Dr Jeff Chamberlain deputy director of the Deakin MBA program introduces the exciting new capstone unit, commencing trimester 1, 2026.
As many of you are aware, we are launching our brand-new MBA Capstone unit in trimester 1, 2026. At the Deakin Business School, we have decided to challenge the status quo of MBA Capstones with an innovation that we believe will be extremely rewarding, personally and professionally, for every MBA student navigating the final stretch of their Deakin MBA experience.
So, what is this change?
The new capstone unit introduces students to the concept of Master Mind Alliances – small groups working harmoniously, sharing insights, ideas and knowledge, to accomplish purposeful objectives and goals. Whilst you will each be individually assessed, you will be doing what Deakin MBAs are well reputed for – supporting each other to achieve dreams and goals.
You will meet every week online, in highly structured, dynamic, facilitated, time sensitive meetings. You will rotate through interactive, ‘Hot Seat’ sessions, engaging in questions and enquiry, providing peers with unbiased, logical, clear advice and encouragement, helping them to reason forward effectively whilst confronting ambiguity.
You will frame your future intentions pertaining to your individual pursuits of self and professional actualisations, visualising and conceptualising the best versions of yourselves. From week to week, you will develop a 100-day plan, your ‘Call to Action’, comprising activities that pertain to your own growth, development, values and purpose, as well as a directly aligned change at the organisation with which you work, or intend to work. Your 100-day plan is authentic, so you can activate it immediately following your MBA graduation.
Peer-driven growth, emanating from the capstone experience, will serve to strengthen your adaptability, resilience and courage, whilst engendering immediate accountabilities and heightened senses of responsibility, purpose, authenticity, gratitude and self-concept.
Our aim is that you will derive personal satisfaction well beyond stereotypical definitions of success. A key outcome of your experience in the unit will be an enhanced command of your pursuits of alignment pertaining to the trinity of your ‘self’ and ‘professional’ actualisations and your organisation’s strategic intents. Key impacts of this will be your improved productivity, satisfaction, happiness and resulting senses of success.
What do you need to consider?
All other core MBA units are either pre-requisites or co-requisites. This is so that each of you can contribute to your alliances from highly informed perspectives. Also, as a major component of your assessment in the unit occurs from week 2 through to week 11, your attendance at every group meeting is necessary. We therefore recommend that you carefully plan your work, life and family schedules in anticipation of this trimester requirement.
We look forward to joining with you in this new, exciting innovation, in the Deakin MBA program.
Dr Jeff Chamberlain – Deputy Director, MBA Program.
Photo by Adomas Aleno on Unsplash