Harvard.. Thursday week 2

Almost half way through the program. Today was a little shorter, but even with the shorter day I ended up a little late this morning. We had a light reading day, so I spent the morning sitting at the kitchen table in the dorm reading forward. Coffee and case studies; the breakfast of champions! About 8:30 I realized I hadn't showered, was engrossed in a case about revamping the MTA, and it was time to go. By 9:00, I was FROZEN from the walk (14 deg F plus a heavy wind) to school (maybe just under a mile??).. headed straight for Dunkin Donuts and then in my seat by 9:10.. not bad, but still, I want every minute I can get out of these people and the program!

Today was a fun treat. I met with the Sr. Researcher for the Minerva project. Minerva is a DoD funded collaborative project between Harvard Kennedy School and MIT's computer science program. The program topics have a familiar ring, except for one very interesting piece (at least through my lense!). They're focusing on cyber in the horizontal as it relates to International Relations. What a concept! A DoD funded cyber project that actually considers international relations issues! I've been asked to present. Likely going to talk about challenges in the heterogeneous global corporate environment --all unclas and should add value. From my perspective, it's also a two slide talk that will last about 45 minutes, so it should be perfect. One benefit here is they use very little in the way of PowerPoint. I'm finding more value in the blackboard discussions than being preached at through PowerPoint. I'll likely do the same thing.. two slides, two sets of graphics; no text.

The day, again, was AMAZING. I can easily declare Gary Orren is by far the best professor I've ever had. I can declare that without even thinking. Gary teaches persuasion. It's a baseline program before heading into negotiation next week, but just the fact that I've now been through six sessions of the mechanics behind good, persuasive communications is something I've never had. Gary gave me new tools, and believe me, I've already started practicing in some of my emails. 

Tomorrow is another lunchtime speaker. It's on the agenda as 'special guest'. Not sure what that means, but it seems to mean that HKS doesn't want to advertise the fact that high profile guests will join us at lunch. So more tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the surprise!

Ok, time for bed. I took about thirty minutes tonight to watch some mindless television and do some reading for pleasure. I took care of tomorrow's readings this morning ;)

Jeff