In The Trenches - Recruiting Over the past several weeks this blog has been rather quiet. Quarter 1 ended -... Read>> Posted October 27, 2008
CREATIVE WAYS TO STRETCH YOUR MIND Threading The Needle Between Hiking, Drawing, And Innovation It's been more than a few weeks so I thought I should give at least one more update while I'm still "technically" an MBA student. This is exam week and I still have a paper, a presentation, and a final exam before I am finished with the coursework for my MBA.
Crazy times have always seemed to follow me everywhere I've gone but these past two years... Wow. It's been crazy enough that I think I need a carriage return.
I started blogging about my MBA experiences as a way to force myself to reflect occasionally. Pulling myself up for air every know and then has done me some good but it's not really enough - long term. That's what this post is about.
In order to build a habit of reflection and innovation into one's career, life, or organization, one has to be willing to make a serious commitment to it. Time, money, energy and (more importantly) heart are needed to protect against boredom and predictability. This past week I led a group of students from Darden (and one from the philosophy PhD program) to a conference in Washington D.C. on the topic of "building innovation into the way we teach and train".
This conference was hosted by ISA and featured keynote speakers from IDEO, mediasauce, and MARS (yes, the candy company).
The conference was broken up into several small working sessions and we always had an artist with us - recording our conversations on buge pieces of paper. It was awesome, BTW. For a great perspective on the event CLICK HERE for pictures from the event. There is way too much to talk about for a blog post, but suffice it to say that we were challenged to look at our "normal" business world in new ways - as a way of life.
Another thing that happened last week was a fabulous hike Megan and I took to Crabtree Falls - here in Virginia. The image above is of Megan's glasses at the top of the Falls. We hiked up (1500 feet of vertical), had a spectacular picnic lunch with our feet in the cool stream at the top and changed our perspective.
For some reason that hike was the first time it began to dawn on me that my time here at Darden is drawing to a close. The metaphor "drawing to a close" is itself interesting because it implies that these last two years have occurred on a stage - and maybe that's the case.
I feel like I have been viewed from every possible angle, inspected for weaknesses, critiqued, challenged, beaten down, and then picked back up to "take it from the top"... As I sat at the top of that magnificent waterfall and looked out across Virginia I finally got a chance to remember things that don't have anything to do with Business.
* Like how much I love my wife.
* How important the outdoors are to me.
* The unique blessings of being in college during one of the worst economic crisis in our nation's history.
* Etc...
Whether it's by myself at the top of a waterfall, in a group setting in Washington, or alone in a sculpture studio (I remember those days too) I am more convinced than ever that Socrates was onto something when uttered those immortal words in Apology:
"The unexamined life is not worth living"
Posted May 03, 2009 Comment Posted by: Monwar Hussain Hi Cristof,
I have followed your blog from top to bottom at least, er... well, 1.5 times! :) I have been feeling the need to let you know my opinion on some of your posts in a more condensed manner for some time now, but can't either a)find the time or b) find the context.
So I decided I am just going to let you know, for now, that I read through your blog quite regularly and find it contemplative and instrospective. In other words, I like your blog!
That, however, is not to say I agree with everything you write. One of these days, I am going to put forth a treatise on that. :)
But I found Socrates' comment at the end of this blog post most wonderful, and rather agreeable (I mean, kind of... I always find aboslute statements or agreements to be hard! 'Not worth living' is too strong for me).
Oh, and before I leave, temporarily, let me strengthen the introduction a bit more with my stats: I am 26, live in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and stumbled upon your blog when I was trying to answer the question "should I try an American MBA?" So far, the answer has been 'No!'. :)
More later! Posted 2009-07-07 00:06:55 bravo! and i miss you... Posted by: mandy cm,
such a wonderful experience during the past two years. we had a blast on our project, and it will go down in history as one of the best experiences at darden. your creativity and innovative spirit aided in our success and i'm so grateful!
keep in touch, okay? tell us all of your adventures in nyc!
ciao,
mandy
brimlozano at yahoo dot come Posted 2009-07-18 12:07:56 Sooooo... I'm busy Posted by: Christof Meyer Just wanted to so thanks for the kind words Mandy (and Monwar).
I will be posting again soon (promise). But I've been slammed with moving, eye surgery (no big deal), work, adjusting to NYC, and having a broken computer.
When this is all sorted out I PROMISE to write more.
My blogging days are not over! I'm just a bit off balance at the moment. Back soon! Posted 2009-07-23 14:27:47 Great! Posted by: Monwar Hussain I was a bit anxious about you not replying. A relief to know you'd be blogging, and hope that you'd post more than you did at Darden. BTW, I dislike the fact that this comment field merges my paragraph spacings. Can this be fixed? Posted 2009-08-11 07:10:56 Annoyed by the comment fields too... Posted by: Christof Meyer Monwar,
I'm looking into a comment box code-fix situation. Also, I'll have more posts about my final semester at Darden... For now - back to the grindstone. Posted 2009-08-19 11:20:43 COMMENT ON THIS POST
