Rowan Spazzoli

Strategist. Lecturer. Consultant

An odd type of serendipity

Throughout my friend’s visit to Cape Town this past week we referred to Adele’s “Someone Like You”, as it was part of an awkward scene in a series we follow. We kept singing it a cappella while driving and at one stage we went through CDs in my car on the off chance we’d find it, but to no avail.

We were heading to the airport this evening and having a great chat. As we were approaching the drop off area I spontaneously changed the radio station.

And there it was.

The opening chords to the epic Adele ballad.

Naturally, we lost our minds.

We sung it at the top of our lungs and voice noted our friend group. Even after we parked we continued to belt it out, to the horror of the security guards.

It was an odd bit of serendipity. A chance occurrence that was magnified by the fact that we hadn’t heard the song all week, despite consistently bringing it up.

In reality, it was probably some form of confirmation bias or Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, where we ignore all the other possible times this could have occurred in favour of a single confirmatory data point. It may even have its own specific term to describe it.

However, despite my academic mind’s attempt to recognize this as nothing more than a psychological phenomenon, I still find it meaningful. It was a chance happening that capped off a joyous few days.

It was our own odd little moment of serendipity.

Image was taken on our visit to Kalk Bay on Sunday afternoon

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A Culture of Resolute Friendship

I left high school just over six and a half years ago. Over that time I have had many amazing friends, but my friendship with my school friends still stands out as one of the most important. The group of five of us are incredibly close, and we are still a very central component to one another’s lives.

I discussed this last night with one of the team members over a whiskey and cigar on a balcony. We realized that our group has developed an unwavering culture of friendship, where we will make any sacrifice to see one another, no matter how small the window of time is. For example, I was in Joburg for one day last month and we managed to squeeze in a 7am breakfast just to see one another.

We also try to arrange a big trip for our group at least once a year. This year we rented a house in Wilderness for a week, next year we’re planning 10 days in Dullstroom and in 2019 we’re aiming to go to the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Our whatsapp group has been going since 2012, and is active almost every single day. We discuss everything from our work lives to sport, and will regularly use to vent or tell stories.

This resolve and commitment to our friendship has created a self sustaining culture that will transcend any changes in our individual lives. We’ll make time for each other whether we have families, change jobs or are on the other side of the world to one another.

Almost seven years out of school and we have grown and shaped our friendship into the most beautiful shared experience. With these four people, I can unashamedly be myself and know that they will always be there if I need them.

I cannot wait for all the spectacular years of friendship to come

Image is from Beau Constantia’s wine tasting room. Earlier this year, one of the friends was down from Joburg for work and suddenly some time free. Naturally, I stopped what I was doing and we met up and had a wonderful afternoon together

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Saving for Experiences

My normal day to day spending is quite frugal. I rarely splash out on fancy things, I limit my grocery shopping to the bare necessities and I maintain a really small wardrobe.

On the other hand, when it comes to sharing experiences with friends I am happy to spend any amount of money. This includes trips and holidays, meals at fancy places and any other adventures.

I save on the everyday and celebrate the extraordinary days, whatever they may cost. Because these extraordinary days will forever be in my memory and form part of my shared experience with my friends.

It’s in these moments when the true magic of life happens

Image is from my adventure with two of my closest friends today. It broke the bank account, but it was worth every cent

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Uber Conversations

I met up with a friend of mine yesterday who had just gotten out of an Uber. The man he met had a Masters Degree in English Literature and taught English to grade 11 and 12 students. He was absolutely blown away by this exchange, which included a discussion on poetry and how to improve education in South Africa.

Today we took two different Ubers. In the first we spoke about football and the driver told us some incredible stories from his Uber driving experience (including how someone had once Ubered a piece of cake from Newlands to Camps Bay). The second driver told us a story about some ridiculous Joburg people he had in his car.

What I love about these conversations is that it brings together people, who otherwise would never have met, and can be the spark for a great conversation. For a brief moment a group of people from potentially different worlds are brought together.

I wonder how much influence these conversations have in changing people’s perspectives. And I wonder if we could ever emulate them through any other medium. Maybe it’s just one of the many ways that technology is starting to bring people together

Image is from the back seat of the second Uber 🙂

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Updating our exam practices

The course I lecture on, Strategic Thinking, aims to avoid examining how much someone is able to parrot learn and instead tries to test their reasoning, analysis and insight. Some of the ways we do this include:

  • releasing the case study for the exam 2 weeks before
  • leaving the questions as open as possible (i.e. not being prescriptive)
  • allowing students to bring their course readers and notes into the exam
  • alleviating time pressure by making the exam four hours long
  • not setting a memo but instead having a discussion around how we would approach marking each question
  • anonymising the exam papers so there is less bias in marking (which has to do more with our process than how the student thinks)

At this point we’ve done about as much as we can within the university’s rules. However, there is still a long way to go. As we move into the fourth industrial revolution, knowing content/information is going to be less important than having the ability to think critically.

We all need to update our teaching practices to ensure we prepare our students for this future.

Image is from the strategic thinking exam in 2015

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Wall Running

I saw a video on YouTube a few months ago about trampoline wall tricks. My immediate reaction was “omg I really want to learn how to do that.”

Three weeks ago I joined a dodgeball team at Rush, a trampoline park. During one of the breaks I decided to try to wall run. I wasn’t even able to fall onto my back and bounce back up.

I spent the entire session trying to do this, and could hardly manage it without getting a whiplash. By the end of the session, I could just manage to bounce off my back and onto my feet.

Two weeks ago I started trying to maintain a rhythm while tapping my feet on the wall. I could manage a couple in a row at most

Last week I got to a point where I could maintain a perpetual bounce by pushing off the wall. It felt epic.

This week, I spent the entire time trying to bounce off my back, wall run and stand up on the ledge, which is about 3m high. After an excessive number of tries and an onset light headedness, I managed it.

What I love about this is the clear, measurable and visible learning process. From not being able to bounce on my back to being able to wall run it was less than four total hours in just under a month. The key to getting there was a conscious commitment and the will to push it a bit further every time.

I’m not quite at the level seen in that video. But I know I can get there if I put my mind to it 🙂

Image is of the BYD Dodgeball team. It’s the first time the team has entered the league, and we’re not doing too badly 🙂

 

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Going Beyond

When dealing with students in the courses I manage my mantra is to consistently go beyond the call of duty in helping them. In my email exchanges I often include an offer of support if they need it. I’ll sometimes come to campus just to meet with one student to chat about their exam worries. And I’ll give out my number in the course documentation in case there is an emergency.

It can sometimes be very tiring and overwhelming . Particularly in a week like this where we’re dealing with protests, final DP/ marks lists and are a week away from exams (which are taking place in a militarized tent). In the last 2 days alone I have had almost 100 emails that have been tended to.

However, despite this it is worth it. It creates an environment where students aren’t afraid to ask for help. It gives them the opportunity to stumble without the fear of wiping out. And most importantly for me, it sometimes helps foster a deep and long lasting connection that goes beyond the course.

And this is where the magic lies for me. For the majority of students, they’ll never engage this much or need the support. But for the one or two that do, I can have a real impact. And that is ultimately why I teach- so that I can be involved in helping a person grow in their academic, personal and professional life, and that I can grow alongside them.

So yes, it can be exhausting some times. But going beyond is what makes it worth it, and I wouldn’t change a thing

Image is with Langa Manqele (Centre), one of our guest lecturers on the course and Vuyo (right) one of the students.

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Make Hay While the Sun Shines

On my white board at home I’ve begun writing up a list of potential blog ideas that I didn’t use on the day I thought of them, cause I had something else to write. One day, when I get writers block or begin to run out of ideas for #365of25, I’ll turn to this list for inspiration.

Such fluctuations in life are inevitable and often out of our control. We experience intense highs and deep lows, in almost all spheres. One of the ways in which we can handle this is taking some of the up and helping it smooth out the down.

This may sound cliche but it’s a genuinely good strategy for managing turbulence. Some of the ways I do it include:

  • Going over an above the required work on the courses I manage so that when I’m not managing other people can step in.
  • Preparing food for myself when I have the energy to so that there’s something for when I’m tired.
  • Saving as much money as I can when it’s available so that I can draw on it when I need it.
  • Setting up systems to manage any mental health problems when I’m in a good head space to help when I’m in a bad one
  • Then blogging example mentioned above

It’s not a particularly revolutionary system. It’s essentially an inter-temporal shift of available resources. But it’s a simple and effective tool for managing life’s inevitable ups and downs.

Image is from a recent holiday with school friends. It was taken somewhere on the road between George and Cape Town

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