Lancaster livin' narratives: London

Landed in London, Monday morning. After a little scuffle with the train, tube and roads, found our way to Tara Copthorne Hotel in Kensington. Soon we were back again, but this time a friendly fight with the tube to get to Baker Street. Regent's College is where our sessions for the day were to happen. A nice lavish campus, but hardly did I get to go around, that evening. Mindful Manager was our agenda for the day. Late evening, we were all seated in the hotel's lobby working out our assignments. As Patrick quoted 'the hotel lobby literally turned into an MBA class'. Each group busy working and not giving the other hotel guests a place to sit!

Tuesday was early for me, since I decided to leave ahead just to go around Regent's College. Perfect day, and a lot of perfect and imperfect captures. Critical reasoning workshop was on the cards for the day. It was fun to do those exercises in a team but was surely work for the brain. I loved it though. Back in the hotel again a busy evening extending into the night.

I was expecting another scuffle with the tube on Wednesday since we had to get to CIWEM in Farringdon, a new place. But the tube got lucky. It wasn't a hassle at all to get to the venue. What was in store - Core Capabilities workshop on Listening & Questioning hosted by Asma Mansuri & Sabah Hydari from Impact Factory. To me, once again the winning moment was when everything intertwined back to the crux of the Lancaster MBA Programme. I am really liking this of late. The workshop itself was impactful and the two impactful speakers definitely won 'listeners'. The art of asking questions was thoroughly exemplified in the post lunch session on Questioning. Insightful exercises, combined with quotes of personal experiences and filled with humor and fun, established the connect. A good number of takeaway's definitely. Amidst a busy week of assignments and home works, this session was an energizer and breather yet informative and insightful. Thanks to Asma & Sabah.

Post that it was Henry Minto from Minto Mediation who spoke to us about 'Mediation' in the business context. There were two examples that I could relate with so closely that I ended up calling two of my IBM colleagues late evening to discuss it. It was a unique encounter for me, since I never got to meet someone from that background till date.

Ought to close Wednesday on a wonderful note. A question to think about - "Why are we so infrequently the people we want to be?" (courtesy: Asma Mansuri) Think about it! I am!

P.S: Recommended reading from today - "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter titled "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes" was really intriguing. Not that I read it yet, not sure if I will read it any sooner. PC's philosophy is already awaiting my attention :)