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August 31, 2004
Day Two of Classes
Day Two of Classes is over and I'm mentally exhausted. We spent the majority of time working in small groups and received our first assignment—to write a report detailing "Making SLS, Inc. [the pretend name for the Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability group] the Best Learning Organization It Can Be". This report has no required length, format, or direction beyond the title. We are supposed to use our "Open Space Dialogue" process to break into small groups to form the chapters of the report, which is due tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Now, the entire class has to discuss, write, and reach consensus on the report in less than 24 hours, using a process that is inefficient at best. Trying to get 50 "leaders" to agree on anything, particularly something as complex as how to structure our program for success, is a disaster waiting to happen. Consider for a moment: it took us 1.5 hours yesterday to decide not to make a decision about our common room.
I nearly went out of my mind during the final small group session—we are largely a group that likes to expound on ideas rather than commit to a plan. So I took the afternoon off (some other small groups continued to meet informally—but one of our rules for small group is "whoever shows up is the right people" so I don't feel bad) and went shopping for groceries and a rug.
I'm now the proud owner of a bamboo rug, which I'm admiring while the newly-purchased potatoes roast in the oven. My plans for the evening include reading my book, killing errant bugs that wandered in last night when the window was open, and going to bed early. I've been getting up at 7 a.m. for classes, which makes it hard to get to bed early enough to get my 8 (or 9, to be honest) of necessary sleep.
It was gray and drizzly all day, after brief rays of sunshine in the morning. It has effectively killed any chance for a cheery mood, making it even more difficult to be a good "team player" during these stupid exercises. I am REALLY looking forward to the lectures that begin on Friday. Even breaking into permanent small groups would be a step forward, rather than the revolving small group sessions that require larger group consensus at regular intervals. Its strange that I really enjoy people on an individual basis, but get so impatient when we're structured into a classroom setting. I suppose that says more about me than them (I'm self-centered, impatient, arrogant, etc.), but my response is bah humbug! When I'm running the world, things will be different!
But fear not: there is GOOD NEWS! Our real beds arrive tomorrow, thus completing the furnishing of our student housing. I will be ecstatic to sleep on a mattress that conceals the shapes of the slats underneath (in the morning I have a crease on my back from the middle slat).
Roommate Update: We just found out that adding a third roommate is going to be more difficult than we anticipated. Rather than having the housing company add a third person on the lease, Roya and I will have to informally rent it out ourselves. The new person would have to pay us rent (creating all sorts of reliability issues), and we would have to furnish the room ourselves (an added expense we thought Student Services would take care of). So, we'll talk to Jessica (our latest possibility) about the change in circumstance tomorrow and see what she says.
