plausible deniability: Another week down

September 07, 2007

Another week down

Thanks go out to Mike and Anthony for the pictures that I stole without permission. Another week over at London Business School. Career services introduced us to the Ob-Gyn College next to the school where we learned that Industry encompasses anything that is not Consulting or Finance. Monday was the first real taste of classes with Business Statistics. The quality of the teaching is good, but judging purely on the material covered in the first class, I wish I had done the waiver to test out. The morning started with a lecture followed with an afternoon of group work and the computer lab work. The group work gave a glimpse into the dynamics of my study group.

There are six of us in the study group - a Bolivian Management Consultant, a Nigerian Investment Banker, an American Pension Manager, an Indian IT Consultant, a Portuguese F1 Engineer and myself. The mix of nationalities is really impressive but we're more of a strategy oriented group. It was really telling when we tackled our first statistics question to interpret the statistical distribution of two graphs. We instead ended up debating for 15 minutes about what the best customer spending profile for a business would be. Other classroom activities for the week have been various briefings about what to expect out of the rest of the school - things like how we're assessed, what the library has and what to do with language training.

The activity highlight of the of the week was the away day at the Vision Development & Training compound outside of Redding. We spent the day on a ropes course experiencing "challenge by choice". The team building activities were split into high and low ropes. Low ropes were strategic, alternate thinking and more large team oriented. High ropes had the exhilaration factor with climbing walls - groups of four precariously balancing on top of tiny platforms on telephone poles, groups of two leaping from the tops of poles to a trapeze dangling a few feet away. I wish our group had tackled it, but probably the most strenuous and amusing activity was climbing the "Jacob's ladder". Imagine - if you will - a rope ladder with rungs made out of logs spaced about 7-8 feet apart. Teams of three were tasked with climbing to the top of this ladder, pushing and pulling each other up. It looked like all the teams typically consisted of two taller people and one shorter. The shorter person seemed to be the victim of the most abuse, acting mainly as a step stool for the task. The activities of the day culminated with teaching us all step-by-step how to juggle to the Macarena.

Like I've said in other posts, I've never been in a group of like-minded individuals like this before. Most team building activities I've seen at work have people fall more or less into the roles they're usually in. Managers stay managing, followers follow, people who make snide remarks do the same but with more ammo. Working with people on the away day was completely different than anything I've experienced in that regard. We're all very driven people and it really shows. Everyone wants to lead, everyone wants to do everything. Though I tried to make sure not to take things so seriously, I'm not going to lie - There were moments of frustration. I've never seen the value of team building days in the past, but in this group, I'm really hoping for a few more.

I have to mention that outside of the class has been great as well. The flatmates are still the best people in the year. We're fantastic even. Lots of beer consumed, learning how to play rugby and I have a feeling that the poker club will be vaulted to new and terrifying heights this year. I've seen a lot of very good players - smart, tight and aggressive play.

I could learn a thing or two at business school.

Labels: Activities, MBA

Posted at 1:11 PM
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Another week down