More on Action-based Learning at MIT Sloan

Can I create my own projects for the International Action Learning Labs?

The projects are just luck of the draw for India and China Lab.  In China Lab there were 16 teams and 16 projects, in India Lab 4 teams of 4 and four projects (this was a pilot year so it will be bigger next year.  Last year in China Lab, I really wanted to go to Guangzhou (sounds odd, but that's where all the action and good Southern Chinese cooking is).  I ended up doing a project for a high-end fashion designer when I'm a technology guy.  I probably learned more on that project than any other I've ever done, and also added a lot of value for them because I could provide them with valuable advice.

There's a much broader selection for G-Lab.  And actually, they added G-Lab Global Health Delivery last year which is all about health care value/supply chains and delivery in the developing world.   

This year, one of the India Lab projects was Vaatsalya, a company founded by a Sloan alum delivering health care in India.  

If you want to do something really custom, start a public service project (possibly in collaboration with something like NextLab) and get MIT Public Service Center funding to do it.  That's what I'm doing with my mobile health care project (www.mocamobile.org). 

MIT seriously believes in action based learning.  I thought it was kind of BS when I signed up, but since I'm on my 5th MIT funded project in two years (they also paid for me to go to London for the Open Innovation Conference, I've had a great experience with it.  You do have to have the energy to read all your e-mails and fill out applications, of course.

How are students graded?

As for how students are graded, there's a set of deliverables before your on-site internship, as well as an end one.  They delay your grade until after the project has been completed.  As far as I know, everyone in the class does pretty well.  Most of the things are checking off boxes and reflection papers.  

How often to do the projects make an impact on the organizations?

I think a large percentage of the time, the projects lead to actionable recommendations used by the client.  The way it's sold to them is basically, you pay travel costs and you get a team of elite consultants for two or three weeks that you would normally pay $200 to $500 an hour for.