Impact Through Education ™
Translating Ideas Into Action

At the close of the first week of Wharton's Essentials of Management, executives were preparing to take off for about a month before returning to Wharton for the second week of the program. They had been exposed to a whirlwind of new business ideas from diverse Wharton faculty members. Now came the moment of truth. What could they take back to their organizations? How could they implement new initiatives based on this knowledge?

Executives were asked to identify the two or three most important lessons they had learned during the week. Then they were asked to visualize the experience during the break. They were asked to visualize what they would tell their classmates they had accomplished when they came back to campus.

Principles of Implementation

Mario MoussaTo set up the discussions, Academic Co-director Mario Moussa presented several general guidelines for taking new knowledge back to work, including:


  • Stay focused: "I'd prefer you walk out of here focused on one or two things rather than 30 things," Moussa said. After an inspiring program, it is tempting to try to do everything, but this can be a recipe for doing nothing. A few well-chosen initiatives often work better.

  • Take small steps: It takes a long time to develop new management material. Moussa noted that the documentary "Comedian" follows Jerry Seinfeld as he tries to come up with material for a new 2-hour comedy routine, because he felt his old one was becoming stale. With each new joke, he'd rush out to a comedy club to test it and see if it is funny. Through these small steps, he built his whole routine. It took him 6 months to come up with a half hour of new material. And even when he finished, he said it felt like wearing his father's old suit.

    "He took little steps in building his material and was testing it every step along the way," Moussa said. "Think about the lessons you have learned here, and try out an idea to see if it really works. If it works, make it part of your performance. But remember how long it takes to get comfortable with an idea, even for someone at the top of his game."
  • Visualization: Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling prepares for a baseball game through research and visualization. He will sit down with all the stats on the opposing players and watch videotapes. Finally, he will visualize himself pitching against those players. "By the time he gets out onto the field, he knows better than the opposing players how they are going to hit," Moussa said. "Visualize yourself going back to work. This is an opportunity to transform yourself, to lay down new mental tracks." Moussa said the Blue Angels pilots also use visualization before they take to the air for their difficult maneuvers. They sit down together in a room and visualize themselves flying in formation before getting into the cockpit.

  • Combine dreaming with action: TimeWarner founder Steve Ross once recalled some good advice he received from his father. He said there are three kinds of people: Some who work all day, some who dream all day, and those who spend an hour daydreaming before setting to work to fulfill those dreams. He told his son to go into the third category "because there is virtually no competition."

  • Set clear goals: It is important to set clear goals and expectations. "What do you want to have done by the time you get back here for Week 2?" Moussa asked. "The goal may be to have a conversation or use one of the tools. Setting a clear goal will help make it happen."

  • Be a teacher: One of the best ways to learn and apply new material is to teach it to others. This helps spread the knowledge and also creates a broader understanding of the principles so that everyone speaks the same language. Moussa said one of the challenges for managers coming back from a program is to explain what happened to others in the organization. "If you can teach the ideas you have learned here, you can begin to build the kind of learning community at work that you have seen here this week."

Taking It Home

As managers reflected on the week at Wharton, they identified a number of important lessons that they would translate into initiatives back at the office.

John Spicer, senior director of manufacturing at AMI Semiconductor, Inc., said he expected to build some educational sessions on finance for people in his organization. "In manufacturing, it is sometimes difficult to tie decisions back to results. We have an organization of smart people in manufacturing, but it is sometimes difficult to explain this. From the financial sessions at Wharton, I've gained great insight about how I can go about educating them. I want to go back and teach our people how our tactics and manufacturing strategy tie into the company financial strategy."

Richard Higgins, assistant vice president of corporate accounts at Ecolab, said he would take back insights on competitive analysis. "We have taken our eye off competitive analysis a bit," he said. "I want to apply the competitive analysis tools we learned here to three of our largest competitors." He also noted that throughout the Wharton presentations, there was an effective use of cases and stories. "One of the big things was that in every lesson there was a story," he said. "It will help when I coach and teach my own people to weave in stories that are relevant to our business."

Applied Ideas

A consistent focus at Wharton is on application. One participant noted in the closing comments that he was a bit skeptical about coming to a university because he expected "to get too much theory." Instead, the program was "extremely practical, real world, not only in stories but cases."

Ryan Cameron, director of mixed-signal products at AMI Semiconductor, has already experienced the impact of developing an implementation plan. Cameron attended Wharton's The Leadership Journey program last year. By focusing on two or three things, making them habits, "they became an integral part of how I lead my teams back at the office," he said. "Pick one or two things. Make them a habit. Put the Post-It® note with those three things on your mirror or on your computer. I have the testimonial that doing those things will actually help you to achieve them."

Related Programs

    

This month's articles: