A visit from an old friend

What is truly expresses a lack of differentiating, and has equal regard for all?  The flu.  The unfortunate victim this week was Dr. Green.  I know she must be reeling, since she only has five weeks to get us through this course, and now she's had to miss a fifth of that, but luckily her friend and one of our favorite professors was there to back her up.  Dr. Thom made an appearance as our substitute, and I was glad to see him, and see his approach to this course.  He had some great visible aides that broke down OD and it's lenses and change models.  I liken his teaching approach as to having a 1500 ft view of a forest of a subject, and then take a closer look at each section of the forest, knowing how it plays into the larger part.  It seems often subjects are taught tree by tree and somehow at the end of your time in class you find your way out to the other side. This approach lacks effort on fully understanding how you got there, and focuses more just what you got there.  So that's what Dr. Thom did for us, we got to see a quick overview of the developments of theories, and this week, we put those to great use as we work on a professional challenge and understanding it through the lens and scope of theory and change models.

Here Dr. Thom offers words of wisdom to some of my fabulous fellow students.

It's hard enough to believe that this next week in class will mark being halfway done with this class, and the following week, we will be switching up our teams that we were originally assigned to at the beginning of the program.  I've been preparing for this change, and along the time we've been in our cohorts, recognizing who I thought I would really enjoy working with.  I've built amazing relationships with my current team, but I console myself that it's not like I won't be seeing them every week!!

Speaking of Team 1, this last week we led the class exercise, and it went wonderfully, We focused on Evolutionary VS Revolutionary Change in action and in leadership.  We divided the teams up into four groups and had debates!  Teams were assigned a position on the Egyptian crisis and on MLK.  Michael was able to come through with great prizes, and our winning teams, determined by points given by the class, won individual gift certificates of $10 to Kona Grill!  I was really happy with the way everything turned out, especially after only a week of preparation.  Go Team 1!

This picture was taken just after the debates concluded.  You can count on KC to smile for the picture!