Video: For New MBA Students, It All Starts with Managing Groups & Teams
The first course that MBA students take introduces them to the challenges and rewards of learning how to form, manage, and participate in teams.
After completing orientation last week, the Yale School of Management MBA Class of 2019 is now diving right in to the program’s rigorous curriculum with the first course, Managing Groups & Teams. The weeklong immersion jump-starts students’ team-building education by introducing them to the challenges and rewards of forming, managing, and participating in teams. It forms the foundation for the students’ next two years at SOM.
Managing Groups & Teams mixes theory with practice, first teaching students how to effectively manage teams and then assigning exercises during which they get to test that knowledge. The course is also a chance for students to get to know the members of their learning teams, groups of eight or nine peers who will work together closely throughout their first year at SOM.
The challenges and lessons of this first course will resonate across the Class of 2019’s next two years, as the Yale SOM integrated curriculum provides escalating team-based challenges, pushing students to extend and deepen their skills. In addition, in the spring term, students tackle Global Virtual Teams and work on an operations assignment with peers at other business schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management. Students will also hone and flex their team-building skills by leading clubs, launching new ventures, or working on academic projects with students from other parts of Yale.
Get a closer look at what students experience during the Managing Groups & Teams course in this video from 2016: