Teams..Teams..Teams..

Working in teams can change the way you think.
Working in teams will teach you how to accept things.
Working in teams will help you achieve your goal.

The Queen's MBA program focuses a lot on team based learning. At the start of the program, students are allocated into teams, the criteria being gender, culture, age, education, GMAT, work ex and the HBDI results. These teams that one gets assigned to will function just as they would in the workplace – drawing on the diverse skills and experiences of all team members.

I got my team today. Our team comprises of six members. Over the next 12 months, this team will be my new family The team is expected to work on assignments and projects together. Dedicated Team Facilitators will work closely with us and assisting in the process of team building.

So how is my team.? Here is the profile.

M: Work Ex: 25 years.A first generation Canadian,with British parents,has a Metallurgical Engineering degree, earned his CMA degree,has integrated financial systems of new acquisition and is a fitness aficionado ( does a couple of triathlons each year.). He plans to lead a new venture, with an eye to taking a nanotech application to commercial success.

S: The only female in the group: Work ex: 2 years, A Canadian engineer who joined Accenture as a Business Consultant.She has been involved in several global software implementations for big US clients.For her last project, she has been splitting her time between Finland, the midwest USA and Brazil.Her passport is quickly running out of pages to stamp!

JL: Work ex: 9 years. Belongs to China and has majored in pharmaceutical sciences. Posseses excellent knowledge about Drug Administration line in Canada and China.

SP:Work ex: 4 years Lived in Denmark for 3 years before moving in to Canada 12 years ago. Of Indian origin,a Computer Engineer, his last post was as the Associate Director of a big Telecom company in Canada. BTW, he is a certified flight instructor !!

V: An Indian IT engineer, worked in UK for 4 years before coming to Queen's. April - May 2006 is very significant in his life as he got married in April and joined Queen's in May, two major developments in his life.

And the last one is me…And you know who I am.!!

Classes started today at 08.30 am today and got over at 10 pm. Pretty exhausting day!
We had some fun team building exercises where we got to know our team well. The class also took part in the 'Sub arctic survival situation’ test and learnt a few key lessons.

I have talked to a few of the alums and all of them have mentioned that the team based learning gets the best out of us.I hope I'll learn a lot from my team and at the same time contribute to it.

Before I sign off, here are a few learning’s from the day.
-Teams generate more ideas, define problems better.
-The team values should be to have respect for the team members and for the team approach.
-Trust is a key element in teams.
- The best way to learn from a failure in a team event is to reflect on our experiences and think how we could have performed better.

Itz a tough day ahead for us tommorow too. The 'High Performance Team' sessions go on from 08.30 am in the morning till 10.00 in the evening. I'll try getting a picture of my team tomorrow.