My end of mod paper

Seeing as I've just finished Mod I and my good mate Kiwi has posted his end of Mod reflections, I thought I would do so too (yep, I'm a copycat). Seeing as I'm a bit lazier though I decided to repost my end of mod paper as my reflections (seeing as I got a good mark for it I figured it wasn't too bad). Hopefully I'm not breaking any school law by doing this.

Here it is.

End of Module I LDO Paper – Reflections and Learnings from Mod I

Introduction

It’s hard to believe that it’s already the end of Module I. It seems like not that long ago that I was embarking on a journey, a journey of enlightenment, learning and fulfillment – the MBA journey at Babson College. It’s been one of the busiest months of my life, but it’s also been one of the most exhilarating. In many ways it’s been quite an amazing experience, exceeding all my expectations of the program so far. The rest of this paper will outline why this is so. And what’s the best thing about it? It’s only been a month – there’s almost two more years of this to go!

Personal background and program expectations

I wanted to share a little bit of my own personal history, as well as my expectations of this program before it started, so as to provide some perspective on the impact of Module I on my learning process. My undergraduate degree is in Marketing, while my professional background is in consumer products – with Unilever and Johnson & Johnson. I’ve also spent some time in the supply chain function. Both of those companies have a strong reputation in embedding “soft skills” such as leadership and communication in their management trainees, as well as “hard skills” like product management, shelf management and product positioning. But the reality is that in a work environment you are largely learning on the job – there is no systematic process to facilitate ongoing learning and thus it is difficult to build a “management toolkit” in a constructive way, as there are always operational deliverables which need to be met. In other words, work experience can only take you so far – I firmly believe that you need to have an MBA to supplement that work experience, to help you build that toolkit you need to truly succeed as a manager and leader. A final key point was that I wanted to ultimately strike out on an entrepreneurial path in the future. This made the pursuit of an MBA, particularly one which focused on entrepreneurship, as the logical next step in my career.

So my expectations of the Babson MBA program were clear:

1) I wanted to be challenged

2) I wanted to learn things that I didn’t know before (adding to the toolkit)

3) I wanted to impart some of my own learning and knowledge to my peers and colleagues and I wanted them to do likewise to me

4) I wanted to do all this in a school which facilitated shared learning, both from faculty and my student peers, with an emphasis on innovation and creativity

Module I – Key Influences and Learnings

Case method of teaching – “teaching by asking instead of telling”

There’s no doubt the workload for Mod I has been extensive. The case method of teaching requires a lot of preparation work. Sometimes the sheer volume of readings can overwhelm you. But I believe that this method of teaching contributed to my learning process in that:

1) It teaches you about time management, including prioritization and delegation

2) Case method is a great way to get students to actively participate in discussion on a range of relevant business issues, hence transforming them from mere receivers of information into active partners in the learning process

I believe that the workload associated with Module I has helped me to improve my time management skill, a skill which is extremely important for a manager. This is particularly relevant for those times when it is impossible to read everything – there were times when I needed to make some priority judgments on what I felt was most crucial to prepare on.

More importantly, the case method – also known as the Socratic Method, or “teaching by asking instead of telling” – really encourages class participation in vigorous debate in an environment that encourages us all to think outside the square. Preparation of cases has conditioned me to be an active reader, constantly questioning the material I am preparing, rather than just passively taking it all in. This was a departure from my own business experience where business thinking can often be distilled into a rigidly delineated process – the case method of teaching encouraged me to think creatively and challenge every aspect of the cases I had to prepare, in an effort to better understand the nuances of the case. Better still, it encourages every other member of the class to become an active participant in the learning process, thus propagating the free and vigorous exchange of ideas. I believe classmates are as valuable a learning resource as faculty – and the case method allows each of us to benefit from the experiences of a very diverse class.

Creativity – unfetter your mind

They say that creativity is the seed of innovation. This is particularly crucial to entrepreneurial businesses, but is relevant to any business that wishes to gain an edge and remain competitive in today’s business environment. The Creativity Project was one of Mod I’s more unique aspects – but one which in hindsight has been proven to be an extremely valuable part of my learning process. I’ll confess that when we were first told of the Creativity Project – that we would be drawing – I wondered exactly what this had to do with an MBA.

Even worse was the fact that we appeared to be given virtually no guidance on what form our final presentation would look like – in fact, we were forbidden from even talking about that for the first couple of weeks! The ambiguity and lack of clarity was frightening. It was enough to make a results-oriented manager nervous. But as the time went on I began to realize the tremendous value it had. It forced me out of my comfort zone and into a zone where I was surrounded by ambiguity. It put me in a situation where I was given no guidance on what my final product would look like. In short, it gave me a totally clean slate to work from. It taught me that ambiguity and uncertainty, while scary at first, is a necessary part of the innovation process, and can also become exciting and full of opportunity when recognized and utilized accordingly.

Team Process Day

Team Process Day was extremely valuable in that it drove home the importance of being able to effectively work within a group of disparate people when particular stressors are applied to that group. In today’s business environment, more and more people are having to work in (and lead) cross-functional teams where no one person has line management authority on the other members of the team. To ensure that the group works well, it is important that the group is able to develop a set of core processes to enable it to function effectively, as well as manage conflict and differences in opinion in a positive manner. Group members must be prepared to exercise leadership irrespective of whether it is vested in them or not. Conflict must be used in a way that encourages idea generation and exploration of all possibility, in the spirit of problem resolution. Our Team Process Day, where our teams were faced with challenging situations with varying sets of constraints, gave us a practical example in how to effectively manage group conflict and group processes, while having deliverables to meet under time pressure.

Another interesting aspect of Team Process Day was the emergence of different styles of leadership. I’ve been a big fan of John Goleman’s Leadership Model where he talks about the six styles of leadership (“Leadership That Gets Results”, HBR 2000): 1) Coercive (“Do what I tell you”); 2) Authoritative (“Come with me”); 3) Affiliative (“People come first”); 4) Democratic (“What do you think?”); 5) Pacesetting (“Do as I do, now”); and 6)Coaching (“Try this”).

One of the key learnings for me from Team Process Day was the reinforcement that my leadership style is primarily Coaching/Democratic. This is probably influenced by the fact that throughout my career I have had to lead cross-functional teams which included members which were senior to me in the organization structure, and so I have had to learn how to influence without authority. However, the time-sensitive criticality of some of the Team Process Day events (e.g. the blindfolded two squares exercise) highlighted to me the need to sometimes have to adopt other leadership styles depending on the situation – in that case, a Coercive or Pacesetting style would have been more appropriate.

Where to from here – my future as a manager/leader

Mod I has given me much more clarity on where I see myself as a future manager. Through being an active participant and partner in the learning process I have been able to identify specific areas of management that I believe I am in – for example, in Coaching/Democratic leadership style and in my ability to be able to influence without authority. I have also identified areas that I am deficient in, for example the ability to resolve conflict in a positive manner, and to be able to adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation. What the readings, exercises, assignments and class discussions have done for me is provide me with a structural framework to apply management tools to improve these areas of deficiency and to reinforce areas of strength. I look forward to continuing this learning experience through the rest of the Modules.