Last Day in the Classroom

The wrecking ball, so to speak, comes this week, to take down our classroom to make room for video conference rooms.  This is a strategic decision that Queen's made a number of months ago and they need to be ready for the class of 2012 who will start this September.  We'll be accommodated in a temporary space down the hall.

Over the past number of months, several of our professors, who all understand the business reasons for the change in service delivery, have expressed their sadness over this change.  Some have tried to sell us on the benefits of video conference rooms, and I wonder why.  Perhaps it is because we are the best marketing tool the school has.  As we go out and convey the benefits of the Queen's Executive MBA, it might be good for Queen's if we have an arsenal of words that support the video conference format.

The reality is that we chose the classroom format.  We could have selected a video conference format - whether through the Cornell-Queen's program or a competitor's program - and we did not.  While I understand there are benefits to the video conference format, and I was considering availing myself to the format, I don't think you can replace having a quick chat about future studies or your paper or workload while standing in line at Starbucks.  The ability to have impromptu conversations with a large group of classmates and professors cannot be replicated.

So, yes, it is sad that the format is changing.  But new students will not know the difference.

HR Class Is Over :(

Today was our last HR class.  It could have gone twice as long and I would have loved every minute of it.  Seriously.  I think Julian Barling is wonderful.

I loved how he would accept a challenge.
I loved how he could weave in a case study to support his point and it felt like he was just telling stories.
I loved how he would be irreverent - at least according to his personal values.
I loved that he had personal values.
I loved how he would make fun of us and we could make fun of him.  And he made fun of himself, too.
I loved how he recognized that we would be a little brain dead having just had either 4 hours of Analysis Based Decision Making (aka Stats) or Financial Management.
I loved how he would respond to an email late at night.

Mostly, I loved that he is extremely passionate about his work and it is conveyed in his teaching.

Remember:  it's the little things that make a difference.

The Innovator's DNA

Over the weekend, I came up with this idea of changing my HR paper topic less than 2 weeks before the deadline.  I know.  I'm NUTS!  Even worse is that you need to get approval to make such changes.

My original paper was on how to make the now-defunct HR Projects division better.  It would cover stuff like role ambiguity, incompatible demands, and role over/underload.  Yippee!

My brainwavy idea was to write about building a creative and innovative culture.  I sent my idea off to my professor and got a response in a very short time period - under an hour.  [Isn't that INCREDIBLE??]  It is a workable idea, with a caution that it is supposed to be an HR paper.  "Don't fret", I said, "I have my Pfeffer articles in hand."  Pfeffer is the centre of the universe on current HR research.  I didn't know that before starting this latest class, so you would not likely know that either.  Fortunately, his writing is very accessible.

Well, look what showed up in my Facebook feed today (which I then added to my FB status, of course):

http://www.slideshare.net/bmw53/innovators-dna

It's a presentation based on an article that we had to read for our Creativity and Innovation course back in January.  Now the five ideas or steps to innovation in there are quite simple:

Associating
Questioning
Observing
Experimenting
Networking

It's the practice of them that makes them magical.  Doing vs. deciding to do.  How do you incorporate that into a culture?  You can hire people who have those skills.  You can create rituals around them.  Not sure if the rituals are part of the HR readings, though.

This helps me in addressing innovation.  Now onto creativity!  If you have any ideas for me, send them along!

Oh!  On a side note...  I've been thinking about my research topic for my DBA (because I am crazy, I know) and I am mulling over the area of creativity and innovation in the workplace.  This seven-page assignment is only the top of the iceberg!

Wouldn't it be cool to go to this?!!

I spent a few moments checking out a couple of my favourite blogs and one of them mentioned this:

http://www.sweetsandsnacksexpo.com/index.cfm

I would seriously go to this thing.  And then buy every candy that I thought would work well in vanilla ice cream. Or chocolate.  Even gummies.  Except I don't think I'd need the Mona Lisa shaped ones.  Can you imagine having vanilla ice cream with chopped up truffle mars bars?  Or strawberry ice cream with gummy worms?  Or...

The Heart of Rock n Roll Is In Cleveland

I woke up with that song in my head yesterday.  I think it is because I had had brief conversations with a classmate and a professor about doing a higher level degree and the DBA program at Case Western Reserve University was recommended.  Case Western is located IN Cleveland.

The program sounds good, but it is rather expensive compared to some PhD programs and other DBAs.  I can see that if I am going to go onto a higher degree, I'll have to do the same analysis I did when I chose to go to Queen's.

From my horoscope today

Unleash your wildest ideas and explore what it is you really want to do with your time on Earth, no matter how insane it might seem at first. Once you figure it out, you should be quite surprised at how quickly someone new steps into your life to help you get there!

Some things to remember

I found these on a web page and they seem to fit my focus today as I try to finish three assignments:

"A clear idea is one that fits on the back of a business card."

"Read your work out loud to locate problems. If you run out of breath, the sentence is too long."

"Done is better than perfect."