Leadership training at Boston University

Kathy Kram, Shipley Professor in Management at the Boston University School of Management, teaches an MBA course on leadership as part of the school's concentration in leadership and organizational transformation.  She invited me to address the last session of the semester tonight.

As is my practice, I am including here pictures of a few of the students who made particularly interesting points or who asked incisive questions.  We explored the nature of the learning cycle for individuals and groups and how empathy on the part of the leader is a valuable attribute. We pursued the concept of a just culture, in which mistakes do not lead to blame and punishment, but instead form the basis for engaging in root cause analyses that can lead to systemic improvements.

Finally, we discussed the implementation of philosophies like Lean that can enable an organization to engage in continuous process improvement.  We reviewed what role subordinates in an organization can play when the senior management sas yet to adopt a Lean philosophy.