It takes curiosity to learn, but courage to unlearn.

As part of the Sustainable Investing Research consulting Project, our team has been tasked with evaluating the impact of the EU’s new corporate sustainability reporting mandate on North American companies. Our team comprises six students with diverse backgrounds and a common passion for sustainability policy, and we hope to pool our expertise this semester to create a database of American companies impacted by the new directive and identify key trends among the organizations and industries impacted. I must admit that, coming into the project, I was far too overconfident. I had worked on several market impact analysis and corporate reporting projects in the past, and I thought this one would be no different. In this short period of time, I have found that I have much to learn, and just as much to unlearn, which I believe is a mark of true growth. I have learned that, in consulting, far more valuable than finding the right resource or getting to the right answer is being willing to learn to navigate uncertainties, and to adapt and change to new circumstances.

A positive first meeting with our client, where we worked together to outline a clear scope and set of deliverables, made me feel like the project would be a breeze. However, the process of building a database from scratch, which I now know requires a strong cocktail of research and networking, pushed me far out of my comfort zone. In the past two weeks I’ve had to gather my courage and send out many cold emails and LinkedIn messages, which I had previously despised doing. The process of knocking on so many doors without receiving any clear replies has been disheartening, but it has given me the space to unlearn a negative thinking pattern that is maladaptive to the process of research work; the need to ‘get it right’ the first time.

Another pattern I’ve been fortunate enough to have the chance to unlearn is my resistance to change. While my inner stoic had always considered change to be something inevitable to be endured, this project has taught me that change can be a gift. We initially began our project as a group of four, however, after two students from another group working with the same client dropped out of the course, we decided to merge the remainder of their group with ours, making us a team of six. Instead of negatively affecting our existing dynamic, this merger has brought us all closer together. The extra pairs of eyes have directed us to see things differently, to reframe the problems from a different perspective, and to come up with more innovative solutions to obstacles we have been facing with data retrieval. I highly recommend the Sustainable Investing Research consulting Project to anyone at SIPA looking for both personal and professional growth. Within a short period of time, this project has pushed me out of my comfort zone, challenged my biases, helped me find my voice, and brought me five new friends.