rested and reflecting
Have been home with the family this weekend. Finally feeling caught up on sleep for the first time since August. Feels good. Strange. But good.
Has also been good to catch up with high school friends here. Was thinking a lot about what life was like in high school and what, at that time, I pictured my life being like in the future. Certainly I don’t think I imagined myself in the spot I am today. But, more than that, I was thinking about the people – my friends – that made high school so great. Similarly, later, I could peg the experience of college to the people. I could peg my work experience to the people. Every time I’ve enjoyed something, it’s usually been because of the people.
Then I got to thinking – how life really is like a series of flash mobs. In the same way that people organize randomly for stunts, gathering instantaneously, performing some gag, and then dispersing. Life is filled with convergences of people. That convergence creates a context or an environment. It is in that environment that experience happens. And then people scatter. And the environment becomes a memory.
All this, I suppose, is a way of reconciling the fact that you can’t really go back to what was. Coming home is great, I love reconnecting with people, I love being at home. But there’s just something different. Age, people, circumstance. Different. Not bad, just different.
the art of the 90-person conversation
Yesterday in TOM (Technology and Operations Management) we were working on a case about a company that is changing the supply chain as it pertains to the sale of soybeans in India. Without rehashing the details of the case, I had to comment on the discussion that unfolded in our section.
For literally 80 minutes we had the most fascinating, unmoderated, heated conversation about the role of for-profit companies in the development of social enterprise/initiative and the state of economic and agricultural development in India. The best part about this was that it was completely unmoderated. For 80 minutes we ping-ponged around the room, people chiming in with insight or commentary when they felt compelled to do so. And it was, by far, the most interesting conversation (combining both the content and the method aspects) I’ve witnessed in the classroom yet.
It is in these situations, where the United Nations effect of the HBS section really shines. We had people from India setting the scene, giving us both economic and cultural context. We had someone from China commenting about the role (or requirement) of government (or not) in economic development. We had people from Central and South America drawing parallels to those economies. And we had people from various industries talking about the merits or lackthereof of the project at the focal point of the case.
And all of this without much faculty intervention. It was fascinating.
And this is in no way to marginalize what the faculty do here. They are fantastic. But it is nice to see that when the large train of section c goes barrelling down an interesting (and relevant) track, there is the opportunity for the conversation to go on, even if that wasn’t the prescribed lesson plan.
the week ahead
A friend of mine said today, “man, this week looks crazy.”
I replied, “you know, I find myself saying that EVERY Sunday lately.”
My schedule tomorrow:
0630 – gym (if I motivate)
0745 – learning team
0840 – FRC
1020 – TOM
1200 – section meeting
1310 – MKT
1500 – company presentation
1600 – company presentation
1800 – company presentation
Somewhere in there I’m meant to prep a case for Tuesday. (Oh and also study for the MKT midterm, which is Tuesday.)
I sometimes wonder what the MBA program was like 40 years ago. If the pressures of recruiting and extracurriculars and trying to maintain good friendships were as intense. Or if people actually spent the vast majority of their time on the academic learning.
People keep saying this is good training for when you get further along in your career and you have to balance a lot of demands for your time coming from multiple directions. But man… the gray hairs just keep spreading…
In other news, sprained my ankle playing squash yesterday. Jumped in the air and delivered an epic hit. In my excitement over the play, completley forgot that gravity would bring my back down. Oops. Also had several great nights out with the section this weekend. Last night culminated in a 2am run on my house for pancakes and bacon. Can’t really beat that.
class visits and recruiting
The recruiting season officially kicked off this week. Today we began Company Information Days, where a ton of companies come through campus to give informational sessions and meet&greet students. Despite the bad market for jobs, the Career Services office tells us job postings for RCs (first years) are up 34% this year. Good news, I hope.
Every once and a while, the case method gets really interactive when the protagonist in the case comes to visit class and tell their side of the story after listening to us talk about what they did or should have done for 45 minutes. Today, in LEAD (Leadership and Organizational Behavior), the case was about Jack Welch and his 20 year reign as the CEO of GE. When I showed up in the classroom at 830 this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find Jack Welch himself in the room. He spoke for the last half of class, took questions, talked about the Obama win last night, and otherwise made for what was the most interesting class I’ve been in yet here. That, to me, is the power of the case method.
