A pre-commencement commencement address to the Class of 2020
Last month I had the opportunity to welcome the incoming MBA class at my alma mater Schulich School of Business during their launch week. A few days before the talk, the organizers e-mailed me to see if I could prepare a TED-like presentation. Not really knowing what idea I could share with them I decided to let them in on a little secret of mine. Read my prepared speech below to find out just what it was.
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Believe it or not, it was almost 9 years ago when I was sitting exactly where you are today. Bright eyed, bushy tailed, and wearing a brand new suit, excited to begin my new adventure at Schulich. In my head I had all of these questions. Was I ready for this? Did I sign up with the right professors? Am I sitting next to the right person? What on earth is a 601? What’s the wifi password?
So I asked myself, what can I share with you today that would’ve been useful to me when I was in your shoes? And suddenly I started to think about one of my lesser known hobbies. It’s no surprise that I love fashion, technology, food, and cars. But what most people don’t know is that I love reading and listening to commencement speeches.
I know it sounds like a strange point to start with. But let me explain.
A commencement speech is one that’s given to graduating students, usually by a notable member in the alumni community or a celebrity. The speech provides a little social commentary on the current state of the world, followed by some personal advice to graduates as they go off into the world with their newly minted degrees. They’re usually full of hope, cheer, and quotes that people will turn into memes you can find on Pinterest and Instagram in the coming weeks. Stuff like…
“…today you start down the path of becoming the generation on which the next generation stands.” — Steven Spielberg
Or Oprah, when she reminded USC’s class of 2018 to, “Make your bed. Aim high. And put your phone away at dinner.”
And I’m sure you’ve probably heard this one from Steve Jobs: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
But the thing about commencement speeches is that while they are full of meaningful and provocative thoughts that you can apply to your life, they always happen at the end of your educational experience. And I think it’s important that we have that conversation much sooner… like during your launch week.
So here’s what I’m going to offer you today. A pre-commencement commencement speech that I hope you’ll find useful as you begin your studies in the coming weeks.
The first story I want to share with you is about my experience at Schulich that taught me that you can never predict what might happen tomorrow but you should always have a plan. When I started b-school, I had plans to travel the world working with super smart people to solve big business problems at a top tier consultancy upon graduation. But just two months into the program, I was approached by Toyota to help them launch their millennial brand, Scion in Canada.
Quick sidebar, my love of cars manifested in my choice of vehicles and in 2008, I had imported one of the first second-generation Scion xB’s in Canada, and was likely the only one at the time who had modified it to show car status. More on that another time... But there I was, caught between mid-terms and an opportunity to work for one of the world’s most valuable brands. What’s a girl to do?
Well, I sat down with a few of my professors and asked for their advice. I told them that I didn’t want to compromise my education, but this opportunity sounded pretty great. One of my professors asked me, “What’s stopping you?” I told him that it would be a lot of work, I’d have to travel often, and juggle school projects with client deadlines, it would be very demanding and I might not be able to manage my time effectively… He stopped me mid-sentence and said, “Don’t be stupid,” probably the best advice I’ve ever been given. And then he told me, that “opportunity often presents itself in the form of a challenge.” Sometimes, you have to be willing to take that leap and risk that you’ll land on your feet. Never be so faithful to your plan that you are unwilling to entertain the unexpected opportunities that come looking for you.
Well, long story short, not only did I accept the offer which would later evolve into an exciting career in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi, I also became really good at focusing my time, mind, and energy at whatever I was working on.
With Toyota, I was able to travel the world, meet super talented people, drive some pretty incredible cars and solve big business problems like how to launch, grow, and eventually sunset a brand.
While in school, I joined the Graduate Business Council, Women in Leadership, and even contributed as an occasional writer at the Schulich Insider. I took a semester abroad at Keio Business School in Japan and also served as Corporate Director for the National MBA Games.
What first looked like a challenge, turned out to be an opportunity in disguise.
So my first takeaway can be wonderfully summarized in the words of Professor Alan Middleton, who like Ashwin Joshi, is a shining example of the level of expertise you’ll meet while studying at Schulich, “You should always have a plan, but hold it lightly.”
For my second story, we’re going to go from Scion to science…well social science. I did my undergrad in sociology and came across this paper by a Stanford professor, Mark Granovetter titled “The Strength of Weak Ties” that looked into how people found their jobs.
Let me break it down for you:
In social networks, you have different ties to other people. Strong ties are those characterized by deep affinity — your mother, your best friend, your significant other, your close colleagues. The people that you probably don’t filter your social media posts to.
Then there are your weak ties — they might be acquaintances, professors, or people you might have just met today. Weak ties don’t require a lot of effort to maintain and you can have far more of them than strong ones. Think about your LinkedIn connections, Instagram followers, and that Facebook friend request you accepted but aren’t quite sure why.
Now what Granovetter discovered was that most people don’t get their jobs through their strong ties but instead got jobs through their weak ties.
The key here is simple. Within a network of strong ties, people with weak ties outside the core network act as bridges to other networks. Those bridges have access to new and valuable information — like job openings or introducing you to a friend of a friend.
Think of it this way, when it comes to strong ties, like say your significant other, the network is redundant. Everybody they know, you know. Your social circle is rather limited. So we need to rely on our weak ties — like the people you have only one class or even no classes with, to open up new opportunities.
Let me give you an example.
This story is about another Marc — Marc-James Abi-Jaoude.
Marc started at Schulich in the same cohort as me. While he wasn’t in my section at the start, we ended up in the same 601 group. He was our group’s numbers guy. He loved spreadsheets and took great pleasure in creating models that helped prove our point, which came in handy when we were defending our case during finals. Beyond his financial skills, Marc was also really fun to be around. We enjoyed countless hours of healthy debate on important subjects like politics, current events, and whether we’ll be driving flying cars or wearing iron man suits in the near future.
At the time, I hadn’t seen Marc since our other classmate’s wedding the summer before, so I was happy when I received a random LinkedIn message from him in November of 2016. In it, he wrote:
“Dear Lisa. You are an expert marketer of yourself and lucky for you, on top of being an expert self-brander, you are also my friend! What makes friendship powerful is that complementary skills lead to win-win situations over time. Hopefully, I can contribute to your development in the near future.”
Well it just so happened that I had recently started to work for IBM and was given a hiring ticket earlier that week to bring on a new member to my team. Less than 2 months later, Marc joined my team and has become my right-hand man, helping me define what design strategy means to IBM Business Analytics and how we can deliver meaningful experiences for business users adopting our technology to augment human intelligence.
This takes me to the second takeaway, reach out of your existing network and build up your weak ties.
This is one of the greatest advantages of going to business school and at Schulich, there are so many ways to do this. Follow your curiosity and take a course that doesn’t quite match your interests. Sit beside a new person in each and every class. Join clubs and meet people outside of your section.
Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don’t. Take the time to learn from them, follow them on social media, ask them out for a quick coffee. I promise that it will bring out the best in all of you. And don’t forget about your professors. More often than not, they can be as fascinating as your peers and can offer you years of insight and real-world experience that can complement your education greatly.
This now brings me to my last point.
I want you to think about the long list of experiences, skills, and accomplishments that you probably put into your admissions essays. Quite impressive right? And you got into Schulich so you definitely are a force to be reckoned with.
Now look to your left, right, behind, and in front of you. Chances are, everyone around you is probably just as qualified as you are. Now I don’t want you to see this as a threat, instead, view this as an opportunity to learn from your fellow classmates, and a chance to realize how much more there is to learn about business and the world.
This was likely the biggest challenge for me when I started my MBA. Instead of pushing to lead, I had to learn how to become a better social architect. In order to meet deadlines while working with different viewpoints and collaborating when personalities seem to clash, I learned how to spot the skills and talents of my fellow teammates and figure out how to remove any blockers that stood in their way.
The truth is that great managers don’t perform on stage, they set it. Try your very best to remove any blockers to create opportunities where everyone’s genius ideas can be heard and harnessed in order to make your projects and assignments become works of collective genius.
What I found was that I could learn so much from my peers, and in many instances, so many of my weaknesses could be neutralized by my classmates. If you are willing to listen and be open, you’ll be able to share and combine the talents and passions of others with yours.
It is within those intersections where real innovation happens. It is within those intersections where you will find the value in your Schulich experience. It is within those intersections that you’ll be able to form Voltron, Power Puff Girls, The Avengers, or whatever your ideal collaboration may be.
And so I’ll leave you with a few final words of advice as you begin your new journey as an MBA student. The world around us is filled with a lot of complex, multidimensional problems, and we need open, adventurous, and fearless people to tackle them. Don’t wait until graduation to figure out your purpose. Take risks, accept challenges, be curious, build your network, be humble, and have fun. Don’t worry, Schulich is going to provide you with a world class education, but it’s what happens in between your classes and outside of your comfort zone that will make your time here truly valuable.
Good luck and see you at Convocation. Congratulations incoming class!
