Students

A First Year Perspective

2012-09-19

As some of you know but likely most do not, I am entering my first year of MBA following my initial year in the Masters of Architecture program. My pursuit of a dual degree allows me a unique opportunity to offer a comparative perspective. I was accepted to the W. P. Carey MBA and the Herberger Institute simultaneously. As an Ohio native, a place 1500 miles from Tempe, I did not know what to expect from either program. Even with the finest research there is always a degree of variability. After all, it is quite different to read or watch a flash video about something and actually become immersed in the culture. Nevertheless, it was exciting to discover that I was to be a member of two prestigious programs. Countdown was my initial immersion into a business environment. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 7 days, I was to associate with people who had obtained 3 – 5 years of experience at large global corporations, with resumes miles long, boasting feats like turning $25 million dollar mom-and-pop shops into $25 billion dollar multinationals. I felt a huge need to impress but did not quite know how to go about it and had not the resume for it. It was clear the first day that it was imperative to have a face as smooth as a baby’s bottom and have squeaky clean shoes that shone like the sun, a suit that fit perfectly in all the right places, and to follow specific and deliberate norms of behavior: Coming from a world of Tom’s, or of suit coats existing only to cover an AC/DC t-shirt this was all very strange to me. My old world was a place where high design was matched only by high informality; where everyone wore glasses but nobody required them. We had a scheduled studio but we could generally come and go as we pleased; as long as it was somewhat pertinent to the task at hand we were free to do, make, say, and think. In MBA, I have never been more concerned about my hair and about being clean-shaven. Every morning my fingernails are perfectly cut. My clothes are clean, organized, and formal. I feel myself constantly worrying about things I’ve never had to, about things I would prefer not to: I do not have 3 – 5 years of professional experience. I do not have the impressive resume. I do not have the expensive suit or the shiny shoes. That being said, I am lucky. I am lucky because many people in the business program have offered to help me get acclimated: to take me shopping for the correct suits on a Sunday, or offering advice on proper procedures for a business interview, letting me know how to be and when to be it, reminding me to wear slightly different attire for a callback, and mostly sharing norms of the business world with a smiling face and genuine attitude. It has made my transition much easier. In addition, I have noticed that the MBA program is delightfully inclusive. This aspect is only partially realized in the Tom’s and AC/DC t-shirt utopia I have described above. Ironically, the informal nature of design results in an unnecessarily competitive culture. Each student designs something that is inherently subjective and, most of the time, way cool (at least in my opinion). Unfortunately, the student then turns what should be an open discussion on the meaning and other general readings of the design into a pursuit for distinction. There is a tendency to crave “proving” architecture and making designs “objectively best”. Though this may exist, there is no reason to believe a human will ever attain such things. Nevertheless, this trend persists to the detriment of all. At the end of the project, an esteemed panel of registered architects critique the student, telling them the various pitfalls of their design and then concluding that the design is not good enough and adding, “You know I could do this better than you, don’t you?” In one specific design group I will leave nameless, members are not even able to agree on a course of action. Individual egos have taken a stranglehold on the project rendering it essentially ineffectual. Every conversation is a roadblock, every scribble a trench — a line drawn in the sand. Everyone is objectively right; everyone’s design is superior to another’s for no particular reason or “just because”. The good designers, however, know that this is not the way to create good designs but there is a larger problem in all of this: These designers have never gotten to know themselves. If one doesn’t know themselves they cannot possibly know what they can offer. More importantly, they cannot possibly know anyone else. A huge portion of the MBA program is to get the students to know themselves so that there is no ego; or rather the ego is properly directed. In the business school, an emphasis on personality tests, emotional quotient tests and the like has resulted in a comparatively more collaborative environment. Many people do not believe these are important things but I can say with 95% confidence they are. Why? If one knows themselves they can correctly allocate their strengths, they will be more confident, and they can correctly lead. So far, this has been my comparative experience in the MBA program: Only self-knowledge begets knowledge of others and only then can skills be properly directed. This will allow us to not only be leaders in whatever we choose, but to be effective. We can contribute and, with patience, allow others the same privilege to the larger discussion, a discussion that designer’s should be having and aren’t but can. It is a discussion which is egoless, not objective but optimal, and most of all collaborative and holistic. This seems to a major goal of MBA.