Goodbye Ireland

Yesterday Jan asked us to do an exercise where each person had to say what they appreciated about everyone in the group. We took turns and each person had his or her five minutes of compliments. At first I was hesitant about the assignment, but it turned out to be extremely meaningful. I could tell each person tried to say something truthful and unique about each member of our group. 

I also thought the timing was necessary. I felt the group had experienced some frustration the past few days with the stress of the group projects and tensions were running high. We really needed something to bring us back together and remember the positives of our classmates.

I was really taken aback by some of the feedback from my peers. Sometimes I dwell on my negative attributes and it was nice to remember some of my strengths that I bring to the table. I hope I can remember what each person said the next time I am feeling insecure at work or school. I really do believe this MBA program could give me the confidence I need to take the next step in my career. I honestly think this exercise will be one of the highlights of the entire trip. Not just because of what it taught me about myself, but remind me how a compliment can reunite a team.

Today we listened to three guest lectures and then toured the salesforce and google offices. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Salesforce and Google, both companies less than 20 years old who went from small startup in a basement to billion dollar companies. In my opinion, the theme of both of these companies is innovation. As long as companies constantly pour time and resources into research and development, they will continue to be a top player in the industry. They can never become complacent and need to continue to change the vision.

Time to head to our goodbye dinner.

Ireland has been a great trip with lots of highs and lows. Even though I complained about keeping a blog each day, I do like getting into the habit of reflecting on each day. I am excited to collect all of my thoughts about the trip into our final paper and figure out what I learned from the experience as a whole.

Sick

Today we went to cliffs of moher. I was extremely sick the whole day. I will update more tomorrow because I really need to sleep.

Peace Lines

Today we checked out the peace lines between the protestant and catholic communities. The lines were built in 1969 to help decrease the violence for six months. Obviously the walls were never taken down and have now become a tourist attraction for powerful messages of love and peace. We heard from two local cab drivers about the history of conflict. 

One thing that stood out to me was when the communities sent children to America for summer camp to integrate the two religions and help relieve some of the tension.

The goal was to encourage relationships without the influence of their family and communities while they were still young and impressionable. 

The program was successful but then the children returned to Ireland where they were once again segregated. The two communities had to find a way to reunite the two groups and make a lasting difference so they started an integrated school for the children to attend. 

I loved the idea that change was up to the youth.

My favorite part about the wall was seeing the female empowerment in the city.

“Women’s Voices Matter… Equality for all.”

“Nevertheless She Persisted”

“I’m sorry for trump, please forgive use”

“Build bridges, Not walls”

I added the famous Gandhi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

I think this wall was extremely powerful given our current political stance in the world. I truly believe a wall is not the answer between the United States and Mexico and I think we should try to learn from history rather than make the same mistakes.

Titanic

Today was a great day. In fact, it might have been the best day of the trip. After waking up at 6am to run with one of the leaders from a company we headed to our company to finish our projects and present. Our group rocked the project. I was really proud of the end product!

Afterward I finally went to the Titanic museum. I cannot describe how thrilled I was. This was the part of the trip I was most excited for. 

I have a lot of thoughts about this museum.

I am going to separate my thoughts into four sections. 

First I am going to discuss my initial thoughts of the lay out of the museum. 

Secondly, I am going to highlight the new facts about titanic I learned today. 

Then I am going to address some suggestions I have to improve the museum (with input from roommate Carolyn).  

Finally, we need an entire section devoted to outlining the inaccuracies of the James Cameron movie and highlighting the success of the film.

Thoughts on the titanic

-        The first two exhibits are unnecessary. I wanted the museum to focus solely on the ship. I thought there was a lot of frivolous information about the industrial revolution and growth of Belfast. #snooze

-        I found the SOS calls to be a fascinating addition which showed the crew’s last correspondence with neighboring ships

-        I thoroughly enjoyed the video that showed each level of the titanic

-        I believe the last level which explored sea exploration was a “wee bit” off topic

-        I loved the ride that took you through the ship building

Here are some new facts I learned today:

-        Brittanic (another white star ship) struck a mine in 1916 and sank in an hour. Nurse Violet Jessop survived both ship catastrophes.

-        At the bottom of the ocean the ship is covered in “rusticles” aka rusty, icicle like structures composed of bacteria which eat iron in Titanic’s steel

-        Mr. Bruce Ismay tried to hide the Titanic from the news the first two days after the tragedy. There was a lot of conflicting news reports about the sinking of the ship.

-        It only took 15 minutes from the time the ship was submerged in water to the time it hit the ocean floor.

-        How they recovered 330 bodies from the ocean.

Suggestions for the museum (with ideas from Carolyn)

-        Recreate the ship hitting the iceberg and a play by play how the ship broke apart and eventually fell to the ocean

-        Assign a passenger when you enter the building and find out later if your person survived the wreck

-        Include details about the lavish parties the guests had before the ship sunk

-        Show the place where the ship kept first class passenger cars

-        Recreate the front of the boat so people can recreate the famous Jack/Rose scene

-        Rebuild the famous stair case display

-        Play Titanic films and soundtrack in the background

-        Have a pool of water that is the temperature of the water the night of April 12, 1912.

-        Give more details about who survived the wreck, who was a hero, and who was a villain.

Titanic Movie by James Cameron

-        Put a picture of the actor next to the real life picture so we can compare and contrast the accuracies

-        Include more information about who was a real character in the movie

-        Create a shrine to James Cameron’s movie success (second highest engrossing movie of all time, most oscars winner of all time, etc.)

-        Address the deaths of prominent characters and illustrate if this was an accurate portrayal (captain, architect, Macy’s creators, etc)

And with that I must leave you. Such a great day. 

Definitely potential for some more thoughts on Titanic in future blogs.

"Largest and Safest Ship"

Busy Day

Today was insanely busy. I have to wake up in five hours to run with Eddie (a leader in Ireland) and I just got back to the hotel for the first time since 7:30am. We started working at 8am and went straight to happy hour with the CEO and workers. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. We had an amazing connection with the leaders of this organization.

Here is my group at dinner (9pm - felt like South America!)

I felt like we experienced the five dysfunctions of a team in the span of two days. It was amazing to see our team go through the trials and tribulations of working together and producing a product. I really felt proud of the work we accomplished today. For the duration of time of the project and our knowledge of the healthcare industry, I think we produced a great deliverable to present tomorrow. We found over forty different companies they should target in their entrance to the american market. Tomorrow we are going to narrow down the companies to our top ten recommendations.

After happy hour we checked out this trendy bar downtown. It was full of birds and oddly decorated. I had a deep discussion with two Irish men about American politics. I was impressed with their knowledge of our country's current events. They knew who Elizabeth Warren was! I feel ashamed at my lack of knowledge about other's countries elections.

This is a picture of Belfast from last night when I walked around the Titanic quarter.

Belfast

Today was a long day but it might have been one of my favorites of the trip. We finally met with the company we are working with for the class. Our group is teamed up with Explorisitics, a data analysis start up looking to break into the American market to work with pharmaceutical companies. We are going to help design a market strategy of which companies they should target in the US. I believe it will be a lot of work but also the most rewarding part of the trip. I loved meeting the team and seeing where they work. I feel like this experience will be the most applicable to my career and the part of the trip I can take back with me and use in my work life. I think this company has a lot of potential and it will be great to see where they head in the future.

In the morning we saw where the Titanic docked. Considering my love for the movie (that I recently re-watched) it was so interesting to learn about all of the history. I learned the White Star Line owned two other boats: Britannic, Titanic, and Olympic.

Apparently Britannic also sank and killed 30 people! I asked why this boat company did not rebrand after two of the three ships sank. I also learned Olympic needed repair which contributed to the destruction of Titanic because the workers did not properly work on Titanic when there was a fire on the ship. I find the Titanic history to be fascinating and this tour was a great start! Now I just need to visit the titanic museum and I will be completely satiated.

This is where the Titanic docked before it set sail!

After the tour we listened to guest speakers. We learned more about the feud between Catholics and Protestants. I found it fascinating someone could tell someone's religion just by their name. Apparently the two religions are segregated until the University when they finally have a chance to intermingle. No wonder the two communities fight! It's interesting to compare to the United States where racism is prevalent but you can't hide your race. From the outside perspective (I grew up Jewish) I can't identify if someone is Catholic or Protestant. I would categorize them under one umbrella: Christian. But the feud is not only about the religion but the feeling of loyalty to your community.

We heard some more entrepreneurs speak and learned a lot about how high risk results in high reward. I realized as an HR professional, I have no desire to start my own company but later in my career I would find it interesting to work for a smaller company and be a jack of all trades. I know being an entrepreneur is extremely hard work and I like my path of Human Resources. I would love to eventually help a company become established in their policies, compensation structure, and development plans.

On a more somber note, I am still devastated about the Ariana Grande concert. As I was reflecting on the day, my mind kept wondering back to this news. I am sure I would have felt this way in America, but maybe it feels worse since I am literally closer to the proximity of the concert venue. I found out Ariana is paying for all the funerals of the victims of her concert. I can't even imagine the guilt she must feel even though this event has nothing to do with her as a person. I am sure she feels responsible. I heard she cancelled the rest of her tour. There was more information released about some of the victims including a 15 year old girl who went for a friend's birthday. The last big international trip I took was around the time of the Aurora Shooting. I remember every day constantly thinking back to those victims and their families. I think every day I am here I will be reminded of this tragedy and my heart goes out to those poor young victims. The worst part is this attack doesn't even surprise me. It's so common these days. My heart breaks for those families who are experiencing the worst thing that could ever happen in a person's life. I wish there was something we could do.

Iveagh house

Today we had a somber start to the day. We found out there was a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. It was a weird way to start the day especially when there is a CU Denver study abroad program in London. It also really upset me knowing the main demographic for an Ariana Grande concert is young teenage girls. No one deserves to die in a terrorist attack, but to learn the youngest victim is eight years old year, really breaks my heart.

Before our trip to Belfast, we spent the morning touring the Iveagh house to learn about Irish foreign policy. 

One of the most interesting facts I learned was how the Irish Potato Famine impacted the population (1845 -1852). During that time, one million Irish citizens perished due to lack of food and two million emigrated to other countries. This was one third of their entire population! The census bureau does not expect the population to reach the level it was at its height until 2050. I can’t imagine the impact of losing a third of your population in one decade.

I am also very curious to see how Brexit will affect Ireland and Northern Ireland. The European Union allows freedom of business and labor between members of the Union. I believe this political decision in the UK will have a negative impact on Great Britain and bring unwanted consequences due to their isolation from the rest of the continent. We learned before the class from writer Jim Lyons, this is an opportunity for Northern Ireland to reunite with the rest of the Ireland if they want to stay in the EU. Based on our conversations today, it sounds unlikely that both parliaments would have a majority vote to reunify the country of Ireland. Politics are so complicated and there will always be people positively and negatively affected by any political decision.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with the CEO of the company we are paired with this week. I am excited to meet Dr. Aiden Flynn of Exploristics in person before the week!