In this section, Michael Davies describes changes he has made to the curriculum over several iterations of the course.
Social Interaction and Teamwork
Social interaction and direct contact with teammates are defining characteristics of students’ experiences in ESD.S51 Systems Leadership and Management Praxis. Even though this course includes the Back Bay Battery online simulation, there is really no substitute for the residential classroom experience. This is because the course is really about attending to interpersonal dynamics. It’s about observing how people behave in the round.
"One thing I learned from teaching the first few iterations of this course was just how unfamiliar students tend to be with thinking about patterns of social interactions and working in teams."
In fact, one thing I learned from teaching the first few iterations of this course was just how unfamiliar students tend to be with thinking about patterns of social interactions and working in teams. These are students who tend to be extremely high-performing and analytical individuals. Stopping to think about social dynamics is very foreign to them.
I adjusted the course in two ways to address this issue. Instead of assuming that students would naturally engage in a lot reflection about patterns of social interaction, I intentionally reduced the workload slightly in order to create more time within the course for this type of critical analysis. This is why the current iteration of the course includes more time for debriefing sessions.
Double Loop Learning
The second thing I did was add an additional play session for the Back Bay Battery online simulation. We originally ran it as one session, but students told us they wanted to try the simulation, reflect, and then try it again. In other words, they wanted to engage in what Chris Argyris (1977) calls “double loop learning.” They wanted to try, fail, ask themselves what they learned, challenge their own mental models, and then try again.
I spotlight Argyris’ work because it’s about teaching smart people how to learn. Most smart people don’t think about how they learn. Any MIT graduate student can easily produce output, but I want them to actually confront and challenge their own mental models about a domain with which they are unfamiliar. Incorporating structured opportunities for reflection throughout the course has helped to achieve this goal.
Reference
Argyris, Chris. “Double Loop Learning in Organizations.” Harvard Business Review, September (1977).
