Slamming to a Stand Still

I finished my exams on Tuesday, December 4th.  Classes don't start again until January 22nd.  That's SEVEN full weeks of vacation.  I haven't had this long a break from school or work since the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college when I left finding a summer job until the last minute and ended up spending my time off learning to knit instead.  I'm close to being at a loss for what to do.  I even started reading my cases for next term.  (If anyone has suggestions for a good book to read, I am clearly in need...)  After barely having enough time to eat during the first three terms of school, having this much free time is just weird.  I've ended up getting a little slap happy.

But I'm aware that talking about how bored I am won't make for a very good blog post. Especially, I would imagine, for prospective students reading this who are still slaving away at work and feeling a bit murderous towards someone complaining about having too much free time.

So...I'll spare you the view into my internal dialogue in which I debate with myself about getting off the couch and going for a run or doing the myriad of life administration chores I've been putting off since August.

Instead, I'll tell you about the one week during this break when I was plenty busy.  During the second week of December, eleven other Darden first and second year students, one operations department professor, and I went down to Miami to Beckman Coulter, one of Danaher's operating companies.  Danaher invited us to participate in a kaizen event, as they have 12 other times in the past several years.  For the uninitiated, a kaizen event is a week long activity to analyze a process, come up with recommendations to improve it, and implement the changes, involving everyone from management to the people who perform the process on a daily basis.  (Check out wikipedia for a more comprehensive/eloquent explanation.)  This was a fantastic opportunity for us students to apply some of the concepts we had learned in our Operations class, and also learn more about managing and improving operations in real life. 

Beckman Coulter develops and manufactures blood testing machines for academic research and medical applications.  My team of five students, two operators, a team leader, and a few Danaher kaizen experts was tasked with analyzing and improving the assembly and testing of a sub-component within one of the blood testing machines.  I learned a ton during the week, but the biggest thing I learned really surprised me.  When an operator is performing a process over and over again, they don't have much time to stop and think about what the best way is to organize tools, parts, and process steps.  But when you  have a kaizen event, it gives everyone involved in the process the opportunity to think through how to do it best.  What I learned during this week is that small organizational changes like how you organize tools and parts at a work station can drastically improve productivity. Yeah, ok, seems simple, but I'm not talking about small changes to productivity.  I'm talking about massive increases. Like 50%-reduction-in-cycle-time increases.

And this is where my nerd-ness takes over.  I am OBSESSED with organizing.  No really.  I got binder clips for Christmas (one of my favorite presents).  I get beyond excited going to The Container Store.  At my last job, I created an organization system that a coworker told me was seizure-inducing it was so comprehensive.  My aunt used to invite me to her house just to clean her closets.  My family actually calls me the "Organizer Bunny"...

So when I had the opportunity to organize this assembly work station, I went for it.  I won't go into all the details of what we ended up doing, but I will tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that, as I mentioned before, it dramatically increased the operator's productivity.

I initially applied to participate because I felt that understanding operations better would make me a more effective HR professional.  However, the experience also made me realize that a career in operations would be really interesting, as well.  So all in all, it was a really fun and productive week.  And as a result, I want to be sure to thank the Danaher University Relations team and the team at Beckman Coulter for the time and energy they put into making this a learning experience for us so outstanding.

Learning Team Love

On Thursday, we had our last learning team meeting of 2012.  Since meeting for the first time on August 15th, we have met every Monday through Thursday night, excluding two dedicated internship recruiting weeks, two exam periods, and Thanksgiving break.  54 meetings at two hours a pop on average.  That's 108 hours we've spent together in the past four months.  Without their help, I have no idea how I could have made it this far.  And now, after taking two of my four exams for this term and actually feeling pretty good about them, I am certain I couldn't have done it without all of their help doing the cases for our classes and the shared stress ranting.  So thank you, guys!

For our last meeting, we surprise celebrated one of our birthdays with Mellow Mushroom pizza and tiramisu.   Feeling pretty good about the cases for the next day, we actually just hung out talking for a couple of hours.  It was exactly what I needed to take the edge off the recruiting and finals pressure.

LT 50

And just because it's hilarious in looking back, here are our best photos from our get-to-know-your-learning-team photo scavenger hunt in August.  We somehow came up with the idea that one of us would dress us like a vampire and slowly kill the team off in each photo...with Mr. B killing the vampire in the last photo!  (I believe we took 3rd place thanks to that zany idea!)

Birdwood golf course

at Arch's

in front of the Rotunda

North Grounds Rec Center

Darden's TJ statue

being killed by Mr. B

Gelato Adventures

I’m proof that you can live in Charlottesville without a car.  Although I should note that my last trip to the grocery store was quite interesting given that I hadn’t been for the past three weeks thanks to a packed end to Term 2.  I ended up walking my bike home from the store with a backpack, and two large bags stuffed with what felt like the heaviest load of groceries I’d ever bought.  So I’m not going to say it’s easy, but through a combination of walking, biking, Zipcar, cabs, and getting rides from friends, I get by just fine without the added expense of a car. 

However, after being stuck in either my apartment or a learning team room for the four and a half days of exams, I was itching to get out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and the gorgeous foliage and views around Charlottesville.  Without a car, I was relegated to walking around Darden and the rest of UVA.  Even though campus (or rather “grounds,” as I’m supposed to call it) is pretty spectacular, I had seen most of it already on my morning runs.  I was dying to get out and see the Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive, a famous road along the ridge of the mountains that offers amazing views, especially as the leaves are changing.

  

Then my classmate, Andrew, came to the rescue.  I met Andrew in our pre-matriculation accounting class, where he provided some real-world explanations for the concepts we were learning based on the gelato shop he owns and operates in nearby Staunton, VA.  One of my favorite parts of our classes is hearing about my classmates’ work experiences.  Invariably someone in the class has had an experience with the concept we’re learning about and hearing how they handled it provides some really valuable and relevant perspective for how we as a class might consider approaching the case at hand.  But back to the rescuing…

Trolling the class Facebook group, as I’m wont to do almost hourly, I noticed that Andrew had offered to take anyone interested on a trip over to his gelato shop, which involved a drive over the mountains.  I jumped at the thought of the beautiful drive and delicious gelato at the same time!  Twenty minutes later, Andrew, Ken (another classmate), and I were on our way to the picturesque little town of Staunton.

Downtown Staunton, VA

Ken and Andrew

 Andrew first took us to an awesome toy store, owned by the mother of his business partner.  I had a hard time not buying everything in sight.  In the end, I couldn’t resist this awesome purchase:

My favorite new running accessory

Awesome little toy store

Then Andrew walked us over to his shop, The Split Banana.  It’s got a really cool vibe that combines a classic, small town ice cream shop with a modern and trendy twist.   

From inside The Split Banana

After tasting several of the flavors, I settled on one scoop of pumpkin pie and one scoop of espresso biscotto—the perfect combination of fall in my mouth. YUM.

So many possibilities!

On the way back to Charlottesville, the sun began to set and light up the already orange trees.  We pulled off at a scenic overlook so I could snap a few pictures.  I was very thankful for the opportunity to explore outside of the Darden grounds.

  

Ahhhhh, fall!

Exam Haze

Taken on the first morning of exams...beautiful even in the gloom of fog and finals:

Flagler Courtyard

Since exams ended, the weather has been absolutely spectacular.  More photos to come!

FOMO

So I said last time that Darden keeps us pretty busy. I’m not enrolled at any other business school (obviously), so I can’t give a firsthand comparison.  However, I can certainly confirm The Economist’s claim that Darden is “well known for…its high workload in the early stages of the full-time MBA.”  But hey, that’s one of the reasons I came here.  I’m paying to be pushed hard so I can learn as much as possible.  (And apparently, I’m not the only one that thinks that, since The Economist ranked Darden #3 in their global list of full-time MBA programs!)

This is all great, but there’s one pretty big side effect:  faced with classes, nightly learning team meetings, recruiting for summer internships, clubs, Darden Cup*, and other social events, there’s a pervasive fear of missing out.  FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is perhaps one of my favorite memes that’s come out of the last year, because it so accurately describes the feeling I have constantly.  Finish preparing the Marketing case for tonight’s learning team meeting or go to a meeting to hear about the Global Business Excursions?  Call an alum at a company I want to work for or go to the Decision Analysis review session for the exam?  Go to Cold Call** to unwind after a long week with a free beer and dinner “light snack” of lasagna or take a nap before TNDC?**

The most common time I’ve had FOMO this fall has been on Friday nights.  For the past several months, I’ve been training for the Baltimore Marathon.  That means that every Friday night, I go to bed by 10 so that I can get up the next morning at 5 am or so to meet with a group for a long run around Charlottesville or the surrounding counties.  Even though I’m normally exhausted by the time Friday night rolls around, I would normally much rather go out with classmates than go to bed early. 

But training for this race is really important to me because I’m running it for my Grandpa.  A few years ago, he passed away after a very painful battle with Leukemia.  I am fundraising and training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training to help find a cure to blood cancers.  Every four minutes, someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and every ten minutes, one of those people loses their battle with one of these cancers. 

Tomorrow, I will run the Baltimore Marathon and while I’m struggling up the hills of the last 9 miles, I will be thinking of my Grandpa.  Together with the other 500,000+ Team in Training volunteers around the country, I will be fighting to prevent the pain my grandfather experienced and the immense grief my family felt from his loss.  And for this, I will gladly go to bed early.

If you’re interested in learning more about my training or donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, please visit my training blog.

*One of my favorite things about Darden.  All five sections of the first year class compete in events throughout the year, including softball, flag football, trivia, and a men’s high-heeled race (sponsored by the Graduate Women in Business and Gays, Lesbians, and Allies at Darden clubs), to name the competitions we’ve had so far.  There is FIERCE (but friendly) competition and everyone gets really into it.  Section E, which I have been lucky enough to be randomly selected for, is the reigning champ, having won for the past four years.  Section E alums, second years, and professors have been clear from the beginning about how much pressure we face (from them) to continue the dynasty.  We won’t let Section B get in our heads with their weird traditions surrounding a ragged stuffed bird or their wildly inaccurate comparisons of Section E to Slytherin House.

**Just a few of the social events put on by the Darden Student Association.

And So It Begins...

The first six weeks of business school have been, well...a lot--a lot of new experiences, a lot of new people, a lot of fun, a lot of work, a lot of networking, a lot of stress, a lot of learning.   I think their strategy is to throw as much as is humanly possible at you, and force you to learn how to survive.  Then just as you think you're about to get it, they throw you even more.  I often feel like this:

So when I got the opportunity to write a blog for Darden, I had no shortage of experiences to write about. The challenging part was coming up with a blog name that would tie together everything I was experiencing. All the titles I came up with sounded so negative:  "Disaster of Business Administration," "Distrust the Process," (a bad play on Darden's often cited version of "everything happens for a reason"), "Running on Empty"...

These definitely captured how I felt about some aspects of the first month...but they didn’t even begin to capture how much fun it’s been, how much I’ve learned, the great people I've met, and how immensely happy I am that I made the decision to come here.

To understand this a little better, let me give you a bit of background about me. I graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Learning and Organizational Change. When I declared my major in college, I felt like I had found the missing puzzle piece to my future that I didn’t even know was missing. After graduation, I worked at The Corporate Executive Board for two of our client programs: CLC Human Resources (formerly the Corporate Leadership Council) and CLC Learning and Development (formerly the Learning and Development Roundtable).   I wrote research studies on HR best practices, answering questions like:

• What is global leadership and how do you develop it in your employees? 
• How do you train and hold managers accountable for developing their employees given increasing strains on their time?
• How do you measure the return on investment of diversity and inclusion?

Through my work, I had the opportunity to interview hundreds of HR executives at client companies around the world to understand these challenges and identify how they were being solved.  I loved the intellectual stimulation, the exposure to senior HR executives, the caliber of my coworkers, and the spirit of the company.  I had found a career that I loved in a company I really respected and enjoyed working for.

At this point in my story, people often wonder why I left for business school. Even though I was certain I had found the right career, I saw business school as the linchpin in being successful in it. Let me explain.

My experience at CEB developed my management skills and HR expertise. However, I knew that to be successful in HR meant truly acting (and being seen) as a partner to business leaders in achieving organizational objectives. To do that, I needed to supplement my skills and expertise with a strong understanding of how finance, marketing, strategy, and operations complement human capital strategy. Darden is renowned for its general management business program and I knew that an education from here would be the key to making my HR career a success.

So back to my struggle to find the right name for this blog. While this month has certainly been trying at times, it's already clear that Darden will give me what I need to be successful.  I actually really enjoy going to class and hearing what my professors and classmates have to say.  I was randomly selected for arguably the best of the five sections of the first year class (more to come on the Legendary Section E), which, in addition to being on the way to winning the Darden Cup for the fifth year in a row, is the most interesting, fun, caring, and supportive group of people I've met in a while.  I love going to meet with my learning team every night, even when I'm stressed out by how much work we have in front of us.  And I deeply appreciate how genuinely kind and interested all the second years, faculty, staff, and alumni are in making sure us first years are both happy and successful.

To capture all this in a single blog title was going to be tough. As any good researcher will do, I turned to some outside sources to try to drum up some more appropriate titles. I picked up ThinkerToys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques off of my bookshelf, and came across a quotation that struck a nerve:

“Life is like standing on a rolling ship. You’re going to slip. You’re going to grab onto things. You’re going to fall. And it’s a constant challenge to get up and push yourself to keep going. But in the end, the most exhilarating feeling in the world is getting up and moving forward with a smile.” 
-Richard Cohen, as quoted in ThinkerToys

I knew that these two years at Darden would be some of the most challenging of my life so far. But those people who I will grab onto, that will give me the strength to push myself up and keep going, are everywhere at Darden. And when I shake Dean Bruner’s hand as I receive my diploma in May 2014, I will most definitely be smiling, knowing that I will have earned that degree and enjoyed the process.