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From my current vantage point, the gap in management and leadership
education is not as much What is taught as How it is taught.

By How I mean all lecture and no lab. Learning to manage and lead requires
scrimmaging but we don't provide this essential emvironment for learning the
visceral and emotional aspects of leadership. .

Underneath, the growing problem is popularly called complexity. The problem
is really complicatedness and the solution is complexity but no need to
split hairs at this point. The most obvious gap in management development
curricula, especially in corporate universities, is that only a very few
include courses on systems thinking, modeling and engineering. When an
enterprise has a good model of itself then it is far more prepared for
dealing with the inevitable stochastic shocks.

Who among us has access to useful scrimmaging fields?
Who among us offers courses on systems thinking and enterprise-level
modeling?
As the baby boomers retire how do we create better prepared leaders as
replacements at the rate of 1 to 2 million per year?

4/7/02

Jring,

FINALLY, ANOTHER VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS! RIGHT ON DUDE.

HOW DO YOU GET TO CARNEGIE HALL? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. SO IT MUST
BE WITH LEADERSHIP SKILLS.

G-BEAR
/jag
PLEASE NOTE AREA CODE CHANGE
George Graen, Ph.D.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Management Department
(479) 631-9394
(479) 631-9365
lmxlotus@aol.com

Jack--

Totally agree on the scrimmage practice and the systems tools

I teach predominantly employed adults, so every day is a potential
scrimmage for them. I assign weekly "experiments" with the content: do
something and see what you learn. The non-employed have to seek the
scrimmages in their life, school, or other activities. (They learn a
lot trying to exert better management or leadership in their other
classes.)

As to systems modeling, definitely need more courses and tools, but
probably need more usable tools for managers. Besides, most of the most
important issues are best processed by people and teams, not machines.
The machines mostly help program the understanding of the people.

Now we are back to the quick and dirty problem. Getting them to signup
for courses in complexity or in real appreciation for the ideas of
management.

We can and should change their assumptions. Most folks come to my
classes expecting to learn the algorithms for leadership or strategy.
They leave with that fantasy shattered, and an appreciation for the
value of concepts, models, and constant experimentation to see what
works in specific real world situations.

But it is critical to note that they learn from reflecting on their
experience, not my lecturing.

--
Christopher M. Barlow, PhD
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior
Stuart Graduate School of Business
Illinois Institute of Technology
565 West Adams Street
Chicago, Illinois 60661
Voice: (630) 221-9456
Fax: (312) 906-6549
mailto://barlow@stuart.iit.edu
http://www.stuart.iit.edu/faculty/barlow