Janine Dowding, Regional Commissioner for Social Development, Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast, Ministry of Social Development has begun her LDC 2014 Fellowship and is participating in the Harvard Business School's Leading change and organizational renewal programme. After, she will visit several organisations in the United States to find out at first hand from their leaders about the challenges, successes and pitfalls experienced through big-change programmes.
This is the first of my blogs and is being written on the evening after the first day of the Leading Organisational Change and Renewal programme at Harvard Business School... more about that later.
It is the end of day three of the programme and so far it has been very stimulating. A typical day in class starts at 8.30am and finishes at 4.15pm. We then meet in work groups until 6.00pm, have dinner and prepare for the class the following day by revisiting the readings.
[image class="left" alt="Blog 3 image" src="/assets/Uploads/37afd1d09b/Blog-3-image.jpg" width="200" height="191" id="1131"]Tomorrow is the last day of the Harvard programme and I can honestly say it has had a profound impact on me. I have learnt so much that it is all a bit of a blur! Fortunately though, I have access to it all electronically and it is my personal challenge to keep revisiting it until such time that it is fully absorbed.
The programme ended yesterday with an unexpected visit from one of the very high powered characters from the case study of the day. She made an enormous impression and it was such a luxury for the class to ask her direct questions about her experience of leading change in the face of enormous cultural barriers.
Sure enough it snowed yesterday but fortunately not enough to close businesses. The photo below was taken from the Pact office where everyone thought I was mad to be enjoying it.
This update comes from the Washington DC Dulles Airport while I wait for my flight to San Francisco.
Well San Francisco has not been quite what I hoped for. Firstly, the weather has been appalling, cold, rain and frequent thunder storms. Secondly, my first visit was cancelled at the last minute due to a family emergency. On the upside, I have had a lot of time to work through the programme material, transfer my handwritten notes to my iPad and think about how I can make good use of the information I have in terms of recommendations.
By the time you read this I should be back in NZ. Since my last update I have been to Kiwi Landing Pad, Google, and I have seen a little more of San Francisco (today being Saturday).