To thrive in business, it is essential to understand how to work in teams that depend on motivational leadership rather than opinion leadership. The learning team at Coles is a laboratory purposefully devised to develop such skills.

Domestic learning teams

Groups consisting of five to six students are assigned to collaborate on assignments for the duration of the program. Because the team is not self-selected, there is a juxtaposition of diverse skills, interests, and backgrounds. The team structure therefore encourages trial and error, risk-taking, and possibly creative friction among members as they learn to collaborate and lead within a group of peers.

With no formal leader, teams may rely on individual team members to lead specific tasks and projects yet they will rarely grant a single individual formal leadership authority over the other team members. As such, the learning team experience is similar to that of a team of senior executives who work with a great deal of autonomy under a CEO's leadership or as CEOs and other leaders would in strategic alliances.

Global learning teams

In addition to your domestic learning team, you will venture on a global teaming experience that will last a lifetime. You will spend 10 days in Bucharest meeting global teammates from top European companies face to face for the first time. After returning to the U.S., teams work virtually for several months on business projects. The grand finale occurs when the Romanian EMBA students reunite with their American teammates to present their final projects in Atlanta.

Unique to Coles Executive MBA teams are prepared to thrive at the onset of the program using academic foundations of teaming and leadership.