altMBA .: My experience
Like promised, here is my review of the altMBA.
Why I decided to do it
After leaving my last job as a Special Advisor to the Portuguese Secretary of State for Industry, I realised that I missed structured learning, and since I have mixed feelings about traditional training programs, I decided to look for something different (Hyper Island, KaosPilot, Udacity, etc), and the altMBA stand out for the approach taken (they have a 97% completion rate, which is almost unheard of anywhere else) and because I’m a big fan of Seth’s work.
With the program, I wasn’t looking at developing any specific skills or competencies. I was mainly interested in expanding my horizons, meet interesting people and be surprised. Who knows what might happen!!
There isn’t that much information about the program available online, so I looked at my network for people that have done the program before and Susan and Carolina not only have done it, but also agreed to talk to me about it.
With their positive feedback and reinforcement, I decided to take a leap of faith, apply to the program and eventually got in. I joined class 28.
A couple of months later, I received at home a box full of books (you can find an incomplete list here), that helped me understand a little bit better the program and what to expect.
How it works
The program is 4-weeks long (each week you are part of a different group) and it’s organised in 13 Prompts that you need to answer, either individually or as a group.
For every prompt, you go through a 3-step process:
- Group discussion (+3 hours via zoom), work and then ship. Each prompt was different, full of links to explore, interesting insights and challenging and, in the end, a clear action plan. The prompts had several layers of meaning, built on each other and with time you started connecting the dots. It often happened to me, to go back to previous prompts or work shipped, because they later made more sense.
- Feedback. On the next day, you would need to give feedback to 5 colleagues. Providing valuable feedback was not always easier, but I took a lot of value from reading my classmates answers to the prompts. You really get to know them, through their work and reflections.
- Reflection. On the third day, you would need to write a reflection on your work. Here you had to take into consideration not only the feedback on your work, but also your own reflection on the work done.
I personally found this process amazing! Unfortunately, in traditional education you just do the work and then you have a grade! Personally, it were very rare the times I’ve done something at school, received qualitative and insightful feedback and then had to reflect on my learnings.
Another interesting thing about the program are the coaches. They provide great feedback and are always there to support us.
It’s also very clear that over the years they got very good at delivering value with the program. The program, the tools, everything works flawlessly.
What I learned from it
I believe the program is great to face your fears, cut the crap and take responsibility for where you want to go next. It provided me a toolbox that I was probably missing, because having gone through the process, I now feel much more focus and clear about my priorities.
Final notes
Would I do this again? Absolutely. Is this for everyone? Probably not. I believe the program is designed to make you more entrepreneurial and get stuff done (I don’t necessary think that I was missing those skills, but nevertheless, I got a lot of value from it). The colleagues with more corporate jobs, where the ones I saw getting more value out of the program. I also saw colleagues blossom and get much more confident, because for the first time “in their lives” they felt empowered about their career and had a support network they could rely on.
I already signed up for my next training program. This time, I’m trying a “traditional” MOOC. More on that later.
