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Programs to help students discern their vocation or calling are gaining prominence in higher education. According to a 2019 Bates/Gallup poll, 80% of college graduates want a sense of purpose from their work. In addition, a 2023 survey found that 50% of Generation Z and millennial employees in the U.K. and U.S. have resigned from a job because the values of the company did not align with their own. These sentiments are also found in todays business school students, as Gen Z is demanding that course content reflect the changes in society, from diversity and inclusion to sustainability and poverty. According to the Financial Times, there may never have been a more demanding cohort. And yet, business schools have been slower than other schools to respond, leading to calls ranging from transforming business education to demolishing it. What are business schools creating? Historically, studies have shown that business school applicants have scored higher than their peers on the dark triad traits of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. These traits can manifest themselves in a tendency toward cunning, scheming and, at times, unscrupulous behavior. Over the course of their degree program, other studies have found that business school environments can amplify those preexisting tendencies while enhancing a concern for what others think of them. And these tendencies stick after graduation. One study examined 9,900 U.S. publicly listed firms and separated the sample by those run by managers who went to business school and those whose managers did not. While they found no discernible difference in sales or profits between the two samples, they found that labor wages were cut 6% over five years at companies run by managers who went to business school, while managers with no business degree shared profits with their workers. The study concludes that this is the result of practices and values acquired in business education. But there are signs that this may be changing. Questioning value Today, many are questioning the value of the MBA. Those who have decided it is worth the high cost either complain of its lack of rigor, relevance and critical thinking or use it merely for access to networks for salary enhancement, treating classroom learning as less important than attending recruiting events and social activities. Layered onto this uncertain state of affairs, generative artificial intelligence is fundamentally altering the education landscape, threatening future career prospects and short-circuiting the students education by doing their research and writing for them. This is concerning because of the outsized role that business leaders play in todays society: allocating capital, developing and deploying new technologies and influencing political and social debates. At times, this role is a positive one, but not always. Distrust follows that uncertainty. Only 16% of Americans had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in corporations, while 51% of Americans between 18 and 29 hold a dim view of capitalism. Facing this reality, business educators are beginning to reexamine how to nurture business leaders who view business not only as a means to making money but also as a vehicle in service to society. Proponents such as Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College; Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University; Harold Shapiro, former president of Princeton University; and Anthony Kronman, former dean of the Yale Law School, describe this effort as a return to the original focus of a college education. Not ethics, but character formation Business schools have often included ethics courses in their curriculum, often with limited success. What some schools are experimenting with is character formation. As part of this experimentation is the development of a coherent moral culture that lies within the course curriculum but also within the cocurricular programming, cultural events, seminars and independent studies that shape students worldviews; the selection, socialization, training and reward systems for students, staff and faculty; and other aspects that shape students formation. Stanfords Bill Damon, one of the leading scholars on helping students develop a sense of purpose in life, describes a revised role for faculty in this effort, one of creating the fertile conditions for students to find meaning and purpose on their own. I use this approach in my course on vocation discernment in business, shifting from a more traditional academic style to one that is more developmental. This is relational teaching that artificial intelligence cannot do. It involves bringing the whole person into the education process, inspiring hearts as much as engaging heads to form competent leaders who possess character, judgment and wisdom. It allows an examination o both the how and the why of business, challenging students to consider what kind of business leader they aspire to be and what kind of legacy they wish to establish. It would mark a return to the original focus of early business schools, which, as Rakesh Khurana, a professor of sociology at Harvard, calls out in his book From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession, was to train managers in the same vocational way we train doctors to seek the higher aims of commerce in service to society. Reshaping business education The good news is that there are emerging exemplars that are seeking to create this kind of curriculum through centers such as Notre Dame Universitys Institute for Social Concerns and Bates Colleges Center for Purposeful Work and courses such as Stanford Universitys Designing Your Life and the University of Michigans Management as a Calling. These are but a few examples of a growing movement. So, the building blocks are there to draw from. The student demand is waiting to be met. All that is needed is for more business schools to respond. Andrew J. Hoffman is a Holcim (US) professor of sustainable enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School for Environment & Sustainability at the University of Michigan. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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It has become popular to say that we want to have a diversity of opinion represented in workplaces. We want people to speak up when they disagree with an approach or have a unique viewpoint on how to address a complex problem. While we say that in the abstract, there are many individual and group psychological factors that act against this ideal. We are often resistant to opinions that differ from our own and are more critical of evidence that contradicts our beliefs than we are of evidence consistent with it. We also have negative emotional responses to information that goes against what we believe. We are also more reluctant to say things that we think others in a group will not want to hear. Ultimately, people often have a powerful urge to believe what others in their social group also believe. To be successful at taking in diverging opinions, then, you have to fight against these factors. Listen without reacting One of the most difficult parts of hearing an opinion that differs from your own is to allow someone else to say everything they want to say before chiming in. There is a tendency to want to pick apart someone elses beliefs and arguments before they have even had a chance to say what they want to say. Instead, give your conversation partner the chance to complete their train of thought. Even if you think you have heard an argument like theirs before, let them finish. You may be surprised to find out that they have a different approach than you expect. Youll never find that out if you interrupt quickly. In addition, if you react in a visibly negative way when someone starts to disagree with you, they may find it difficult to complete their argumentparticularly if you are in a position with more status or power than they have. Try to stay engaged and neutral in your interaction rather than being hostile. Repeat back what you heard A time-honored strategy when hearing a divergent opinion is to start by repeating back the argument you just heard before critiquing it. This works in discussions at work and in close relationships as well. Repeating the argument back has two benefits. It allows the other person to feel heard, which makes it more likely that they will express themselves in the future when they disagree. In addition, it ensures that you understood the argument clearly. When someone disagrees with you by taking a novel approach, you may miss some of their key tenets. Repeating the argument back to them ensures that you have fully understood their position. Find what is right in what you think is wrong Even after listening to someone elses point of view carefully, you may have a desire to argue back strongly with themand perhaps convince them that you are right after all. A good conversation is not a debate, and it doesnt have to have a victor. The real benefit of a conversation is an exchange of ideas. Many people feel like the most intellectual thing they can do is to provide a convincing argument against someone else. I would argue that the hardest thing to do intellectually is to find something right inside of an idea you find wrong overall. When you do that, you can strengthen your overall base of knowledge, even if you dont change your mind in to agree with someone else completely. It is a skill to see the truth in other peoples arguments. It can take a lot of work to integrate seemingly incongruous viewpoints. Most importantly, it requires a lot of self-confidence. You have to recognize that adopting some of another persons viewpoint does not diminish your own standing or give them power over you. It simply makes you more likely to be able to deal with the complexity of the world in the future.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. If I could use only one app, Id pick Craft. Craft is my favorite multipurpose document/notes tool. It looks and feels nicer than Google Docs or Apple Notes. Its easier to use than Obsidian, Coda or Notion. And its flexible enough for everything from shopping lists to client proposals. Read on for why its so useful, new features, limitations, and more. Craft’s eight best features Visual: Elegant sub-page cards help Craft docs look neater & nicer than Google or Word Docs, which tend to bog down with lots of text. Easy: Add text, images, links, tables, or sub-pages intuitively. Shareable: Collaborate on a doc and publish & share it with a link. You can create custom links and track metrics to measure visits. Export: Print, export as PDF or text, or transfer material to Day One, Bear, Drafts, Ulysses, Things, iA Writer, or other apps. Calendar: Easily sync your calendar to use Craft for daily notes. Affordable: The free version is great and the unlimited option is fairly priced. Flexible: Works quickly and reliably on mobile, desktop or Web. You can even email material into your notes. AI options: Pick from multiple AI models within Craft, or avoid it entirely. Templates: Starting docs for travel, events, family, and more. Pricing Free for basic usage, with up to 1500 content blocks and 1gb of storage. Free upgrade for students and educators with your school email address. Free upgrade w/ a subsription to Setapp, $10/month for access to 200+ apps. Plus plan: $8/month billed annually for a Plus account to create unlimited notes and documents. ($4/month with a special 50% current discount). Team plan: $15/month for sharing with 2 to 6 people. (50% current discount) Examples of Craft Docs Useful AI prompts: Excerpts from my resource for paid subscribers Planning great class sessions: Excerpts from my guide for paid subscribers Syllabus outline: Draft from teacher Jeremy England Home life notes:By the Craft team Examples of Craft Templates Simple company handbook with sections for people, policies & resources Sales plan has sections for mission statement, team roles, action plan, etc. Home design planner with customizable pages Travel packing list with customizable visual sections for your next trip. New features I like Styles For designing distinctive docs, Craft added 100 new premade styles Collections Its easy now to keep track of lists for projects, books, movies, etc Whiteboards Create a freeform brainstorming page with Post-Its, images, etc Sync with Readwise Import Kindle highlights and other clips youve saved Privacy and Security Craft has strong policies on data security and privacy. TL;DR: Craft does not own your data, nor do we sell it to others or use it for advertising. Limitations Android: doesnt have a full app yet, though a mobile Web app is on the way. Craft works on Mac, iOS, VisionOS, Windows, & Web. Tagging: It’s not yet easy to organize pages with tags as easily as you can with other notes tools, though the team is working on it. No synced blocks: In tools like Notion and Workflowy, you can create a synchronized block of text that stays up to date anywhere you use it. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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