The predicted end of the world has passed, now what?

Alden Erickson, TMMBA Student, Class 13

According to the Mayan calendar, the world was to have ended two days ago. As we are still here, it is fairly safe to say that their theory was incorrect. This is the latest in a series of reminders for me that our paradigms can be wrong. It took 5,125 years to disprove the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Fortunately, feedback in business is more rapid but still we can subscribe to theories for years without knowing if a better way exists. There are of course many ways to challenge one’s paradigms but I would suggest replacing them with new ones through TMMBA.

When I arrived home from immersion week, I was dog tired. My exhaustion was due in part to the intense schedule and late nights reading, but there was more. Over the week I had been exposed to a number of new ideas and my mind was swimming with the possibilities of how to integrate them into my work and life. I thought of the Team Performance Model and how to utilize the concepts of the Intangible Resource Base, Value-Related Processes, and Team Performance Context. I considered viewing my future negotiations through the lenses of Interests, Power, and Relationships. I pondered ethics and Edward Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory for Organizational Management. Yes, I was tired, but I was also happy as I stumbled through the door after a busy immersion week.

I have not fully absorbed these ideas yet. If anything, I have more questions now than when I started. In the next 18 months of the TMMBA program, I expect that countless more theories will be introduced and I welcome every one of them. It will take time to form new paradigms. However, as the end of the world does not appear to be imminent, my fellow classmates and I have time!

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