The EMC gave me the opportunity to gain access to that part of myself that I had lost contact with.
Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey
Nationality/Passport: British Year of graduation: 2015 Current Role: Co-Founder & Managing Director at Coalition Consulting

What made you decide to take on the EMC programme at INSEAD?

I was at the stage of my career where I felt that I was stagnating in my personal and professional growth. However, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to continue climbing the corporate ladder in my organisation. 

My kids have grown up and I felt that I had a little more capacity to focus on my development, after many years of just trying to be a good-enough parent and a professional.

During the programme, I was able to identify some underlying frustrations and needs that were not met in my current HR role, and I wanted to be able to work at a deeper human level and to understand the drivers behind the behaviours I was seeing in myself and in the people within my organisation.  

Has the programme met or exceeded your expectations?

The programme exceeded my expectations as it enabled me to reconnect with a part of myself that had been hidden by my own fears, anxieties, and defence mechanisms.

Do share with us your thoughts on the curriculum and your classroom experience

The curriculum gave me wonderful exposure to a wide variety of psychodynamic theories, methods and techniques that I could apply at the intrapersonal, interpersonal and group level of analysis. I was able to sample a wide variety of different theories and then follow my curiosity to understand where my passion lay within the psychodynamic field. 

The quality of my fellow colleagues was exceptional and the commitment everyone had to support each other’s development was wonderful. The diversity of life experience brought by my fellow classmates to the classroom experiences meant that I always had new and interesting perspectives to consider and learn from.  

How has the EMC changed your perspectives or outlook towards life?

I believe that I haven't exactly changed but I rediscover a truer and more authentic self that was hidden inside of me. The EMC gave me the opportunity to gain access to that part of myself that I had lost contact with or was not able to bring forth into my day-to-day life.     

What is one most significant lesson you got out of the programme?

Keegan’s immunity to change exercise where I discovered unconscious commitments that I had made to myself comes to mind as being very significant. I realised that I had been going through life with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake and I was holding myself back due to these unconscious commitments.

Once I could look at and challenge those underlying assumptions and commitments I made to myself, I was able to conduct small behavioural experiments to challenge and overcome some of those underlying assumptions.

I think the work is still on-going to unravel all the unconscious commitments inside of myself, but now I have the tools and a supportive community to help me continue that personal work.

What advice would you give to potential EMC participants?

The more you lean into the experience, the more you and your classmates will get out of the experience. Be willing to open up and share your life experiences so that you can make new meaning out of them and others can also learn through your life experience.

Don’t worry about your thesis, just follow your curiosity and a topic that you are truly passionate about will emerge. You won’t only earn a master degree, you’ll have the opportunity to become a better person, professional, husband/wife and parent. The EMC will touch every aspect of your life.