Saturday, April 17, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Somewhat Sunny Sunday!
Well it's not raining again today. It looks like it rained last night, but I'll take lots of night rains for a few dry and somewhat sunny days.
Still not feeling well. On some medication now that hopefully will help, but having a hard time keeping my chest clear, so I'm losing my voice - something that I am sure is appreciated by my colleagues.
Bought a printer at Walmart last night, which is making my creative process and organizational attempts feel more productive.
We have 11 more deliverables due in the next two weeks (an additional four have already been completed). Most of them are due starting this Friday, so I'm working really hard over the next few days to complete as many of them as possible.
My goal is to have five of these deliverables completed by Friday, and good first drafts done on two others.
Will try and get out for a walk around campus today - hoping to explore the whole area before I leave, and taking advantage of the nice weather is key.
Still not feeling well. On some medication now that hopefully will help, but having a hard time keeping my chest clear, so I'm losing my voice - something that I am sure is appreciated by my colleagues.
Bought a printer at Walmart last night, which is making my creative process and organizational attempts feel more productive.
We have 11 more deliverables due in the next two weeks (an additional four have already been completed). Most of them are due starting this Friday, so I'm working really hard over the next few days to complete as many of them as possible.
My goal is to have five of these deliverables completed by Friday, and good first drafts done on two others.
Will try and get out for a walk around campus today - hoping to explore the whole area before I leave, and taking advantage of the nice weather is key.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Best Team Evah...
Ok, so there are something like 16 teams across our whole MBA class, and 8 within our cohort. I have -by far - the best team. We're ridiculously funny, have just the right mix of personality differences and attitude similarities to allow for good productivity and perspective, and we're all super smart. From the left: Andre LaLonde, Leigh Jenkinson, Debbie Beaton (who's from Moose Jaw- Go Sask!!), Richard Efting, and yours truly. More on each of my colleagues as the weeks go by.
We Survived!!!
So, the last few days have been otherworldy busy - but I'm happy to report that my team (a picture to be posted next), successfully completed our debate yesterday and we kicked ass.
We worked until shortly after 11pm on Thursday night finalizing our details and preparing the written summary of our spoken arguments. A big shout out of thanks to Leigh who took on the responsibility of merging five different speaking/writing styles into one coherent document.
When we went through our final run through Thursday night, everyone was under the 2 minute limit except for me, but we made some adjustments and we were ready to go.
Friday morning came, and the closer it got to my speaking spot (I was going last) the more nervous I got - to the point that I was barely containing my typical shaking when the "con" speaker was ahead of me. However, I was really lucky that everyone in my team had just finished their best read throughs yet - good pacing and emphasis, and I felt like the debate was swinging our way.
Anyway, long story short, I rocked it. I got as little too punchy during some of the Q&As afterwards, but for the most part was able to contain myself.
I am really very blessed to have the team I do.
So last night we went into the city to Spinnakers to celebrate. We had many good conversations, melding tighter as a team, and lots to drink - so it was fun.
Still feeling a little sick today, I have essentially lost my voice. I'm going to head to a drugstore and pick up some drugs today. Lots of studying to do this weekend - but it's sunny out today - only the third day of sun since we've been here - and I did get to sleep in this morning so that's pretty awesome.
We worked until shortly after 11pm on Thursday night finalizing our details and preparing the written summary of our spoken arguments. A big shout out of thanks to Leigh who took on the responsibility of merging five different speaking/writing styles into one coherent document.
When we went through our final run through Thursday night, everyone was under the 2 minute limit except for me, but we made some adjustments and we were ready to go.
Friday morning came, and the closer it got to my speaking spot (I was going last) the more nervous I got - to the point that I was barely containing my typical shaking when the "con" speaker was ahead of me. However, I was really lucky that everyone in my team had just finished their best read throughs yet - good pacing and emphasis, and I felt like the debate was swinging our way.
Anyway, long story short, I rocked it. I got as little too punchy during some of the Q&As afterwards, but for the most part was able to contain myself.
I am really very blessed to have the team I do.
So last night we went into the city to Spinnakers to celebrate. We had many good conversations, melding tighter as a team, and lots to drink - so it was fun.
Still feeling a little sick today, I have essentially lost my voice. I'm going to head to a drugstore and pick up some drugs today. Lots of studying to do this weekend - but it's sunny out today - only the third day of sun since we've been here - and I did get to sleep in this morning so that's pretty awesome.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wow, this place keeps me busy.
So it's been a few days since I've commented on here. My apologies to you if you happen to be reading this blog. It's been a hectic couple of days, and I feel as if I'm coming down with a sore throat - so please keep me in your prayers and positive thoughts as sickness right now would not be welcome at all.
My team is participating in a debate on globalization on Friday, so in our spare time we've had to be busy preparing for this session.
To explain the way these days work, essentially we have two classes a day. One runs from 8am until Noon and then another from 1pm until 5pm. The times vary occasionally, but for the most part that's it. Then we have the evening and the morning to do our readings for every class, work on our individual assignments, and meet as teams to do our team assignments. Every class has at least one major team assignment and one major individual assignment, plus minor assignments. We're doing four full-time classes, plus several other one-off sessions on related topics.
The result is a very full pace. We've already had one student burn out - although this must have been related to pre-session issues, since it's way to early for a session related burn out. Sometime next week maybe.
Today we received our Meyers-Briggs personality type instrument (MBTI) results back. This is the second time I've completed the MBTI, and I ended up with a slightly different result. For those who don't know, the MBTI places your personality along four different spectrums: Extrovert to Introvert (relating to your source of energy); Sensing to iNuitive (how you take information in); Thinking to Feeling (how you make decisions); and Judging to Perceiving (your lifestyle).
The result can be up to 16 different personality types, with the capital letters in the words above representing the type. The last time I did the MBTI, I came up as an ENFJ - an extrovert, intuitive, feeling, judging. This time I was ENFP. I can't yet account for the change, although I was moderate on all of the items, so who knows.
Get this though: The hallmark of an ENFP is "imagination"...ok cool, I can see that being me. I loved what it said though about ways in which I might 'irritate' team members...these are SO true:
My team is participating in a debate on globalization on Friday, so in our spare time we've had to be busy preparing for this session.
To explain the way these days work, essentially we have two classes a day. One runs from 8am until Noon and then another from 1pm until 5pm. The times vary occasionally, but for the most part that's it. Then we have the evening and the morning to do our readings for every class, work on our individual assignments, and meet as teams to do our team assignments. Every class has at least one major team assignment and one major individual assignment, plus minor assignments. We're doing four full-time classes, plus several other one-off sessions on related topics.
The result is a very full pace. We've already had one student burn out - although this must have been related to pre-session issues, since it's way to early for a session related burn out. Sometime next week maybe.
Today we received our Meyers-Briggs personality type instrument (MBTI) results back. This is the second time I've completed the MBTI, and I ended up with a slightly different result. For those who don't know, the MBTI places your personality along four different spectrums: Extrovert to Introvert (relating to your source of energy); Sensing to iNuitive (how you take information in); Thinking to Feeling (how you make decisions); and Judging to Perceiving (your lifestyle).
The result can be up to 16 different personality types, with the capital letters in the words above representing the type. The last time I did the MBTI, I came up as an ENFJ - an extrovert, intuitive, feeling, judging. This time I was ENFP. I can't yet account for the change, although I was moderate on all of the items, so who knows.
Get this though: The hallmark of an ENFP is "imagination"...ok cool, I can see that being me. I loved what it said though about ways in which I might 'irritate' team members...these are SO true:
- talking too much or randomly interjecting ideas;
- persuading others to follow a plan without a thorough investigation of facts and specifics.
The whole day today was spent reflecting on our MBTIs and talking about what leadership is, how it differs from management, and how all of these things impact us personally, in our workplace, and within our MBA teams. It was an interesting day for reflection, dialogue and some lively and revealing debate.
Tonight my team continued its work on the debate. We have to argue that considering its positive and negative aspects, globalization in the main is beneficial to everyone. It's a tough argument to make. I owe a very big thank you to my friends who contributed their ideas and thoughts on the topic over the last 24 hours - you are all fantastic. Thanks so much in particular to:
- Dad
- Laurent
- Che-Wei
- Wes
- Blaise
- Sean
- Martino
- Chris
- Ian
- Heath
I doubt very much that our opponents will come up with any anti-globalization arguments that you ten didn't. Because of you, my team will be better prepared to counter those arguments. You're all awesomely awesome!!!
Now I need to get to bed before I get any sicker. Tomorrow we have a case study analysis class with the Dean, and the afternoon is spent in Organizational Relations.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Day Two - Today we continue to scare you...
So today was really the first day of classes. The day began with an orientation session in the Grant Builidng Quarterdeck (still using nautical terms here on the campus in a throw back to their old naval college days). Then we spent the morning learning about teams, team theory, and getting to know our teammates better.
The entire MBA class is broken into two cohorts (A & B) and then each cohort is further subdivided into teams. Each of our classes involves individual assignments and team-based assignments. RRU is big on teaching us how to function effectively in team environments - particularly under stress.
I think my team is awesome. I'll see if I can get their permission to brag about them on here, but for now let me just say that we've got what I believe will be the right mix to allow us to be quite successful.
After the team oriented session in the morning, the afternoon was spent on our first class in Organizational Relations/Behaviour. We spent a great deal of this class talking about process and expectations, and didn't get much into the topic content. By about halfway through that I was pretty frustrated as I really wanted to delve into the meat of the discussion. However, with a little bit of perspective, I can now see that being very clear about our expectations of one another will likely serve us well in the future.
Our group has already begun work on our first team assignment, which is good. I'm behind in my reading for tomorrow's class on The Environment of Business, so I should get going. It's been raining non-stop since late last night.
The entire MBA class is broken into two cohorts (A & B) and then each cohort is further subdivided into teams. Each of our classes involves individual assignments and team-based assignments. RRU is big on teaching us how to function effectively in team environments - particularly under stress.
I think my team is awesome. I'll see if I can get their permission to brag about them on here, but for now let me just say that we've got what I believe will be the right mix to allow us to be quite successful.
After the team oriented session in the morning, the afternoon was spent on our first class in Organizational Relations/Behaviour. We spent a great deal of this class talking about process and expectations, and didn't get much into the topic content. By about halfway through that I was pretty frustrated as I really wanted to delve into the meat of the discussion. However, with a little bit of perspective, I can now see that being very clear about our expectations of one another will likely serve us well in the future.
Our group has already begun work on our first team assignment, which is good. I'm behind in my reading for tomorrow's class on The Environment of Business, so I should get going. It's been raining non-stop since late last night.
Hatley Castle
Hatley Castle is the flagship architectural structure on the RRU campus. I'm going on a tour of it tomorrow at lunch. Looking forward to it.Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday Morning
This was my view on the way for a walk this morning. Nice place. More pictures of the campus later this week.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Peacocks
The true owners of the campus, we're warned to wear earplugs as the Peacocks have noisy early morning mating rituals.
The View out my Window #1
How beautiful is this - green in the forefront, mountains in the background, and water in the middle. More than makes up for the dreary room - I hope!
My First Day
Left Regina this morning at about Noon. Arrived in Calgary, had about a thirty minute layover and then off to Victoria. Met a few fellow MBAers - Susan and Maynard - in Calgary. Turns out we'll be in the same cohort, so it's cool.
Victoria is green and wet. Lovely after such a cold few weeks back home. Was able to get by just fine with simply a sweater - my Riders hoodie of course :) There are Riders fans everywhere. On the flight I was talking to the stewardesses (WestJet is really an awesome airline) who said that their flight from Saskatchewan during the Grey Cup was crazy - everyone drinking and watching the game and cheering loudly...only to end in heartbreak of course, but there's always next year...right???
Susan, Maynard and I shared a cab to Royal Roads. The campus is right on the water. It really is a beautiful place. Had to cross a few curious peacocks on our journey to the security building. As you can see from my pictures, the dorm room is quite mundane - not very appealing at all. However - it is balanced off by the view out my window - pictures to follow (see above).
Went for a walk and did some shopping before joining a half dozen fellow students at a local pub for supper. I'm uncomfortable with the quietness of the dorms tonight, but I know the busy-ness will start strong tomorrow.
Sunday consists of "optional" workshops that don't really seem to be all that optional. Looking forward to the challenge of this program, but definitely feeling equal parts fear and excitement...reminds me of a first date - but way more expensive.
Well I should finish unpacking my wares from shopping and try and get settled in for the night.
Victoria is green and wet. Lovely after such a cold few weeks back home. Was able to get by just fine with simply a sweater - my Riders hoodie of course :) There are Riders fans everywhere. On the flight I was talking to the stewardesses (WestJet is really an awesome airline) who said that their flight from Saskatchewan during the Grey Cup was crazy - everyone drinking and watching the game and cheering loudly...only to end in heartbreak of course, but there's always next year...right???
Susan, Maynard and I shared a cab to Royal Roads. The campus is right on the water. It really is a beautiful place. Had to cross a few curious peacocks on our journey to the security building. As you can see from my pictures, the dorm room is quite mundane - not very appealing at all. However - it is balanced off by the view out my window - pictures to follow (see above).
Went for a walk and did some shopping before joining a half dozen fellow students at a local pub for supper. I'm uncomfortable with the quietness of the dorms tonight, but I know the busy-ness will start strong tomorrow.
Sunday consists of "optional" workshops that don't really seem to be all that optional. Looking forward to the challenge of this program, but definitely feeling equal parts fear and excitement...reminds me of a first date - but way more expensive.
Well I should finish unpacking my wares from shopping and try and get settled in for the night.
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