Final Thoughts: Business, Government and Public Politics

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my Final Thoughts on my experience in the Leading People & Organizations course. Now that I’ve finished my exams, I’ll complete the Final Thoughts series with a summary of each of my fall semester courses.

Getting into the Class. I didn’t bid on this this class because I was preoccupied with the idea of taking New Venture Creation. Alas, NVC and I were not meant to be (and I think I’ll always be a bit sore for having missed that opportunity). One of my first-year student teammates had registered for Biz, Gov’t & Public Policy and, on his recommendation, I joined the waiting list. Some time between the first and second class meeting, a spot opened up in the class and I registered.

Deliverables. No exams. Over the course of the semester you prepare two five-page (single spaced) policy memos on a topic of your choosing, one 20-minute group presentation on the same topic, and a final two to three-page case memo. My initial impression of the syllabus was that the workload was light, but because of the open-ended nature of the memo assignments and the considerable amount of research my topic involved, I ended up spending a significant amount of time and struggle preparing the deliverables for this class. I’m not kidding when I say that the policy memo assignments were open-ended. It is left up to the individual student to structure and plan the policy memo without the use of an example (some students wanted more direction and were frustrated by this).

Reading Assignments. A fair amount of reading was assigned, but I am under the impression that many students in the class got by without completing any of the reading. Most of the assignments were from the Baron text (a very expensive textbook, which I bought and found to be of little to no use in preparing deliverables but interesting in its own right). In addition, a limited number of cases were assigned.

In-Class Simulations. There were two. My favorite was the cap and trade simulation. There was also a legislative exercise that reminded me of Model United Nations.

The Professor. The professor, who also teaches Energy Law in the full-time MBA program, is an academic with practical grounding in his subject matter. The practical grounding is something I’ve really come to value as a student (this is typically more of an issue for me in law school courses–I prefer a professor who has actually practiced law at some point). I found the professor to be fair and empathetic.

Misc. Lots of LBJ kids in the class. Their presence added to the diversity of ideas in class discussion. This class would also be a good fit for a law student looking for a change of pace.