
Decision - Stays in Competition
Answer
- Does not respond -​
In order to be considered to stay in the competition, you have to give a response. If you don't then it's automatic.
Decision - Eliminated

Answer
I would like to compete, but I'm busy with exams. I have really enjoyed the competition and I feel bad that I haven't been able to help my team enough. I don't know, maybe I can take a small role that I can finish completely so I can help in the future. Whatever the decision, I have enjoyed my time and best of luck to the team!!​
The first two were pretty simple...this is the difficult middle ground. On one hand the player wants to remain, on the other, this feels like a semi-goodbye response. The decision would ultimately come down to when this occurs. If it occurs early on in the game (ie next round) probably would remain in. However if this is towards the middle/end of the comp, it would be...
Decision - Eliminated

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Hopefully this helped shed a little perspective on The Board Room process before jumping head first into it. It should also be noted that unlike past seasons there's no specified single elimination rounds, specified double elimination, etc -- if everyone presents a compelling case (rare but could happen) then everyone stays. And if nobody presents a compelling case (again rare, but possible) then everyone is eliminated.
More than likely though it will be somewhere in the middle between one or a couple per round.


Any questions please feel free to ask - but for now, we'll be back to this Monday night!
 

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