By Anna Diehl, MBA 2012
The third in a series of reflections on UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Sustainability Immersion, our capstone experiential learning course where graduating MBAs work to solve real-world business challenges in Eastern North Carolina and East Africa.
In a few short weeks, I will be sitting at my new desk at General Mills using my newly minted MBA brain to make decisions, solve problems, and drive results. Although the majority of “MBA brain mass” was developed over the previous seven quarters, the Sustainability Immersion brought to life many principles that extend beyond theories and formulas and prepared me to continue to enable change in the “real world.” Here are a couple lessons that stood out:
MBAs meeting with Yehu Finance entrepreneurs
Approach life with childlike inquiry. As part of our project with Yehu Microfinance, I squeezed into a 15 x 15 beauty salon with three other MBAs and 13 women to participate in a microcredit group meeting in Likoni, Kenya. As the meeting went on in Swahili, I was able to see life transpire as some women checked cell phones, jotted notes, gossiped with friends, and glanced into the busy street outside. I also saw big brown two year old eyes staring into my face from his mother’s arms. His eyes were full of hundreds of questions—“Who is this person?” “Why is she so funny colored?” “Why isn’t she talking?” . . . Through our conversation of eyes and smiles, I was reminded of the beauty of pausing to absorb the world around you and seek answers. As the day progressed this state of inquiry was essential when words failed due to language barriers and we worked to connect our MBA knowledge with the reality of these women’s lives.
Choose dancing. “As business people we have to choose. We can’t treat everyone the same. We must privilege voices and set priorities,” our professor, Lisa Jones Christensen stated as we sat on the on the patio of our Mombasa home. Lisa’s quote reminded me that we are trained decision making machines at business school and emphasized how the immersion taught me to thinking even more deeply about that power.
The ability to have choice was one of the first observations we made about what separates
MBAs choose dancing!