Satyen Choudhury, TMMBA Student

Before we delve into another 3-day workshop in few weeks, I thought of taking a retrospective look at our very first Orientation Program we had in December (12/3 through 12/6). It was INTENSE and really helped me to set the expectation for the next 18 months (I literally slept ~ 4 hours each day during the 4 day workshop). It was a great experience to meet all those amazingly sharp people with diverse backgrounds and from many different industry segments. The level of intellectual discussions during case studies and group discussions were simply outstanding. This is exactly what you can expect from one of the top business schools in the world. I am really glad that I made the right decision by joining TMMBA program and I am proud to be part of such an elite family.

A quick summary of the classes we took during December Orientation Program -

Ethical Leadership (TMMBA 528): What an amazing class it was ! Before going to this class, I thought I knew exactly what to do in those case-studies we did. Boy, I was wrong. The program really helped me to understand what ethics means in business and how to look at them from different perspectives. Professor Scott Reynolds was simply brilliant and did an extremely great  job in explaining those complex philosophy of  Kant and Mill and then gave us the most powerful tool in the world – The Four Corners. His charismatic personality and the collection of the world class case-studies kept the entire class thoroughly engaged during his lecture.

Professor Scott Reynolds explaining Four Corners in Ethical Leadership class

The course materials, including additional readings, are now available on our UW Black Board (accessible to TMMBA Class 10 only).

Key Terms: Mill, Kant, Four Corners, primary and secondary stake holders, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Students discussing their case studies during break-out sessions

Building Effective Work Teams (TMMBA 500): How many of you really know the difference between a working group and a team ? In this class,  Professor Gregory A. Bigley explained in details how a team is different from a work group. He taught us some key points like open communication, feed-forwarding etc. which can be used to build an effective team. The discussion on managing virtual teams was also very appropriate as most of us in the room deal with virtual teams at our work. I also enjoyed the case studies on how to deal with under-performer in your team and how to resolve issues if there is a conflict between two strong and influential team members in your team. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and more importantly, was able to utilize the knowledge from Day 1 at my job.

Professor Greg Bigley discussing how to build effective work teams

Students working on Teamwork

Key Terms: team synergy, feed-forward, open communication, team goal, meeting management, virtual teams

Effective Presentation: How many of you would really rather die than give a talk in public ? If you are really afraid of public speaking then this is the class for you. In this class, Laura Schildkraut discussed various key steps to make an effective presentation , e.g., purpose of presentation, your audience, prepare for the Q&A, use visuals, rehearse and Be Yourself and finally, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

Key Terms: practice

Laura Schildkraut discussing how to give an effective presentation

Students giving their Team Presentations

I  found the class material was enough to start working towards making better presentation, but, if you are looking for some extra readings, here are my personal favorites – 1) Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds  and 2) The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo – they really helped me in thinking outside PowerPoint and use more visuals, rather than bullet points, for effective communication. (note – these books are my personal recommendations only). And, if you are tired of PowerPoint and KeyNote or just want to try out something different, take a look at this really slick tool – Prezi. I am playing with it now and it is so COOL !!!

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