Orientation

The student orientation (on Aug'25th) was a blast. I had half expected it to be a stodgy affair with lots of Q&As, introductions and academic dos and don’ts. Well, there was some of that, but most notably, they had these team building exercises that completely made my day.

The school had brought in leadership coaches who had us play those games whose purported function is to get us introduced to each other. The cohort was divided into smaller teams and given some papers, scissors, tape (resources); the first challenge was to build the tallest freestanding tower! Next the teams got reshuffled and we were given more resources (eggs & straws). We were asked to build a protective cage that will save the egg when dropped from a person’s height. Needless to say none of the paper towers stood for the required 30 secs in that windy afternoon and the eggs all went splat. But it was a lot of fun.

The final challenge involved the whole WAMBA cohort; the challenge was to deliver a small metallic ball from one point to another using a box full of weird stuff. This one we successfully accomplished, the whole group somehow seemed to deliver and I noticed some clear personality traits. E.g., there were a couple of leaders and some who were the facilitators, some followers and others who just feigned interest. In the end there was the customary debriefing and back to the orientation hall. They served a sumptuous lunch some classy wine and cheese, and I am already looking forward to starting my weekend MBA at SCU.