I hastily grabbed another cup of coffee and made my way in the direction of the meeting room. As an invited guest, I did not want to be late. When I got there a few minutes late, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not what I expected from an early morning planning and administrative meeting.
The setting was 8 am on Saturday morning and it was an intensive weekend for the students of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI). All of the students were pursuing their MBAs in sustainable business. For almost 10 years now, BGI has run an alternative green MBA program out of the shared facilities at Islandwood on Bainbridge Island. The full program has both an online component and one weekend intensive a month. Because of this structure, it can draw residents from across North America to the tiny island campus across the sound from Seattle, Washington.
The meeting that I was rushing to was better known as “morning circle” and it is just one aspect of what makes BGI special. In a large open room, about 70 students, faculty, staff and guests gathered in a circle. The format was simple. Anyone with something to say took turns and shared in brief one to two minute contributions. Roughly speaking the contributions followed the order of introductions, announcements, appreciations, puzzles (or puzzles with solutions), and hopes and dreams, although great latitude was allowed in what was offered when.
It was the appreciations section that made the most lasting impression on me. Here was the time when individuals (mostly students but some staff and faculty) spoke up about someone who they wanted to thank. It could be a simple ‘thanks’ to another student for help on their quantitative analysis (“quant”) homework or it could be a much broader heart-felt sentiment of appreciation for the way the whole community has acted. Many of these appreciations were emotional and personal. The overriding effect was to create an atmosphere of mutual support and community. I had to remind myself that this was a business school and these were aspiring managers and business leaders. Further, it was 8 o’clock in the morning and most of the people in the room had been up very late the night before.
Beyond the morning circle, the other aspect of the BGI experience that surprised me the most was the quality of the contributions in the classroom. My point of comparison was my own recent experience in completing the MBA at Sauder. I sat in on a strategy class on Sunday morning. To give a little context, this class came after three, intensive, 14-hour days and just before many would make a mad dash to the ferry to Seattle. Yet given the obvious challenges and distractions, the students remained focused on the sometimes quite abstract material.
When the professor asked questions, the students shared with very little hesitation. They offered concise, relevant contributions that often built on what was said before. It showed that they were engaged and listening to their peers. In fairness, though, the participants were well aware that they had limited time together and that this format was infinitely better than participating in an online virtual classroom. Still, in my experience, this type of discipline is rare in a class full of overachievers who often are far from brief.
The quality of an education is often determined not by its content, but the learning environment in which that content is delivered. Nestled in the quiet forests of Bainbridge Island, Washington, the students of BGI are taking full advantage of that beautiful setting by creating an extraordinary learning community.
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