MAP Meetings Galore

Yesterday was the first day of MAP (sort of). This is a strange position to be in - no classes, friends coming/going in different locations soon, and your primary interaction is with your MAP team. So many anxieties: how are we gonna get used to working with a company? What exactly are we supposed to do? Will I like whatever city I'm in?

The first days of MAP meant a "kickoff" meeting, a faculty advisor meeting, a team coach meeting, and a communication coach meeting. In theory, this seems to be a little bit useful, but it seemed a lot like it's a slightly longer version of the kickoff we had back in November. The strange thing about these meetings is that they assume you've never worked in teams before. I've worked on teams, led teams, had horror stories about teams, and have been in other trainings about teamwork, leading teams (set roles early, etc), so a lot of this seems almost unnecessary.

OK, rant over. I was just "meeting'd out". These aren't all bad. Actually the meetings are somewhat useful - if for no other reason than you get to know your team better. It's also good to figure out division of labor. Unlike cross-functional teams at my previous job, when it was assumed I was the project manager or team lead (by virtue of my title), and we already knew who does what (by virtue of their departments) here we had to agree to how we'd decide who does what. And of course it may get modified based on the needs of our sponsoring company.

In general though, people are just excited to get on with the projects, meet our sponsors, etc. Some are leaving this week and some are leaving in another week or so. It's definitely interesting not having any class...

I'm not going to talk about company specifics (since I had to sign a confidentiality agreement), or where my company is, but i'm sure there will be lots to blog about when it comes to the project/process, etc.

Here's to MAP! Let's hope this goes well!