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Big Beacon Radio Ep. 6: Lessons from ‘A Whole New Engineer’

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BB Radio HeaderEp. 6 -Lessons from ‘A Whole New Engineer’ for the Transformation of Higher Education

When educators think about transforming higher education they almost immediately start with modifications in content, curriculum, and pedagogy, but a recent book suggests that this approach is fundamentally flawed. Join the writing team of A Whole New Engineer: The Coming Revolution in Engineering Education, Mark Somerville (Olin College), Catherine Whitney (writer), and Dave Goldberg (BB Radio Host) for a lively conversation regarding the deep emotional and cultural changes and processes needed to change engineering education, and higher education more generally. The episode starts by looking back on the joy and difficulty of writing the book. It continues with reflections on key learning episodes and stories, and it concludes by reflecting on the “technologies of trust” necessary for transformative educational change. Join Mark, Catherine, and Dave for this important episode to better understand how higher ed transformation is fundamentally different from what it appears.

Listen on VoiceAmerica or download on iTunes podcasts.

Learn more about Big Beacon Radio, here.

Big Beacon Radio Ep. 4: Lassonde

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BB Radio HeaderEp. 4 – The Lassonde School and the Education of Renaissance Professionals

After years of relative stability in higher education, a small number of engineering schools are emerging around the world to forge a new vision of what it means to be a professional. In this episode host Dave Goldberg interviews Janusz Kozinski, founding dean of one of the newest engineering schools on the planet, the Lassonde School of Engineering in Toronto. Learn how Lassonde got started, about its vision for “renaissance engineers,” and the lessons learned so far. The show is also joined by guest commentator Athena Lin, chair of Students for a Whole New Education and rising junior at the University of Illinois. Athena is working to connect with students around the globe to promote transformative change. Together Athena and Dave explore some of the ramifications of initiatives like Lassonde for students. Join Janusz, Athena, and Dave for this important episode to better understand how the education of engineering and other professionals is undergoing tectonic shifts.

Listen on VoiceAmerica or download on iTunes podcasts.

Learn more about Big Beacon Radio, here.

Big Beacon Radio Ep. 3: John Kotter

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BB Radio HeaderEp. 3 – John Kotter: Leading Change in Higher Education

Organizations are facing unprecedented calls for change, higher education included, yet leading change in established organizations is a daunting task. One of the keenest architects and practitioners of effective change leadership processes and practices is John Kotter, Harvard Business School professor emertitus and Chairman of Kotter International. In this episode, John joins show host Dave Goldberg for a lively conversation to explore how Kotter’s famous 8-step process applies to the world of higher education, and how change itself has changed as the pace of change has accelerated. The show is joined by guest commentator Joe Tranquillo, Bucknell University. Joe is an educational change agent par excellence, and together Joe and Dave explore some of the practical ramifications of these ideas in higher education transformation. Join John, Joe, and Dave for this important episode to better understand how to bring more rapid, effective change to higher education today.

Listen on VoiceAmerica or download on iTunes podcasts.

Learn more about Big Beacon Radio, here.

The Coming Revolution

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Olin College admissions officer Grant Hooton reviewed Dave Goldberg and Mark Somerville’s A Whole New Engineer.

The purpose of the book is to give insight on how to bring about change successfully, and explain and justify the necessary changes. These are captured in the five pillars of education transformation: ‘joy,’ ‘trust,’ ‘courage,’ ‘openness,’ and ‘connectedness, collaboration, and community.’ The authors propose that letting these pillars guide our instruction, we will produce the kinds of constructive education experiences that are necessary for tomorrow’s engineer. This should not be surprising to Oliners, because we live and breathe these pillars in all aspects of our lives.

Read more of Hooton’s thoughts, here.

Radio Show: Emotional Rescue of Engineering Education

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I was a guest on Kate Ebner’s radio show Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Life, on Monday, and my Georgetown University coaching cohort colleague Nancy Lamberton was the guest host. The topic for the show was The Emotional Rescue of Engineering Education and the show abstract is reprinted below:

Humans, with a population of 7 billion people and growing, increasingly depend on engineers for our survival and quality of life. Yet the engineering pipeline is threatened as fewer students choose the profession, in part because they must survive a math-science death march and in part because the journey is viewed as a lonely survival of the fittest. Dr. Dave Goldberg wants to change that. Drawing on a 34-year career as engineer, educator and coach, Dave seeks to rewire engineering education so that it entices young people and motivates them to become whole-brained, -bodied and -hearted engineers. This show explores the surprising path to a whole new engineer that runs through emotional variables such as trust, courage, connection and vulnerability. The result of this shift is a generation of engineers unleashed to face the biggest challenges of our times. Join guest host Nancy Lamberton on July 22 to hear the vision of one of the most cutting-edge innovators in education. 

You can listen to the program by accessing the show page and listening at the link here or on iTunes here. 

Acting “As If” and Speaking “As If” Helps Make It Happen

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My Georgetown colleague Ann Oliveri (here) posted this lovely short video the other day.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBRUBrWR2ZE

The philosopher and early psychologist William James said that if we act as if something were already true that doing so immediately has an effect in reality.  The video says this quite nicely with a number of different examples.

I believe an important corollary to the examples given in the video is in the special case of speech acts.  Speaking about things as though they have come to pass also has this kind of magic.  In iFoundry we talked to students about the 3 joys, the joy of engineering, the joy of community, and the joy of learning, and the cohort was more joyful, more interested in engineering, a tighter knit community of engaged learners than they otherwise would have been.  

When clients change their story (and believe the new story), the feel better, act better, and get better results almost immediately.

This sounds too good to be true, but it is a part of a number of ancient traditions. The Buddhist practice of samma vaca or right speech points in this direction as well as the Toltec practice of impeccability with your word.    To engineering ears, it sounds like a violation of some unstated law of nature, conservation of hardship, or some such thing, but I bear witness as a hard-nosed engineer who has seen it in action to often to doubt it any longer.

Try it.  You’ll like it.  Act as if and speak as if, and immediately start reaping the benefits of the way you would like things to be.

Are You Ready to Flip?

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I gave a talk at NUS on Thursday entitled Are You Ready to Flip? Responding to Deep Faculty Challenges in an Era of MOOCs & Pervasive Online Expertise. Here’s the abstract:

The blogosphere is abuzz with MOOCs, massive, open, online courses, in which lectures are conveyed to thousands or tens of thousands of students around the globe, and the possibility of the flipped classroom, where such widely available online content is assigned outside the classroom, and classroom time is used for active learning and reflective activity.   These most recent changes come at a time when the role of the professor as research authority is challenged 24/7 by ubiquitous online resources and expertise available to graduate students at the push of an internet button

Though much has been written about the technological side of these changes, the human challenges these developments pose for successful professors and lecturers are less frequently addressed.  This talk begins by considering how all these challenges stem from a reduction in information asymmetry and how this reduction challenges the very notion of the faculty member’s privileged position as expert.  

The talk then turns to work in deep faculty development (DFD) pioneered at NUS over the last 2 and a half years.  Since its inception, this approach has spread to the US through work at iFoundry & Olin College (i2e2.olin.edu) to South America at UFMG and with the aid of Harvard-affiliated LASPAU (www.laspau.havard.edu) and to Europe through work at TUDelft and Politecnico Milano.  Using an amalgam of results from leadership studies, executive coaching, neuroscience, and mindfulness research, the approach helps faculty members develop deep noticing, listening, questioning (NLQ), and narrative design skills necessary in these fluid and creative times.  

The talk highlights the concrete benefits of this approach to faculty career development, success, and happiness and concludes with an invitation to attend a short series of deep faculty development workshops open to NUS faculty this semester (semester 2).

I have written and spoken about the need for engineering education change, but this is the first time I directed similar arguments at an individual faculty member’s expertise in teaching and research.  

The powerpoint slides from the talk are available in the viewer below:

[slideshare id=16414270&doc=ready-to-flip-2-7-2013-v2-130207225809-phpapp02]

Those interested in workshops like those described should consider the I2E2 workshop, Change that Sticks, this summer (here) or write to me at deg@threejoy.com. 

 

It’s 2013. Everyone Needs a Coach!

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Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google explains why everyone needs a coach (via the ICF Singapore FB page here).

httpv://youtu.be/mQXiajmANYs

If Eric Schmidt of Google needs one, so do you.  ThreeJoy Associates can recommend a number of ICF-trained coaches with experience matching your needs.  Write to Dave Goldberg at deg@threejoy.com to line up a complementary session to help make 2013 as successful as you want it to be.

Monkey Business, Unequal Pay & Fairness

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I’m attending a course on negotiation at Harvard and we were shown a  one-minute clip from Frans de Waal’s TED talk on Moral Behavior in Animals (full video here):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mynrRd7Ak

Capuchin monkeys are fed different foods and the monkey fed a less desirable food has a surprising reaction to it.