Summer School

Unlike most MBA programs where classes start in the fall after a summer of traveling or still working, the LGO program starts classes the first week of June.

Over the summer we take two leaderships classes, probability and statistics, lean tools, operations management, optimization, and high velocity systems.  It is basically a crash course in operations for those who are new to the area and a refresher in things we learned in college but most hadn't used in years.  For me, I had a lot of experience in operations and optimization from my job and college but I had no background in probability.  Arnie was able to fix that.

In addition to teaching us probability, Arnie made class into story hour.  Every example had a story behind it and a reason why we were solving it.  The chances of two planes colliding mid air was based on his work in aviation safety.  The probability of being non compliant with air cargo regulations was based on his consulting for a major logistics provider.  While telling these stories, he would call on members of the class to answer questions about the examples.  There are two Zachs in our class but for some reason,  Arnie felt like there were many more and joked about it every day by calling them Zach 11 or "one of the many Zachs".  We needed to make his assumptions about Zachs true.

We all have a name plate that sits in front of us so professor's can call on us by name.  We took advantage of that system.  One day before class, Jeremy printed out new names for everybody.  We had the correct last name, but Zach (or Zack) as our first name.  It took Arnie calling on the second person of the day to realize something was up.  Little things like this were enough to help bond the class together had fun.

Since it was the 45 of us in the same room between three and six hours a day all summer, one practical joke was not enough to keep us entertained.  We kept them coming.   For example, our Operations Management (15.761) Sean Willems wore the same clothes every day.  Always a black t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts.  Well, we couldn't let that go quietly.  The day of our midterm, we all showed up to match, black shirts and khakis.  Great way to break any pre-stress tension.  Bonus point to the folks that made fake iWatches out of green duct tape or knit headbands.

Class photo in honor of Sean Willems

By the end of the summer we identified certain themes that kept reappearing in class.  We have four classmates from Boeing, so we rarely made it through a day of classes without a Boeing reference.  Tyler in true California fashion wears a tie-dye shirt every day (well it least it seems like every day). Professors had certain phrases they were guaranteed to say like, "Awesome", "Good Times", "Scientific Method".    Since these things kept coming up again and again, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a Bingo game!

Chinasa combined these categories (and plenty of other ones) into the most interactive game of bingo I have ever played.  I think the teachers were confused when we kept trying to sneak "bingo" into our answers in class for a few days.  And why we were all very attentive to their word choices when we felt an "It was AWESOME" coming on.

Our fun in class was not restricted to just pranks.  We also got good use out of the Muddy Charles.  Unlike where I went to college, MIT has two campus bars.  They are subsidized and the cheapest place in town to grab a beer.  Also great when you run out of time on a final and want to commiserate with your classmates over a cold one.  And then proceed to spend the rest of the afternoon working from the bar, because why not.

We also added classes to our required schedule.  MIT has free sailing classes where you can learn to sail and take a dinghy out on the water.  While our first attempt was rained out, we tried again and it was a success.  I still need a lot of help but it is so fun to be out on the water.

LGO's survived sailing!

Now that classes are done for the summer, I will miss some and others I am just glad to be done with.  But there are a lot of moments that made class more than just class and that is part of what makes LGO special.