True Class Participation

Few of our classes are lecture based. Instead, we focus on case studies and read chapters prior to attending class so we can spend actual class time discussing it. You may recognize this as "class participation." Well, this morning at 8:00 am I got a little surprise.

Our professor walked into class and announced this was our last LDO (Leadership in Dynamic Organizations) class for the module (we don't have semesters) and she would begin class with our surveys so we can spend the rest of class trying something a little different.

"Yes, here at Babson we take risks and today is my day to take a risk." She looked around the room mischieviously and continued, "Today is the day to turn class over to you, the students. So, Felicia and Matt, I would like you to be our co-facilitators for the next 2 hours."

And that was that. Without any time to prepare, Matt and I spent about 120 minutes leading our classmates through a discussion on our latest case study.

It was tough! Making sure everyone gets a chance to speak, trying to move the conversation in certain directions while not traveling down the wrong rabbit hole, deciding when the video should be shown (we had two, 5-minute videos), paraphrasing what some people said and getting the group to expand on it, etc.

Honestly, I did a horrible job, but it's something to learn from, right? So much for raising your hand a couple times in each class and thinking your job is done.

Good to Crap

My sweet boyfriend was laid off yesterday. Stupid company is being run by an Al Dunlap wannabe, and him and his executive team are running the company into the ground. You wouldn't believe how many excellent employees have either been laid off or quit over the last 18 months. Nothing to do with performance - just need to hit profitability numbers so it's easiest to lay off those who make a reasonable amount. And as it stands now, it's easier to list the existing employees who aren't looking for jobs than those that are. Talk about changing a company from good to crap.

From a completely objective, non-emotional view, the easiest way to describe the executive team is to say they do everything we teach our clients NOT to do.

The Director of HR actually sent out a companywide email announcing the fact that Brian, "...has left the firm to pursue other opportunities." Both him and I have received a flood of nice calls/emails/IM's and several people have stated that it looked like she took the email out of "HR for Dummies." Seriously, the woman is the biggest idiot.* I'll bet she's even surprised employees are quickly learning he was laid off and didn't quit voluntarily...as if the employees, our friends, don't gossip like a bunch of women at a quilting bee.

I hate that a company we worked so hard to build is being destroyed.



*Note: For those still in the company, the opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my boyfriend.

Girl's Night Out

A couple weeks ago, one of the girls was complaining about always being around the boys (sorry boys). So a few days ago a couple of us decided it was time for a girl's night out. About 30 of the 45 women in our class RSVP'd and I believe most of them made it. Not a bad attendance rate considering I was originally hoping 6 women would make it. Woohoo! Unfortunately, I still wasn't feeling great so I only stayed long enough to ensure the reservation was there and everyone had a seat.

Thanks to Lisa H for serving as hostess for the evening, picking a restaurant, and taking pics! And...here are the pics:

http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=fberg1&p=A085&AID=2830142

Remembering Joel

Today I received the voicemail message that no one ever wants to get: "Felicia, it's Mike. Can you call me back? It's about Joel. He...he died Saturday night in a motorcycle accident."

Joel was a friend who I considered a brother. He was the most loyal friend you could ask for; that man would do anything for you.

His resume included serving in the military and he was a doctor, but you wouldn't know just by looking at him. Ever watch the show "House"? The main character, Dr. House, kind of reminds me of Joel: first impression is that he's tough, but really he's a teddy bear inside. The difference between Dr. House and Joel (besides the fact that he laughs so much) is that you're intimidated by House b/c of his personality whereas you're intimidated by Joel for his physical attributes: strong, tall German with a shaved head and tattoos all over (but not above the shoulders or on his hands so he was presentable in a business setting). It never surprises people to learn he used to be a bouncer at a few nightclubs. As a matter of fact, he had such a strong reputation that he was the only person (besides cops) allowed to wear a firearm inside any nightclub that we went to.

When informing Mom today over the phone, I could hear the emotion. She immediately began speaking of his stories. Joel had more fascinating stories than you could imagine. For example, while working for the government, a man shot at him with an automatic firearm, and he was hit 11 (yes, ELEVEN) times in the intestinal area. The rehab was extensive and he still has scars, but he didn't talk about it much because it was just another part of his life...he acted like it was no big deal.

I remember the first time we met. It was about 7 years ago and I was just starting to hang out at Mike's (now ex-boyfriend but still dear friend). Joel came in and was nice, but didn't pay me too much attention. Somehow we got on the topic of motorcycles:
Felicia: You have a bike?
Joel: Ya, just like the one parked outside
F: You mean the black and purple one?
J: Yup (proud smile on his face)
F: Oh, that's mine
Instant bond. The rest is history.

We stayed friends through our few years in Tucson, AZ then Joel, Mike and I moved around the same time to Southern California. A couple years ago Joel moved to Chicago and I moved to Charlotte. We stayed in each other's lives in various ways, but not nearly as much as we should have. I should've called more, emailed more, visited occasionally. But I can't do anything to change that now.

Now I'll just have to be content knowing I will never forget him.
Joel - May your memory stay with us forever. I will always love you.

Lesson Learned...NEVER Miss a Party

Boy did I get chewed out by everyone and their brother!

Yesterday, 4 roommates (Alicia, Ben, Damon and Kiwi) had a party. Over 100 of the 152 students went...and I fell asleep and missed it. However, here's the link to the photo album so you can see all the wild and crazy people I'm proud to call friends: Link, Blink, Schmink

As for tonight, our class went on a boat cruise! Since parking is pricey and hard to find near the pier, Brian and I picked up Atyab and Monica and drove down. I won't go into details, but let's say we had some small issues with traffic and made it to the boat about 5 minutes before it set sail. I like to refer to it as time optimization.

So Brian finally got to meet all these people I talk about. Now when I say things, I have to specify the person (ie - Lisa H is now "Local Lisa" whereas Lisa M is "San Fran Lisa").

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but nothing "news worthy" meaning we all goofed off like the children we are, but no great stories came of it.

Hmmm I'm tired, so I'm going to end this blog right here.

Team Process Day

What could be more fun than a mandatory outdoor play day? Nothing!

I've mentioned before that we spend significant time in teams. We also spend a lot of time understanding team dynamics and individual styles.

So Friday was our time to bring all of this home. We started out with what I hate most: role playing. Basically, we had to pretend that we had a team member who dominates all conversations which was causing the rest of the team to distance themselves. It was our job to talk to the overbearing team member and get him to change. So, we practiced a few times one-on-one then Tian (the girl I had partnered with) and I were picked first to role play in front of the group. Blah, blah, blah, we finished that and moved outside.

The next activity was to get as many people as we could (the directions actually read "as many people as you want" and we chose everyone) onto a small wood box. Afterwards, we sat around and discussed the approach for a bit.

Next was an activity where one of the consultants (actually a 2nd year grad student) picked a facilitator. The activity was slight chaos and we almost completed the puzzle within the time allotted. Of course, we sat and discussed the activity afterwards then went to lunch.

After lunch we had our 3rd activity which was one where our team selected a facilitator and they picked me (aw shucks). We were blindfolded this time and wound up implementing all that we had learned through the morning: we clearly stated the objective and rules of the activity so everyone was on the same page, we determined a game plan before moving, we broke into 3 groups, and we had occasional status checks. And...we finished the task right on time! Everyone was pretty complimentary of my facilitation, so I asked for critiques. Got a couple small comments, but nothing significant. I think everyone was just pumped that we finished the task within the time allotted.

Anyway, our final task included 4 volunteer facilitators. We moved through this task relatively efficiently but found that we didn't need all the facilitators (too many bosses?).

Overall, it was a busy day and a great way to end a week.

Over a week since my last blog?

Wow, time is going by too fast already.

As a child, I never thought I would say this: school is fun!

So far it's been a few classes per day followed by required readings, a few assignments and play time. The purpose of Module I (we have modules rather than semesters) is to focus on creativity, learning about leadership and getting us to step outside of our comfort bubble.

An example is with our recently established (yesterday) creativity groups. We have all been assigned to teams which are broken into categories such as puppetry, music, poetry, improv, dance, etc. My category is fiction and I'm not sure how much of a stretch that is for me. I was hoping for something much more vocal, but I suppose there will be plenty of other opportunities to make a fool of myself. Anyway, we'll spend a few weeks learning about that specific genre then will perform in front of the entire school for about 30 minutes (well, 20 min performance with 10 min Q&A). Yes, this is mandatory for all 1st year grad students. Our creativity consultants are intentionally vague in describing exactly what we need to do for our performances because they don't want us to focus on that yet. So, we'll see what happens.

And classes in this module (and the next few) aren't scheduled in the traditional format. For example, our schedules aren't fixed in the sense that we have Financial Accounting every Monday and Wednesday from 1:30-3:00, Business Law Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-noon, etc. Instead, classes vary based on what they believe you need to learn and when (the only class I'm in almost daily is Leadership Development). They may combine classes, such as Law and Ethics, to focus on a case study to understand both dynamics. For example, yesterday we used a case in our Communications class to write a letter then send it to our new writing consultants, and tomorrow we'll discuss that same case in our Leadership Development class. So this week my class schedule has been:
--Tuesday --
8-930: Biz Law
10-1130: Fin Acct
1230-2: Leadership Dev and Career Dev combined
230-5: Creativity groups
--Wednesday--
8-930: Fin Acct
945-1115: Leadership Dev
12-130: Overview of Babson IT
230-345: Creativity groups
--Thursday--
8-930: Math Skills course (optional)
10-12: Lead Dev
12-1230: Meet w/ career counselor
1-230: Idea lab (brainstorming entrepreneurial ideas)
245-415: Acct Rvw (optional)
430-530: Club Expo
6-8: Pub Night
--Friday--
Team Process Day
--Saturday--
Boston Harbor Cruise
(Note that I picked this week as the example b/c it's the shortest days and easiest to follow of the 5-week schedule that's sitting in front of me)

Hm, what else? Oh ya - tons of teams. It's true that consulting was team-oriented, but I really can't say that when I quit, I got away from teams. So far we've had case study teams, creativity groups, class sections, reading groups, writing and speech teams. Soon we'll have assigned study groups, BCAP teams (more on this some other day), and I'm sure there are other teams I'm forgetting. Plus, clubs and sports have just barely begun and my International requirement will be in a group.

Friday is Team Process Day. We've been instructed to wear comfortable clothing and bring a baseball cap, sunblock and water to stay hydrated. The 2nd years are great at keeping secrets, so they've only told me it's a fun day and includes those corny activities (my words not theirs) like falling back and others' catching you.

We don't even have a final exam at the end of Module 1! How great is that?!? Instead, I'll write a paper reflecting on the things I've learned about myself during this module. Should be interesting.

Alright, time for bed.