Dear all,
Last month I led with news of my collision with that deer on the way in to work. Several of you wrote back to report similar accidents, and one person shared some pictures from Greenland of having shot one. This feedback is added to various replies to the e-newsletter that I received during the year (all encouraging, I'm glad to say), so thank you.
Aside from it being very interesting to get reaction from you to the things I choose to write about, it is really fascinating to get a sense of the breadth and depth of the lives you all lead. If you are a typical Henley DL MBA programme member, this is your busiest decade so far - the one where you are really juggling many different adult roles, so it may be something of a miracle (what else, at this time of year?) that you are also taking yourselves on this learning and development journey.
This month's e-newsletter will contain only a few up-dates. There's a call to arms for recruiting the first Intake in 2007 and a special message from the Director of Studies, Professor Jane McKenzie. I'll preface that with Season's Greetings from the programme delivery team of myself, Susan Parr, Charlotte Ordish and Natalie Swadling as well, of course, as the team of Personal Tutors.
Intake 34
We would once again encourage you to think of contacts from your working lives who would benefit from the Henley MBA. You may simply wish to alert them to the programme, or you may want to ask us to get in touch with them directly. The College referral system means that if you give us a name and that person subsequently applies and is admitted, then you will receive a financial reward.
Professor McKenzie: Season’s Greetings to everyone!
"For many of us, this is the time of year when we take some time to enjoy the delights of friends and family, good food and some relaxation from the pressures of work. For Henley MBA students, unfortunately, I know it is often an opportunity to catch up with some studying too! Even though it was 23 years since I was working on my own MBA, I remember only too well, enjoying Christmas Day and Boxing Day and then going into seclusion until the New Year to write solidly for 10 hours a day just to finish my dissertation. It was hard to know everyone else was out enjoying themselves, while I had my nose to the grindstone. Yet, looking back I can honestly say, the returns now make the ‘pain’ then worthwhile. For me, the MBA opened the door to new opportunities in the job I was in and was the key to a career change and a flexible new lifestyle in a different country. Whatever stage you are in the MBA, I truly hope that all your hard work this year will bring the returns you are looking for in 2007.
As the year closes, my personal practice is to set aside a few hours to reflect on what I have achieved in the previous 12 months, and to think about what I might do better in the future. Try it! You’ll probably surprise yourself as to how much you have actually achieved in 2006, and how much you have learned. I find this exercise puts me in a positive frame of mind to think about the challenges for the coming year. For this I generally invest half a day to look forward, mind mapping the major commitments I have to fulfil, with some high level allocation of the time and resources I need to achieve them. I find that this process of capturing my intentions and capacities on one page, and linking them to what I have learned clears up any muddles in my mind and makes the demands seem more achievable. It also means I can keep both social, family and work priorities in mind, when deciding whether to take on any further commitments. Somehow I find this process reduces the dread that can be induced by a big workload and generates some excitement at the new horizons to explore. Year on year this simple activity builds into quite a documentary of your personal development journey. Even if you don’t fancy such a structured exercise, I would urge you to at least put all the workshop dates and key assignment deadlines in your diary and to make a New Year’s resolution to meet them all. If you have slipped against your schedule or are starting a new part with a different intake in 2007, do let us know if you need any further information to make your plans.
Two particularly important dates I am looking forward to in 2007 are the graduation ceremonies on 26th May and 27th October. I love celebrating with you the outcome of all your hard work. For anyone nearing completion, if you can your dissertations in urgently and we can get them marked quickly enough to go to the January Board of Studies, you might just make the May graduation. For those of you who don’t fancy my ‘strategy of seclusion’ in the Christmas period, then if you can get your dissertation in my April you could still graduate in October.
Whatever, your plans for 2007, I wish you every success with your studies. I’ll look forward to hearing the stories of your successes and challenges, either through your personal tutors, or from Chris and Sue, or by email."
Book Early for Workshops
Finally, I have been asked by the course administrators to appeal to you, when planning on attending workshops, to book early. This enables them to prepare the logistics and timings of your workshop more efficiently, and you all know that time spent here at the College is very precious.
Good news for non-smokers
From January, the College will be in compliance with new laws in England and Wales that will prohibit smoking in public spaces. There will be dsignated (outdoor) sheltered smoking areas in the College, but nowhere indoors. You will also be pleased to hear that new, lower tariffs will apply to accommodation in Paddock House from next year, when a single room will cost 65 pounds.
Ok, however you observe the end of the year, I look forward to seeing Intakes 28, 30, 32 and 33 at the College in January.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Tutors, tutors, everywhere
At the beginning of the week there was a two-day conference for tutors who will be involved in delivering the first stage of the new MBA curriculum from next year. It was an intensive and very useful event. Aside from the progress we made on many questions to do with programme delivery, management and design, I did notice two things:
1. Standing up in front of 102 tutors is a lot scarier prospect than talking to MBAs or managers. The way around this for me was to visualise the audience as MBAs.
2. For some reason, faculty enjoy asking questions on subjects that have nothing to do with them, thus often diverting the value of the session into an intellectual or procedural siding. :)
Am now looking forward to the Stage Two conference...
1. Standing up in front of 102 tutors is a lot scarier prospect than talking to MBAs or managers. The way around this for me was to visualise the audience as MBAs.
2. For some reason, faculty enjoy asking questions on subjects that have nothing to do with them, thus often diverting the value of the session into an intellectual or procedural siding. :)
Am now looking forward to the Stage Two conference...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Licensed to coach
Passed my coaching assignment, and the course, and am now eligible to join the posh-sounding Henley Register of Coaches.
Feels good to have completed something, and also something that I got a lot out of in terms of learning new things.
Feels good to have completed something, and also something that I got a lot out of in terms of learning new things.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Train of thought shunted
For some time now I have been mulling a question. Why do so many of those who start their studies via the distance learning mode not actually make it the whole distance and graduate?
Or perhaps the question could be, how does % that make it, make it?
Obviously, some don't make it because, despite trying, they fail to pass the minimum assessment criteria. But that is not actually a high number. One could argue that a lot of people fail to finish because of events in their lives outside their control. For some, this may be true, but don't the kinds of events most people experience in their 30s - births, deaths, moves, marriages, divorces, promotions and so on - happen equally as often to those who graduate as those who don't?
This leads me to speculate whether it is not the fact of things happening, but how people deal with them. That is not to say that the ecology of a person's situation isn't important, but it is also of their own making (largely), so I'm left with the question: what makes the difference between the MBA distance finisher and the drop-out?
This is only indirectly related to the Vrtual Tutor Course I am now a participant on. Well, perhaps I may discover that it is dirctly related, too. It is interesting to speculate whether tutors/facilitators can help people who would otherwise find themselves dropping out.
Or perhaps the question could be, how does % that make it, make it?
Obviously, some don't make it because, despite trying, they fail to pass the minimum assessment criteria. But that is not actually a high number. One could argue that a lot of people fail to finish because of events in their lives outside their control. For some, this may be true, but don't the kinds of events most people experience in their 30s - births, deaths, moves, marriages, divorces, promotions and so on - happen equally as often to those who graduate as those who don't?
This leads me to speculate whether it is not the fact of things happening, but how people deal with them. That is not to say that the ecology of a person's situation isn't important, but it is also of their own making (largely), so I'm left with the question: what makes the difference between the MBA distance finisher and the drop-out?
This is only indirectly related to the Vrtual Tutor Course I am now a participant on. Well, perhaps I may discover that it is dirctly related, too. It is interesting to speculate whether tutors/facilitators can help people who would otherwise find themselves dropping out.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
November e-Newsletter
Hello all,
The other morning I hit a deer while driving through the countryside to work. It really mucked up my day. According to Defra, there may are between 25 and 50,000 road traffic accidents involving deer each year in the UK. There are a lot of cars on the roads but since there are also apparently more deer roaming wild now than there were in medieval times, it is not at all surprising to find that accidents happen. Not surprising when they do, but still quite shocking.
If you will permit me to mangle an analogy, the distance learning MBA is bit like a long drive. You can plan your route, fuel your car, drive carefully and considerately, shout at the kids in the back, take rest breaks, but you also never know when something is going to step out in front of you and do some damage. Dealing, or not dealing, with the unexpected on the MBA is a major challenge and reinforces many of benefits of developing a strong support network within your intake. Keeping in touch with other Programme Members is probably the most effective way of maintaining motivation. Your Personal Tutor (your roadside assistance?) is another, and as reported in the last summer's annual questionnaire nearly 70% of you have used your personal tutor during your studies. In many cases, you may also be able to work with the College administration when things get tough. The worst thing to do, and the thing that feeds non-completion statistics, is to stay silent.
Here endeth the first lesson. This month's newsletter will have more news on assignment grades, an up-date on how the Optional Skills Workshop went, an appeal for more MBA interest in a project via Mike Griffith and news of a chance to join the Modular and Evening MBA students on the International Management Week study trips.
Henley-Based DL Assessment Statistics
Earlier in the year I shared with you the annual averages on grades for assignments and exams. Since figures are released at each of the quarterly Board of Examiners meetings, I thought I'd pass on the latest. It should make you feel better about your own progress by placing it in context.
In the third quarter of 2006, there were 163 Foundations of Management assignments marked. The mean grade was B-, and there were no fails. For Managing Information, there were 154 marked, mean mark was B and no fails. Managing People, 197 marked, B- and two fails. In the Part One exam, 167 people sat, the average mark was C and there were 6 fails. In the same period, 7 people resat this exam, and all of them passed, though the average was D+.
At Part Two, 142 Managing Marketing assignments were marked, with an average grade of B-, with one fail. 126 Managing Performance assignments produced an average mark of B, with again one fail. Managing Financial Resources had 141 assignments, average mark B and one fail. At the exam, the average from 130 people was C and four people failed. One person resat their Part Two exam, and passed. For the Project Management MBA, 13 sat the exam, two failed and the average grade was C. One Project Manager resat, and passed, their Part Two exam.
In Part Three, 138 ISPs were marked, average grade was B and none were failed. In the exam, 158 members sat, average grade was C+ and two failed. As for Dissertation, 138 were graded, average mark was B and four failed. The most popular elective in this period was Leadership, and of the 47 people who submitted the assignment, none failed. The average grade was B.
Optional Skills Workshop Weekend
We were able to run seven of the planned eight half-day sessions. I will be very interested to get the feedback from those who were there on both how effective individual sessions were, and also on the overall structure of using a weekend chunk in this way. Often the benefits of such events are not felt until some time later; things brought to light in a workshop suddenly begin to resonate in other areas of work or career, so I will be asking for thoughts in the New Year. One thing to know is whether this should be every six or every twelve months. A side benefit for many of those who were there was the chance to meet programme members from other Intakes, so I am keen to encourage this as well.
Appeal for help
Another opportunity has come up, via Mike Griffith, this time at short notice on behalf of a Senior Director in Cisco (Cisco is the global leader in internet network infrastructure and services) responsible for their Strategic Consulting Emerging Markets division. She needs someone to help research the critical success factors around transforming emerging countries in particular how telecommunications are enabling their unprecedented growth for one of the largest telecommunications conferences of the year ITU 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace Dec 4-7th in Hong KongShe has asked for help from an MBA student to help synthesise the key insights from research. She would then be very happy to work directly with them in helping preparing key messages in her speech at this conference. Assuming the work was of a high quality she would be very happy to provide a testimonial. Ideally she is looking for someone who has understands the issues and opportunities around the growth of emerging economies and has some experience in growing those markets through telecommunications. This is a great opportunity to effectively consult to a Senior Director at Cisco. If you are interested, please contact Mike
International Management Week
Places are available for DL and students on the Modular and Evening MBA international management visits in March 2007 to Budapest, Cape Town, Hong Kong and St Petersburg. These will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis (currently with fewest places available for Hong Kong).
Participation and assignment submission (with the exception of Project Management MBA) counts as an elective (International Business Environment), so is a great way of gaining experience and progression.
The aim of the study visit is to maximise the learning about:· The international business environment in general and secondly and more importantly,· The interface between the organisations visited and the national business environment they work inThe one week visit forms the foundation for this elective. While you are away you will participate in a variety of company visits and lectures by local faculty and managers. The companies to be visited have been chosen to provide a strategic window through which these two facets of the operating environment can be explored. The relevant environmental features that are being addressed include politics and economics; social, technological, legal, environmental and cultural factors and industry competition issues.
Detailed timetables for each destination will be available much nearer the time of departure, but if you would like to know more, please contact Marcia Doughty directly. Please note the charges are as follows: Budapest - £1600, St Petersburg - £1700, Cape Town & Hong Kong - £1900 and students also have to arrange their own flights and visas (if necessary).
I know from past experience of hosting the Budapest trips that they are intensive and very rewarding. I hope to be accompanying the group to Budapest and it would be great to have involvement from DL MBAs.
The other morning I hit a deer while driving through the countryside to work. It really mucked up my day. According to Defra, there may are between 25 and 50,000 road traffic accidents involving deer each year in the UK. There are a lot of cars on the roads but since there are also apparently more deer roaming wild now than there were in medieval times, it is not at all surprising to find that accidents happen. Not surprising when they do, but still quite shocking.
If you will permit me to mangle an analogy, the distance learning MBA is bit like a long drive. You can plan your route, fuel your car, drive carefully and considerately, shout at the kids in the back, take rest breaks, but you also never know when something is going to step out in front of you and do some damage. Dealing, or not dealing, with the unexpected on the MBA is a major challenge and reinforces many of benefits of developing a strong support network within your intake. Keeping in touch with other Programme Members is probably the most effective way of maintaining motivation. Your Personal Tutor (your roadside assistance?) is another, and as reported in the last summer's annual questionnaire nearly 70% of you have used your personal tutor during your studies. In many cases, you may also be able to work with the College administration when things get tough. The worst thing to do, and the thing that feeds non-completion statistics, is to stay silent.
Here endeth the first lesson. This month's newsletter will have more news on assignment grades, an up-date on how the Optional Skills Workshop went, an appeal for more MBA interest in a project via Mike Griffith and news of a chance to join the Modular and Evening MBA students on the International Management Week study trips.
Henley-Based DL Assessment Statistics
Earlier in the year I shared with you the annual averages on grades for assignments and exams. Since figures are released at each of the quarterly Board of Examiners meetings, I thought I'd pass on the latest. It should make you feel better about your own progress by placing it in context.
In the third quarter of 2006, there were 163 Foundations of Management assignments marked. The mean grade was B-, and there were no fails. For Managing Information, there were 154 marked, mean mark was B and no fails. Managing People, 197 marked, B- and two fails. In the Part One exam, 167 people sat, the average mark was C and there were 6 fails. In the same period, 7 people resat this exam, and all of them passed, though the average was D+.
At Part Two, 142 Managing Marketing assignments were marked, with an average grade of B-, with one fail. 126 Managing Performance assignments produced an average mark of B, with again one fail. Managing Financial Resources had 141 assignments, average mark B and one fail. At the exam, the average from 130 people was C and four people failed. One person resat their Part Two exam, and passed. For the Project Management MBA, 13 sat the exam, two failed and the average grade was C. One Project Manager resat, and passed, their Part Two exam.
In Part Three, 138 ISPs were marked, average grade was B and none were failed. In the exam, 158 members sat, average grade was C+ and two failed. As for Dissertation, 138 were graded, average mark was B and four failed. The most popular elective in this period was Leadership, and of the 47 people who submitted the assignment, none failed. The average grade was B.
Optional Skills Workshop Weekend
We were able to run seven of the planned eight half-day sessions. I will be very interested to get the feedback from those who were there on both how effective individual sessions were, and also on the overall structure of using a weekend chunk in this way. Often the benefits of such events are not felt until some time later; things brought to light in a workshop suddenly begin to resonate in other areas of work or career, so I will be asking for thoughts in the New Year. One thing to know is whether this should be every six or every twelve months. A side benefit for many of those who were there was the chance to meet programme members from other Intakes, so I am keen to encourage this as well.
Appeal for help
Another opportunity has come up, via Mike Griffith, this time at short notice on behalf of a Senior Director in Cisco (Cisco is the global leader in internet network infrastructure and services) responsible for their Strategic Consulting Emerging Markets division. She needs someone to help research the critical success factors around transforming emerging countries in particular how telecommunications are enabling their unprecedented growth for one of the largest telecommunications conferences of the year ITU 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace Dec 4-7th in Hong KongShe has asked for help from an MBA student to help synthesise the key insights from research. She would then be very happy to work directly with them in helping preparing key messages in her speech at this conference. Assuming the work was of a high quality she would be very happy to provide a testimonial. Ideally she is looking for someone who has understands the issues and opportunities around the growth of emerging economies and has some experience in growing those markets through telecommunications. This is a great opportunity to effectively consult to a Senior Director at Cisco. If you are interested, please contact Mike
International Management Week
Places are available for DL and students on the Modular and Evening MBA international management visits in March 2007 to Budapest, Cape Town, Hong Kong and St Petersburg. These will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis (currently with fewest places available for Hong Kong).
Participation and assignment submission (with the exception of Project Management MBA) counts as an elective (International Business Environment), so is a great way of gaining experience and progression.
The aim of the study visit is to maximise the learning about:· The international business environment in general and secondly and more importantly,· The interface between the organisations visited and the national business environment they work inThe one week visit forms the foundation for this elective. While you are away you will participate in a variety of company visits and lectures by local faculty and managers. The companies to be visited have been chosen to provide a strategic window through which these two facets of the operating environment can be explored. The relevant environmental features that are being addressed include politics and economics; social, technological, legal, environmental and cultural factors and industry competition issues.
Detailed timetables for each destination will be available much nearer the time of departure, but if you would like to know more, please contact Marcia Doughty directly. Please note the charges are as follows: Budapest - £1600, St Petersburg - £1700, Cape Town & Hong Kong - £1900 and students also have to arrange their own flights and visas (if necessary).
I know from past experience of hosting the Budapest trips that they are intensive and very rewarding. I hope to be accompanying the group to Budapest and it would be great to have involvement from DL MBAs.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Virtually Challenged
I am now into week two of the Henley Virtual Tutor Certificate course. I am one of about a dozen participants, several of whom are colleagues at Henley, so we have the slightly odd sensation of being on an online course, but sitting together at lunch...
It's already been quite an interesting experience. It's much more difficult to be active with a group of people that you don't really meet face to face, at the same time as managing your own reading and reflection of the material, at the same time as keeping to the deadlines of study, at the same time as working full time... I could go on.
The Wiki is going along. Only one other member has actually posted/edited anything, so that is quite interesting. There's no way of telling if any of the others currently eligible to take part have actually spent time on the site. Nevertheless, it is beginning to take shape, and part of its shape is based on comments of others.
This past weekend also was the Optional Skills Weekend for Distance Learning MBAs, with half-day workshops on various topics, such as Consultancy Skills, Resume Writing, Research Methods and NLP. It was quite well attended and I am keen to build on it, and tailor it to student needs more. I ran the Resume Writing session, and was aware that the Henley Coaching course was having an influence; rather than focus on the typical 'dos and don'ts' of CV, I was encouraging people to work on their career goals, research their intended reader and then start writing.
It's already been quite an interesting experience. It's much more difficult to be active with a group of people that you don't really meet face to face, at the same time as managing your own reading and reflection of the material, at the same time as keeping to the deadlines of study, at the same time as working full time... I could go on.
The Wiki is going along. Only one other member has actually posted/edited anything, so that is quite interesting. There's no way of telling if any of the others currently eligible to take part have actually spent time on the site. Nevertheless, it is beginning to take shape, and part of its shape is based on comments of others.
This past weekend also was the Optional Skills Weekend for Distance Learning MBAs, with half-day workshops on various topics, such as Consultancy Skills, Resume Writing, Research Methods and NLP. It was quite well attended and I am keen to build on it, and tailor it to student needs more. I ran the Resume Writing session, and was aware that the Henley Coaching course was having an influence; rather than focus on the typical 'dos and don'ts' of CV, I was encouraging people to work on their career goals, research their intended reader and then start writing.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Something Wiki this way comes
Today I have been in the process of setting up a Wiki. I hope that I've succeeded in the first part, which was to find a suitable site - one where access is restricted to invited members only.
Now all that remains is the hard second part, engaging with a small community of staff and faculty from Henley around the world to create a shared document. Watch this space (well, only if you're invited!)
Now all that remains is the hard second part, engaging with a small community of staff and faculty from Henley around the world to create a shared document. Watch this space (well, only if you're invited!)
Friday, November 10, 2006
Dem Bones, Dem Bones
The other evening we held a dinner at the College. It was open all the participants from the intake that should now be working on the final part of their MBA, the dissertation. This was actually the third such meal since I joined the College, and has become a regular 'extra' and a great way for people to connect with their classmates, tutors and staff.
About 20 people attend. The College Principal, Chris Bones, is very keen on these kind of meetings with stakeholders, and joined us in our private dining room, acting also as after-dinner speaker. Now Chris is both an experienced HR practitioner and practiced (one might say well-oiled, but would suggest the influence of alcohol, which was certainly not the case) speaker, so audiences enjoy listening to him. At this event, Chris started - as he usually does - by stating what for him makes Henley special and what are the things which we hold as being important in learning about management. A keen historian, this is very much grounded in the philosophy of Henley's founders. Chris also mentioned a number of more off-beat things, such as the management philosophy as contained in one of the Harry Potter books.
Chris normally stops somewhere there, perhaps with a rallying cry to work hard and finish in time to graduate. On this occasion, he carried on and began to take questions and that is when it got really interesting because you could begin to see the depth of his thinking and the breadth of his experience. What caught my interest was what I perceived to be the interaction from the students that drew out his knowledge, much of it in the form of anecdotes. One wonders whether a model could be developed to see if there is a good way to extract knowledge and experience in a more efficient way...
About 20 people attend. The College Principal, Chris Bones, is very keen on these kind of meetings with stakeholders, and joined us in our private dining room, acting also as after-dinner speaker. Now Chris is both an experienced HR practitioner and practiced (one might say well-oiled, but would suggest the influence of alcohol, which was certainly not the case) speaker, so audiences enjoy listening to him. At this event, Chris started - as he usually does - by stating what for him makes Henley special and what are the things which we hold as being important in learning about management. A keen historian, this is very much grounded in the philosophy of Henley's founders. Chris also mentioned a number of more off-beat things, such as the management philosophy as contained in one of the Harry Potter books.
Chris normally stops somewhere there, perhaps with a rallying cry to work hard and finish in time to graduate. On this occasion, he carried on and began to take questions and that is when it got really interesting because you could begin to see the depth of his thinking and the breadth of his experience. What caught my interest was what I perceived to be the interaction from the students that drew out his knowledge, much of it in the form of anecdotes. One wonders whether a model could be developed to see if there is a good way to extract knowledge and experience in a more efficient way...
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Who's in
Most mornings I like to walk in to the College via the main entrance. It's not the most direct route from the staff car park to my office, but I like to look at the board - just on the left as you go in - listing all the courses, programmes and companies in that day. Painstakingly arranged by hand the previous evening, it gives a sense of how busy it will be that day, but I enjoy it more for the more exciting range of activity and visitors the College hosts.
Today's, for example, had the usual suspects, a distance learning Intake and a company MBA, as well as some now familiar corporate clients, such as BaE Systems. What caught my eye, though, was the England and Wales Cricket Board. I don't know if this was a course arranged by us, or Henley simply hosting a meeting (as it often does, being where it is and looking as it does), but I enjoyed speculating the kinds of discussions they must be having. Let's hope they were all out before tea...
Today's, for example, had the usual suspects, a distance learning Intake and a company MBA, as well as some now familiar corporate clients, such as BaE Systems. What caught my eye, though, was the England and Wales Cricket Board. I don't know if this was a course arranged by us, or Henley simply hosting a meeting (as it often does, being where it is and looking as it does), but I enjoyed speculating the kinds of discussions they must be having. Let's hope they were all out before tea...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
October e-newsletter
Hello all,
It's been a year since I started working here at Henley and I suppose it would be cliched to say that the time has rushed by, but too true not to say it anyway. It's also true to say that I'm really enjoying myself working here. What makes Henley such a vibrant and rewarding place to be is an esoteric blend of location, intellectual focus and network. The location I've often commented on, the intellect is often apparent in the quality of input and output from workshops, assignments and research, and the network encompasses both what sometimes feels like a village atmosphere here at the College and also connections among and between all the students who make the place tick.
In the year I have been Programme Leader I have tried to look for ways, this e-newsletter being one, of bringing DL students closer to the College. When we go live with the new virtual learning environment, I hope to add to that with regular synchronous online Q and A sessions for each Intake.
As I write this, the large marquee that will host the October graduation ceremony is being put up on the lawn in front of the main entrance. To anyone receiving this attending on the 28th, congratulations. To all others, keep that vivid image in your mind of you walking up to collect your award.
Good news on Ranking
Some of you will already be aware that the College did very well on the latest Economist MBA ranking. Our full-time MBA has now been placed 14th in the world (up from 21), fourth in Europe and second in the UK (behind Cambridge). Henley was ranked first for personal development and learning experience. This is excellent news for all the modes of study as it helps cement our reputation, and reinforces the choice you have made.
The FT ranking for this year is also just out. Henley is ranked 42 in the world, which is down on last year, but worth pointing out our position to our main UK competitors hasn't changed as they also slipped, partly due to the appearance of several new global consortium MBAs.
Optional Skills Workshops
Bookings for this event have been going well, with the Consulting Skills workshop on Saturday just about fully booked. There are still spaces on Sunday and room available on the other workshops, so if you haven't yet booked for one or more of the workshops, please do so quickly. Workshop booking forms (one for each day) are available in your eLearning area.
Completion statistics from earlier intakes
A while ago I shard with you some statistics on average pass marks, and got the feedback that it was useful. Another often raised question is how many people actually complete their studies, so I thought you might appreciate some statistics on this also. Since it is the 'not-finishing' rather than the failing that is the main reason our completion rates are not as high as we want them to be, a lot of energy is going into seeking more ways of keeping you on track to graduate. Of course, much of that quiet, persistent work is done by the course administrators and Personal Tutors.
First, though, I should point out that data on genuine benchmark programme completion rates for our DL competitors is sketchy, particularly as business schools record statistics in different ways. However, it is fair to say that most achieve between 45 and 60% completion. Our aim is to do all we can to get well above that 60%.
The second point is that, inevitably, we are now looking at completion from the older intakes and many innovations, such as Personal Tutors, will only begin to bear fruit in the coming 2 or 3 years.
Caveats in place, let me run through the completion stats for Intakes 10 to 17 which are (respectively), 46%, 57%, 54% 53%, 52%, 48%, 53% and 54%. For Intakes 16 and 17 (the final two in that list) the figure is likely to rise as some of you are now in your second period of re-registration and have or soon will be submitting your dissertations.
Intake 18 has a completion of 48% so far, but 25% of the remainder are still in study. For Intakes 19 and 20 the completion/still-in-study rates are 30%/34% and 25%/38% respectively. What this means is that the potential exists to exceed 60% completion by the time all registration and re-registration has been used.
Naturally, if you are into extra registration time and have not yet submitted your dissertation proposal, you are in real danger of not completing and wasting the time, money and effort you have invested so far. We'd like to do all we can to assist you, so don't be afraid to ask for help from your Personal Tutor. Personal Tutor support is withdrawn after 60 months and a request for further re-registration at that time is only granted for those who have started work on their dissertation.
Intake 33
Welcome to all of you reading this from Intake 33, which completed the Starter Workshop in October. At the risk of making this newsletter too statistical, I can tell you that there are 75 new members enrolled, their average age is 35, they have an average of nearly 13 years work experience, just over eight of which is in management. The group is 30% female and has representation from 16 nationalities.
Recruitment for January
Our next new Intake is due to come online in January, with a February workshop. As ever, and as witnessed by so many on Intake 33, word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool and I'd like to encourage (if not insist...) that you look around you at colleagues and friends for potential candidates. Just to remind you also that the College has a referral scheme which pays you a commission for each person you tell us about who then applies and joins.
We'll also be at the World MBA fair at Westminster [The QEII Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE] this Saturday October 28th (3 - 6) if anyone you know would like to meet us.
Intake 24
As we are doing with each Intake, there will be a dinner at the College for the (I always want to say 'surviving') members of Intake 24. It's a great opportunity to come back into the College and catch up on dissertation progress, meet personal tutors and hear from the Principal. Dates for Intakes 25, 6 and 7 will be made available for next year.
Dissertation Clinic
One more Dissertation Clinic to run this year, on December 1st. The administrator to contact if you'd like to come along is Kim Harris.
It's been a year since I started working here at Henley and I suppose it would be cliched to say that the time has rushed by, but too true not to say it anyway. It's also true to say that I'm really enjoying myself working here. What makes Henley such a vibrant and rewarding place to be is an esoteric blend of location, intellectual focus and network. The location I've often commented on, the intellect is often apparent in the quality of input and output from workshops, assignments and research, and the network encompasses both what sometimes feels like a village atmosphere here at the College and also connections among and between all the students who make the place tick.
In the year I have been Programme Leader I have tried to look for ways, this e-newsletter being one, of bringing DL students closer to the College. When we go live with the new virtual learning environment, I hope to add to that with regular synchronous online Q and A sessions for each Intake.
As I write this, the large marquee that will host the October graduation ceremony is being put up on the lawn in front of the main entrance. To anyone receiving this attending on the 28th, congratulations. To all others, keep that vivid image in your mind of you walking up to collect your award.
Good news on Ranking
Some of you will already be aware that the College did very well on the latest Economist MBA ranking. Our full-time MBA has now been placed 14th in the world (up from 21), fourth in Europe and second in the UK (behind Cambridge). Henley was ranked first for personal development and learning experience. This is excellent news for all the modes of study as it helps cement our reputation, and reinforces the choice you have made.
The FT ranking for this year is also just out. Henley is ranked 42 in the world, which is down on last year, but worth pointing out our position to our main UK competitors hasn't changed as they also slipped, partly due to the appearance of several new global consortium MBAs.
Optional Skills Workshops
Bookings for this event have been going well, with the Consulting Skills workshop on Saturday just about fully booked. There are still spaces on Sunday and room available on the other workshops, so if you haven't yet booked for one or more of the workshops, please do so quickly. Workshop booking forms (one for each day) are available in your eLearning area.
Completion statistics from earlier intakes
A while ago I shard with you some statistics on average pass marks, and got the feedback that it was useful. Another often raised question is how many people actually complete their studies, so I thought you might appreciate some statistics on this also. Since it is the 'not-finishing' rather than the failing that is the main reason our completion rates are not as high as we want them to be, a lot of energy is going into seeking more ways of keeping you on track to graduate. Of course, much of that quiet, persistent work is done by the course administrators and Personal Tutors.
First, though, I should point out that data on genuine benchmark programme completion rates for our DL competitors is sketchy, particularly as business schools record statistics in different ways. However, it is fair to say that most achieve between 45 and 60% completion. Our aim is to do all we can to get well above that 60%.
The second point is that, inevitably, we are now looking at completion from the older intakes and many innovations, such as Personal Tutors, will only begin to bear fruit in the coming 2 or 3 years.
Caveats in place, let me run through the completion stats for Intakes 10 to 17 which are (respectively), 46%, 57%, 54% 53%, 52%, 48%, 53% and 54%. For Intakes 16 and 17 (the final two in that list) the figure is likely to rise as some of you are now in your second period of re-registration and have or soon will be submitting your dissertations.
Intake 18 has a completion of 48% so far, but 25% of the remainder are still in study. For Intakes 19 and 20 the completion/still-in-study rates are 30%/34% and 25%/38% respectively. What this means is that the potential exists to exceed 60% completion by the time all registration and re-registration has been used.
Naturally, if you are into extra registration time and have not yet submitted your dissertation proposal, you are in real danger of not completing and wasting the time, money and effort you have invested so far. We'd like to do all we can to assist you, so don't be afraid to ask for help from your Personal Tutor. Personal Tutor support is withdrawn after 60 months and a request for further re-registration at that time is only granted for those who have started work on their dissertation.
Intake 33
Welcome to all of you reading this from Intake 33, which completed the Starter Workshop in October. At the risk of making this newsletter too statistical, I can tell you that there are 75 new members enrolled, their average age is 35, they have an average of nearly 13 years work experience, just over eight of which is in management. The group is 30% female and has representation from 16 nationalities.
Recruitment for January
Our next new Intake is due to come online in January, with a February workshop. As ever, and as witnessed by so many on Intake 33, word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool and I'd like to encourage (if not insist...) that you look around you at colleagues and friends for potential candidates. Just to remind you also that the College has a referral scheme which pays you a commission for each person you tell us about who then applies and joins.
We'll also be at the World MBA fair at Westminster [The QEII Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE] this Saturday October 28th (3 - 6) if anyone you know would like to meet us.
Intake 24
As we are doing with each Intake, there will be a dinner at the College for the (I always want to say 'surviving') members of Intake 24. It's a great opportunity to come back into the College and catch up on dissertation progress, meet personal tutors and hear from the Principal. Dates for Intakes 25, 6 and 7 will be made available for next year.
Dissertation Clinic
One more Dissertation Clinic to run this year, on December 1st. The administrator to contact if you'd like to come along is Kim Harris.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
An Sharp Intake of...
This weekend is the Starter Workshop for the new group of Distance Learning MBAs. We had 74 people in, a terrific recruitment result and a really good first day. I really like the mix we get and am enjoying developing the format so that we can really engage them with Henley and begin to frame their learning in a helpful way.
My favourite part was telling a long and convoluted story about a manager who decides to take some extra time after a training to reflect on what he had learnt. In so many words, he walks up a mountain spends a week there and then walks down. I end the story with what appears to be a simple yes/no question about his ascent/descent. Invariably, there is a split in the group amongst those who answer one way or the other (or decide they don't know) and we have a really good debate where I invite one side to try and convince the other. I suspect some of the group are still suffering with working it out.
Some people were 100% convinced they knew the answer (both people who thought yes and those who thought no), but most were unable to commit. What was even more interesting was that there was invariably little anyone could do to change the opinion of others. All the more interesting as I had received a whole set of answers to the question, asked earlier, "What do managers do?" which included replies such as 'persuade others' and 'make decisions'...!
My favourite part was telling a long and convoluted story about a manager who decides to take some extra time after a training to reflect on what he had learnt. In so many words, he walks up a mountain spends a week there and then walks down. I end the story with what appears to be a simple yes/no question about his ascent/descent. Invariably, there is a split in the group amongst those who answer one way or the other (or decide they don't know) and we have a really good debate where I invite one side to try and convince the other. I suspect some of the group are still suffering with working it out.
Some people were 100% convinced they knew the answer (both people who thought yes and those who thought no), but most were unable to commit. What was even more interesting was that there was invariably little anyone could do to change the opinion of others. All the more interesting as I had received a whole set of answers to the question, asked earlier, "What do managers do?" which included replies such as 'persuade others' and 'make decisions'...!
Friday, October 13, 2006
How many Interpretive Criteriologists does it take to change a light-bulb?
Yesterday I was able to join a really interesting session, delivered by a guest academic from Manchester Business School, on Qualitative Research methods. It was very useful to pick up some ideas on this, partly to be in a better-informed position when advising Henley MBAs, and also to inform myself for my own future studies and development.
A lot of isms and ists were being bandied around, and occasionally I was lost (and also occasionally I wasn't alone in being lost!), but I was also relieved to hear that very few academics can agree what is what in this field...
For me, the interesting learning was how to define the range(s) of qualitative research methods available, and also the importance of knowing which philosophical assumptions underpin their use. That helped me clarify an approach to understanding how tools as diverse as 'template analysis', 'metaphors', 'discourse analysis' and even 'blogs' can be used to answer different research questions.
By the way, when I asked my partner the light-bulb question, she immediately hit back with "It doesn't matter, just as long as the light-bulb has been interviewed first."
A lot of isms and ists were being bandied around, and occasionally I was lost (and also occasionally I wasn't alone in being lost!), but I was also relieved to hear that very few academics can agree what is what in this field...
For me, the interesting learning was how to define the range(s) of qualitative research methods available, and also the importance of knowing which philosophical assumptions underpin their use. That helped me clarify an approach to understanding how tools as diverse as 'template analysis', 'metaphors', 'discourse analysis' and even 'blogs' can be used to answer different research questions.
By the way, when I asked my partner the light-bulb question, she immediately hit back with "It doesn't matter, just as long as the light-bulb has been interviewed first."
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Assignment submitted - nothing sweeter, and nothing more nerve-wracking
I just completed my assessed work for the Henley Coaching Certificate and have handed in my portfolio, including my 3,000 word reflective assignment and evidence of coaching feedback.
It has been a really good course, partly down to the very high level of trainer facilitation. There are two other elements that made it worthwhile. One was the feeling that I was doing it with the right set of fellow participants, and was learning from them. The other was the unstructured but clear method used. This course was built around the presupposition that a good coach is someone who understands themselves, and that journey of self-awareness was at the heart of the programme.
Anyway, now I await the verdict of the assessors.
September e-newlsetter
Hello all,
I remember my fist visit to Henley as a DL MBA student, which was at this time of year back in 1994. Aside from the grand drive to the front entrance, what impressed me about the place was a sense of stately courtesy, quiet bustle and what felt like layer upon layer of tried and trusted procedures and programmes. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that were I to attend my first workshop now, in 2006, I might form exactly the same first impressions. There is something quite reassuring about that, I suppose.
However, I also know that, busily, if mostly behind the scenes, people have been working on a lot of changes. Now as we move into the autumn, these will begin to manifest themselves and you will begin to see the benefits. Some, such as the strengthening of the faculty into Schools of Thought, you already know something about. There are others that you may never be aware of, such as the operational reorganisation of the IT support, the teams of administrators, and other databases and systems behind the programme you are on. Still others, such as the planned improvements in study channels and development of the MBA curriculum itself, will be experienced over the coming 12-18 months. As they are rolled out, I will endeavour to keep you all informed.
Workshop Activity
This month's newsletter precedes an October full of DL MBA workshops at the College, with every Intake from 27 to the new arrivals 33 spending some time here. Intake 33, which will also have a group on the Project Management MBA, is looking very much like meeting target numbers.
Follow-up on Annual Questionnaire
I have asked the Course Administrators - Susan, Natalie and Charlotte - to post on each intake's eLearning area (for Intakes pre 29, in the 'Administration' area, and for 29 onwards in 'Programme Information') a Word document which summarises all the quantitative and qualitative results from the annual questionnaire. I gave you some of the data from this in last month's newsletter, but this is a fuller picture. Extra copies will be circulated via email to the Course Reps and added to the ''Matters Arising" in November's Course Reps meeting.
Optional Skills Workshops - more information
Our plans for November 18th and 19th are now complete. Just to remind you, on November 18th and 19th there will be a chance to attend up to four different half-day workshop sessions on a variety of topics. These are An Introduction to the Career Services and Interview Skills, Consultancy Skills, Business Modelling, an Introduction to NLP, Research Methods, Coaching and Mentoring and Resume Writing.
A post-script to this is my request to hear from any of you who work in HR or who have to deal with a lot of CVs/resumes. I am putting together the final parts of my half-day workshop on the subject for the Skills Weekend, and would like to be giving practical support, so I would like to ask a few pertinent questions of people who deal professionally or frequently with managers' resumes. Please email me if you have a little time. Thanks!
Changes to Part Three Exam
Starting with the December 2006 sitting the Part Three exam format be change. As there are no DL Intakes due to sit the exam in December, there will be plenty of time for familiarisation to the new format at scheduled exam preparation workshops. Some of you, though, may need to sit the exam in December and your Administrator should have contacted you by now to inform you of a special exam preparation workshop being organised.
Full details of the new structure can be found in the Part Three exam guide online, but the highlights are: a pre-seen single case study (as in Parts One and Two), a larger set of unseen questions on the day, some of which are compulsory, some of which you may choose between, subjects examined are Strategic Direction (50%), Strategic Financial Analysis (20%) and Business Transformation (30%). The exam will last three hours and have 15 minutes question reading time. You will be allowed to prepare and bring notes, but only one sheet of A4 (both sides). This sheet may be used as an appendix and if referred to in your answers may also count toward your marks (thus making the inclusion of financial calculations in your answers an easier process than now).
Dissertation Clinic
For those of you who are at the stage of Part Three where you are focused on the dissertation but have not yet had a proposal accepted and tutor assigned, there is another Clinic organised for October 26th. The Clinic is a chance to come and receive a boost, talk to a tutor and get on, or back on, track.
Some who is who stuff
Over the past few months, there have been some personnel changes in various areas of the College. Since you may meet (or have met) some of these people at workshops or online, I thought I'd end this month's newsletter with a few names. Marc Day has been appointed Director of Studies for the Executive Full-time MBA, taking over from Martin Burridge. Lynn Thurloway is now Subject Area Leader (SAL) for Dissertations, replacing Susan Rose, who is now SAL for Marketing. Liz Houldsworth is new SAL for Managing People and Performance, taking over from Lynn. Trevor Long has replaced Scott Lichtenstein as SAL for Foundations of Management and is also SAL for Dynamics of Management, an exciting and brand new module. Katja Krueckeberg has been appointed as Programme Leader for the Executive Evening MBA.
Finally, Paul Aitken and Wolfgang Amann are new SALs for Leadership & Change, and Reputation and Relationships respectively. For completeness, I should also mention that Jon Morton, Director of Corporate Programmes, is now also the College's Assistant Principal. Phew!
Looking forward to seeing all of you coming in for workshops next month, and to meeting the new Intake for the first time.
I remember my fist visit to Henley as a DL MBA student, which was at this time of year back in 1994. Aside from the grand drive to the front entrance, what impressed me about the place was a sense of stately courtesy, quiet bustle and what felt like layer upon layer of tried and trusted procedures and programmes. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that were I to attend my first workshop now, in 2006, I might form exactly the same first impressions. There is something quite reassuring about that, I suppose.
However, I also know that, busily, if mostly behind the scenes, people have been working on a lot of changes. Now as we move into the autumn, these will begin to manifest themselves and you will begin to see the benefits. Some, such as the strengthening of the faculty into Schools of Thought, you already know something about. There are others that you may never be aware of, such as the operational reorganisation of the IT support, the teams of administrators, and other databases and systems behind the programme you are on. Still others, such as the planned improvements in study channels and development of the MBA curriculum itself, will be experienced over the coming 12-18 months. As they are rolled out, I will endeavour to keep you all informed.
Workshop Activity
This month's newsletter precedes an October full of DL MBA workshops at the College, with every Intake from 27 to the new arrivals 33 spending some time here. Intake 33, which will also have a group on the Project Management MBA, is looking very much like meeting target numbers.
Follow-up on Annual Questionnaire
I have asked the Course Administrators - Susan, Natalie and Charlotte - to post on each intake's eLearning area (for Intakes pre 29, in the 'Administration' area, and for 29 onwards in 'Programme Information') a Word document which summarises all the quantitative and qualitative results from the annual questionnaire. I gave you some of the data from this in last month's newsletter, but this is a fuller picture. Extra copies will be circulated via email to the Course Reps and added to the ''Matters Arising" in November's Course Reps meeting.
Optional Skills Workshops - more information
Our plans for November 18th and 19th are now complete. Just to remind you, on November 18th and 19th there will be a chance to attend up to four different half-day workshop sessions on a variety of topics. These are An Introduction to the Career Services and Interview Skills, Consultancy Skills, Business Modelling, an Introduction to NLP, Research Methods, Coaching and Mentoring and Resume Writing.
A post-script to this is my request to hear from any of you who work in HR or who have to deal with a lot of CVs/resumes. I am putting together the final parts of my half-day workshop on the subject for the Skills Weekend, and would like to be giving practical support, so I would like to ask a few pertinent questions of people who deal professionally or frequently with managers' resumes. Please email me if you have a little time. Thanks!
Changes to Part Three Exam
Starting with the December 2006 sitting the Part Three exam format be change. As there are no DL Intakes due to sit the exam in December, there will be plenty of time for familiarisation to the new format at scheduled exam preparation workshops. Some of you, though, may need to sit the exam in December and your Administrator should have contacted you by now to inform you of a special exam preparation workshop being organised.
Full details of the new structure can be found in the Part Three exam guide online, but the highlights are: a pre-seen single case study (as in Parts One and Two), a larger set of unseen questions on the day, some of which are compulsory, some of which you may choose between, subjects examined are Strategic Direction (50%), Strategic Financial Analysis (20%) and Business Transformation (30%). The exam will last three hours and have 15 minutes question reading time. You will be allowed to prepare and bring notes, but only one sheet of A4 (both sides). This sheet may be used as an appendix and if referred to in your answers may also count toward your marks (thus making the inclusion of financial calculations in your answers an easier process than now).
Dissertation Clinic
For those of you who are at the stage of Part Three where you are focused on the dissertation but have not yet had a proposal accepted and tutor assigned, there is another Clinic organised for October 26th. The Clinic is a chance to come and receive a boost, talk to a tutor and get on, or back on, track.
Some who is who stuff
Over the past few months, there have been some personnel changes in various areas of the College. Since you may meet (or have met) some of these people at workshops or online, I thought I'd end this month's newsletter with a few names. Marc Day has been appointed Director of Studies for the Executive Full-time MBA, taking over from Martin Burridge. Lynn Thurloway is now Subject Area Leader (SAL) for Dissertations, replacing Susan Rose, who is now SAL for Marketing. Liz Houldsworth is new SAL for Managing People and Performance, taking over from Lynn. Trevor Long has replaced Scott Lichtenstein as SAL for Foundations of Management and is also SAL for Dynamics of Management, an exciting and brand new module. Katja Krueckeberg has been appointed as Programme Leader for the Executive Evening MBA.
Finally, Paul Aitken and Wolfgang Amann are new SALs for Leadership & Change, and Reputation and Relationships respectively. For completeness, I should also mention that Jon Morton, Director of Corporate Programmes, is now also the College's Assistant Principal. Phew!
Looking forward to seeing all of you coming in for workshops next month, and to meeting the new Intake for the first time.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
August e-Newsletter
My first August at Henley. It's supposed to be the quiet month for academic institutions, but there's been little sight of that around here with plenty of activity around current and future programmes.
Recruitment for Intake 33
The next Intake on the Distance Learning MBA begin their studies in September, and have their first workshop in mid October. There is still time for anyone who you know is ready for an MBA to apply and join. Word of mouth will always remain our strongest marketing tool, and thanks to the applicant referral scheme (details of this are on the main Henley web site) you can also receive some financial reward if someone you notify us is then admitted to the MBA or Diploma.
First review of the Annual Questionnaire
In all, we received 142 replies, around 15% response rate. Many thanks to everyone who took part. Full details of the results will be made available to your course reps and any clear matters arising discussed at their meeting in the autumn. For now, I thought I'd share a few headline statistics.
Of those who replied, 16% were at Part One, 22% were at Part Two with the remaining 62% at Part Three. 47% of you were at Part Three with the exam and ISP now behind you and the dissertation yet to start or complete.
There were respondents from every intake stretching back to 16, with Intakes 31 and 25 being the most numerous in response. Nearly 70% of you reported needing some support from the Personal Tutor during your programme, primarily for admin help but also for advice on development issues. When needed, Personal Tutor support has been well received, rated at an average of 4.14. out of 5 and very close to your evaluation of course administration support, which was 4.08.
Regarding your learning environment you are happy with the Henley facilities (4.32), less so with the eLearning (3.62) and effectiveness of teamwork (3.37), so we have some interesting challenges to address.
55% of you are sponsored by your company on your studies, and your experience of how much support you get from your line manager (3.28) or organisation (3.40). It would interesting to explore what this means for your studies and whether it could be improved.
Concerning the big question on whether the Henley MBA has met your expectations, your answers averaged out to 3.52, though your assessment of content (4.21), materials (3.9), scheduling (3.85) and assignment feedback (3.69) were all higher. I think a dialogue around how we might improve these for you would be very valuable. Previous years used a different set of statements and a 7 point scale, so we're not going to be able to make any meaningful comparisons. However, as benchmarks for 2007 onward, this is tremendously helpful.
We are now going to look in detail at the results and the comments, looking both for general trends and issues as well as any individual problems that we can respond to straight away.
Overall assessment Stats for 2004/5
While I'm providing this kind of overview, I thought you might like to have some information about the assessment results for the Henley-based distance learning MBA. I now have figures for the 2005-6 (July to July) period.
At Part One, there were 205 Foundations of Management assignments marked. None failed and the average mark was B. For Managing information, the numbers were 218 marked, with one failure and an average of B. 217 Managing People scripts were assessed, two failed and an average mark of B- was achieved overall. At the exam, 233 people sat in this period, with 13 failures and an average exam mark of C overall. Seven people re-sat their Part One exam in this year and all but one passed.
At Part Two, there were 148 Managing Marketing assignments, with two fails and an average of B-. Managing Financial Resources were marked on average at grade B and there were no fails in the 156 that were marked. Managing Performance had an average mark also of B and there was one fail in the 142 assignments marked. There were 16 Project Management assignments submitted, all passes, and an average mark of B+. The Part Two exam was passed by all but three of the 139 who sat it, and the average mark was C. 14 people sat the Project Management MBA last year and 11 passed, average pass mark was C. There were three Part Two exam re-sits and all passed.
Part Three saw 153 ISPs marked in these 12 months. One failed, and the average grade was B. 190 people sat their Part Three exam, with just one fail, and the average grade achieved was C+. 207 Dissertations were submitted, of which 6 failed. The average mark was B.
I hope this helps put your own assessment performance in perspective.
Dissertation and ISP topics
I mentioned last month that there may be some opportunities for you if you are looking for a dissertation topic. Christine Van Winkelen has sent me the following information for projects with the Henley Knowledge Management (KM) Forum:
The Henley Knowledge Management Forum will be able to provide opportunities for 2 or 3 MBA dissertation students to join Working Groups of companies carrying out collaborative projects that broadly relate to knowledge management. These projects run from September to May each year and will provide sufficient research data for a dissertation. You will need to be able to join the Working Groups at about 5 half day meetings held at Henley. The broad topics that we will be looking at are as follows:
2006 / 01 New technologies and KMTools such as wikis and blogs (sometimes referred to as ‘conversational’ or ‘social networking’ technologies) are moving from the wacky technologies box into the mainstream of business. Issue this project might explore are how these technologies fit into a KM strategy; how they fit into knowledge lifecycle models (and therefore when they should be used); and ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for their implementation.
This will be a practical project which will set out to understand the issues and then generate practical guidance by the end.
2006 / 02 KM and InnovationA number of previous KM Forum projects have looked at how the nature of your organisation influences the approach to KM that needs to be adopted (for example "KM and Front Line Operations" and "A Strategic Approach to KM". Some organisations have innovation at the core of their activities and stimulating the flow of knowledge to make new connections between ideas is a recognised priority for Knowledge Managers. However, even if your main driver for knowledge management is improving efficiency by reusing existing knowledge, it has been widely recognised that you will need to encourage the creation of new knowledge too, or else the organisation risks eventual decline. Issues this project might explore include how different knowledge management strategies relate to innovation, what shapes a culture of knowledge creation, and what KM tools and techniques are particularly useful.
This will be a practical project which will set out to understand the issues and then generate practical guidance by the end.
2006 / 03 Transformational KMMost of the KM we see and hear about supports the industrial economy model of work which is based on the production of goods and services in a competitive environment. The real challenges of the knowledge economy in which using knowledge increases its potential value rather than decreases it can probably be met only if KM switches from a supporting to a leading role. This is where KM becomes “Transformational”. What might this be like? What does it mean for us today? Does the role of the manager in the organisation look different? What about the organisational structures?
Most KM Forum projects are completed in 1 year and are expected to produce practitioner guidance within this time. This project is likely to be a bit different. We will need to do some hard thinking and this first phase of the project is likely to be quite conceptual in the first instance.
If you are interested in finding out what would be involved in working with us to carry out your dissertation research, then contact the KM Forum Director
In addition, Mike Palmer has forwarded the following possibility for a programme member who may be looking for a good topic for their ISP. Gary Devaney the founder and CE of Premier Guarantee, has confirmed that he would welcome being the subject of an ISP. His company was the 5th fastest private company in the UK in 2005 (and 20th in 2004), its a niche insurance underwriter and they have plans to move into Spain now, so there is plenty going on for an ISP. If you are interested, contact Mike Palmer and he work with you and Gary to see who might be best suited.
Paddock House, River House
To what I hope will be the relief of many, renovation work on the rooms in Paddock House is now all but complete. The rooms have a new and better decor, larger and more comfortable beds and better working/relaxing environment. Also ongoing now is the second phase of renewal in River House. All the rooms on the ground floor at the back are being brought up to the same modern standard as those at the front.
Optional Skills Workshop Weekend
As mentioned also last month we plan this November to offer a weekend suite of half-day optional skills workshops on a variety of topics. By placing them in one overall session, we maximise the networking and content delivery and minimise time spent away from the other parts of your life.
So, on Saturday November 18th, in the morning there will be a choice of sessions on either Career Management or Business Modelling. After lunch (provided), you can choose between Consultancy Skills or Resume Writing. The following day, Sunday, the morning has either Consultancy Skills or Introduction to NLP (pre-lunch), followed by a choice beyween Coaching and Mentoring and Research Methods. We are currently finalising the workshop and presenter details and we will be posting full information on your Intake's eLearning area in September.
Each half-day session is priced at 50 GBP and we will be placing caps on numbers to ensure greater interactivity, so early booking is advised! Distance Learners will have priority for booking places on this weekend.
That's it for now. Good luck to all of you planning to sit exams in September.
Recruitment for Intake 33
The next Intake on the Distance Learning MBA begin their studies in September, and have their first workshop in mid October. There is still time for anyone who you know is ready for an MBA to apply and join. Word of mouth will always remain our strongest marketing tool, and thanks to the applicant referral scheme (details of this are on the main Henley web site) you can also receive some financial reward if someone you notify us is then admitted to the MBA or Diploma.
First review of the Annual Questionnaire
In all, we received 142 replies, around 15% response rate. Many thanks to everyone who took part. Full details of the results will be made available to your course reps and any clear matters arising discussed at their meeting in the autumn. For now, I thought I'd share a few headline statistics.
Of those who replied, 16% were at Part One, 22% were at Part Two with the remaining 62% at Part Three. 47% of you were at Part Three with the exam and ISP now behind you and the dissertation yet to start or complete.
There were respondents from every intake stretching back to 16, with Intakes 31 and 25 being the most numerous in response. Nearly 70% of you reported needing some support from the Personal Tutor during your programme, primarily for admin help but also for advice on development issues. When needed, Personal Tutor support has been well received, rated at an average of 4.14. out of 5 and very close to your evaluation of course administration support, which was 4.08.
Regarding your learning environment you are happy with the Henley facilities (4.32), less so with the eLearning (3.62) and effectiveness of teamwork (3.37), so we have some interesting challenges to address.
55% of you are sponsored by your company on your studies, and your experience of how much support you get from your line manager (3.28) or organisation (3.40). It would interesting to explore what this means for your studies and whether it could be improved.
Concerning the big question on whether the Henley MBA has met your expectations, your answers averaged out to 3.52, though your assessment of content (4.21), materials (3.9), scheduling (3.85) and assignment feedback (3.69) were all higher. I think a dialogue around how we might improve these for you would be very valuable. Previous years used a different set of statements and a 7 point scale, so we're not going to be able to make any meaningful comparisons. However, as benchmarks for 2007 onward, this is tremendously helpful.
We are now going to look in detail at the results and the comments, looking both for general trends and issues as well as any individual problems that we can respond to straight away.
Overall assessment Stats for 2004/5
While I'm providing this kind of overview, I thought you might like to have some information about the assessment results for the Henley-based distance learning MBA. I now have figures for the 2005-6 (July to July) period.
At Part One, there were 205 Foundations of Management assignments marked. None failed and the average mark was B. For Managing information, the numbers were 218 marked, with one failure and an average of B. 217 Managing People scripts were assessed, two failed and an average mark of B- was achieved overall. At the exam, 233 people sat in this period, with 13 failures and an average exam mark of C overall. Seven people re-sat their Part One exam in this year and all but one passed.
At Part Two, there were 148 Managing Marketing assignments, with two fails and an average of B-. Managing Financial Resources were marked on average at grade B and there were no fails in the 156 that were marked. Managing Performance had an average mark also of B and there was one fail in the 142 assignments marked. There were 16 Project Management assignments submitted, all passes, and an average mark of B+. The Part Two exam was passed by all but three of the 139 who sat it, and the average mark was C. 14 people sat the Project Management MBA last year and 11 passed, average pass mark was C. There were three Part Two exam re-sits and all passed.
Part Three saw 153 ISPs marked in these 12 months. One failed, and the average grade was B. 190 people sat their Part Three exam, with just one fail, and the average grade achieved was C+. 207 Dissertations were submitted, of which 6 failed. The average mark was B.
I hope this helps put your own assessment performance in perspective.
Dissertation and ISP topics
I mentioned last month that there may be some opportunities for you if you are looking for a dissertation topic. Christine Van Winkelen has sent me the following information for projects with the Henley Knowledge Management (KM) Forum:
The Henley Knowledge Management Forum will be able to provide opportunities for 2 or 3 MBA dissertation students to join Working Groups of companies carrying out collaborative projects that broadly relate to knowledge management. These projects run from September to May each year and will provide sufficient research data for a dissertation. You will need to be able to join the Working Groups at about 5 half day meetings held at Henley. The broad topics that we will be looking at are as follows:
2006 / 01 New technologies and KMTools such as wikis and blogs (sometimes referred to as ‘conversational’ or ‘social networking’ technologies) are moving from the wacky technologies box into the mainstream of business. Issue this project might explore are how these technologies fit into a KM strategy; how they fit into knowledge lifecycle models (and therefore when they should be used); and ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for their implementation.
This will be a practical project which will set out to understand the issues and then generate practical guidance by the end.
2006 / 02 KM and InnovationA number of previous KM Forum projects have looked at how the nature of your organisation influences the approach to KM that needs to be adopted (for example "KM and Front Line Operations" and "A Strategic Approach to KM". Some organisations have innovation at the core of their activities and stimulating the flow of knowledge to make new connections between ideas is a recognised priority for Knowledge Managers. However, even if your main driver for knowledge management is improving efficiency by reusing existing knowledge, it has been widely recognised that you will need to encourage the creation of new knowledge too, or else the organisation risks eventual decline. Issues this project might explore include how different knowledge management strategies relate to innovation, what shapes a culture of knowledge creation, and what KM tools and techniques are particularly useful.
This will be a practical project which will set out to understand the issues and then generate practical guidance by the end.
2006 / 03 Transformational KMMost of the KM we see and hear about supports the industrial economy model of work which is based on the production of goods and services in a competitive environment. The real challenges of the knowledge economy in which using knowledge increases its potential value rather than decreases it can probably be met only if KM switches from a supporting to a leading role. This is where KM becomes “Transformational”. What might this be like? What does it mean for us today? Does the role of the manager in the organisation look different? What about the organisational structures?
Most KM Forum projects are completed in 1 year and are expected to produce practitioner guidance within this time. This project is likely to be a bit different. We will need to do some hard thinking and this first phase of the project is likely to be quite conceptual in the first instance.
If you are interested in finding out what would be involved in working with us to carry out your dissertation research, then contact the KM Forum Director
In addition, Mike Palmer has forwarded the following possibility for a programme member who may be looking for a good topic for their ISP. Gary Devaney the founder and CE of Premier Guarantee, has confirmed that he would welcome being the subject of an ISP. His company was the 5th fastest private company in the UK in 2005 (and 20th in 2004), its a niche insurance underwriter and they have plans to move into Spain now, so there is plenty going on for an ISP. If you are interested, contact Mike Palmer and he work with you and Gary to see who might be best suited.
Paddock House, River House
To what I hope will be the relief of many, renovation work on the rooms in Paddock House is now all but complete. The rooms have a new and better decor, larger and more comfortable beds and better working/relaxing environment. Also ongoing now is the second phase of renewal in River House. All the rooms on the ground floor at the back are being brought up to the same modern standard as those at the front.
Optional Skills Workshop Weekend
As mentioned also last month we plan this November to offer a weekend suite of half-day optional skills workshops on a variety of topics. By placing them in one overall session, we maximise the networking and content delivery and minimise time spent away from the other parts of your life.
So, on Saturday November 18th, in the morning there will be a choice of sessions on either Career Management or Business Modelling. After lunch (provided), you can choose between Consultancy Skills or Resume Writing. The following day, Sunday, the morning has either Consultancy Skills or Introduction to NLP (pre-lunch), followed by a choice beyween Coaching and Mentoring and Research Methods. We are currently finalising the workshop and presenter details and we will be posting full information on your Intake's eLearning area in September.
Each half-day session is priced at 50 GBP and we will be placing caps on numbers to ensure greater interactivity, so early booking is advised! Distance Learners will have priority for booking places on this weekend.
That's it for now. Good luck to all of you planning to sit exams in September.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Good times for a change
Today was such a typically interesting day.
Got in this morning, went through the waiting emails and dealt with two issues raised directly or indirectly by Programme Members. Most of the time I can address and solve (at least in the short term) problems that come up and it's a nice feeling because you know that at the other end of the problem are real people who will feel they've made the right choices by coming to Henley to study.
Then I finished off some flow-charts mapping all the possible scenarios in the registration and re-registration process for the MBA from next year. Progression is the key measurement for us and the more we can do to keep helping people stay on track, the better. Mind you, the more we look at putting all of this into the system, the greater the challenge seems.
A quick and informal up-date meeting with the project manager for the virtual learning environment before lunch, including pondering how to get good blogging ability set up for all our participants (we ended up playing around with ideas for names to call it - 'VLE' sounds generic and dull). Henley staff have a great self-service canteen, and it's a wonderful place to sit and chat with people from all parts of the College.
After lunch, a coaching session with one of my 'guinea pigs', people who have agreed to be coached by me as part of my portfolio for the Henley Coaching Certificate. I really enjoy the coaching process, it's a real pleasure to flex one's 'curiosity' muscles. Don't know if my coachee felt uplifted, but I think we had a good session.
Then a meeting with the director of the Associate School in Denmark, who is spending a few days here. We talked about the system of workshops for the distance learning MBA and how they are handled there. All these major pieces of the day are fleshed out by short and long, informal and formal, funny and exasperating interchanges with people in and out of the College.
I love days that are full of varied incident and progress with issues.
Got in this morning, went through the waiting emails and dealt with two issues raised directly or indirectly by Programme Members. Most of the time I can address and solve (at least in the short term) problems that come up and it's a nice feeling because you know that at the other end of the problem are real people who will feel they've made the right choices by coming to Henley to study.
Then I finished off some flow-charts mapping all the possible scenarios in the registration and re-registration process for the MBA from next year. Progression is the key measurement for us and the more we can do to keep helping people stay on track, the better. Mind you, the more we look at putting all of this into the system, the greater the challenge seems.
A quick and informal up-date meeting with the project manager for the virtual learning environment before lunch, including pondering how to get good blogging ability set up for all our participants (we ended up playing around with ideas for names to call it - 'VLE' sounds generic and dull). Henley staff have a great self-service canteen, and it's a wonderful place to sit and chat with people from all parts of the College.
After lunch, a coaching session with one of my 'guinea pigs', people who have agreed to be coached by me as part of my portfolio for the Henley Coaching Certificate. I really enjoy the coaching process, it's a real pleasure to flex one's 'curiosity' muscles. Don't know if my coachee felt uplifted, but I think we had a good session.
Then a meeting with the director of the Associate School in Denmark, who is spending a few days here. We talked about the system of workshops for the distance learning MBA and how they are handled there. All these major pieces of the day are fleshed out by short and long, informal and formal, funny and exasperating interchanges with people in and out of the College.
I love days that are full of varied incident and progress with issues.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler" Albert Einstein
This morning on Radio 4's Today Programme, there was a piece about an email message sent to a woman by a man she had met for the first time the previous evening. The email, long, flowery and, some would say (have said), creepy has since reached something of a curious zenith in Internet infamy, its recipient having passed it on to friends, who then forwarded it electronically just about everywhere. The text of his email can be found here and it is indeed quite cringe-worthy, but my interest in the Today piece was the commentary on how we choose to communicate with each other nowadays.
The ease of transmission and speed of delivery inherent in text and email brings with it all sorts of pitfalls. Having removed or, actually, camouflaged many of our mechanisms for reading one another (evolved over the millennia), we are often inappropriately familiar. We can pour out our hearts, we can vent and let off steam or we can stir up the shit and get it completely and utterly wrong. And more, we live within the illusion that a medium such as email is somehow ephemeral and less lasting than a face-to-face or even a written note. As the writer of the email featured in Today found out, the opposite is true.
We rarely think about language, though we clearly use it a lot. Were we to, we might make one very useful observation, and that is how closely what we say or write both follows and leads what we think. The longer we take to say what we mean in the least number of words, the better.
Another observation (for me) is the wonderful way we can construct many possible meanings from one piece of language (and, by way of corollary, we can construct one meaning from many different pieces of language).
The ease of transmission and speed of delivery inherent in text and email brings with it all sorts of pitfalls. Having removed or, actually, camouflaged many of our mechanisms for reading one another (evolved over the millennia), we are often inappropriately familiar. We can pour out our hearts, we can vent and let off steam or we can stir up the shit and get it completely and utterly wrong. And more, we live within the illusion that a medium such as email is somehow ephemeral and less lasting than a face-to-face or even a written note. As the writer of the email featured in Today found out, the opposite is true.
We rarely think about language, though we clearly use it a lot. Were we to, we might make one very useful observation, and that is how closely what we say or write both follows and leads what we think. The longer we take to say what we mean in the least number of words, the better.
Another observation (for me) is the wonderful way we can construct many possible meanings from one piece of language (and, by way of corollary, we can construct one meaning from many different pieces of language).
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Swanupmanship
Today is the day that the centuries old tradition of swan-upping, the ritual and annual tally, weighing and tagging along a certain stretch of the river Thames of mute swans and cygnets was supposed reach and pass the College. This task, dating back to the 12th century, is performed on behalf of the Queen by men with job titles as oddly out-of-date and yet endearing as their coloured uniforms .
It was also the hottest day of the year so far, and though we sat in the shade of one of the great conifers on the Henley lawn in our lunch hour. We waited in vain. Though there was the usual armada of pleasure craft, some even with red flags with images of white swans (swan-upping-spotters?), we couldn't see any of the Thames skiffs which are used for the 5-day journey. Perhaps they had passed earlier, to miss the midday sun, and we already at the next pub.
Next year...
It was also the hottest day of the year so far, and though we sat in the shade of one of the great conifers on the Henley lawn in our lunch hour. We waited in vain. Though there was the usual armada of pleasure craft, some even with red flags with images of white swans (swan-upping-spotters?), we couldn't see any of the Thames skiffs which are used for the 5-day journey. Perhaps they had passed earlier, to miss the midday sun, and we already at the next pub.
Next year...
Friday, July 14, 2006
Realism
This morning I was able to attend a Research Colloquium and heard a presentation by Dr John Burgoyne on Critical Realism. A lot of the discourse was going on on a plane higher than mine - with all sorts of 'isms' and 'ists' being bandied about, but it was still fascinating to see the level of discourse and have a few hints at where it might apply in the MBA programme.
I won't (or, actually, can't) get into a discussion of what Critical Realism is [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_realism if you want to know more] other than it seems to say that there is an objective, knowable world out there, and there are reliable mechanisms for experiencing that world, but that we may each perceive that world differently according to our own mechanisms
We focus on learning at Henley, but learning is not really so easy to observe since it is itself a mental construct. How does the learner know when learning has taken place? And does our creating the space for learning define whatever happens as learning, therefore bringing it into existence?
If you don't have the language to describe something, does it exist? Conversely, if you have the language to describe something, does it then exist?
No wonder my brain hurts!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
All Presentation and Correct
Today we were all treated to a wonderful lecture by Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard. This was his inaugural lecture, something of a celebration of academic status, that draws in fellow faculty, senior managers, friends and family.
Jean-Noel's lecture was about information technology - Angel or Demon? It was a treat to watch - a demonstration of what it looks like when the technology used in a presentation is matched by the charm of the presenter. Quite a few of the learned members of faculty were taking copious notes on how to incorporate music and video into their powerpoint presentations.
Jean-Noel's lecture was about information technology - Angel or Demon? It was a treat to watch - a demonstration of what it looks like when the technology used in a presentation is matched by the charm of the presenter. Quite a few of the learned members of faculty were taking copious notes on how to incorporate music and video into their powerpoint presentations.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Defining groups
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are very much on our minds here at the moment. This weekend, amidst the summer barbecues and World Cup parties ("Allez les Azzurri!") I found myself reflecting on the following things and the extent to which we concentrate on, facilitate or assess each with the adult learner :
working in a group
studying in a group
learning in a group
It feels as though we know a lot more about the first two. Much of the activities face-to-face and online are instances either of people working through set problems or helping themselves and each other prepare for an exam or an assignment. Learning in a group, on the other hand, requires an extra dimension. Reflection? Insight? Self-awareness?
Friday, July 07, 2006
Typical week?
Friday has come round very quickly. Thought I'd just make some notes on the week, a sort of round-up.
Monday was a day of working from home. We now have wireless internet, so have the odd and novel pleasure of typing a replies to work emails while cooking the bacon on the other side of the kitchen.
On Tuesday I had an early start - a working breakfast in the Riverside Restaurant with Dr David Price. It was a great chance for me to learn more about the DBA, something I'm considering for next year. I am still undecided whether I'd be better off with the structure of the DBA or the freedom of the PhD. Either way, I am already enjoying the feeling of demystification around research and excitement about being methodically creative in a subject area of interest. For me, this may be the use of language in adult learning. This is a theme I hope I can also develop here.
Also on Tuesday at the College, Dr Richard Boyatzis - impeccable pedigree, doyen of the topic of leadership and big cheese at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western in Cleveland - led a wonderful session on resonant leadership. He was a very animated speaker, had the whole audience of stunned faculty up and clapping along to Aretha Franklin's 'Respect' at the start. The mark of a good subject and a good presenter is when everyone is left with something different to think about.
Wednesday was spent up in London at the Institute of Education, attending a Netskills training on Communication and Collaboration for e-Learning. It certainly got me interested in how a blog works (as you can now see). It also reminded me how lucky I am to be living and working outside London!
Thursday was interesting because, as often happens in this job, there was something different to do every half and hour. My preferred Belbin team roles are Plant and Resource Investigator, so that chopping and changing suits me just fine. Whether much actually gets finished is another matter! Luckily, we have some fantastic doers - the administrators - here. I took part in a lengthy meeting to work on aspects of the new VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The possibilities for interactive working are immense, but so is the complexity of setting it up.
And on to today. Much of the morning was taken up 'clarifying the situation' regarding the use of the Henley name to someone who was selling their Diploma assignments on eBay. This afternoon I'll be helping to interview potential candidates for the face-to-face MBA programme. These people come along to the College for Selection Days. It's the part of the job I love best, interaction with future, current and former members. I am just finishing the College's coaching certificate course, and that has been a wonderful journey, too.
Monday was a day of working from home. We now have wireless internet, so have the odd and novel pleasure of typing a replies to work emails while cooking the bacon on the other side of the kitchen.
On Tuesday I had an early start - a working breakfast in the Riverside Restaurant with Dr David Price. It was a great chance for me to learn more about the DBA, something I'm considering for next year. I am still undecided whether I'd be better off with the structure of the DBA or the freedom of the PhD. Either way, I am already enjoying the feeling of demystification around research and excitement about being methodically creative in a subject area of interest. For me, this may be the use of language in adult learning. This is a theme I hope I can also develop here.
Also on Tuesday at the College, Dr Richard Boyatzis - impeccable pedigree, doyen of the topic of leadership and big cheese at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western in Cleveland - led a wonderful session on resonant leadership. He was a very animated speaker, had the whole audience of stunned faculty up and clapping along to Aretha Franklin's 'Respect' at the start. The mark of a good subject and a good presenter is when everyone is left with something different to think about.
Wednesday was spent up in London at the Institute of Education, attending a Netskills training on Communication and Collaboration for e-Learning. It certainly got me interested in how a blog works (as you can now see). It also reminded me how lucky I am to be living and working outside London!
Thursday was interesting because, as often happens in this job, there was something different to do every half and hour. My preferred Belbin team roles are Plant and Resource Investigator, so that chopping and changing suits me just fine. Whether much actually gets finished is another matter! Luckily, we have some fantastic doers - the administrators - here. I took part in a lengthy meeting to work on aspects of the new VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The possibilities for interactive working are immense, but so is the complexity of setting it up.
And on to today. Much of the morning was taken up 'clarifying the situation' regarding the use of the Henley name to someone who was selling their Diploma assignments on eBay. This afternoon I'll be helping to interview potential candidates for the face-to-face MBA programme. These people come along to the College for Selection Days. It's the part of the job I love best, interaction with future, current and former members. I am just finishing the College's coaching certificate course, and that has been a wonderful journey, too.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Welcome to this blog
Hi there,
this site is going to perform two functions (at least!). One is to get familiar with the ins and outs of maintaining a blog - and have fun experimenting with its development over time. The other is to see how it might become useful as part of the learning journey on the MBA programme - a place to record thoughts, events and ideas - reflect on things that happen here at Henley.
I hope that others, particularly those involved in delivering any aspect of the MBA programme, will feel inspired to interact with this medium, and perhaps get blogging themselves. We expect our programme members to reflect on their learning journey and their own personal development, and I am curious to see how this might be a tool to do that.
Be seeing you!
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