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The Harvard MBA Program 1999-2000 booklet (the blue booklet they sent you with the app.) notes: “The nature of business is changing, driven by powerful forces of globalization, technological innovation and intense competition.” That sentence, in typical HBS style, contains one of HBS mantras: Change is unstoppable, change is getting faster, change is driven by technology, change is increasing competition, change is good BUT change is costly, painful, and scary to execute– and thats where the Harvard MBAs come in.
A great answer to this question will recognize that change is a difficult to execute, not so much as part of a mini-lecture about change, but in the details. Do not tell them about change in general (they invented the buzz word) show them in the specifics of a change project you worked on.
A good rule of thumb: think about how you have helped a group or organization manage change. Manage captures the idea that change is both good and necessary but that change is also disruptive and costly.
Another important word in the question is help. The Question only requires that you have helped an organization change, it does require that you led the change, or were even most responsible for it. Fact is, the Harvard app. asks you for a lot of high moments in your life: your most significant leadership experience, 3 significant achievements, and this question. If you are like most people (even defining that to mean most people who attend HBS) producing five great moments begins to tax the historical record. So keep in mind that for this Q., you can do an excellent job as a minor character. For example, you can describe how you helped your group adapt to the Big Change made by the Titans in the home office. See, e.g. essay 2-2.
THE GREAT ANSWER TEMPLATE:
That being said, this question is very similar in MACRO to Q. 2 on Leadership. The format is:
1. Quickly set-up the situation;
2. Using “buzz-word” type headings (see below);
3. List 3 or 4 specific things that you did to help the group or organization change (which can include a family, club, chat room, etc.)
1. Set-up: In 1994, I was [situate your role, describe the organization or group, identify what the change was, and what challenges the change represented]. 100 words.
2. Analysis: As a result I [describe three or four concrete things you did to help the organization change.] 200 words.
THE BUZZ CONCEPTS IN A GREAT CHANGE ESSAY:
Again, the key to Part 2 is the ability to analyze your conduct in an incisive, honest, personal and convincing way, linking it to general management buzz concepts if appropriate. Examples of such buzz concepts in the change context are:
o I helped communicate the change goals to the group
o I valued feedback from interested parties
o I stressed the benefits of the new arrangement
o I shared the pain.
o I knew that many people were change burnouts,