Conflicts Arising and BOD Meeting

This morning during Business in context workshop, there was a bit of tension that arose in the group. We were given a case study to solve as a group and a few members chose not to participate fully in the exercise. Some people in the group were not happy with this passive attitude and they did not hesitate to voice their opinion. Needless to say, some harsh words were exchanged and feelings were hurt. With our board meeting just a few hours away, I was beginning to wonder whether we would be able to resolve our conflicts and have a smooth meeting. Only time would tell.

                                    

As luck would have it, Genesis group B was the first group scheduled to meet with the Board of Directors. The good thing about being the first group to meet with the directors is that the slate was clean and we had the opportunity to set the standard. The bad thing about being the first group is that we had less time to prepare and since no one in class had gone before us, we had no idea what to expect. It had been decided the day before, that we would all dress up in matching business attire. Our color scheme for the day was black and white. Everyone looked very nice and our lime green name tags definitely made us look more professional.

The meeting began at 5:30 and somehow we were mature enough to put our differences aside and present ourselves as a unified front. Thank goodness for that! The agenda for the meeting was as follows: A brief introduction by each group B member followed by introductions by the board of directors. Since Dave was chairing the meeting, he opened the floor and talked briefly about how the group came together. Bianca talked about cake sale planning and preparation while Tarisai talked about what happened on the day of cake sale. Riana talked about all the things that went well and I talked about all the wonderful things that went wrong. Finally, Craig talked about the learning experience and Mo went over the financials of the group. There were 4 directors on the panel.  They all seemed like incredibly nice people and were very open about sharing ideas and information with us. This definitely calmed our nerves and put us at ease. Two of the directors were alumni of the genesis course and they were both recruited by successful companies after completing the program.

The other two directors were more established in their careers and provided great insights into the world of business. For me personally, it was very inspiring to hear their stories and it reaffirmed my belief that coming to UCT and enrolling in the PDE program was one of the best decisions I ever made. The directors also gave us some pointers on how to improve our performance in the next cake sale.  After the hour long meeting, we all headed to the post grad pub to celebrate a job well done.  Hopefully with all the advice we received today, the group will work smarter instead of harder for cake sale 2.