The last day of school

I'm pretty emosanal today. Officially, it was my last day to school. Exactly two years, 3 months and 1 day ago on 2007, Sept 13, I  had attended my  650 class(first semester requirement), Organizational Analysis and Behavior.

After we practiced our final team presentations for our capstone course (final semester) 689,  Strategic  Management class today, my teammates AJ, Vlada, and Karan (right to left) posed for a picture.

Below, Professor Theodora Welch (Strategic  Management) and Angel, one of my classmates from a previous Services Marketing class.

Just when I was walking down the corridors of Wheatley for the last time, I heard Professor Novak's voice. I couldn't believe my luck. It all tied  back together -ending where it started. It seemed like yesterday when I had walked into a new country and a new life, for my MBA program. The then Director of the College of Management had introduced me to my 650 class Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, Prof Novak.

I waited patiently outside his classroom for about half an hour while he was giving feedback to a student of The Front End of Innovation class. It was worth it. He was almost as happy to see me as excited as I was to see him on my last day of school. He asked about my future plans which I readily shared. When you are happy, you want the world to know you are happy, and want them to be happy with you.

A graduate student probably expects some kind of salvation at the end of a rigorous coursework. My redemption is in the knowledge that in an odd sort of way -it all makes sense.

Of recipes and MBTI profiles

Here's my customized recipe for Palak Paneer (spinach and cottage cheese):

Ingredients:
Spinach 1/2 kg
Paneer 100 grams
Onion 1
Butter.
Bay leaves 2-3
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder .
Ginger-garlic paste 3/4 tsp.
Garam Masala Powder 1 tsp.
(You can also put green chili paste and cumin seeds for your taste. I prefer not to use them in this dish )

Method:

1. Pressure cook / Boil in sauce pan the spinach (with salt) for about 7-8 minutes (just before the first whistle).
2. Drain remaining water.Blend the spinach leaves in a blender to have a smooth even paste.
3. Cut paneer into small cubes.
4. Heat 1 teaspoon butter . Fry the paneer pieces on 'medium' heat till they turn slightly brown. Set the paneer pieces aside.
5. Heat 2 tsp butter. Fry bay leaves (and cumin seeds). Add finely chopped onion /paste. Fry until the onions become pink.
6. Add salt, black pepper powder. Stir well.
7. Add paneer and spinach. Pour required amount of water and set to cook in "low" heat.
8. Add garam masala just when it is about to be done.

Serve with paranthas and chutney. Also, recommend me some of your favorite recipes.

*****

MGT 650 is one class where even after 3 hours, you wish: Hey, yeh dil mange more!
Last Thursday, we were analyzing the results of our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality inventory , which rests on psychological types described by Carl Jung . The Jungian model classifies individuals in positive terms, by what people like rather than what people lack.

Establishing relations:
Extrovert/Introvert

Generating information:
Sensing/ iNtuitive

Making decisions:
Thinking/Feeling

Choosing priorities:
Judgmental/Perceptive

The combinations can be:

ISTJ Quiet, serious, earn success by thoroughness and dependability. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized – their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.	ISFJ Quiet, friendly, responsible, and conscientious. Committed and steady in meeting their obligations. Thorough, painstaking, and accurate. Loyal, considerate, notice and remember specifics about people who are important to them, concerned with how others feel. Strive to create an orderly and harmonious environment at work and at home.	INFJ Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision.	INTJ Have original minds and great drive for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. Quickly see patterns in external events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives. When committed, organize a job and carry it through. Skeptical and independent, have high standards of competence and performance – for themselves and others.
ISTP Tolerant and flexible, quiet observers until a problem appears, then act quickly to find workable solutions. Analyze what makes things work and readily get through large amounts of data to isolate the core of practical problems. Interested in cause and effect, organize facts using logical principles, value efficiency.	ISFP Quiet, friendly, sensitive, and kind. Enjoy the present moment, what’s going on around them. Like to have their own space and to work within their own time frame. Loyal and committed to their values and to people who are important to them. Dislike disagreements and conflicts, do not force their opinions or values on others.	INFP Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them. Want an external life that is congruent with their values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, can be catalysts for implementing ideas. Seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is threatened.	INTP Seek to develop logical explanations for everything that interests them. Theoretical and abstract, interested more in ideas than in social interaction. Quiet, contained, flexible, and adaptable. Have unusual ability to focus in depth to solve problems in their area of interest. Skeptical, sometimes critical, always analytical.
ESTP Flexible and tolerant, they take a pragmatic approach focused immediate results. Theories and conceptual explanations bore them – they want to act energetically to solve the problem. Focus o n the here-and-now, spontaneous, enjoy each moment that they can be active with others. Enjoy material comforts and style. Learn best through doing.	ESFP Outgoing, friendly, and accepting. Exuberant lovers of life, people, and material comforts. Enjoy working with others to make things happen. Bring common sense and a realistic approach to their work, and make work fun. Flexible and spontaneous, adapt readily to new people and environments. Learn best by trying a new skill with other people.	ENFP Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and spanport. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.	ENTP Quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems. Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another.
ESTJ Practical, realistic, matter-of-fact. Decisive, quickly move to implement decisions. Organize projects and people to get things done, focus on getting results in the most efficient way possible. Take care of routine details. Have a clear set of logical standards, systematically follow them and want others to also. Forceful in implementing their plans.	ESFJ Warmhearted, conscientious, and cooperative. Want harmony in their environment, work with determination to establish it. Like to work with others to complete tasks accurately and on time. Loyal, follow through even in small matters. Notice what others need in their day-by-day lives and try to provide it. Want to be appreciated for who they are and for what they contribute.	ENFJ Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.	ENTJ

Making use of individual differences can benefit an organization/relationship, while ignoring or merely tolerating such differences doesn't. Probably, that is why when someone I know had every element opposite to what I have, I laughed and said: You complement me in every way! That's one way to look at it. He said: That's the only way to look at it. :D
Another thing we were told in class is that the instrument is robust enough to measure the cognitive style of an individual even if he changes the scores. For example, Prof Novak was still an INTP (I had guessed him to be an INTJ) after 20 years he had taken the test first and had changed the allocation of scores considerably. However, it is not unnatural to see changes in the profile with time. In fact, with conscious efforts, you can change your type.

About 60% of the class had the core elements ST, and only 3 had NF.
While STs make good middle managers, NFs are visionaries, people-oriented and imaginative. But the catch is, in most organizations, you have to have to be a middle manager first to become a C-level executive.

You can take one of the tests I found online here, which is quite different from the one I took in my course text book (if you find a shorter one online, please forward the link)
Also, here's a short list of the characteristics of the 16 possible types.

Any guesses what my MBTI profile came out to be? (I have dropped enough hints for the perceptive )

The Road Ahead. While walking to school last Thursday.