Giving Back By David Bunker

Take Away

‘It’s Not All About Them’

An executive MBA program helps students connect with one another— by incorporating ‘philanthropic teambuilding’ into its orientation sessions.

For some time, Katherine Lilygren, executive director of the Berkeley–Columbia Executive MBA program, had noticed that the free-form social gatherings that launched the bicoastal, 19- month program’s orientation session worked fine for extroverted students, but left out studentswho were more introspective and task-oriented. Lily- grenwas determined to change that—beginning with the Berkeley–Columbia class that went through orientation lastMay. Workingwith OdysseyTeams, which special-

izes in “philanthropic teambuilding” workshops, Lilygren wanted to breakdownthe traditional bar- riers that cause competition rather than collabora- tionamong high-intensity students, and to unlock their learningand leadership potential.“We had a

who has lost an arm or a legin a landmine explo- sion, a farmingaccident, or a natural disaster. Bill John, Odyssey’s president and CEO, describes the program as “empowerment of the head and heart”—an emotional experience that taps into a powerful desire on the part of corporations and their employees, and universities and their students, to re-inject meaning into their daily routines. For Berkeley–Columbia, Odyssey took the

MBA program’s guiding principles — “Beyond Yourself,”“Question the StatusQuo,”and“Con- fidence Without Attitude” — and wove them into the HelpingHands model. “It really sets the culture of the institution here,” Lilygren said. “It’s not all about them.” Students arrivingfor the orientation, which was held at Berkeley’s Haas

“We had a group of students who had not met each other before.We needed them to form a tight, cohesive unit.”

group of 70 studentswhohad not met each other before,” Lilygren said.“We needed them to get to know each other, to trust each other, to form a tight, cohesive unit.” Most of Berkeley–Columbia’s students are vet-

eran business leaderswhoare returning to school —meaningthey’re familiar with corporate culture and have sat through endless PowerPoint presen- tations and countless motivational seminars. Lily- gren said:“Alot of the students in our program are in a place in their careerwhere they have done a lot of these sessions.” But Odyssey was uniquely qualified to upend

their expectations. Since 2000, the Chico, Calif.–headquartered company has offered sever- al CSR-based teambuildingworkshops, including Helping Hands, in which participants assemble prosthetic limbs for someone in a foreign country

School of Business on May 18, were greeted by tables full of plastic parts, screws, and springs, and divided into teams of three. The teams worked together, slowly assembling the itemsuntil a pros- thetic limb took shape. Each part of the assembly was paired with a lesson about trust, communica- tion, and the power of teamwork. Lilygren noticed an immediate difference in the

students following the three-hour program. The70 people who had entered the conference room as total strangers somehowhad become comfortable working as a team. For a group of business profes- sionals who were hardwired to be unflinchingly competitive and individualistic, thatwas no small achievement. “The exercises really helpedtomake themfeel really safe with each other,” Lilygren said. “They couldput themselves out there but really feel supported by their other classmates.”

ON_THE_WEB: For more information about the Berkeley–Columbia Executive MBA program, visit www.berkeley.columbia.edu. To learn more about Odyssey Teams, visit www.odysseyteams.com.

22 pcma convene January 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT HANSON

Connecting the Dots For Berkeley– Columbia Executive MBA students partici- pating in Helping Hands, the connection between the limbs they built and the eventual recipients was cemented when they watched a video about the recipients and painted personal decorations on the bags that would hold the limbs. Berkeley– Columbia’s Katherine Lilygren said: “You know that someone’s life will change because of what you have done.” For international

students, some with firsthand experience of the damage that can be done by land- mines, the experience of building prosthetic hands was especially powerful. In surveys and evaluations, stu- dents across the board identified Helping Hands as the highlight of the entire orientation program. “It was definitely a home run,” Lilygren said. “I was more pleased than I could have imagined.”

David Bunker is a freelance writer based in Truckee, Calif.

Giving Back is sponsored by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, www.fairmont.com.