Real Talk with the St. Paul LSC-ers

During our discussion, when Mike was describing his organization, he said: "I feel like I hit that nail on the head there. And, also, probably missed a couple of them too."  In other words, we are still getting a feel for our internships - we learned a lot in the past week, but also still have some stuff to figure out (how many times have we gotten lost biking or busing? You don't want to know). 
In our community conversation this week, we discussed our initial impressions of our organizations (the culture, the people, etc.), and how the norms at these organizations compare with the norms at St. Olaf.

Having lots of responsibility in a more professional work space is a change for many of us. Taylor brought up the goal to become more creative on our own; as students, we are used to discussing things and coming up with ideas or strategies in groups.  However, this summer, it seems that many of us will be asked to come up with ideas on our own without talking them through with anyone.  We are asked to transition from our comfortability with team-based decision making to individual decision making. Strengthening this individual creativity is something we would like to work on. 

We discussed how being in these office settings allow us to see more of the "small picture" stuff that goes on inside organizations, rather than the "big picture" stuff that many of us have worked with in the past. Doing the “behind-the-scenes” work that enables the direct service to happen instead of doing the direct service ourselves is a change for many of us. Nicole brought up the question: could not being directly involved in the “hands on” service detract from the motivation to work hard because it might be more difficult to see the results?  How can we measure progress or results from our “behind-the-scenes” positions?

An overall theme was how the majority of us are in professional settings that are VERY quiet, and how some of us are spending more time in cubicles than expected (it gets lonely!).  Is there not enough social contact happening at work? A hope for us is to make more connections (and possible future friends, i.e. Mike's possible future friend “is Adam, who walks behind me sometimes” and Sudip would like to “make a lunch friend so I do not have to eat at Grill Chicken alone again). The professional business setting is a change for many of us, especially after a semester of being at the very-social St. Olaf. 

Perhaps the reason that we feel this difference in social culture is because St. Olaf is a very social place. We discussed how Olaf is probably even more social than other colleges - study spaces are designed to have students be with other people. Students check in with each other multiple times throughout the day - even just to say hi on a "study break." Our work cultures this summer are a lot less community and/or social focused.  For example, some of us work in cubicles. The idea of a cubicle seems to be "let's divide ourselves," which is extremely different from the St. Olaf culture.  Does this kind of workspace cut off ideas from being shared?  But, in some organizations, isolation is necessary in order to get the work done because there is just so much to do.  What is the correct balance?

This discussion brought up the question: Are professional workspaces too "hands off?" And, is this partly because people do not like to ask for help? What are the benefits to working independently rather than in a team (and vice versa)?   In the coming weeks, we hope to use our experiences to form opinions about the ideas and questions discussed here.