Well I got dinged today 🙁 Really, really tough to swallow as Wharton was my first choice. I can’t help but wonder if it was the TBD that did me in. I did not purchase any prep package, but perhaps should have, as I may have done/said something “wrong.” If so, I really regret it and hope future candidates can learn from my experience since my group wasn’t what seemed to be the more typical super-friendly relaxed group. My topic was “innovation.” Here’s my experience:
Unlike the other groups I saw around me, mine was very tense. We spent a good 10 minutes going around the room explaining our ideas. I don’t think anyone understood most of them as they were so vague and broad. I actually thought for a second we were doing “social impact” because several of the ideas clearly fell under that umbrella. After the ideas, no one wanted to start the vetting process. Instead, we spent at least 5-10 minutes (overly) complimenting (random) parts of each others’ ideas, and one individual kept trying to combine everyone’s ideas into one. We were getting nowhere fast. So I tried to jump start the vetting. Only two ideas were actually focused on innovation but one of them was already being done through the school’s innovation initiative. I mentioned this, and since this idea was very broad, I asked the individual to elaborate on it because I was certain that there would be more details that we could take and build on. But he couldn’t. He stumbled and said, “I don’t know.” I was shocked and the room seemed to get even more tense. Dead silence. I immediately knew my comment may be perceived as an attempt to throw him under the bus, even though I was simply trying to direct the conversation into a more focused direction. Ugh…
Instead of keeping the conversation focused on innovation, it ended up being more of the same – talking more about social impact investments and trying to combine four ideas into one. I made one last attempt to recalibrate the topic. I mentioned how Dean Robertson talked about “innovation” in the context of programs/resources that help students to compete in times of rapid change due to globalization and advances in information technology. I thought the Dean was clearly stating that investing in innovation meant giving students some kind of an “edge” in the real world. People agreed, but then soon after ignored my comment. Rather than having a real dynamic conversation, people seemed to just be committed to their pre-planned strategy – defend their idea, overly compliment others’, and combine other ideas. At this point, we had only a couple minutes left and still 4-5 ideas. Guess what the final idea was? a combination of three ideas that had absolutely nothing to do with innovation – the vaguest idea I’ve ever heard.
Beyond having a logical, defensible idea, I didn’t really prepare for the TBD. My theory was that flexibility would work best in a dynamic conversation. So within my particular group, I thought my role was to keep the group focused, and that facts, literal interpretations, and logic would be appreciated by Wharton. In hindsight, I may have just come across as a jerk. Within this TBD framework, I’m not sure if it ever pays to be the odd man out, regardless of how logical it may seem (and especially with a tense group). Blending in is perhaps always the correct strategy. If I’m right on this assessment, then the TBD accomplishes exactly the opposite of what it intended to do.
