MOOC I: Achieving Personal and Professional Success

Over the past weeks, I completed the Achieving Personal and Professional Success specialization from the University of Pennsylvania. The specialization was divided into 4 courses: Success, Improving Communication, Influence & Negotiation.

Instead of writing a long reflective essay, I distilled the core reflections on things that I particularly found interesting and how that impacts my PLE (Personal Learning Environment).

1) Success (Richard Shell)

The Six Lives reflection forced me to compare competing life scripts and choose priorities rather than default to academic expectations.
PLE update: Add a weekly 20-min “Six-Lives” check-in (Notion) to test if tasks still match my selected script.
Specific tool: Achievement–Happiness Matrix — used it to tag ongoing projects (e.g., thesis experiment vs. teaching assistant duties) as Achievement-heavy or Happiness-supporting.

Link to the six lives exercise (if you want to do it without accessing the entire course): https://grichardshell.com/book-extras/six-lives-exercise/

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2) Improving Communication Skills (Maurice Schweitzer)

When to Compete vs. Cooperate — taught the three principles: scarcity, sociability, dynamic instability. I can apply this this in a group work decisions: choosing cooperation when resources were tight reduced conflict.
PLE update: Add a “cooperation checklist” to meeting notes.

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3) Influence (Cade Massey)

Network types: dense vs. disconnected. This helped me think about how I could map my contacts. Infact, it made me realize about a gap between my academic contacts and industry sustainability practitioners. I will now leverage my efforts towards starting to bridging via targeted LinkedIn messages.
PLE update: Add a “network map” sheet to my PLE and a monthly outreach task.

Another thing that was interesting was the Signals of Trust & Repairing Trust, practical cues (vulnerability, warmth) and apology structure. While learning this I was reflecting how I can use this during conflicts with teammates; to help rebuild rapport quickly.

Specifically, the SUCCES-style message crafting: using “Simple + Story + Credible” formula to reframe a technical slide for a nontechnical stakeholder can result in clearer buy-in for the targetted audience whether it is a prospective employer.

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4) Negotiation (Maurice Schweitzer)

In this module ZOPA (Zone of Potential Agreement) & BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)  exercises, can help practice setting a BATNA before an employment-type negotiation simulation; outcome: stronger first offer and better terms. Although it is typically used in financial settlements during negotiations for purchases between a buyer and seller but can easily apply to all other non-financial examples. This is especially relevant to us as students as we will soon step into the professional realm and will have to negotiate our salaries and working contracts.
PLE update: To create a “BATNA + First Offer” page in Notion before real negotiations.

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Quick PLE summary (what changed — 3 bullets)

1. Purpose tagging: Projects now carry an achievement vs. happiness tag from the Success matrix so I prioritize meaning-aligned work.
2. Communication templates & checklists: Templates for apologies, cooperation checklists, BATNA planning stored in Notion.
3. Network mapping + outreach routine: Monthly outreach and a “bridge contacts” list to connect dense academic clusters with diverse industry contacts.PLE update: To create a “BATNA + First Offer” page in Notion before real negotiations.

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I hope you liked my reflections and learnings from the course. All proof of completion can be found in here:

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Lastly, since this will probably be my last post on this blog. I also want to share my love for photography, specifically astrophotography, with my current colleagues and all future readers. I will miss posting here 😢