Transformational Education > A transformational educational experience
Howard Stevenson on how the HBS experience molds attitudes
Transcript
Because for me the power of the experience at Harvard Business School was that it began to mold your attitudes. I mean, in a funny way it's a great experience because you see a lot of things. You have, you know, in those days something like eleven or twelve hundred synthetic experiences. But more importantly, I think the whole process begin to develop to me three attitudes. That every situation can be improved.
I mean, the first time you see a case, if you are an engineering or math student you say, "Well, what are we going to talk about?" And then you sort of figure out you've got to figure out what the problem is, because everything is a problem.
The second attitude is don't try and shrug responsibility. Don't tell me you don't have enough information. Don't tell me you don't have adequate authority, don't tell me you have ?? position. Tell me what you're going to do if you're that poor schlep with inadequate information, inadequate power but you know there's a problem. What are you going to do to bring it about?
And the third attitude that it brings I think and reinforces constantly is that the experts and the experience may be wrong. That just because somebody is the chief of the world doesn't mean they're right in this situation. And those are, I think, enduring attitudes. In some ways they create what people don't like about the business school, which is its arrogance. But in other ways it really creates its power, as you're not willing to accept the world as it is. You sort of say, "How do I change it, even if I lack the resources, and the power to do so?"