Building Powerful Arguments - use a Knight in Shining Armour

I know (from bitter personal experience) that at times whilst studying for an MBA qualification you would love for a knight in shining armour to come to your rescue, slay your dragons and allow the situation to move on to the happy ever after scene.  This is a rather light hearted post that uses the knight/armour/fighting metaphor

Writers block.  Stress.  Can't understand how to write a 'good' paper. 

However you describe it, I fully imagine that we all face/have faced this kind of situation at some point.  Thankfully we have fellow course mates and family members to help, but I thought the following advice might be useful ? 


I would like to put forward a visual metaphor I learnt from a fabulous ex-colleague Jo Donachie, a gifted and patient study skills specialist.  I do not claim for this idea to be an original, but with a bit of my own creative story embellishment I have found this to be a highly effective way to communicate a tricky concept that causes much frustration.

First of, and bluntly delivered the shortened version:

Step 1:

 

"I don't care what you think." 

 

Step 2:

"Imagine yourself naked."

 

Step 3:

"Use the published words of others as armour, and go into battle with no gaps showing"

Now that I have got your attention, I can explain each of this steps in a little more detail.  And, before you ask, there are no plans for a short TV Series titled "The Naked Academic."

Step 1: Attention grabbing head line "I don't care what you think !"

The harsh reality is little or no credit is given to the personal opinions of students.  What is expected is hard evidence in the form of data, quotes and paraphrased ideas identified using Harvard in text referencing (every idea, each one).  This rich content (gleaned from hours of careful searching in the library and using e-journal search engines) is then carefully constructed into an objective consideration of the facts.  The use of the third person clearly helps establish that this is not a personal opinion.  The choice of content, the extent to which various aspects are covered, of course, can give a piece of writing a sense of the writers own perspective.  However, the exclusion or over looking of leading ideas and concepts might be considered as either poor scholarship or deliberate bias.

Billy Buff

Step 2: Shocking comment "Imagine yourself naked"

Clearly some care is taken in delivering this line.  It can be softened, if offence might be caused, by talking about imagining someone else naked, yours truly excepted.  Then the task is to carefully identify a variety of different shaped pieces of armour to cover the naked body.  In this metaphor, each piece of armour is considered to be the words of  expert opinion, dutifully referenced. 

Stay with this - it comes good in the end !

Final Step 3: The message wrap "Use the published words of others as armour, and go into battle with no gaps showing"

Each suit of armour is different to fit its rightful owner, but shares a common pattern of construction and constituents, aping the introduction, argument threads and conclusion seen in a strong essay. 

The fit should be tight, with no gaps, lest a stray arrow defeat the brave knight.  No excess armour should be carried, as getting stuck in the mud and being picked off by nimble foot soldiers is a poor ending.  Write concisely, avoid over emphasising one area, at the cost of killer blows elsewhere. Rather, have glorious memories of thrust and counter thrust of incisive analytical blows that legends are made from.  [Don't waste words on descriptive 'mud', concentrate on the exciting fighting/analysis]

Eurovision null points for artistic capability

As the broad sword can be countered by a shield, both sides of an argument should be considered and the armour carefully fitted together as a coherent body, each individual part having its own important role to play, yet still adding to the whole.

At this point there is often lots of head nodding and the story is all but done, without the need for further explanation or clarification.  Just sufficient time to pepper our iron clad pupil with pre-battle bullets (but my brilliant history colleague Professor Justin Champion would say "Didn't they come later ?");

* Published expert opinion, not lecture notes (they aren't published).  

* Not usually web sites, unless they can be identified as authoritative. 

Sir Royal Holloway of Egham perchance ?

 

Go forth brave Scholarly Knight of Harvard and fight the good fight !

For further help on writing for academic purposes take a look at previous postings in the zone May-July 2012.  E.g. Lovely Literature Review

What's in a name ?

What's in a name ?

As a life long student of marketing, I am always looking out for creative examples to capture and be used to engage a future group of like minded students.  My wife despairs of me at times, because out of nowhere, she will have lost me as I have stopped dead and quickly look to whip out my camera and capture the memory of an inspiring vignette for a yet to be determined class.  (It has got better - I used to teach lots of aviation related topics, including a module on airport terminal design, and this meant arriving an hour early at each airport, not to avoid traffic delays and the stress of rushing to the airport, but so that I could explore the entire airport more completely and pick up as many brochures and leaflets as I could find.)

Recently I have captured a number of images of products or companies that I feel are particularly clever names.  This idea of "Doing exactly what it says on the tin" is one what has been rather relentlessly used by a certain varnish/coatings brand (Ronseal), to an extent that this phraseology has entered the common UK vernacular.   Rather annoyingly for Ronseal, their brand name is often the omitted element.  Take a look at an example (above) of their straight forward approach to advertising, one of many advertising executions that have a certain appeal.  Lasting too, just like it says on the tin ! 

We moved house recently and rather reluctantly I agreed to the buying of a new mattress for our bed.  I was particularly grumpy about the whole exercise until after we had secured the (rather heavy) item on its iron frame.  My face lit up the moment I spotted the manufacturers label.  Instantly, it evoked a powerful, highly memorable, fairy tale of old. But, at the same time, in line with effective advertising approaches, a single minded proposition that suggested that the huge expense was going to be worthwhile, years of comfortable sleeping lay ahead. 

And sure enough, the mattress is very comfortable.  Unfortunately for me, it is so firm and straight,    -all-the-way-to-the-edges-, that my duvet keeps dropping off the bed in the middle of the night.  Sublimely comfortable, but cold.



PDFprint@btclick.com strikingly obvious service offer !

On my way back from a days meetings in Bloomsbury, where the University of London offices are, my eye was attracted to a bold, large and particularly prominent sign. 

PDFprint@btclick.com is the only visible sign in this central London print shop, drawing more attention to the sign using clean white font on bright red background. Perhaps the outlet was limited by planning regulations from putting this sign on the outside or windows.  Apologies for the poor photo (I was on the run, with only my camera phone to hand).  I particularly liked this banner, as it clearly explains what you have to do within the confines of an email address.  You need to send PDF (not word or any other text file format, to this email address and this print shop will have it done for you...)  Why pdf ? I guess to ensure that the spacing and pagination is not altered in any way.  It is a shame that the strategic branding team at valiant UK champion of airline deregulation British Midland, in its final years re-branded as bmi (all lower case), did not think about their naming conventions more carefully.  When they wanted to give birth to a baby (a popular strategic notion in the 1990's and noughties) and repackage their predominantly price sensitive, leisure oriented UK regional flying they called it bmibaby.com.  Warning: the Google search for be-my-baby is remarkably similar, and not to be undertaken using a company owned computer. 

"Can I have a pint of T.E.A please ?"

I recently attended a stag (noram: bachelor) party that saw an illustrious gang of fine, middle aged men take a slow walk around a local Surrey brewery, whilst sporting Hawai'ian T-shirts and traditional lei garlands.  T.E.A (Traditional English Ale) from Hogs Back Brewery is a very clever name, a gag that sees public house patrons order "a pint of tea, please", a talking point that will no doubt make the brand more memorable. The clever visualisation of the brewery on the ridge of a male pig another pun.  More anon on this particular pet project I promise. 

I try always to bring in a sense of my work place into these blog postings.  My own Alma Mater, Warwick University, benefits from a bit of creative naming.  With part of the campus in Coventry (the closest city) and part in Warwickshire, the foresighted decision makers went with Warwick University (pronounced Warrick, not War-wick).  With a pounding from German bombers in WWII and an economy reliant on manufacturing, Coventry did not have a great reputation in the twentieth Century.  I imagine still today, as my undergraduate days, each September new students pitch up to Warwick train station and find themselves some 10 miles from the prestigious university's campus. 

Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) is the trading name of a much longer legal entity (so long I don't dare try to write it out fully, lest I get it wrong) that evolved after the merger of UK's first and second higher education institutions that were open to women.  Most of the central London property that came with Bedford College was sold and the funds used to build luxurious student halls of residence that boast bright airy communal kitchen spaces and individual rooms with their own toilets.  The remaining central London footprint enables meaningful use of the umbrella 'University of London' (as most students study at the Egham campus, set in the leafy, Surrey suburbs a short train journey from central London) which has a strong brand resonance globally.  The 'Royal' title comes from the association with Queen Victoria, who opened the College and is recognised with a large, white marble statue in the northern quad of the signature Founders building.  'Holloway' is the last name of Thomas and Jane, the childless benefactors on whose fortune the College is founded.  I like to think of 'RHUL' as being multi-faceted, that helps establish a strong, vibrant brand for our College community. 

Effective Academic Writing

Many of the Royal Holloway MBA programme, actually most candidates, have not studied under the UK university system before starting their studies.  One source of anxiety is always around meeting the expected academic writing style. 

Edited below are a few bits of advice I share with students. 

Harvard Referencing

It is often called the (Author, Year) method, where the author's last name is used in text and page number only if a quotation is used.  After the first instance it is acceptable to use the Latin 'et al' after the first author's name in text for succinctness. Every new idea is expected to be referenced to its original source.  Students are encourage to read academic journals to experience this writing style.

Bibliographies (at the back of a paper) should not include bullet points or number lists, and be sorted by Author's last name from A to Z.    You list only the sources you have read yourself and use 'op cite' if it pertains to older work in a newer text.  Note: class lectures are not usually recognised as published sources.   Full guidance is provided in the student handbook, but it is surprisingly often forgotten about in the pressure of an assignment deadline. 

Attention to detail

Think about walking into an interview - what impression does your first glance make - do you leave toothpaste on the side of your mouth and a bit of toast hanging off your beard ? Presentation is very important, more so in the early pages when key impressions are being formed.   A good UK spell checker helps ensure that words are accurately spelt - but it is important to proof read all assessed work, spell checker does not pick up wrong words and poor sentence structure. 

Too much description detail and a lack of analysis

New and returning students have a tendency to be overly descriptive and miss out on critical analysis.  Many students like to start with a general 'background' paragraph, which eats word count and generally does not earn marks.   At MBA level, descriptive content (re-working of ideas already presented) carries little or no credit (however well written). Critical analysis is expected.

A great starting paragraph explains the SET question and provides clear sign posting on the structure of the paper that follows. This can be concise. Students get poor marks sometimes because they do not really refer to the question at all, others decide to re-write the question into something different. There are zero marks for beautifully answering a different question.

Points for top enders

Fully understanding how to reference effectively, craft powerful arguments using published expert opinions and weigh opinions effectively using an academic tone is the academic writing challenge.      The very best way to develop a strong writing style is to read (you read for a degree !) widely across a variety of academic sources (text books and e-journals - accessed via EBSCO, Emerald and Science Direct).   Students can access our impressive range of e-resources on their own computers from listerally anywhere in the world (with an internet connection).  For the past couple of years Royal Holloway MBA candidates have benefited from a personal Economist subscription, which is also a great source of analytical writing, even if it does have a strong, right leaning political agenda.

Note from the Editor

Extra care was taken in seeking to minimise spelling errors and ensuring the text reads well, given the nature of the post !  As a touch typer with a can do agenda, spelling and grammatical conventions have never been a personal strength and I always took great care in proof reading all of my own University assignments.

More Nuts ? or More Caramel ?

More Nuts ?  or More Caramel ?

I found myself in B2B marketing a couple of weeks ago identifying the price (and product) taker position for most customers in the B2C context, which is often different in a B2B context where some proposition tailoring or development might reasonably be considered on both buyers and suppliers.

One of my favourite brands, McDonald's, came to mind to as an example.  Whether you love the gherkin or not, I doubt very much if you will get McDonald's to leave out the spicy green slither of pickled vitamins.  When you work with groups of truly global students it is always helpful to have a range of familiar global brands to use when you want to invite students to draw on their own experience.

As a truly global traveller (I have visited McDonald's in more than 45 countries worldwide) I know that Mickey D's offers a pretty similar (but not identical) short order menu everywhere.  Okay - strictly speaking Burger King did promote a customisable burger experience (along with flame grilled burgers and toasted buns) with a tag line along the lines of "Have it Your Way" allowing choice of ketchup and onions.  Fortunately, this didn't come up.

Randomly I then picked on a Snickers and suggested it would not be reasonable to ask a confectonary retailer to increase the amount of nuts in the bar, nor change the mix of fluffy mallow and chewy caramel. 

Imagine my surprise and quite frankly speaking, embarassment, when a week later I noticed strange labels on my favourite chocolate bar.  What's this I thought ?  More Caramel, More Nuts ?  Limited Edition. 

Does 'Limited Edition' engender a sense of urgency "buy me now or regret it forever" ?

Clearly following the current trend (possibly initiated in UK by Walkers crisps) for engaging consumers and putting out new product development into production, allowing consumers themselves to influence the final decision. 

Clever, thought I.  (I'm going as an oversized Yoda in an authentic Jedi dressing gown to a fancy dress party soon, needing to adopt his sentence structures, am I).  They can assess the produce sales speed and figure out if consumers prefer a mixture that has more of either of the key ingredients.  But, engaging my logistics/supply chain management MBA learning, it soon dawned on me this was going to be less clear.  Assuming even numbers of product delivery and identical point of sale display might see the more popular item put on reorder and result in sales demand pulling through the more popular product (our B2B Marketing class voted for more Nuts, I was up for more caramel with a sizeable minority).  However there are a number of potential pitfalls in this methodology.  What if consumers preferred the (not available) original formulation ?  What if  (as happened in our College shop - packed full of sweets and very popular with students) most popular option sold out, and the reorder didn't happen until the rest of the stock was also sold ?  Or worse still - what if boxes were put on special offer (2 for 90p) down the back and withdrawn from the regular point of sale. 

Being different - not an obvious brand attribute ?

Indeed, the samples I bought for inclass consumption were found nestling with the current Kit Kat promotion - four flavours, the strongest consumer vote sees it reach mainstream production (if only for a limited period).  This heavily promoted TV advertising campaign seeks to encourage consumers and fans to vote using Facebook.  Rather than tapping into actual consumer behaviour (n.b. issues with Snickers research methods) they are looking to engage the market and express their feelings towards the brand and register their attitudinal preferences.  Of course, facebook can enable a 'fair' vote (one person, one vote) except we know that professional bloggers and alike have been known to have multiple online personalities.  And of course, a single vote does not allow for differentiation by numbers of servings - surely it is important to consider the views of heavy buyers more that those of infrequent consumers.  It is dissertation proposal deadline tomorrow, I've clearly been far to focussed in critiquing possible methodologies.

Obviously Mint is in there as a decoy - the only time chocolate should be consumed with mint is after a very good dinner party and a glass or two of wine.  The idea of Chocolate fudge again is a bit of a personal no-no.  Anyone born outside the world of Cadburys "chocolate flavoured coating" as the EU requires the labelling of our high fat, low on cocoa formulation will question just how much dust from the coca bean is present.  "Yum, yum ! - cardboard and brown dust."  So the choice is clearly Coconut (unusual) or Hazelnut.  I went Coconut & it was ok - but not amazing.

Wasabi: zingy horseradish taste similar to chilli chocolate

Kit Kat have done this kind of democratic, virtual-and-digital market engagement before I'm told, with peanut butter winning out.  It's clever, it appears to work. I'm not sure it really is about creating new product formulations or clever brand extensions, merely putting in place a change for a while.  But I wonder at what point will these kinds of actions just become just random noise and lack traction ?  

Personally I prefer the Japanese duty free specials, four fingers (not the chunky) in a boxed set - Sakura or my most favourite - the green coloured, wasabi flavoured Kit Kat.  (pictured above right).

At this point, I've come to my senses and recognised that I've entered marketing geek territory and time to get stuck into something else. 

"Don't post a silly picture of me on Linked-In, I'll never get a job !"

MBA 2011/12 Graduation

 

I must say I was slighty sceptical about the re-introduction of winter graduations for post graduate students.  The thought of driving rain and freezing temperatures and not putting the extravagant Picture Gallery and Chapel centre stage as the location made me have some serious reservations.

 

Gone.  Totally dispelled.  And as our head of school is often keen on impressing, "evidence based decision making is key ! ".  Resulting on the relatively short gap since Royal Holloway MBA students have submitted their dissertations (end of August) there was an impressive 60% attendance at the ceremony today.  With a surprising number flying in especially for graduation, this made for a fantastic group who seemed to have a really fun time together.



Royal Holloway 2011/12 MBA cohort.  Picture: Sigrun M Wagner

The ceremony was described as appropriately formal and smoothly run.  No scrimping on style for the big celebration of successful learning journeys completed.  Trumpetted by bearskin soldiers in their immaculate uniforms the College Principal reinforced the quality of their masters degree, reminding us that Royal Holloway placed 119th out of 6,000 in a recent evaluation of the worlds best universities.  The graduation ceremonies at Royal Holloway (I've done several now as you might imagine) deliver all the right ingredients in just the right measures, pomp, purpose, and lots of preened photo opportunities, using the stunning Founders building as a back drop. 

 

This years MBA cohort achieved particularly strong results with 3 distinctions (70%+) and 10 merits (60%+) and were the first ever group to have undertaken a week long international study visit (in conjunction with our partner business school institution at Stockholm University).  They were also recognised for the ground breaking off campus business consultancy engagement that was undertaken with senior management from Thorpe Park, one of the 93 business units that comprises the Merlin Group, second only to Disney in the amusements sector.

 

After all the formality in the Monkeys Forehead (a favourite with students each and every year) the MBA group, packed full of happy, smiling faces, were celebrating their achievements, with a chance to let their hair down a bit and to plan their next reunion !

 

In the pub, Amir's plea to those taking photos "Please don't post a silly picture of me on Linked-In, I'll never get a job if you do !"  personally, I think it's ok to celebrate the achievement of an MBA....

 

10 Top Tips for effective group working - Start with a party ?

Justin O'Brien says "Start with a party: One of the best ways to fast track your high performance team."  Royal Holloway MBA 2012 members comparing notes over a traditional pint.

"

(1) Texting is not communicating.  It’s cheap, it’s easy.  Low cost suggests limited effort, easy suggests unimportant.  Email can be similar.   Use difficult to avoid communication approaches (a) short telephone calls (not to voice mail) and even better (b) in person meetings as this is the best way to gauge all the non-verbal communication messages that indicate distress/unhappiness/problems/lack of interest. 

If you are angry or frustrated at poorly perceived performance – put it into words and talk it through.  Do you think that shouting at someone along the lines of “where is your input ?” is going to result in anything but a mouthful of abuse and or defensive behaviours.  Remember, often in txt (sic) language across cultures and email the rich two way exchange of communication is lost.

(2) Group work is not easy.  On a per word per student basis often the volume of output is less.  Ever wondered why ?  Because it is expected that setting up a group, learning each others strengths and weaknesses, planning and co-ordinating inputs takes time and effort.  To treat a group assignment as merely a piece of work you split into four (or however big your group is) individual elements that are neatly zipped together at the end, requiring little or no collaboration is entirely missing the point.    If this was the desired way of working it would be described as something like “zipped together individual work”.  It shows to the marker and gets scored down accordingly.

(3) Harness the creative, variety of skills within your group.  It is often easier to work in a group where everyone is like you – you are easily deluded into feeling that because your group is like minded that you are able to go further, faster.  Whilst this might appear to ‘successful’ there is interesting research that suggests that heterogeneous group make up can lead to more innovative (& therefore successful) outcomes.  The trick of course is to put in place mechanisms to ensure the variety of talents are identified within the group and carefully managed together.  And if Billy and Jo really don’t get on – why not construct a process that facilitates this.  Elton John, the legendary British performer never worked in the same room as co-creative Bernie Talpin – it just didn’t work – but they churned out hit after hit for several decades, with Elton putting the words to Bernis tunes. 

(4) Groups really should Form, Storm, Norm, Perform – Tuckman’s theory (undertaken in a mental health institution) that suggests a natural journey that sees groups struggle (Storm phase) before understanding how to work together, norming – which might include a list of principles or rules to ensure harmonious working ensues (Performing).

(5) Define success.  Often in a student group many are going for top marks, whilst others are happy to get a solid 55%.  Understanding this may see more appropriate skills and motivational matching of group work.  You don’t all have to do 25% (for groups of 4) – matching skill sets and particularly motivation appropriately can be very important.  Not everyone is comfortable writing complex prose – but equally, not everyone is great at making a group work and ensuring the group is working well.  Perhaps it is entirely fair and equitable for a ‘just pass’ / low motivation student to do a bit less, or take a less crucial role at the front end of the process.

(6) Identify the different roles required in the group – understand everyone’s natural group working style.  Remember too many cooks spoil the broth – sometimes great leaders know how to follow.  Developing your own personal skill set and capability awareness can come from asking others for feedback – “How can I improve ?”  “Could I have handled that better ?”  (Developmental feedback when you have messed up does not thrust itself upon you).  Businessballs.com is a useful web resource for team building exercises and a variety of practical management and leadership tools.  You may find personal awareness/style insight tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Belbin useful in these kinds of situations. 

(7) Give each other feedback regularly.  The feedback sandwich (start and finish on positive/appreciative feedback, fill the sandwich with developmental comments) can help you earn the right to make suggestions for improved performance by winning the trust of group members by complementing and appreciating good performance.  Catching people doing it right is a positive motivational technique – we all like to be told we are doing well and valued.  Make a habit of making positive appraisals of fellow group members performances – they notice when it isn’t there and will want to know why.  Having someone seek out developmental feedback from you is ideal – as they will want to listen to what you have to say.  Machine gunning negative feedback just sees everyone take cover and wait until you have gone away. 

(8) Ask for feedback.

Creating a culture where 360 feedback (up, down and across an organisational hierarchy) can be very powerful.  Asking for feedback on your own performance can give you valuable insights into ‘blind spots’ weaknesses/failings you did not know about.  Quite often people are unaware of things they do that annoy or frustrate their peers and it can be things that are easy to change.  Knowing about your own weaknesses helps develop a strong sense of self-awareness – a question that is very likely to be put to you in every interview you sit. 

(9) Plan. Plan. Plan. 

Assignments often seem to behave like London buses – you wait around a long time to catch one and then three of them turn up all at once – and you just wanted the one !!  The stress caused by poor time management is particularly noticeable in the School of Management during busy end of term hand in events.  Remember a basic law of science, “Your capacity to undertake high quality work does not (usually) increase the closer you are to an assignment deadline.”  To be honest, unless you are super human, with stress and anxiety, your effective productivity will decline.  The best way to focus on a project is to have one project – so why not slice your time into three periods and plan to work on projects back to back – rather than spreading yourself thinly across multiple projects.  The focus should concentrate your efforts and ensure more satisfactory outcomes. 

Work out a time plan, put in a contingency (someone is going to be sick, your hard drive will fail) and work to your own completion deadline – not 1400 in the Moore Building foyer.

(10) Start with a party.  Group work should be fun, start out as you want to – enjoying your work will ensure you put your best in and hopefully so do others.  Play spin the bottle in Medicine, a game of badminton or  go on a tourist trip into London are just three ways a group can spend time together and fast track towards effective team working.  (Businessballs.com has more ideas).  Understanding what makes your team members tick, knowing what else is going on in their lives (getting married, family problems, health issues, relationship issues) really helps understand how to handle unplanned situations.  You never know – you become good friends and enjoy future interactions. 

Why study for the Royal Holloway MBA ?

Royal Holloway MBA 2011/12 students at the end of their programme talking frankly about why they wanted to study for the MBA. 

Reasons to study for an MBA ?

Why study for an MBA ? 

As academic Director for the prestigious Royal Holloway MBA this is a question I get asked quite a lot.  Glass ceiling ?  Change of direction ?  Broadening in preparation for a C-suite role ?

High Flyer ?

The School of Managements dedicated MBA careers advisor asked the MBA group exactly this question "Why study for an MBA ?" and this is what he got in response, graphically displayed using the highly visual www.wordle.net word cloud application.  The simple to use web tool strips out common words from a body of text and displays duplicated words in proportion to the number of mentions, essentially the more mentions, the larger the word.

The careers advisor team was awarded a rare teaching, recognising the Royal Holloway careers team innovation of designing and delivering a day long assessment centre experience for 200 post graduate students which saw MBA students role play recruiting line managers in a very realistic range of selection exercises that included a one-to-one interview and group discussion exercise.

Why study for an MBA ? Happiness, personal growth & thinking differently

Analysis of the MBA cohorts feedback on why they had chosen to to study for an MBA was summarised thus:

• Desire to buy into the MBA brand

• Learning theory from experts

• Worried about reaching the glass ceiling in their corporation – wanting the keys to the Exec toilets

• Build credibility· Share an international collective learning experience

• Seeking a return on investment – salaries in some countries can triple if you have a MBA

• Change of lifestyle / career break

• Set up a new business

• Making new friends & learning about new cultures

•  Career development, industry exposure & networking

• Personal growth & happiness

• Making a difference

• Turning dreams into reality

•  Learn leadership and management skills

• Learning to think differently

Campus updates - new academic year

Summer seems to have just blown by.  The Long Grass of summer did not seem to arrive this year, for a variety of reasons.  I describe this notion of long, sunny days with few deadlines and lots of freedom to undertake those not urgent, not important items that always seem to be left untouched on the to do or action list, despite being 'worthy'.

My summer starts after the MBA International Management/ MSc International Management Distance Learning plenary session has taken place at the Royal Holloway, University of London campus in Egham.  So why did summer pass so quickly ?  On campus we had an exceptionally strong year with post graduate students and this saw me supervise double my usual number.  We had weeks and weeks of rain and cool weather, so spring in Jun and July rather than hot and balmy, but fortunately this was resolved (thanks to the excellent planning and management provided by Lord Coe and the London 2012 Olympic team) and we have a great buzz about the place over the Olympic periods.  Surprising to see so many (often stereotyped as grumpy, aloof, uncommunicative) English people volunteering to support the games.  70,000 or so I vaguely remember, successful evidence of a great Cameron government "initiative" to boost our under funded public services.  Umm. 

Rhossili Bay, Gower Peninsula, South Wales

The genuinely warm and effusive greeting provided to Olympic visitors was surprisingly amazing, and will have done British Tourism a big favour, as even I was impressed and felt welcomed.  So just at the point of getting used to the sun, being outside and having a good feeling for outdoor dining, September was upon us and my children had to return to school.  We moved house and managed to get a few days by the sea in beautiful (but a bit too cloudy and rainy) Gower peninsula in Wales, and as I write I am surrounded with unpacked boxes, full of stuff I probably don't need and we definitely have no where left to put it.  Wham ! Bam  ! - summer over, nearly before it started. 

I have now spent a couple of days back on campus (dissertation marking return, a hernia inducing pile) and have been delighted to find out that the Green Mermaid has made her way onto our hallowed turf.  Many of my colleagues find fault with Starbucks, but unfortunately I love successful global brands - I want to know why they are - and the standard Starbucks coffee is a flavour I love.  Expect to see me more often at Cafe Jules in the International Building over the coming term....

The old boiler house (at one point under consideration for an MBA dedicated facility) boasts a new glass atrium roof, I think it might be an exciting new drama space.  And lastly, in what might be a scam cost saving activity from poor old Royal Mail (you'll notice now that many of what should be bright red post boxes are rather faded and past their best), we have a golden post box.  To mark our involvement (Royal Holloway was voted the friendliest Olympic village) and the success of many of the rowing and paddling competitors that used our facilities we have been allowed to paint our post box gold. 

In case you are unfamiliar with the UK post box design, this one betrays its age showing GR under the crown (George Rex - Latin I think for George King).  Post boxes installed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952 - 60 years ago) will show ER (Elizabeth Regina - Queen), George VI was the present Queens father. Given the rise of the internet and competitor courier services, I wonder how long the British innovation (universal pre-paid delivery service) will continue ?

It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it !

Justin's beloved VW Beetle

A story I heard on the radio inspired me to write this short piece on academic writing style.  The story was of a middle aged, professional man who had hired a white van to help his mother move.  Dressed in suitably casual clothes he parked up his hired white van on the forecourt of a Jaguar dealership to pick up a brochure for a new model.  Whilst flicking through the brochure an attentive sales person walked over to him and told him it was ok to look at the brochure, but that he should not take it away with him.  Bitter sweet revenge was enacted on the dealership when a few weeks later the white van man returned in his brand new £65,000 Jaguar to explain that the poor customer service he had received had seen him buy his new car from another dealership.  (BBC Five Live, 7 Dec 2010)

Would you try to sell this man a Jaguar ?

Clearly a marketing lesson in not judging a book by its cover and to avoid using stereotypes in a customer service environment. 

Three tips for effective academic writing:

(1) Whilst content is king, style is also very important.  Referencing accurately and using an appropriate academic writing style pays dividends in assessments.  Present your work pristine and polished, not a rough diamond.

(2) Make yourself aware of what is expected before the pressure of deadlines overwhelms you.  Below are a number of writing style guides that you will find useful.  Print out some of the pages for future reference.

(3)  Read text books and academic journals to pick up the tone and feel of academic writing, over time you will bring this style and its vocabulary into your own way of writing.  Emerald, Science Direct and Business Source Complete (Ebsco) are online search engines to access a wide range of material, click 'peer reviewed' and 'full text' options where you can.  I award top marks for work that includes content from here. 

Royal Literary Fund

http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/essayguide.cfm

Edinburgh Napier University

http://www2.napier.ac.uk/gus/writing_presenting/academic.html

Birmingham City University

http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.20.htm

Harvard referencing guide from Sheffield University

http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/essayguide.cfm

Getting the most out of induction week ?

Induction week can seem a bit of a breeze, with limited contact time and many sessions involving registration and fee payment and the inevitable queuing to achieve all this.  Interactions with other new students can appear too brief, and as experienced masters students it somehow does not feel the same as it did when you were a young, spritely (and probably quite inexperienced) 18 or 19 year old leaving home for the first time.  It is not the crazy excitement of undergraduate freshers week (although the campus is buzzing with this vibe), post graduates tend to be more focused on the concentrated period of time they  have to study for their masters degree. 

The Royal Holloway MBA programme expects students to hit the ground running, having made use of the long grass of the summer holidays to crack on with some of the extenisve pre-reading (see earlier entry in this blog).  The focus is very much on networking within the group or cohort as we like to term groups of students following the same study programme, thus activities are a blend of introductory sessions and team building exercises.

Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs is a popular with MBA candidates

The approach taken by Royal Holloway sees post graduate students expected to take full advantage of the guidance on rules and regulations and expectations that are flagged during intensive sessions.  Students are expected to fully familiarise themselves with the various guides and rules materials that are hosted on the Post Graduate Information Vault (google 'rhul pg info vault' to find this).  Teaching staff do not take kindly to questions pertaining to this basic level of information.

Sporting activities crucial

The induction week provides MBA candidates with the opportunity to assess their peers.  With around 30 in each class, the full time MBA programme is an ideal size, small enough to allow everyone to know each other, big enough to provide depth and bredth of experience and a wide range of personalities and skill sets.

MBA candidates often join one or two of the wide range of on campus student societies, noting that getting an appropriate study, relax, and sporting mix is crucial.   Physical activities to get out and about off campus are often great ways to help fast track team development. 

On the distance learning version of this programme much of the familiarisation takes place at an individual level, students get the chance at the end June/early July during the Introductory Plenary 1 session to personally meet with fellow students and faculty members.  

Six tips to prepare for an effective induction week

(1) Wear your name badge all week, and ideally into week 2 and 3.

(2) Smile and introduce yourself to as many people as you can.  Everyone around you is in the same situation and probably keen to make new friends.  Target 10 or more people each day.  One or two of these contacts may become life long friends....

(3) Practice a one sentence and one minute introduction.  Look to include a combination of useful and memorable facts about yourself.  "Hello, I'm Justin.  I'm into marketing, in fact it was my passion for visiting McDonald's to understand it's global product offering during my travels with British Airways and my MBA that encouraged my career change into university lecturing."

(4) Try to identify people who share interests with you, sports, socialising, cultural pursuits and look to set up a couple of activities before the end of the first week.

(5) Use a nickname if others find your name is hard to pronounce or tricky to remember. 

(6) Try to avoid drifting into default friendships with same sex, same culture backgrounds.  The international experience offered at Royal Holloway, University of London is a fantastic opportunity to develop deep understandings of the many different cultures represented.