Been reminding myself, I have to document what I went through and experienced during the 2-day consulting workshop last weekend, 13-14 March.
Nothing could mentally prepare you for what was going to happen at the workshop and you just find yourself thrusted into the situation with random group members, a hungry stomach and a questioning mind. So, you’re acting as a team of consultants attempting to win the deal with your client that wants to implement a change in the organizational culture to one that advocates radical innovation and breakthrough thinking.
So what happens is that you have to work with your team under very tight deadlines to read the case and materials given to you (which was really information overload) and decide on questions to ask your clients and your managing consultants that have worked with this company before.
So, my group went on to do badly for the first 2 meetings (even the professors acknowledged it) and hence, was down to a very low morale. To make matters worse, there were several disagreements within the team as differences certainly existed amongst us. However, we got through those and really worked very hard during the whole night. Each of us took turns to go home, take formal wear and rest for abit before rushing back to school. Final presentation was scheduled at 930am we only finished our slides at 9am. That was how tight it was.
We went to sit through an agonizing 6 presentations. Being the third team to present, we saw the standards that have been set and thought we were certainly on par with some. Finally, all presentations were made and profs announced the result. 2 teams tied at 1st place and… we were one of them!!
We were estatic, high-fiving and laughing. This was certainly one of the most memorable moments of my life in Business School. The endless project meetings never really made an impact on me, but this one was different. Being forced into the situation without prior information, made me really deal with the case at hand, bearing in my time was not on our side, and these were people you never worked with. The thing that really surprised myself was how my mind could really keep working under this pressure for a long period of time (I only felt tired at about 4am).
It was certainly one of the best learning experiences I had and am proud my team and I have achieved what noone expected us to. Hooray!
