Day 21 - 22

This has really been a crazy week!

Wednesday, February 21, 2008

We started off with an exam in Professor Hill's class which I think I did very well on. We then ran over to the Experiential Learning Center where we "performed" our Meyers-Briggs team presentation on types. My team showed the interaction between opposite "temperaments," how these temperaments lead us in opposite directions and make us think completely differently, and how we can bridge some of these gaps simply by being aware of where the other person is coming from in terms of "type." Our presentation was funny and creative, but pretty tame in comparison to some. Since no one knew what the other teams were doing we ended up with three different groups performing versions of "The Dating Game" from back in the 70's, but it worked out since they all had some very different takes on it and taught us different things about MBTI. Another group did a "Wizard of Oz" takeoff which was clever, but I think the best idea was from the group that represented each of their personalities as a wine and performed as a group of tourists going to a wine tasting at a vineyard.

Wednesday wrapped up for me with group meetings until 9pm for the Nielsen Case Study and FIMSIM. I then worked on writing up a draft of Nielsen for one of my teams and our Accounting Controls Presentation Proposal for another team until about 12:30 am.

Thursday, February 22, 2008

We had our second accounting quiz, again in group mode. I worked with Sue Yarkosky and Rebecca Cupp (Director of Pharmacy for Ralph's) who both have a pretty good handle on what we're doing.

I then turned in our Controls Presentation Proposal to Professor Davila only to find out that another group had selected something similar and turned it in the day before. Since there was too much overlap we're back to the drawing board. That was really really frustrating given the time crunch I've been feeling this week. This is probably the first time in my life I've felt like I didn't have enough hours in the day to do my job 100% no matter how hard I work. I really think this is an intentional part of the program - to load us down with work to the point that you have to make choices and sacrifices, decide what is the most important, and focus on that. I have a hard time with this because I always want to finish everything completely - I don't like "good enough." But I'm learning.

In Professor Arnold's class Gary Hunt and Tom Terrell from Food 4 Less presented their company to us. They did a very nice job and I found it interesting since I've not seen one of their stores yet. It seems to be similar to a Winco with perhaps a bit more focus on service. They also set the bar pretty high with gift bags (similar to our green polywoven Haggen bags) filled with wine, semi-gourmet chocolate, and other snacks. I think Sue and I are going to have to place a call Merchandising! We present Haggen to the class on April 7.

The rest of Thursday was a quick meeting with my Controls group to come up with a new topic and figure out how to get it done by tomorrow. Since some of us had other meetings or had already left to commute home I picked a topic, sold the group on it and suggested we do research independently. We'd then coordinate over the phone and email this evening.

As soon as I got home I dove right into this and found I'd really lucked out on the topic choice (using voice recognition systems in a warehouse setting). There was a massive amount of information on the subject and I easily found everything I needed. I was able to complete the preliminary research and proposal in about three hours and send it out to my group. I was very happy to have this done given the looming deadline, but I think in a larger sense this was a terrible failure. If, as we've learned from Professor Hill, Management is accomplishing organizational goals through other people, then by taking all the work on myself I totally failed to manage my group. I think this is a good lesson learned and probably exactly what the program is designed to teach me.

I took a break after that to go to the Thursday night BBQ - Tritip tonight. Sitting around and talking with my classmates inside (it's been raining here all week) I noticed how exhausted everyone looked. It was low key and I was back to my apartment to try to get some sleep before 9pm.