Strategies

By strategies, I mean both implemented and in development. For those that have been implemented, my effort to get below the average 1000 m time on the Concept 2 rowing machine took less than a few weeks. I managed to get below the average time when I went to the gym yesterday. After I recovered from that effort, I got back on and did a couple more miles. I figured out some form stuff on that second workout so I'm pretty sure that I can get my time down by another few seconds when I try again next week. I'm going to stick with my current workout of goblet squats and push-ups, with a few elements of the Spartacus workout thrown in for variety. I need to work on my lower body endurance so I'll try to do more reps with lighter weights and maybe work in some incline work on the treadmill.

Using design principles to figure out problems that I have in the lab has also been a fruitful strategy. I had a breakthrough in my current project on Thursday night and Friday morning. After spending a month trying to put my data into some kind of context to help me use the literature to find an explanation for my observations, a Google search on "adsorption equilibrium" led me to the Langmuir isotherm. I've heard of the Langmuir isotherm several times, but I have never made an effort to figure it out. I took the time to think about it on Friday. That little session gave me an idea for an experiment that could give me more than the random points that I've been looking at for weeks. I also got smart and added my old data to the more recent data. Both data sets agreed (which is very good), and I could make sense of some outliers based on how I did the experiment. I made a couple of other experimental modifications to reduce some experimental variability. I was starting to feel like the project may stall on me again, but the introduction of the Langmuir isotherm has given the experiments a real boost. My formal project is entering a very important phase of development in the next couple of weeks. Once that aspect of the project gets going, it will be much harder for me to get the resources to keep generating data on my side project (which could is actually starting to yield insight into a problem in my formal project). I want to have enough data to put a paper together before that new process gets initiated. It will be close, but I am confident that we will get it done.

Seeing that I'm going to be laying out a few grand of my own money on my MBA, I have been thinking of what I really want out of the degree. I want the credential, but if I'm going to spend the time and money to get the credential, I might as well maximize the return on my investment. I have already decided to use the "learning environment" idea discussed in Barker's HBR piece to find people whose experience I can use to accelerate my management expertise. My natural tendency would be to do the minimal discussion and interaction required of the class, but I'm going to step outside of my comfort zone and try to find a nucleus of three or four people to work closely with this semester. I also read about a way to implement deliberate practice into management training. I should have access to business case studies at some point in my MBA. Whether that happens during my foundations classes or once I'm in the more advanced aspects of the program remains to be seen, but I will start using them to develop my skills as a manager as soon as I can.