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MLDP Recap: Spring 2013 Kick-off Session with Darin Eich

Read a student's account of our most recent session in our Management Leadership and Development program below. For more information, about MLDP, click here.
Kick-off Session with Darin Eich
The Rockefeller Center’s Management and Leadership Development Program (MLDP) is in full swing for Spring term, just in time for the start of baseball season. MLDP slammed its first session out of the ballpark on Tuesday, March 26th, as guest speaker Darin Eich focused on developing students’ networking and collaboration skills. Eich possesses a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of Root Down and Branch Out: Best Practices for Leadership Development Programs.

During the session, Eich energized students to start improving their networking and collaboration skills in preparation for the rest of MLDP. Eich described Dale’s “Cone of Learning” model that portrays that people retain information best through active learning and through a combination of “saying and doing” instead of passively absorbing information. To drive home this point, Eich split everyone into groups and ran people through a series of activities designed to exercise a person’s communication and innovation abilities. One of the most popular activities of the night was the “elevator speeches.” They allowed students to share their personal story, such as their goals, their passions, and their on-campus, extracurricular activities so that other people could learn about them. People were able to learn about each other, emphasizing the concept that “talking to five people for one minute is better networking than talking to one person for five minutes.”

Most students taking MLDP want to network with their peers and Eich’s session was a perfect catalyst. As MLDP progresses, students will continue to be presented with opportunities that allow for interpersonal networking. Our kick-off session hit a grand slam in that respect.

--Written by Joshua Schiefelbein ‘14 
Rockefeller Center Student Program Assistant, MLDP Staff