MBA

FIELD: Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap

For most of its history, HBS students have been immersed in a case-study method that has encouraged them to think like leaders. Now, as an integral part of a Schoolwide effort to pursue innovative approaches to management education, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) gives students meaningful and numerous opportunities to act like leaders, translating their ideas into practice.

Intended to bridge the knowing-doing gap, FIELD is a year-long Required Curriculum course—layered on top of the core RC of ten courses—with three modules:

Leadership Intelligence: FIELD 1 engages small teams in interactive workshops—held in new flexible classrooms called "hives"—that reshape how students think, act, and see themselves. Through team feedback and self-reflection, participants deepen their emotional intelligence and develop a growing awareness of their own leadership styles.

Global Intelligence: FIELD 2 immerses student teams in emerging markets, requiring them to develop a new product or service concept for global partner organizations around the world.

Integrative Intelligence: FIELD 3 brings the entire first-year experience together by challenging students to synthesize the knowledge, skills, and tools acquired in the RC within a real microbusiness they must design and launch themselves.

Building on HBS's historic strength in the case method, FIELD pushes an MBA education beyond learning management principles in an action-oriented discussion context and into direct experiences, that, through integrated study, practice, and reflection, develop graduates capable of inspired leadership.