good evening everyone
so I grew up hearing a message if I
worked hard I went to good schools I’d
get a good job and have a great career
and by most measures that was actually
true I worked for some great
organizations on challenging problems I
traveled a lot I was paid well but after
years of helping companies create
profits
I was left unfulfilled there was a void
and so I made an enormous career shift
and I became an academic in higher ed I
found the things that I was missing in
corporate America surprising but it was
here I wanted to make a different type
of impact I wanted to touch individuals
to see that the things that I was doing
would actually create a tangible outcome
I also needed creativity the corporate
environment had become stagnant
bureaucratic I could create I could
design the things that I wanted to do in
my classrooms and I also wanted more
control I wanted to focus on the things
that I felt were important and I know
there’s a few of my students here
tonight that have probably heard me say
I’m the CEO of my classroom the ultimate
control but after nine years now in
higher ed I feel the weight of what’s
going on probably many of you are aware
of the challenges that we’re facing the
current state of higher ed is at a place
where there’s great tension there are
enormous challenges that we’re facing if
you look at the rising cost of tuition
over the last 20 years tuition has
increased 260 percent that’s compared to
120 percent in
and the consumer price index more than
double on top of it on average college
students leave the university
environment with 37 thousand dollars of
debt that’s a car payment and on average
70 percent of all students have some
type of debt in addition to that 50
percent of incoming students drop out
not only do they have that debt they’re
not going to be able to pursue many of
the opportunities afforded by a college
education and then we can look at the
employment marketplace where I spend a
lot of time and energy many employers
are saying we want skills not schools
they see incoming college graduates that
aren’t prepared and in a recent survey
there was a study that said 40% of
students are not proficient at the basic
skills and on top of that there’s a huge
amount of information related to the
unemployment rate also underemployment
employers see a gap between the
preparedness that they seek and what
students bring to the table why is this
why is the system under such great
tension well there’s an enormous number
of reasons and if someone who comes from
the consulting environment I feel this
tension
I feel the forces that are putting
pressure on us
universities are providing more and more
services there’s rising cost of those
services many of our students themselves
are challenged they’re working 20 30 40
hours a week at their jobs they’re
coming in with diverse backgrounds and
different baselines of understanding on
top of that our friend technology is
creating a lot of challenge I as a
faculty member teaching a course no
longer can just share information and
equations could you guys can look it up
right in two seconds on your favorite
browser and then let’s face it
technology’s distracting us in the
classroom and then we have our friends
employers that want different things all
of this started making me crazy the
consultant in me kicked in and I want to
fix these problems but I’m also
realistic and pragmatic I cannot fix the
higher ed system but I was reminded I am
the CEO of my classroom I can fix what
goes on in my classroom so the question
then became how could I think about this
going back to my business training I
needed a framework to consider how I
would solve this challenge and I
borrowed from the sciences I borrowed
from system thinking and looking at what
drives change I was reminded of this
simple equation leverage times force
equals change then I had to understand
what was my leverage and what was the
force
well actually leverage was very simple I
have the strongest tool you could
possibly have in the academic
environment
it’s called academic freedom I have the
ability to choose for my courses for my
discipline in my classroom what is right
what are the things I want to give to my
students to prepare them for the
external marketplace that part was
actually quite easy but the force that
was tougher could I just kind of
bulldoze this I had to think a little
bit more creatively and in fact what
occurred to me I needed to actually
unlearn the things that I knew about
teaching and training and how I wanted
to prepare my students I came to this
realization actually through a really
fun experience about a year ago I had an
opportunity to go serve as a visiting
professor in China this is my class
that’s me in the red circle as I was
preparing for my class I was very
enthusiastic I’ve wanted to do this for
a number of years I started panicking
how would I teach
students in China the concept of
competitive strategy China does not have
a free-market economy it has a very
different type of economy it also then
occurred to me that I don’t speak
Mandarin and I wondered would my
students speak English this could be a
problem
but in that experience I was able to
step back and completely retool my class
I changed the approach I told stories
about my background my companies I used
a different way to engage them in
discussion and dialogue and from that
experience I realized that if I started
over and I took a different perspective
I could achieve great things this was
actually the last night of my class for
about two minutes I had that paparazzi
moment where all of the students were
taking my photo it was fantastic
I knew that we had a connection and they
had understood the key points because
they would relay it to me in the
conversations now when I came back to
North Park I wondered what could I bring
with me from that experience knowing
that actually I had to unlearn and so I
thought about one of my tougher courses
that I teach here undergraduate finance
not our favorite class for the business
majors and also it’s filled with other
students in other majors it’s always
challenging and I wanted to do something
very practical finance is an essential
subject regardless of what your gonna do
professionally and so I thought about
this idea of unlearning and what I could
do and design in my classroom and I
created a project I had a couple of
important principles yes I could do
exams and homework and Excel and all
those things we typically do in finance
but I wanted my students to leave with
an application
what could they take away from this
using interdisciplinary teaching
techniques bringing in my colleagues
from the history department bringing in
a colleague from the library to get a
better understanding of our facts and
giving the students a professional
experience that they could apply someday
in the future
regardless of what their career would be
all of us have this ability you everyone
here tonight regardless of your
background you have an ability to drive
change I want you to think about what
your leverage is what your force could
be and take the opportunity to figure
out in your world even a small change can make a huge impact thank you
so I grew up hearing a message if I
worked hard I went to good schools I’d
get a good job and have a great career
and by most measures that was actually
true I worked for some great
organizations on challenging problems I
traveled a lot I was paid well but after
years of helping companies create
profits
I was left unfulfilled there was a void
and so I made an enormous career shift
and I became an academic in higher ed I
found the things that I was missing in
corporate America surprising but it was
here I wanted to make a different type
of impact I wanted to touch individuals
to see that the things that I was doing
would actually create a tangible outcome
I also needed creativity the corporate
environment had become stagnant
bureaucratic I could create I could
design the things that I wanted to do in
my classrooms and I also wanted more
control I wanted to focus on the things
that I felt were important and I know
there’s a few of my students here
tonight that have probably heard me say
I’m the CEO of my classroom the ultimate
control but after nine years now in
higher ed I feel the weight of what’s
going on probably many of you are aware
of the challenges that we’re facing the
current state of higher ed is at a place
where there’s great tension there are
enormous challenges that we’re facing if
you look at the rising cost of tuition
over the last 20 years tuition has
increased 260 percent that’s compared to
120 percent in
and the consumer price index more than
double on top of it on average college
students leave the university
environment with 37 thousand dollars of
debt that’s a car payment and on average
70 percent of all students have some
type of debt in addition to that 50
percent of incoming students drop out
not only do they have that debt they’re
not going to be able to pursue many of
the opportunities afforded by a college
education and then we can look at the
employment marketplace where I spend a
lot of time and energy many employers
are saying we want skills not schools
they see incoming college graduates that
aren’t prepared and in a recent survey
there was a study that said 40% of
students are not proficient at the basic
skills and on top of that there’s a huge
amount of information related to the
unemployment rate also underemployment
employers see a gap between the
preparedness that they seek and what
students bring to the table why is this
why is the system under such great
tension well there’s an enormous number
of reasons and if someone who comes from
the consulting environment I feel this
tension
I feel the forces that are putting
pressure on us
universities are providing more and more
services there’s rising cost of those
services many of our students themselves
are challenged they’re working 20 30 40
hours a week at their jobs they’re
coming in with diverse backgrounds and
different baselines of understanding on
top of that our friend technology is
creating a lot of challenge I as a
faculty member teaching a course no
longer can just share information and
equations could you guys can look it up
right in two seconds on your favorite
browser and then let’s face it
technology’s distracting us in the
classroom and then we have our friends
employers that want different things all
of this started making me crazy the
consultant in me kicked in and I want to
fix these problems but I’m also
realistic and pragmatic I cannot fix the
higher ed system but I was reminded I am
the CEO of my classroom I can fix what
goes on in my classroom so the question
then became how could I think about this
going back to my business training I
needed a framework to consider how I
would solve this challenge and I
borrowed from the sciences I borrowed
from system thinking and looking at what
drives change I was reminded of this
simple equation leverage times force
equals change then I had to understand
what was my leverage and what was the
force
well actually leverage was very simple I
have the strongest tool you could
possibly have in the academic
environment
it’s called academic freedom I have the
ability to choose for my courses for my
discipline in my classroom what is right
what are the things I want to give to my
students to prepare them for the
external marketplace that part was
actually quite easy but the force that
was tougher could I just kind of
bulldoze this I had to think a little
bit more creatively and in fact what
occurred to me I needed to actually
unlearn the things that I knew about
teaching and training and how I wanted
to prepare my students I came to this
realization actually through a really
fun experience about a year ago I had an
opportunity to go serve as a visiting
professor in China this is my class
that’s me in the red circle as I was
preparing for my class I was very
enthusiastic I’ve wanted to do this for
a number of years I started panicking
how would I teach
students in China the concept of
competitive strategy China does not have
a free-market economy it has a very
different type of economy it also then
occurred to me that I don’t speak
Mandarin and I wondered would my
students speak English this could be a
problem
but in that experience I was able to
step back and completely retool my class
I changed the approach I told stories
about my background my companies I used
a different way to engage them in
discussion and dialogue and from that
experience I realized that if I started
over and I took a different perspective
I could achieve great things this was
actually the last night of my class for
about two minutes I had that paparazzi
moment where all of the students were
taking my photo it was fantastic
I knew that we had a connection and they
had understood the key points because
they would relay it to me in the
conversations now when I came back to
North Park I wondered what could I bring
with me from that experience knowing
that actually I had to unlearn and so I
thought about one of my tougher courses
that I teach here undergraduate finance
not our favorite class for the business
majors and also it’s filled with other
students in other majors it’s always
challenging and I wanted to do something
very practical finance is an essential
subject regardless of what your gonna do
professionally and so I thought about
this idea of unlearning and what I could
do and design in my classroom and I
created a project I had a couple of
important principles yes I could do
exams and homework and Excel and all
those things we typically do in finance
but I wanted my students to leave with
an application
what could they take away from this
using interdisciplinary teaching
techniques bringing in my colleagues
from the history department bringing in
a colleague from the library to get a
better understanding of our facts and
giving the students a professional
experience that they could apply someday
in the future
regardless of what their career would be
all of us have this ability you everyone
here tonight regardless of your
background you have an ability to drive
change I want you to think about what
your leverage is what your force could
be and take the opportunity to figure
out in your world even a small change can make a huge impact thank you
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