Sammy Farrah, WG'07
“The learning team gives you an opportunity to learn from the expertise of others. In many ways, it is more valuable than classroom learning because it is more intimate. You don't have two hours in every class to hear about the experiences of 60 people, but you have days of hearing about the five people on your team. You get to know them well, and your experience is deeper.”
» Read more about this EMBA learning team.
Abby Greensfelder, WG'02
“Since so much of the work at Wharton is group-based, you end up finding out a lot about your own strengths and weaknesses, and what kinds of people complement you as a leader and a team member. In your day-to-day work, you tend to be surrounded by people who are like you. Now I look for a balance. I also had a chance to participate in a leadership workshop that helped me home in on my strengths, to understand where I can add value as a person and where I want my career to go. It was a life-changing endeavor.”
» Read more of this alumni perspective.
Leadership learning starts from your first-year learning team, where you work with classmates from diverse industries to achieve common goals. The learning team model, pioneered at Wharton, gives you the chance to explore different leadership styles in a risk-free training ground that promotes both leadership and collaboration.
A group of five or six students is assigned to collaborate on assignments throughout the first year, drawing together students from a broad range of careers, interests, and backgrounds. The team structure encourages trial and error, risk-taking, and creative friction among members, as they learn to collaborate and lead in a group of high-level peers.
Learning Team Experience
- Learning Team Mini-Workshop: During the opening week of the program, you meet your learning team members and begin to explore the team dynamics that will shape your first year. The workshop is led by the program's senior adviser on group effectiveness and career development, who continues to coach and mentor teams and individuals throughout the program.
- Coaching and Mentoring: The program's adviser on group effectiveness and career development works with teams to help them become effective learning communities that capitalize on their diverse strengths. Collectively and one-on-one, your team works through issues that either enhance or interfere with team dynamics and productivity. The adviser also provides individual counseling to students on a wide range of program and career-related issues applicable to mature students – from keeping a healthy work-life balance to handling difficult job situations to maintaining personal identity in the context of the corporate world, including cross-cultural issues and social identity.
- Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork: A cornerstone of the learning team experience, this core course focuses on horizontal and vertical leadership, team building and performance, team leadership, and ethics. The course examines concepts and builds skills through team projects, class discussions, problem-solving, case studies of leadership examples from history and business, and role-playing.
- Field Application Project: Learning teams work as consultants to a company, using a real business issue selected from among those currently faced by team members. Each student contributes unique experiences and perspectives, providing substantial resources for problem solving.