Seven years ago, Paw Saxgren stepped into the COO role of GroupM Denmark (the 450 Danish branch of the global media investment company GroupM) a company working within advertising and media. Although he had been in the industry for quite a few years, he realized his leadership capabilities needed to evolve. He was a strong team leader, but now his responsibilities had expanded to lead other leaders and business partners. Simultaneously, the media industry was being disrupted by technology. 

When he started in the industry, a background in marketing, advertising, or business was the standard. But almost overnight, as tech giants like Google and Facebook (now Meta) gained prominence, an engineering background quickly became the new normal.

Realizing change was coming, whether he wanted it to or not, he looked for a way to adapt in order to maintain a competitive advantage. When Paw thought to himself “Where do these engineers come from?” The answer was clear: MIT. He soon discovered the Advanced Management Program (AMP) and realized this was the development opportunity he needed to not only strengthen his leadership skills, but to help him understand how engineers think.

The engineer’s mindset

“I could see that our industry was being disrupted by engineers and as a result that we needed to hire more engineers, but I didn’t understand their way of thinking. I thought ‘Why don’t they just stick to what they have developed? Why do they keep on wanting to keep evolve? You’ve built it, why don’t you just run it now…’ AMP helped me understand that when you have an engineer’s mindset, you’re always trying to solve the next problem.”

Some organizations might have been hesitant to send one of their senior leaders away for five-weeks during a pivotal transitional period in their business. Luckily for Paw, he had an immense amount of support from his team. “I was lucky to have many people around me – my leaders, my team, my spouse – to support this. My company’s culture prioritizes a growth mindset and learning new things.” The hesitancy about going away for a month, ironically, was on Paw’s side. While he had faith other people would step up in his absence, he had a self-described “command-control” style leadership at the time that made loosening the reigns a little difficult. 

Check your ego at the door

Once on campus, Paw was able to let go and focus – the difference in time-zone helped too. The lesson encountered from day one and constantly repeated: “What are we here to learn?” 

When you get a group of thirty-five successful and ambitious individuals in a room together, the default is often to talk about one’s success. However, participants were asked to check their ego at the door and focus on their areas of growth and opportunity. “Changing the conversation from our various successes, to something humbler, really promoted a lot of learning in a safe space.” Paw was so impressed with how this shift in mindset was executed that he continued to use it in his daily life to better understand the human dynamics in any given room.  

Every AMP participant gets assigned a coach to assist them with their transformative leadership journey. Reflecting on his “command-control” style, Paw wondered if that was the best way to lead. There was technically nothing wrong with his current leadership style, in fact, it had served him well for many years. However, his coach opened his mind to other ways of leading that were focused on empowering and coaching members of one’s team. “I learned you can build those other skill sets and capabilities without losing the other – they can work together.” 

Mens et manus

The five weeks at AMP are intense. The phrase “drinking from the firehose” frequently comes up when describing the experience – one that requires participants to be fully engaged. This is not a spectator sport. Participants are absorbing frameworks and theories, but they are also putting them into practice through a variety of simulations, projects, assessments, and lively discussions with a variety of global leaders from across all industries. It’s the mens et manus (or “mind and hand”) philosophy that is the driving force behind MIT.

“The frameworks used are the same you might get at any business school, but how it’s taught is what makes MIT different. You have such great faculty who are often the thought leaders behind these frameworks. It’s not just about learning the frameworks, but learning what they enable you to do with them. It’s all part of my toolbox now.”  

In particular, Paw really enjoyed the lessons around System Dynamics, culminating in the popular Beer Game simulation. “You can learn that in different ways. You can easily read in a book that the only way to optimize a value chain is to create transparency and dialogue – someone pushing a problem up or down. But actually, playing it out during the Beer Game created a different learning experience that stays with you.” It’s a lesson he still implements within his organization by focusing on the problem they are trying to solve and then getting everyone in the room to have a comprehensive perspective. 

It’s a marathon not a sprint

Back in Denmark, Paw was eager to share everything he had just learned with his team, but soon realized the fire-hose method was not the best way to do so. “A week after getting back, I held a workshop for the senior management team and I wanted to use ALL the tools and frameworks I had just learned. But it wasn’t too successful and I was a bit frustrated. I had learned a lot, but I didn’t know yet how to activate all that learning.”

It’s common for participants to be “amped up” (pun intentional) following their transformative five-week journey, but that doesn’t mean you have to immediately apply every lesson all at once. The lessons, as Paw has proven, continue not just weeks, but years after the program. “I could feel every month, for the following 2-3 years, how much I was benefiting from AMP. Still, to this day, I can go back and find a presentation from AMP that maybe I didn’t pay much attention to at the time, but now suddenly has a lot of relevance to the business issues I’m facing.”

Fast forward seven years

Last year, Paw stepped into his current role with Acceleration (a subdivision of GroupM) as Chief Product Officer. “I didn’t know that much about data and technology consulting, how to operate globally…” The role was a stretch outside his comfort zone, but AMP made him open to exploring new learning opportunities and the strong foundational frameworks now in his professional toolkit gave him the confidence to move forward. “I don’t think I would have said yes to this role and been brave enough to say ‘yes’ if I hadn’t been through the process at AMP. The program helped me trust myself.” 

Lasting Lessons

The most important takeaway for Paw was the realization that you can actually transform yourself – multiple times! His exploration of personal development and change management opportunities didn’t stop with AMP. He stays in touch with members from his cohort, where they continue to share their problems and best practices. He attends various retreats – from Change Leadership through Personal Development and mediation trainings in the Rocky Mountains to long weekends exploring Native American wisdom – in order to understand different perspectives. Learning that he could step away, give up some control, and come back re-energized and also appreciative of what he may have previously taken for granted was an eye-opener. “Understanding how transformative five weeks with AMP can be made me realize that learning is an anthology – and we have the capability to do this again and again. I will always be in this learning state to maintain a flexible mindset.” 

He has also had the opportunity to take some colleagues and clients to MIT. During a recent reunion on campus, he even formed a yearlong partnership with the then just about to launch MIT Sloan Master of Business Analytics program and since then GroupM has been a Capstone Partner every year.. “Instead of being a narrow experience that benefits just me – AMP has been a broader experience for my organization.” 

Advice for future participants

Paw’s most important piece of advice is to be present in the moment and keep an open mind. 

“Just accept drinking from the firehouse – if you’re constantly thinking ‘Am I getting the most of this education? Am I doing this right? Am I doing it wrong? Is this a good experience?’ Don’t have these thoughts – just go with a clear head. It’s not about being the person who knows the most in the room. Those that go with the humility of a beginner’s mindset will learn the most.”

He admits it requires you to stretch outside your comfort zone – but it’s the only way to learn and embrace new opportunities. “It will pay itself back in many ways for years to come.”

Learn more about the Advanced Management Program.

Contributed by Elaine Santoyo Goldman