Message from Module Leaders

“Over the course of the 88km trek through the Gobi Desert, MBA students will learn how to lead a team in the face of adversity and uncertainty. Focusing on leadership in action, students will spend five  days tackling gruelling terrain with their EMBA counterparts to enhance their crisis leadership skills, empower team collaboration, and discover their ‘blind’ and potential selves through self-reflection and team feedback activities.”

Dr. Jean Lee, Professor of Management, Co-Director, Centre for Family Heritage, CEIBS and Dr. Byron Lee, Assistant Professor of Management

Agenda from a Recent Module

Day One: Briefing

• Gobi module briefing

After arriving in the remote city of Dunhuang, MBA students received a brief introduction of the module, covering the challenges they would face, objectives to achieve, and a thorough safety briefing for how to cover the vast distances during the three-day trek.

Day Two to Day Four: Gobi trek and leadership building activities

• 88km hike through the Gobi Desert from Shibaocheng to Pochengzi
• Group discussions, team feedback, debrief, and camping

Three days were then spent hiking through the Gobi desert, with stops at various intervals to take on challenging group activities. Each day was concluded with a team debriefing, cross team sharing, and dinner, during which participants were encouraged to reflect on their team and individual performances throughout the day.

Day Five: Back to the classroom

• Classroom based lectures and reflection on leadership
• Summary, banquet, and closing ceremony

Back to the more familiar surroundings of the classroom, MBA students collectively discussed how team dynamics, management of bottlenecks, and team collaboration played a large role in the successes or failures of the teams during the module.

Testimonials