my EMBA Chronicle

Considering it took almost two months to get into the school groove, I was shocked at how how little withdrawal occured over the winter break.  Before the holidays, I had grand intentions for using the two week break to catch up on accounting and get an early start on my final papers.  Instead, I easily settled  into a rhythm of work, visiting family and friends, watching football and doing everything except school work.

It was tough preparing for class this week and I found myself second-guessing my commitment to the remaining year and half of the program.  After a brief immersion in non-school life, it was hard to see the appeal in the intellectual intensity of the EMBA program and time demands for studying.  Thankfully, coming back to class this week put me right back in touch with the value of being an EMBA student.  It was a great day of learning made even more meaningful by the perspectives and insights of my classmates.

It’s hard to believe that we’re nearing end of module one!  My leadership and ethics classes have been excellent and I’m sad to see them coming to an end.

When I was applying to school and researching EMBA programs, “you get out as much as you put in” was a common refrain from recruiters and graduates.  My coach used to say the same thing when I was training for bike racing.  When I was training, I would dread interval days because they hurt.  Although it seemed like my legs would fall off and my chest would explode, I knew that maximizing the intervals would make me a better racer.  This is not unlike bending and flexing my brain around cash flow statements and developing my grand unified theory for leadership.

The past three months at Loyola have been a whirlwind and I’ve been putting a lot into my EMBA program.  And just like cycling, sometimes we don’t realize how far we come with your training until we finish our first big race.  As I near the end of module one and prepare my final projects, I am not only amazed at learning and experiences I’ve gotten so far, I’m ready for more!

Racing

I realized that ever since I started my EMBA I’ve been saying things like:  “Oh, after I get finish class this week I’ll have a much better time of it next week.”  or “Wow, I’ll really be able to get all my school work AND ride my bike next week”.  Of course, when next week arrives I’m still struggling to balance work, school and life.

Everyone told me that participating in a program like this was going to be a lot of work.  Good friends, advisors, alumni and faculty all told me it would be challenging and that it would probably take some time to settle into a rhythm.

I think after a month of talking about “next week”, I’ll just focus on this week.  An interesting by-product of being so immersed in school is that I more thoroughly enjoy my time outside of work and away from homework.  Because they are a little less frequent, those moments where I get to cook dinner, watch a ‘cross race or have coffee with a friend are just a little more special.

Savoring Fall at Michaux

I really thought the biggest challenge of the EMBA program would be time mangement.  It’s actually learning how to learn.

I’ve always considered myself to be quite dedicatd to my on-going education.  I spend a fair amount of time reading, writing and exploring in an effort keep up with technology (my day job), politics, business trends and the world in general.  But this did not really provide me with effective study habits for graduate school.

Being out of school for…well…(quite a while), has made the adjustment to being in school more significant.  Quite simply, I’ve forgotten how to study, how to comprehend and how to retain knowledge.  After self-learning for the past ten years, it’s quite a shift to adapt one’s learning style to such a demanding program as Loyola’s.  And it’s astonishing to find myself reverting to the old habits and behaviors from my early school years (like the foods I crave while studying, locations where I’m most productive, etc.)

I’m sure I’ll look back on this post a year from now and laugh — by that time I’ll be so used to learning that I probably won’t be able to remember what these early weeks were like.  But next Fall is a long way off — in the meantime I could use all the fruit pies you can send my way.

New accounting equation:

Fruit Pie for Susan = Great results on Accouting Exam + featured blog post for YOU!

Mom's Amazing Cherry Pie

I was talking with a friend who is finishing his final year in the NYU’s MBA program.  He couldn’t recall what school I was going to for my EMBA and when I reminded him that I was enrolled at Loyola he commented, “Ooh!  Isn’t that preppy!?!”

www.davidlebovitz.com

I’m not sure what he meant by preppy, but I took it as a compliment.  From day one of the my EBMA residency, I’ve been convinced that Loyola is…like…totally…the best school, eVER.  Here are some of the reasons:

The staff at Loyola are amazing:  Not only did staff from all the departments patiently answer my questions throughout the application and admission process — I saw them every day, all day long throughout the residency.  The residency ended more than two weeks ago and I still see Loyola staff at school all the time (night and day, weekends and weekdays!).  And it’s not just that I see them from far away (down the hall or behind closed doors) — they ask me how I’m doing and want to know what I think of the program.

The faculty are brilliant:  Each week, I ask myself:  “If I suddenly had to leave this program tomorrow, have I gotten anything out of it?”  And the answer is always a shouting YES!  Our faculty are not just smart, they are inspiring, published and actively involved in their fields.  They are challenging and real.  At Loyola, the faculty actually to talk with one another and really consider the overall program strategy in their syllabi.  AND they incorporate feedback from their students — on the fly and in the broader EMBA program strategies.

The school has excellent physical resources:  Loyola has this figured out.  Swipe cards — active immediately after your photo is taken; access to physical resources:  24×7.  A dedicated lounge/resource area that isn’t just full of tables and computers…but has couches, a microwave and office supplies.  People at a reception desk (at least until 10pm) who are actually able (and interested) in answering our questions.  And, to top it all off:  a meditation room.  A space that is consistent with the schools values around reflection, diversity and introspection.

I really don’t know what my friend meant by the term “preppy”.  It is clear that Loyola has been incredibly thoughtful about their EBMA and Fellows programs and that they are passionate about the success of their students.  A school that is committed to ME and cares about MY success — geesh!  It seems obvious, but I wonder how many people are really able to say, as I am:  I couldn’t have picked a better school.

I just completed the residency component of the Executive MBA program at Loyola.  And one of the biggest take-aways from the four days of intensive coursework, team building (and a surprising amount of fun) was the value of reflection.  It was during the residency (while I was reflecting on reflecting) that I made a commitment to start this blog.

At MICA we are in the middle of a self study to prepare for re-accreditation.  During our early meetings we would often discuss the reflection as part of the assessment process.  I, like most of my collegues, rarely even make the time to take a lunch break so making the time to reflect often falls to the bottom of the list.

In IT there is a tradition of “lessons learned” which we try to employ at MICA.  After a project or task is completed, we try to come together as a team and share what we learned about the experience.  We tend to focus this reflection on the technical aspects of how the project was executed and not the bigger picture.  We don’t focus questions such as:  how did we work as a group on this?  how did our decisions impact the rest of the institution?  how does what we accomplish fit into our larger mission and goals?

In a challenging and often crisis and deadline driven environment like MICA, it’s much easier (and the cultural expectation) to make time to fix a broken email server rather than making time for reflection about how we respond to crisis.  I really believe that if we don’t reflect on what we’ve learned about each other, our business and our industry we will not evolve as an organization.

This little blog is one way of trying to honor reflection and put it into practice.

A parting thought

Shifting to a culture of reflection requires a big change in perceptions.  How do organizations value the work shown in these two pictures?

Women Working (www.britannica.com)

working on making things

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin (www.wikimedia.org)

working on reflection