by By Katelyn Powell
“It’s time to vote on the Mayor of Grassagreena.”
As Jacob Powell votes for the Mayor, he looks around the virtual classroom at his 12-Week MBA classmates and admires their abilities to influence others. During a 3-hour immersive experience in the fictitious town of Grassagreena, he and his peers have taken on the roles of City Council members. They practiced different strategies to exert executive-level influence and now must choose the most influential student in the town council to become their mayor.
Although Jacob didn’t earn the Mayoral vote, he learned more about strategic communication from that Influence Challenge session than in almost a decade of work as a consultant.
Early Career
Jacob Powell’s career began when he interned at Enablon, an environmental software company in Chicago. Though he was hired primarily for tech support, the role quickly evolved into a full-time offer upon his graduation. The only catch was the position required relocation to Australia.
With ailing grandparents in his home state of Texas, Jacob chose the much more difficult option of requesting a full-time role in the Chicago office stateside. This required an extensive interview process and no guarantee of work.
But Jacob put his best foot forward and soon became a full-time professional services consultant at the environmental technology company in Chicago. Two years later, he moved across the country to Enablon’s Houston office, and by 2018, he was promoted to senior consultant. By then, he had honed his problem-solving skills, and he also discovered a passion for environmental health and safety (EHS).
Embracing Leadership
In 2019, Jacob moved from IT to full-fledged global consulting work at Environmental Resource Management (ERM). He quickly became the go-to resource for EHS and was promoted to a managerial role because of his individual contributions.
“I still had all my consulting responsibilities when I got my first direct report,” he said. “It was a lot of learning on the job and figuring out how to be a manager as I went along.”
Since then, his team has expanded, and he now oversees multiple consultant-level roles. When he learned about The 12-Week MBA, he thought it was the perfect opportunity to hone his people management skills.
“The 12-Week MBA was a no-brainer for me. I haven’t always had mentorship or support from my own bosses, so that’s really motivated me to become the best manager I can be. The 12-Week MBA helped me do that,” he said.
Jacob enjoyed the Management Challenge portion of the curriculum, during which he practiced coaching and delegation by speaking with AI-enabled direct reports Mary, Karen, and Patrick. He believes those learning experiences have refined his real-life management style to become more hands-on.
“I know the type of leader I want to be after playing Management Challenge,” he said. “It’s critical to give my direct reports the mentorship and training they need, but I also want to help them balance their workload and figure out how to help them achieve that next step in their careers.”
Learning from a Global Cohort
When Jacob reflects on the most memorable moments of his 12-week MBA experience, he immediately calls out Influence Challenge. The fictitious Town Council brought out the global perspectives of his peers, and Jacob was surprised by how different his solutions were from others.
“I loved hearing the different approaches from my classmates. So many things seemed black and white about influence—I had a strategy that made sense to me. But then Afees would bring his outlook, and I would see things completely differently,” he said.
Leveraging the 12-Week MBA Experience
Looking ahead, Jacob aspires to become a principal consultant and eventually a Partner at ERM, and he believes the skills he learned in The 12-Week MBA have prepared him for the next phase of his career.
“Ultimately, I want people to be safe at work and in their homes, and I know my role in environmental safety contributes to that. It’s less about a dream job for me and more about the impact I can create daily,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to a fulfilling career in EHS, and I’m feeling a lot more confident about my skills because of The 12-Week MBA.”
If you’d like to sharpen your negotiation skills by experiencing Grassagreena and the Town Council yourself, sign up now for The 12-Week MBA. We’re also happy to explore ways to bring The 12-Week MBA to your company. Click here to speak with an enterprise expert.
