so how often have you heard someone say
I’m good at math where I’d like to be
good at math but how often they’ve ever
heard someone say I’d like to be
self-actualized as Maslow would suggest
I’d like to be interdependent as Stephen
Covey would say or even self authored as
Robert Keegan would say probably not
very often I started teaching
engineering at a pretty good little
engineering school just down the street
from here almost four decades ago and I
came in as the typical engineering
professor I taught engineering just as I
had had it taught to me go into the
classroom lay down the equations have
the students go home and work out their
lessons come back and repeat it the next
day for the next section well this went
on for several years I mean the system
looked something like this for me can
you see what’s on the right side there
well let me bring it up a little more
it’s the student development I was
teaching the stem and I was teaching it
hard I knew student development existed
but that was somewhere else on campus
that was someone else’s business it
certainly couldn’t be integrated into my
work in engineering well after a few
years I realized I wanted to improve
things I asked for a sabbatical I was
granted a sabbatical I went off to
Minneapolis worked for a really great
company in Minneapolis gotten a really
good team and the company worked 48
weeks so on Friday his I had a chance to
go around Minneapolis visit with other
people I knew get into some other
companies and talked to the companies in
Minneapolis had hired engineers
typically out of the University of
Minnesota but hiring engineers and I ask
these people what are you looking for in
the young graduate well they all pretty
well agreed yeah we want technical
competence
but they said there’s more we want
graduates who can talk to each other we
all read graduates who can go out and
talk to the people in the shop we want
one of the ladies I met with III wasn’t
even sure she was going to talk to me
she was upset with engineers they were a
bunch of arrogant jerks and that hit me
pretty hard so as I continued through
the work and the sabbatical thought
about that came back home and looked at
what I could do with engineering and I
started dealing with project-based
learning get pretty heavy into it in the
classroom got involved with some
projects and realized that what I was
dealing with what these people were
talking about and in today’s terminology
is this it’s not stem it’s steam with
Student Development or it’s steamed all
right so I went on with this for a few
years we had a chance in in mid 90s to
work with a group of faculty to to start
a Center for teaming and leadership a
center that would address these issues
that we were all starting to see and we
all wanted to deal with these issues and
so we started this Center not unlike
athletics a center of where teams were
formed for intercollegiate competitions
high-end intercollegiate competitions
regional national international
competitions the Baja SAE we hosted this
competition here in Rapid City one year
in 2007 Formula SAE human powered
vehicle supermileage take note of this
this picture was just from a couple
weeks ago and it’ll be important this
team actually won an artistic award a
few years ago the visual appeal of their
machine art does enter in robotics and
several more so we went on with
got it started proceeded four or five
years into it we were looking at this
and saying you know our teams really
aren’t doing that well yet what’s going
on
maybe we made a misstep maybe maybe we
aren’t good enough to really be in these
after all we’re going up against the
best engineering schools in the world
one day at coffee I met Jim McReynolds
he was our psychology professor and we
were talking about this and he said dan
you’re looking at this from your side
from the technical side and maybe that
only said why don’t you think about what
you could do with the human side go out
and bring back to me something of your
thoughts on the human side I’m an
engineer I’m not a psychologist
so I go off and I look at what other
people are doing codes of cooperation
were being talked about a put one
together brought it back in the next day
for coffee and showed it to Jim and he
said yeah you’re you’re sort of getting
there he crumpled it up and he threw in
the wastebasket okay and he looked at me
and said take it take a couple of
minutes I’m gonna go back to my office
and I’m gonna find something and bring
it back to you this is what he came back
with yeah my reaction was probably just
about what yours is you have got to be
kidding me
Jim you remember I’m an engineer you’re
gonna have to break me into this a
little more gently said not this you can
get this let me just show you this
column is a set of values that were
developed by Harold Lasswell political
scientists back in the last century and
ray Rucker took those values and looked
at them for living for collaboration and
we looked at them for collaboration they
make sense respect affection skill
understanding responsibility well-being
what ray Rucker did is he put a scale of
behavior to these values we all talk
about values as if they are here or not
is if it’s black and white values have a
scale
so with affection for instance we’re
going from the zero that’s the zero line
growing and positive getting worse to
the negative each one of these columns
represents a level of of that behavior
for that value growing from the caring
to the trust and wisdom on to a
transcendent stage so I said okay what
do we do with this he said why don’t you
take this to your team’s ask your team’s
what they think about this
ask them to circle the words on here
that they think pertain to their team
well okay let’s do it I was pretty well
convinced after all these are good kids
everything was going to come out over
here we could be done with this I could
get back to working on the engineering
and improve it from the engineering side
well as you might be guessing that’s not
what happened this is what happened we
had more showing up on the left side
than we had on the right side
this was a huge awakening apathy okay we
knew there was a little bit I mean these
are students alienation and hatred you
got to be kidding me these are good
college kids smart college kids they got
the A’s in high school they’re the kids
who always have got the right answer so
he got two of these kids or three of
these kids or four of them on a team
who’s gonna listen to who my idea is the
best I’m not gonna listen to yours so
all of this stuff was going on under
under what we saw as the technical
advisers we wanted this this one really
got me confusion misunderstanding okay
at the beginning of the year I can
accept that sure getting started it’s
there we were giving this to the kids at
the end of the year when when they’ve
gone through all of this the
misunderstanding the confusion should be
gone it wasn’t trust intimacy we’re
looking for that turns out that’s a
pretty high thing to ask for
empathy and wisdom integrity and
authenticity and again we talk about
scale of values we say well either you
have integrity or you don’t either you
have authenticity or you don’t it
doesn’t work that way there’s a scale on
this so what do we do here’s where the
pivot happened here’s where the real
change came in we came in and said okay
we’ve got to change something let’s
change these student meetings from
purely technical to a combined technical
human teaming leadership discussion we
forced the discussion the whole
organization pivoted Jim was invited in
as one of the associate directors of the
program we hired a student development
person full-time a huge shift took place
as a result of looking at the problems
and we put the learning we put the
outcomes more in line with what we’re
looking at as good outcomes today we’re
looking at these outcomes today of
wisdom in in culture these are
oftentimes international teams there’s a
great benefit from being at these
international competition collaboration
it’s the middle the middle of creativity
and innovation we hear so much about
that as if you can make it happen or not
takes a lot of work to make that happen
emotional intelligence give me a break
we’re engineers and engineers have
identities Engineers are people too and
we were forgetting about that so and
here comes another key one self
authorship from Robert Keegan this this
business of dealing with our own
internal personal identity not something
totally driven from the outside an
identity where we can integrate we can
work with we can even discover uncover
invent our own values huge change takes
different kind of learning takes a
different approach I no longer can be
the professor standing up giving the
lecture I have to be the caring guide as
my friend Dale Skillman refers to this
who has essentially become one of my own
caring guides the person who challenges
me on on my values and in my thinking
under my uncovering of it so student
development happens or not tell father
ship happens or not it happens in an
environment where we help it happen
where we allow it to happen where we
encourage it to happen and where we
recognize that and we give the students
an explicit little nudge we don’t just
leave it out there implicitly now don’t
don’t forget I am an engineer I’m a
dyed-in-the-wool engineer I’m a blue
blazer full engineer but I’ve integrated
this other thinking yeah that’s an
equation I’ve played with for about 40
years and developed a numerical solution
on it it’s fun and here’s another one
this started out as a set of dynamics
equations one Sunday afternoon about 20
years ago and today it’s a over 200
equations and Counting I’m an engineer
but I have integrated this other stuff
just as our students have after we
started this program this change in the
program we went for a few years where we
could see the students doing a little
better after four or five years they
were up on the top and many of the
competitions our team won one of the
international competitions they came
back the next year and won it again it
wasn’t just because of the way we were
dealing with them as humans the
engineering improved the timelines were
met the responsibility was there to get
their jobs done they were looking for
the real answers the understanding was
going deeper there was a sea change in
the way we’re doing business
so now a few years ago I went to often
took a program at James Madison
University to try to figure out how do
we assess this learning I’m pretty good
at giving a technical test and assessing
technical knowledge but I certainly
wasn’t very good at this and Jim and the
other people around us we’re working
with us and saying you know this is more
complex so I took this graduate
psychology program studied Abraham
Maslow studied studied seriously he
became one of my caring guides I’ve read
his book so many times this is second or
third copy I’ve had I’ve destroyed it as
we were dealing with then studying
Maslow’s work and studying the hierarchy
turns out many of the developmentalist
s– look at these hierarchies of
learning the stages of development of
humans Stephen Covey has we we read the
habits but within that is the
development from the dependent person to
the independent to the interdependent
Robert Egan goes and studies the stages
all the way from the selfish adolescent
which is where we start on into the
teaming the one one for all and all for
one
and we’re trying to deal with that then
in college on to a stage of the self
authorship where the thinking is there
and all the way to the wise elders stage
all of these developmental lists then
have these stages they’re looking at
development in in very different ways
and yet the stages are there and what we
discovered is oK we’ve got the kids
coming in in that stage two stage three
sort of the selfish adolescent I know it
all and we get them into a stage where
okay maybe I don’t know it all so I’m
with the team we know at all and we we
work together we know it all but what
we’ve discovered also is that let’s work
with them in that stage as
Robert Keegan says on the title of his
book in over our heads what does that
mean we’re living in such a complex
world we need to have the mindset to
deal with that and if we don’t get out
of that selfish and out of that one for
all and all for one and on into the self
author thinking for ourselves we are in
over our heads
we’re trying to take our kids now from
that adolescent stage through the
teaming on into the self authored mature
stage it is it’s a different kind of
learning it takes a caring guide and I
don’t think friends let friends stay in
that stage to will let the adolescent
stay there yes but when we’re dealing
with it not so I don’t think we even let
friends stay in stage three we help them
move through it we help them move on
into the self authored thinking for
themselves that takes the caring guide
Jim books Gilman these are my caring
guides along with these guys coming
Maslow Keegan and so many more and
certainly my wife helps with this as
well she’s got a challenge for me every
day and and that that also is the caring
guide so thank you very much [Applause]
I’m good at math where I’d like to be
good at math but how often they’ve ever
heard someone say I’d like to be
self-actualized as Maslow would suggest
I’d like to be interdependent as Stephen
Covey would say or even self authored as
Robert Keegan would say probably not
very often I started teaching
engineering at a pretty good little
engineering school just down the street
from here almost four decades ago and I
came in as the typical engineering
professor I taught engineering just as I
had had it taught to me go into the
classroom lay down the equations have
the students go home and work out their
lessons come back and repeat it the next
day for the next section well this went
on for several years I mean the system
looked something like this for me can
you see what’s on the right side there
well let me bring it up a little more
it’s the student development I was
teaching the stem and I was teaching it
hard I knew student development existed
but that was somewhere else on campus
that was someone else’s business it
certainly couldn’t be integrated into my
work in engineering well after a few
years I realized I wanted to improve
things I asked for a sabbatical I was
granted a sabbatical I went off to
Minneapolis worked for a really great
company in Minneapolis gotten a really
good team and the company worked 48
weeks so on Friday his I had a chance to
go around Minneapolis visit with other
people I knew get into some other
companies and talked to the companies in
Minneapolis had hired engineers
typically out of the University of
Minnesota but hiring engineers and I ask
these people what are you looking for in
the young graduate well they all pretty
well agreed yeah we want technical
competence
but they said there’s more we want
graduates who can talk to each other we
all read graduates who can go out and
talk to the people in the shop we want
one of the ladies I met with III wasn’t
even sure she was going to talk to me
she was upset with engineers they were a
bunch of arrogant jerks and that hit me
pretty hard so as I continued through
the work and the sabbatical thought
about that came back home and looked at
what I could do with engineering and I
started dealing with project-based
learning get pretty heavy into it in the
classroom got involved with some
projects and realized that what I was
dealing with what these people were
talking about and in today’s terminology
is this it’s not stem it’s steam with
Student Development or it’s steamed all
right so I went on with this for a few
years we had a chance in in mid 90s to
work with a group of faculty to to start
a Center for teaming and leadership a
center that would address these issues
that we were all starting to see and we
all wanted to deal with these issues and
so we started this Center not unlike
athletics a center of where teams were
formed for intercollegiate competitions
high-end intercollegiate competitions
regional national international
competitions the Baja SAE we hosted this
competition here in Rapid City one year
in 2007 Formula SAE human powered
vehicle supermileage take note of this
this picture was just from a couple
weeks ago and it’ll be important this
team actually won an artistic award a
few years ago the visual appeal of their
machine art does enter in robotics and
several more so we went on with
got it started proceeded four or five
years into it we were looking at this
and saying you know our teams really
aren’t doing that well yet what’s going
on
maybe we made a misstep maybe maybe we
aren’t good enough to really be in these
after all we’re going up against the
best engineering schools in the world
one day at coffee I met Jim McReynolds
he was our psychology professor and we
were talking about this and he said dan
you’re looking at this from your side
from the technical side and maybe that
only said why don’t you think about what
you could do with the human side go out
and bring back to me something of your
thoughts on the human side I’m an
engineer I’m not a psychologist
so I go off and I look at what other
people are doing codes of cooperation
were being talked about a put one
together brought it back in the next day
for coffee and showed it to Jim and he
said yeah you’re you’re sort of getting
there he crumpled it up and he threw in
the wastebasket okay and he looked at me
and said take it take a couple of
minutes I’m gonna go back to my office
and I’m gonna find something and bring
it back to you this is what he came back
with yeah my reaction was probably just
about what yours is you have got to be
kidding me
Jim you remember I’m an engineer you’re
gonna have to break me into this a
little more gently said not this you can
get this let me just show you this
column is a set of values that were
developed by Harold Lasswell political
scientists back in the last century and
ray Rucker took those values and looked
at them for living for collaboration and
we looked at them for collaboration they
make sense respect affection skill
understanding responsibility well-being
what ray Rucker did is he put a scale of
behavior to these values we all talk
about values as if they are here or not
is if it’s black and white values have a
scale
so with affection for instance we’re
going from the zero that’s the zero line
growing and positive getting worse to
the negative each one of these columns
represents a level of of that behavior
for that value growing from the caring
to the trust and wisdom on to a
transcendent stage so I said okay what
do we do with this he said why don’t you
take this to your team’s ask your team’s
what they think about this
ask them to circle the words on here
that they think pertain to their team
well okay let’s do it I was pretty well
convinced after all these are good kids
everything was going to come out over
here we could be done with this I could
get back to working on the engineering
and improve it from the engineering side
well as you might be guessing that’s not
what happened this is what happened we
had more showing up on the left side
than we had on the right side
this was a huge awakening apathy okay we
knew there was a little bit I mean these
are students alienation and hatred you
got to be kidding me these are good
college kids smart college kids they got
the A’s in high school they’re the kids
who always have got the right answer so
he got two of these kids or three of
these kids or four of them on a team
who’s gonna listen to who my idea is the
best I’m not gonna listen to yours so
all of this stuff was going on under
under what we saw as the technical
advisers we wanted this this one really
got me confusion misunderstanding okay
at the beginning of the year I can
accept that sure getting started it’s
there we were giving this to the kids at
the end of the year when when they’ve
gone through all of this the
misunderstanding the confusion should be
gone it wasn’t trust intimacy we’re
looking for that turns out that’s a
pretty high thing to ask for
empathy and wisdom integrity and
authenticity and again we talk about
scale of values we say well either you
have integrity or you don’t either you
have authenticity or you don’t it
doesn’t work that way there’s a scale on
this so what do we do here’s where the
pivot happened here’s where the real
change came in we came in and said okay
we’ve got to change something let’s
change these student meetings from
purely technical to a combined technical
human teaming leadership discussion we
forced the discussion the whole
organization pivoted Jim was invited in
as one of the associate directors of the
program we hired a student development
person full-time a huge shift took place
as a result of looking at the problems
and we put the learning we put the
outcomes more in line with what we’re
looking at as good outcomes today we’re
looking at these outcomes today of
wisdom in in culture these are
oftentimes international teams there’s a
great benefit from being at these
international competition collaboration
it’s the middle the middle of creativity
and innovation we hear so much about
that as if you can make it happen or not
takes a lot of work to make that happen
emotional intelligence give me a break
we’re engineers and engineers have
identities Engineers are people too and
we were forgetting about that so and
here comes another key one self
authorship from Robert Keegan this this
business of dealing with our own
internal personal identity not something
totally driven from the outside an
identity where we can integrate we can
work with we can even discover uncover
invent our own values huge change takes
different kind of learning takes a
different approach I no longer can be
the professor standing up giving the
lecture I have to be the caring guide as
my friend Dale Skillman refers to this
who has essentially become one of my own
caring guides the person who challenges
me on on my values and in my thinking
under my uncovering of it so student
development happens or not tell father
ship happens or not it happens in an
environment where we help it happen
where we allow it to happen where we
encourage it to happen and where we
recognize that and we give the students
an explicit little nudge we don’t just
leave it out there implicitly now don’t
don’t forget I am an engineer I’m a
dyed-in-the-wool engineer I’m a blue
blazer full engineer but I’ve integrated
this other thinking yeah that’s an
equation I’ve played with for about 40
years and developed a numerical solution
on it it’s fun and here’s another one
this started out as a set of dynamics
equations one Sunday afternoon about 20
years ago and today it’s a over 200
equations and Counting I’m an engineer
but I have integrated this other stuff
just as our students have after we
started this program this change in the
program we went for a few years where we
could see the students doing a little
better after four or five years they
were up on the top and many of the
competitions our team won one of the
international competitions they came
back the next year and won it again it
wasn’t just because of the way we were
dealing with them as humans the
engineering improved the timelines were
met the responsibility was there to get
their jobs done they were looking for
the real answers the understanding was
going deeper there was a sea change in
the way we’re doing business
so now a few years ago I went to often
took a program at James Madison
University to try to figure out how do
we assess this learning I’m pretty good
at giving a technical test and assessing
technical knowledge but I certainly
wasn’t very good at this and Jim and the
other people around us we’re working
with us and saying you know this is more
complex so I took this graduate
psychology program studied Abraham
Maslow studied studied seriously he
became one of my caring guides I’ve read
his book so many times this is second or
third copy I’ve had I’ve destroyed it as
we were dealing with then studying
Maslow’s work and studying the hierarchy
turns out many of the developmentalist
s– look at these hierarchies of
learning the stages of development of
humans Stephen Covey has we we read the
habits but within that is the
development from the dependent person to
the independent to the interdependent
Robert Egan goes and studies the stages
all the way from the selfish adolescent
which is where we start on into the
teaming the one one for all and all for
one
and we’re trying to deal with that then
in college on to a stage of the self
authorship where the thinking is there
and all the way to the wise elders stage
all of these developmental lists then
have these stages they’re looking at
development in in very different ways
and yet the stages are there and what we
discovered is oK we’ve got the kids
coming in in that stage two stage three
sort of the selfish adolescent I know it
all and we get them into a stage where
okay maybe I don’t know it all so I’m
with the team we know at all and we we
work together we know it all but what
we’ve discovered also is that let’s work
with them in that stage as
Robert Keegan says on the title of his
book in over our heads what does that
mean we’re living in such a complex
world we need to have the mindset to
deal with that and if we don’t get out
of that selfish and out of that one for
all and all for one and on into the self
author thinking for ourselves we are in
over our heads
we’re trying to take our kids now from
that adolescent stage through the
teaming on into the self authored mature
stage it is it’s a different kind of
learning it takes a caring guide and I
don’t think friends let friends stay in
that stage to will let the adolescent
stay there yes but when we’re dealing
with it not so I don’t think we even let
friends stay in stage three we help them
move through it we help them move on
into the self authored thinking for
themselves that takes the caring guide
Jim books Gilman these are my caring
guides along with these guys coming
Maslow Keegan and so many more and
certainly my wife helps with this as
well she’s got a challenge for me every
day and and that that also is the caring
guide so thank you very much [Applause]
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