Anna Boyer
Although the planning for MAOL's first learning adventure to Cuba started over a year ago, I only began to prepare for this trip a month ago at our first orientation meeting. Over the past four weeks, we completed various readings on Cuban history, politics, economy, and culture, watched the Cuba Libre documentary series on Netflix, and spent hours in class dissecting the content and discussing our own mental models and culture.
Although I know a LOT more facts about Cuba than I did when I started, I am still not sure what to expect tomorrow when our plane lands in Havana. Our course description promises that this experience in Cuba will "offer the opportunity to increase our capacity for critical inquiry and deepen our understanding of the cultural nature of effective, ethical, and enduring leadership." We have several interesting speakers and site visits on the itinerary that should offer these opportunities.
Over the next few weeks, this blog will provide updates on our travels, descriptions of our experiences, and hopefully, insights into what makes an effective, ethical, and enduring leader. We hope you check in regularly and that, through our blog posts, you also have an opportunity to better understand how culture influences our leadership!