DomoDomo@INSEAD

Now the real stuff begins...

Here are the Montmelian Ball pics. Great stuff. I think Montmelian was the best "big party" of the year. One reason was, the theme was easy and fun, and everybody put a lot of effort in it, and one other reason was, organisers splashed money in it.

With a couple of weeks into P2 now, we can safely say that the real stuff has begun.
For one thing, every course ties in not only with other courses, but also with P1 courses. It is gloating to see that the building blocks of our learning experience match just as if piling up legos, to have Professors interacting with other courses, us realising how the value of past courses Professors, and that the whole thing is shaping up pretty nicely.

Then, participation is free reining. It flows from all over the place, intelligently and very often hilariously. On this, you'd have to believe me, because Professors are not funny the P1 way -like Enrico or Theo, for whom I could have quote any class. It's just contextual fun. And so real fun!
It's not mean, not flow-breaking... Just perfect to me.
For instance, today on the Ice Fili (Russian ice cream producer) case, a Russian classmate and Strategy Professor had this chat about how "fat tastes good". It is not funny per se, but becomes so in the context of two people who obviously have enjoyed the many pleasures of life. That same Russian student had everyone laughing continuously as we were confronted with 1 hour of non-stop Russian business humour, ie. the type of jokes only the storyteller knows about and laughs about. Excellent stuff.

Earlier in the week, we had Leading Organizations (OB course, follow-up of Leading People and Groups of P1). I must say that this was the ultimate INSEAD experience. So lively, so sharp, so all over the amphi comments. Credit to Professor Thomas d'Aunno, who really mastered the class brilliantly.

That brings me to Organizational Behaviour. It is easy to overlook the subject, or underestimate its value. I spoke to a P5 yesterday, about her conclusions on her INSEAD experience. She told me how valuable in retrospect OB had been for her, and how the many alumni she had met confirmed that OB was invaluable. It is easy to understand why: presumably, Accounting or Finance can be learned from books (although I'm a firm believer that the exchange in the classroom cannot be replaced), while OB can hardly. It requires interaction, as if classes were live assessment training centres. She also told me that INSEAD is very strong in OB, with Professors recognised in the BSchool world, and that students should not miss the experience.

Evoking live interactions, I need to talk about groups. Friends have asked me about latest developments. I guess P2 numerous case studies are stretching group models. By that I mean that solid groups which built strong relationships, clear norms, and strong acceptance, are discovering their competitive advantage over others. Others are having problems of the following kinds: past the point of infights, some of their members are giving up; mounting frustrations to a point of inevitable clash; or shaking group balance that risks collapse and needs redefine ground rules. That often happens when group members initally had settled for some facade appeasement, compromise. Anyway, in my particular point, it's a bit of everything. I for one have decided to keep on with the fragile balance, as long as output is good, unless someone tries too hard to push principles which I strongly oppose. Not ideal, but so is life.

Singapore exchange results have been out: everyone who applied for Singapore will be able to go there. That means a record number of Fonty starters flying over in January. The School really does a great job in accomodating all individual wishes.

Next social events: the French Week (next week), and the Winter Ball...

Labels: Campus exchange, National Weeks, P2 Courses, Social Life

posted by DomoDomo@INSEAD @ 8:03 PM