Anyone who has been through an MBA program will tell you how challenging it is in terms of time and stress management. It is well known that top business schools design their programs to be demanding enough so that they adequately prepare the class to deal with stressful situations and heavy workload in their future careers.
A former Lisbon MBA student, with whom I spoke before enrolling, compared her early experience in the program to being a recruit in the special forces. After these initial 4 weeks I am in a much better position to understand the comparison. Of course I’ve had my share of 100-hour weeks during my life as an IT consultant, and it helps having recently been responsible for a team of 15 CRM support analysts scattered around 4 continents, with back-to-back conference calls with demanding customers in Sydney, Kobe, London, Madrid, Mexico City and São Paulo, an ever-full email inbox and enough air miles to redeem for space travel. Nevertheless, I am now feeling the stress of preparing case studies, homework, playing a real-time on-line inventory management simulation, having group discussions, preparing a marketing plan (all happening simultaneously), and lack of time to read class materials and books required for the end-of-term exams in 2 weeks time. Sleep deprivation is weighting down on me, and on top of it I came forward as a candidate for the students’ committee, which will require some additional effort in case I am elected.
I am fortunate to have worked in enough projects requiring organizational change management to become familiar with John Fisher’s process of transition, or the change curve for short. This is a model partially based on Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief, and often used to prepare individuals to cope with change processes in their function or organization, with the objective of minimizing resistance to change and its associated negative effects.
Understanding the model and being able to recognize the stage at which one is during the change process can be extremely encouraging, as going through the “valley of despair” requires significant emotional support in order to avoid the most common escape mechanisms. I stared at this picture for quite a while this week, and keep reminding myself how great that uphill ride is going to feel.
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