Class of 2010 IMBAs learn about leadership, communication and collaboration in an increasingly cross-cultural business world.

 

2010 - Tsinghua University celebrates its centenary in the 2010-2011 academic year, at the same time that Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management (SEM) celebrates 20 years of MBA education.  Tsinghua MBAs, both past and present, have benefitted from Tsinghua’s dedication to innovation and continuous improvement, and over 40 of the incoming International MBAs (IMBAs) from the class of 2010 (graduating in 2012) received a taste of what is to come at Envision EMI’s “The Envisionary Leader.”  The three-day leadership seminar challenged IMBAs to reconsider what it meant to be a leader through interactive lectures, team activities, and periods of individual reflection.  The IMBAs were introduced to new tools and frameworks for leadership, communication and collaboration, and were asked to take the first step in becoming a “Modern Day Global Leader”.

 

 

Leadership, communication and collaboration are “soft skills” important for navigating the nuances of leadership in economies marked by globalization. The Envision EMI seminar stressed the application of new frameworks to help modern day global leaders tackle challenges in cross-cultural communication.  The rise of China has rapidly increased the need for sophisticated leaders to help companies unite talented but disparate teams divided by language, culture and education.  “We brought to this orientation a vast diversity of social and cultural mindsets, and that will be our strength as a group,” said Thomas Gatley, class of 2010: “What was transformed was our understanding of, and empathy for, these differences; I’m sure that our future collaboration will be markedly superior as a result.”

 

 

The seminar was the first class for Tsinghua’s IMBA program, encouraging students to challenge their preconceived assumptions of leadership while redefining what it meant to be a leader in today’s dynamic business environments.  On Day 1, students learned about their personal leadership style and instincts through a modified Myers-Briggs assessment, and worked on activities that highlighted how leadership takes many forms.  On Day 2, students were confronted with tasks that stressed their ability to share and convey ideas in a variety of conditions.  From trying to create a perfect square while blindfolded to navigating a “maze” while silent, students were able to immediately see how different modes of communication and different styles of leadership emerge in trying situations.  Finally, Day 3 asked the students to put thought into action, as they collaborated on a number of team projects, culminating in a competition to build and market a fictional product.

 

“There was definitely an evolution in the way we worked as a team from the first to the last activity,” said Valeria Rojas, class of 2010: “At the end, each team had to solve a complex problem requiring an innovative solution, market that solution to the group, and execute the solution: to be successful, we had to have goal clarity, communicate effectively to share a mental model, and build strong interpersonal relationships based on collaboration and trust. That we were able to accomplish these tasks in 75 minutes with multicultural teams comprised of both our Chinese and International classmates is a great sign for the class of 2010, and shows how much we have learned over these past three days.”

 

Both Chinese and International students learned a lot from the experience, and the different cultures and backgrounds offered immediate dividends in the application of the frameworks presented.  Envision EMI Facilitator Brian McClimans noted: “When the Chinese students arrived, that was really the ‘a-ha!’ moment. From both groups, you could see the tools and frameworks come together as the activities drove them to understandings about themselves and each other over the three day event, and each group ended with a much better understanding of how to work together as a team.”

 

 

Tsinghua University has a new vision of the future for its new century, and for the SEM IMBA class of 2010, that means focusing on bridging divides in leadership, communication and collaboration between East and West. By completing “The Envisionary Leader”, the class of 2010 has taken the first step in their two year IMBA journey, and is one step closer to becoming modern day global leaders with the ability to transcend geographic and cultural differences.