Will my MBA make me an expert in anything?

Read, discuss, write, read, discuss, write, analyze, struggle with some canned simulation problem, that's what I've been doing for the last eight weeks. That's how Marist has been training me to manage change. Will these things make me an expert in change management? Maybe. That will really depend on what I DO with all of those random bits of information that I've picked up during my class.

My organization is getting ready to go through a very serious transition. At least the executive leading the change envisions a serious reorientation of what we do and how we do it. I'm not so sure that everybody else feels the same way. We had a big meeting on Friday where the details of the new organizational alignment and the philosophy behind that structure were shared with the entire group. There was no excitement when the meeting broke. Just another rearrangement or who reports to whom. Big deal.

A change management expert would recognize the mood of the meeting and know how to get people excited. That's what separates me from the expert. I may be able to draw from an inventory of different ideas and theories about changing organizations, but I really have no idea how to apply them. I see the same gap between my research skills and the less experienced scientists I work with. Both of us can do the same things in the lab, but they don't know how to use that knowledge to answer a question. They have the knowledge, they're just not as adept at recognizing when and how to leverage that knowledge.

The expert has that intuitive sense of what needs to be done to resolve an issue. That instinct comes from doing. Expertise is really just knowing what will work without being able to explain why. The last eight weeks certainly hasn't given me that sense, but I did get a much better sense of the implicit aspects of leading change efforts. Experts pick up on little things that other people miss. It's about seeing more than what's there to be seen. The explicit contains everything that you need to pick up on the implicit, the unseen, the felt. It's just a matter of being able to see how one relevant fact connects to other relevant facts.

I'm going to attempt to influence how my group receives the details of the new organization. It won't make me an expert, but it's a start.

Will my MBA be nothing more than an incremental improvement?

I'm really just adding a feature that so many other people possess. My MBA won't even be from a program that gives me a boost through mere association. I know that I'm benefiting from the program, but I'm not just sure if the amount of time and effort that I'm putting in will be worth whatever benefits I may derive.

This thinking is really just me wondering if this program is the best use of my time. I think about the things that I would rather be doing than spending my nights working on school stuff and I start to wonder if the returns on this effort justify the lost sleep, the reduction in blog posts, fewer workouts, and neglect of various work activities.

I'm not really sure what I would do that would be a more radical improvement in my capabilities. Most of my voluntary activities would likely deepen my existing skills and expertise. I can't think of much that would broaden my perspective like the MBA classes. I guess if I can ever come up with something that is more compelling, I'll leave the MBA program and work on that. I guess I can use the amount of effort I put into finding something else to keep me busy as a gauge for my subconscious desire to keep pursuing this status quo project.