We’re almost done with our first semester on campus. I thought it might be helpful to describe the classes we take and some of the other academic related stuff associated with our first experiences in LGO.
All first year LGOs get to campus in early June to begin classes. The MBA students don’t show up until the Fall and there aren’t many classes during the summer for students in other programs so we have most of the campus to ourselves. We all take the same classes together so it’s a good opportunity to bond and get to know each other.
We take a total of six classes:
Building and Leading Effective Teams (the universe within) – this is the only class we take our first week on campus. It is meant to speed up the process of bonding, starting to build team skills, and our first exposure to the leadership curriculum.
Engineering Probability and Statistics – this class provides some tools for problem solving and working with data sets. It introduces the laws of probability and builds to statistical tools like linear regression.
Systems Optimization and Analysis – another class for analytical problem solving. This one focuses on optimization models like linear and integer programs.
Organizational Leadership and Change – in this class we focus on a variety of leadership topics including case studies of various leadership methods and styles.
Introduction to Operations Management – this class covers concepts like basic inventory theory, process metrics like utilization, flow time, capacity, and others.
High Velocity Organizations- this class used to be called “Lean / Six Sigma”. It provides an introduction to many of the tools and operations concepts of highly successful organizations.
Our summer curriculum also includes a number of speakers, outside the classroom activities, and group projects. We have class everyday but our schedule week to week varies. I will cover a typical day and week for this semester in a future post. It is certainly busy through the summer but it’s also a good reintroduction to college for those of us who have been working for the past number of years.
