Workgroup A

The International MBA program at IE Business School is divided into 4 sections of just over 50 students each. I'm in Section 2. Our section is then divided into 7 workgroups (A-G) of 7-8 people each. I'm in group A. Here's the crew:

Top from L to R: Young (an investment banker from S. Korea. His wife and 3 yr old son are staying there.), Nicolas (a general physician from Colombia. He arrived 3 weeks late due to visa problems, so he attended class via webcam and kept up with his work over email and Skype), Mariel (of Italian heritage, from Mexico, and lived in San Antonio a while; worked with PWC accounting), Luis (worked in banking in the Dominican Republic. His wife was here a couple weeks, returned to the DR to work in the family business, and is coming back next weekend.), Paul (worked with insurance companies in project management in England and US; from England).

Bottom from L to R: Jose (Spanish with a background in corporate banking), me (a failed circus clown desperate for a career boost). Not pictured: David (another Spaniard; engineer, fellow hoops enthusiast). Behind us is a small project in process on the whiteboard. We meet in group work rooms like this all the time.

Every day we have case studies to prepare for class. We read the cases individually then meet each morning to go over the cases for that day's classes. We also have several ongoing group projects we are managing. Our strategy is to pick 1 or 2 project managers per project and to let them take initiative in leading the group and organizing things. Every morning we give a quick status report on these projects. Then we will often meet in the afternoons to work on these projects.

We get out of class at 3 pm - lunchtime in Spain. (I usually pack a lunch and work through lunch so I can hopefully get home in time for Josh's bath and bedtime.) The group will usually meet up again at 4:30. When we meet for long hours, it makes it tough to stay on top of individual work too. So far we're experiencing the ups and downs of working as a team - projects that didn't go as well as we wanted, projects that set the bar for the rest of the class, productive brainstorming sessions, and our fair share of interpersonal conflict. Real life stuff, right? I enjoy each person in my group and I love seeing each person excel in their own particular areas. It takes time to figure out each person's strengths, personality, task orientation, and management style.

Our first term ends Dec. 21. We resume class on Jan. 9. I will keep working with this group through Term 2, which ends in March. Then our section will be divided into new groups for Terms 3 & 4 until late July. After that, the program consists of elective courses, business venture labs, internships, and study abroad - so everyone goes their own way depending on their focus.