It's not you... it's me

Some have noticed I'm not writing as often lately.  I've been trying to consider the reasons, and have determined a couple of culprits.  First of all, Gmail has gone and switched things up on me.  I blog under my personal email address, but now anytime I sign in to check my school email it signs me out, and I really am just that lazy that I hate to sign back into my personal (not checked very often) email just to blog.  (You may be asking how someone this lazy is going through to get my MBA and work full time.  I like to think of it more as I am prioritizing... rather than sheer laziness).

Another is, there's not all that much to write home about right now.  There is a ton of work going on between the two classes, which is keeping me busier that any other semester has (Sorry to drop that bomb, Cohorts II, III and IV).  Right now is about plowing through and just trying to keep a steady plan in place to make sure everything happens and gets done.  I meet with my group every Wednesday and we google chat once a week to finish our weekly group case studies.  In Economics, Marketing and Competitive Strategy we have been assigned new teams to work on a final project, and we've now got a project underway and timeline laid out.

And lastly, I am a positive person, so I've been trying to find the frame to describe the current dynamic in my cohor.  So to say, enthusiasm is a little wained.  Its hard when you really hit it off with the Program Director, and then there is a leadership change.  I've had an independent meeting with the new director and am allowing her the right to build a separate and different relationship.  I like some of the ideas she has about taking this group to the next level.  All the same, you have to recognize how hard it is when you sign a two year commitment of your life to one style of leadership and direction of the program, and then there is a change, and not all the time are there clear communications about the changes.  I'd really say communication is 95% of it.

I also sense our cohort is falling into a place where if things don't go a certain way, they really voice their opposition.  So honestly, right now I'm not sure about the relationship between our cohort in general and the administrations view of us.  I asked one student their suggestion of what we do to turn this around.  They said, "Walk away."  I don't want to walk away- I have way too much invested.  I am also too invested not only to leave the program physically but to leave the program mentally.  I feel like it would be a cop out for me to check out.  I signed on to be the first cohort- I knew there would be bumps.  I said I would be committed to working them out.  Some may feel the bumps we are hitting are ones that could be avoidable.  May that be the case or not, we have got to find a way to come to partner with the university in sights of something greater.  I want to stay committed to the success of the name of this program, and don't feel that it's too late to change.

I was hesitant about writing this honestly about where I am in the program, but as this is a chronicle of my journey, I have to remind myself that sometimes there is the mire we have to work through.  It isn't always easy.  I know its pretty frustrating how the program seems to be going the last 4 months or so, but so much more than our education, we have the opportunity of real world experience.  We get to see what its like when two groups have a similar goal but life happens on the way there.  We get  to learn temperance, mediation, and what it will look like to be cooperative in spite of obstacles.  I'm hoping not only to feel my MBA's worth at the end of this road, but I'm committed to the rich knowledge that will come along with that journey.