Module 6 - New York and the other Washington.. WA-DC

Module 6 ended a little over a week  and half ago, and now just catching my breath to write about it.

Module 6 was a little different than the other modules, as we had to finish all the work by the end of the last day of class. Usually, we had two weeks after the module to finish our finals. But since we were graduating the day after the last class, everything was condensed and intensified even more.

The classes for module 6 were:

-Integrative Course-New York Residency: Where the Risk Hits the Fan
-Leadership 1a-Leadership and Transformation: Choice, Cost and Commitment
-Leadership 1b-Leadership of Teams and Organization
-Corporate Social Responsibility
-Capstone Course-Managing in a Global Economy

The New York Residency was fantastic. Our fabulous logistic and program manager, Megan, negotiated to get us to stay at the Four Seasons in New York.  It created the mood of elegance, extravagance and also put us in the hub of the action in New York. Sleeping in New York is difficult. The city is penetrated with movement, energy and all I wanted to do was just play in it, bath in it, thrive in it. Besides our professor being top notch with his academic lessons of financial management, strategy and risk mitigation, he also took us to experience different firms. We went to the New York Stock Exchange, the United Nations, CitiGroup, RBC Capital, TIAA-CREF, and Jetblue.
At the United Nations we heard about trade sanction with North Korea. During our entire site visits, I am always cognoscente of decor, atmosphere, office layouts, and overall architecture.  I walked in to the UN, and felt at peace, flower images, peaceful colors on the wall, etc. With a kind of flowery, watery landscape motif. However, as soon as you walk into the board room, the mood drastically changes by the art work on the walls. The table and chairs are typical. Nothing extravagant, or noteworthy. White walls. But the paintings. Dark blues, blacks, greens, with a flow of conflict, abstraction, no order, or peace. You felt like you went from calm seas in the office, to storms in the board room. I don't know if that helps them to create moods of allowing for discourse, or just creates unnecessary anxiety. The other board rooms I have seen are usually ego driven if anything. Pictures of management, or founders or some inspirational person for the company, or even articles of confirmation that the company is a success. Or some, just have very large windows for light. With no paintings, mild whites or yellows. No one painted board rooms with dark colors on the walls. No dark blues or dark reds. I love color. I actually looked into getting a Masters in Color Chemistry (I decided obviously with this program, but color effects and chemistry is so fascinating to me.) The effects of color on our life is astonishing. One of my favorite activities, is just to observe what people choose to color themselves with, what colors people choose around them and then observe their mood, and see if it seems congruent with the colors or not. My initial findings is that primarily they are in alignment. Specially when people go into a coffee house and have their pick of where to sit, they sit in the mood, sort of speak.

JetBlue was one of my favorite site visits. We got over 3 hours of their top financial management team's time, including their CFO. They discussed their financial strategy as well as their risk management approaches. The biggest expense for an airline is fuel. Before the module started, each of us had to create power point presentations to evaluate their firm and to discuss their risk management approach and potential recommendations. Each of us, I think after crunching the numbers, feeling like we were drowning as we were all over our heads (expect for the banks and finance people in our group). But struggling with something, understanding it, gets me to feel a bit intimately invested and sparks curiosity, therefore, what might have seemed like a boring financial presentation to me in the past, was fabulously interesting. Above all else, I realized something else too during that site visit, just how important the right culture is. I knew this before, but watching how they joked with each other, how much ease there was between them, how intelligent the entire team was, and well respected by each other, validated the magic of a great culture, and how work is suppose to be fun. Also, I got a high five from their CFO when I told him I flew to New York from Seattle on Jetblue and enjoyed my experience. I asked him when I should buy tickets, like how far in advance. He said "as soon as you know you are traveling." I understand his response. I still think there is a bit of a game-2.5 to 3 months for me  is always my sweet spots with great deals.

One other cool thing about the Finance class-we were suppose to have a quiz one day in class, my teacher had the test printed out, in his hands ready to pass it out. First though, he introduced two strangers in the room, both videographers doing a documentary on Bitcoins, and they wanted to interview him on his perspective on Bitcoins.  I immdediatly, asked if he could please teach us as well. Bitcoins, if you don't know, is basically a virtual currency, that a group of IT techies are trying to get adopted in the shared economy conversation. (google for more information if you are curious). Anyway, the teacher agreed to present to the class, and to cancel the quiz. My classmates have never been happier with me. I got a round of cheers, and even some people stood in gratitude clapping. One of my  lovely mates told me later that he wanted to pick me up like they do in games when someone kicks in the winning goal, or whatever, and have me on his shoulder. I thought that was really cute.

After New York, we headed to DC-Georgetown Campus. Traveling around the world, it felt great to start back at our beginning. It felt great to be "home".

The last week of classes-well were good. We had a lot of assignments due, and most of it, to me felt like busy work, with my heavy duty senioritis kicking in. I just wanted to soak up my friends for one last week with out having to write or prepare or present.  Looking back on it now, it wasn't that bad or awful the assignments, they could have been worse. I have definitely done more tedious work in previous modules. I even watched a movie on Margret Thatcher (the documentary) for my leadership class. It wasn't that bad. ;) One thing I did love about Thatcher's leadership style is her phase "get on with it." To not wallow or complain, just do what you have to do, and carry on. I liked that as a personal approach to difficult situations that may seem hard.

Leadership to me is fascinating. In very basic, simplistic terms, I boil it down to three types. 1)  There is the one person (or small group) leading and everyone following. 2) Everyone leading and walking together (example democracies)  3) Leadership provides (but not controls) the nutrients and resources for the group, so that each individual can do what they need to do. I call that approach empowering stray cats.  I am sure there are more, but I like to observe people and see how they fit into one of these camps. Some have the philosophy that people don't want to lead themselves, and by default puts them in camp 1. I don't hold that truth to be real. And therefore, always examine other possibilities to empower people. I find as a core to great change, which change is the duty of leadership, is the ability to observe, analyze, experiment, adapt and discern, you know, the ability to apply the scientific method. Side note, I wish the public's scientific literacy was higher. We would have much better discourse in our society if it was. What do you think would increase our public discourse, and end such polarization in the world, or just in congress? What do you think makes a great leader?

Well I think I will stop there... for now. Next post is on links and pictures of graduation! :)

Xo
L

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China! Module 5.....

China module is divided up between two cities. Shanghai and Beijing.

Shanghai was the first week. The city looks like any modern city in the world. The city was predominantly built in the last 25 years. The architect is both modern and innovative on one side of the river and on the other-very old European architecture when there was a boom in the city in the early 1900s looking for trade routes with China. 

My first impression was the immediate unrecognizable language. I have grown up and been surrounded by the English language, with exposure to the European languages. I can understand a lot more Spanish than I can speak. So traveling in Brazil, Argentina, and Spain I had a familiarity with the dominate languages and could understand enough to find my way around a conversation.  However, my exposure to the Chinese language has been almost non existent in my life thus far. I can not identify any key words or phrases. I am lost in communicating, resulting in funny hand wavings and smiling. The first few days I was disoriented losing my western balance. The time change on addition was brutal-15 hours. My internal clock had to be completely reset. Needless to say, I was going to bed early -8 pm was late for me some night-and waking up at dawn. 

Our hotel was next to the campus where our classes were taught-at the Fudan University. We studied Entre/intrapreneurship: building successful business models, and SEE: the World Economy at the Turn of the Century. 

Both classes were interesting. The entrepreneur class was fun-we broke into small groups-created a business plan and then pitched it to Chinese Venture Capitalist. Our group looked at creating a multigenerational cultural immersion experiences in traditional Peru. (It was my classmates Paul's idea) and it was super fun group to work with. In our classes, we have had multiple group projects, however, it seems like you work with a majority of the same people each time. This time, I was able  to work with mostly classmates that I didn't work with before. We had a great chemistry in our team. The group had a few Americans, a Peruvian, and a Spaniard. One aspect hat I love bout this program is that ever team is multicultural. All the "companies" presented varied -from IT platform solution to gather real time metrics for operational supply chains, cloud service provider, a Botox like biotech company, a crowdfunding company for international students that was recently just launched by my classmate Salvador (www.addup.org), a Steel distributor and then our team. Our project actually won the completion and we got a gift certificate for a message in Beijing.. Which I hope to use tomorrow.. 

Our last night in Shanghai we had dinner with a journalist from NPR, who painted a picture of China through the stories of the people.

We took the train from Shanghai to Beijing. It was interesting to see the country side and to pass towns that were booming.. You could see in one window shot a cluster of skyscrapers under construction next to rumbles of a small town. A reality that requires more inquiry.

Once we arrived in Beijing we took a tour of the city. The architecture was distinguishable-we are in China! On the bus, I had a chat with Felipe, a Frenchman that lives in England, but who use to study the Chinese language. He pointed out the Chinese signs/ symbols, and he started to decode them for me. Like China is the symbol of what means the center, or it can be seen as a king in the center. China use to think (or still does) that it was the center of the world, and hence the symbol of China meaning the center of the world. I find the symbols f the Chinese language incredibly beautiful and fascinating. The spoken language I don't think I could ever learn. Ever pronunciation and tone has a meaning. Very complex, and would require years of immersion to learn. 

This week we are studying at Chinas number 1or 2school in the country -the Guanhau/Peking University. We are studying Comparative Institutional Analysis: the Politics of International Finance, and global Leadership and Innovation: Applied Studies. This last class is taught by Professor Bies, an old Seattlelite. He makes ample references to Seattle too, and Ithink he is almost in love with Seattle as I am. 

We will also have classes by the Peking's professors on economic, politics and innovation in China. 

I am still experiencing china and not sure how to verbalized my thoughts on ths experience. It's hard, it's easy, it's polluted (sneezing like a fool today even with 2doses of Clariton D). It's big and heavy infrastructure, but not well maintained-dirty, as well as cosmetic deteriation. It s both a closed and open system. It's friendly and smiling, and yet unhelpful, and brusk. It's competitive. Survival mentality and saving face and network building.

I had lunch today in the cafeteria. I sat at a table with students from a different management program. They were all senior managers at a hydro-electric company. And guess what-they love Seattle! The table had all come on a tour of our city -to learn from the Ballard locks and the reservation of the salmon ( and the great windows and educational information about the kinds of fish based on Season-he loved) and our grand Coulee damn. 

The world is global.

 The world is beautiful due to our differences. And the best way to preserve cultures is to witness culture. I love that I get to travel the world and learn from the beauty of humanity's differences.

Okay-it's passed midnight here. Time for bed.

Love ya lots,

Lizzie

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Pictures of India!

Enjoy :)

INDIA MODULE 4 PICTURES 


XO
Lizzie

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Module 4-India!!

Today I arrived in Bangalore India for Module 4 of my Global Educational Experience.
I left mid day Friday in Seattle  and spent over 20 hours in the air flying, touching down just briefly in London, and arriving on Sunday morning in Bangalore.
From London to Bangalore I had a window seat. One of my professors told me that to understand globalization, you just have to follow the light. He showed in class a picture of the world at night and all the light scattered around the world clustering at metropolitan areas and dispersed in less developed areas. Flying from England to India-the route took us over the Middle East during night. If I wasn't asleep, then I was just following the light. Seeing how cities where connected by street lights, or how single pockets of flickering lights scattered like stars in the sky. I am curious how those lone flickers received electricity-was it battery, solar energy, some non obvious connection to a grid? Or maybe it was that water in the bottle, with bleach invention light technology solution that I have heard so much about. None the less, the pattern of light from the sky is thought provoking and beautiful and I would love to fly around at night taking pictures.
Back to school stuff...
This module I am taking three classes and my consulting team will be presenting our findings to our clients.
The classes:
Managing human and social capital 1: Cross cultural management & Intercultural development Inventory. Negotiating Intercultural Interactions.

Managing Human and Social Capital 2: Building Competitive Advantage through People

Knowledge & TechnologyManagement

Consulting Project Practicum: My group's focus is "Innovations and Technology for the Poor. " We will be presenting our findings to Infosys at the end of the module. The Consulting project was started at the end of Module 2. I have had the great pleasure of interviewing companies, and organizations in Seattle to get first hand accounts of what is working and what is failing when looking at services and products to the poor globally.

So much more to come...

Love you all,
Lizzie

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Module 3 update

Watching the elections in Sao Paulo will be an experience I will never forget. My classmates both republican and democrat surrounded by Brazilians, and hotel guests from Germany and else where..watching the numbers role in on the Hotel's outside bar TV-was exciting and fun.
Cheers-Clapping-Boos could be heard from each announcement on CNN (the first Chanel we could find broadcasting the results-the rest of the channels broadcasting just regular programming). Everyone was making early predictions, asking each other about the process in early voting for each state-how some classmates couldnt vote -as early voting opened the day some left and the lines were too many hours long for them to make their flights to school...the sacrifices they made.
some people left the night early like around 9pm (which is 3pm PST) while I stayed till 1am with the last troupers. By the time I feel asleep-it was clear Obama won.
The next day, it was strange to be in a foreign country-it seemed only our class was obsessed with our election and outcome. Maybe the silence I experienced from the hotel guest was just lost in the translation and poor eavesdropping skills I have. I lived vicariously through through social media -and US newspapers to feel a bit more of a connection to the event.
~
Class ended on Friday in Sao Paulo and by Friday night we hopped a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We had class early on Saturday morning. And sometime in the morning I came down withVertigo. The most obnoxious sickness -where the world just starts moving and I just got nauseated and dizzy. I laid down and the school called a doctor. I was given medicine and was told that due to elevation change, the late night traveling and change in altitude that the cause was more environmental than anything else. Which was good--as my body acclimated -the vertigo ceased. It's funny to get a new illness in a foreign country. Never knowing what to do, where to go, the panic for a second steps in. Thankfully, my GEMBA family is exceptional. Within a minute of talking to my friend about what I felt I had a pharmacist (who is pregnant and has a small cabinet of medicines for any miss calculated experience) and a medical doctor -both classmates of mine-diagnosing my symptoms and prescribing me medicine. Talk about the richness of resources on our adventure. But like I said, the school had a local doc come by and do assessment just in case. After a few days though the vertigo was gone.
~
My professor Pedro said there are four types of countries in the world:
-rich
-poor
-Japan
-Argentina

Japan having very limited natural resources yet is quite successful and then Argentina which is a country with ample of resources, and yet not doing so well.

Argentina is Beautiful! The sun, the people, the old architect. Being in Buenos Aires you feel like you are in any European city! I could live here in a heart beat. It feels comfortable. Sao Paulo on the other hand is not a city I would want to live in-too ugly and horrible traffic.

Right now we are doing a business simulation-computer game if you will-where you put in variables like price, factory location, capacity, advertising, etc...and you add in your values for each simulation and see hw your group did in the market place. Kinda fun in a geeky way-but to
totally stressful in another-no one wants to be that group that defaults. But weird though huh-playing simulation "games" in grad school just seems odd-but I much prefer it to writing papers.  Anyway that is hat my last days in class will be-combing the Supply chain operations, Marketing, and Global structures classes into one long "real life" experiment. Wish my team well!


Love you!
Lizzie

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