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24 BizEd JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2015 differences within organizations. Even so, Davidson recognizes that in organizations where connection is not the norm, bringing people together might not be as easy as it sounds. "There is rarely an edict from on high that says, 'We're going to be more collaborative or connect- ed now,'" he says. "We all know that the enduring elements of many cultures make connection really difficult to do." But in any culture or community, con- nection is happening on a smaller scale— whether it's in specific labs, teams, or departments. "In even the most hierar- chical and territorial organizations I've worked with, there have been high-per- forming teams that were connected and collaborative," Davidson says. Leaders can start with these "seats of change" to establish a vision and new direction for the company as a whole. Leaders themselves also have to con- nect to others, says Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of IT and Management at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Those who rely solely on their own judgment are likely to see their plans fail, while more nimble and adaptable leaders seek out and value perspectives other than their own to bet- ter ensure their chances of success. For instance, Davenport, known for his work in analytics and strategic decision mak- ing, recently met someone he classifies as a true change maker: Shigeru Nakani, chairman of the board of the Tokyo Uni- versity of Science in Japan. Nakani, who is committed to repositioning his school in the market, regularly seeks advice from experts outside the organization—which is the reason he requested a meeting with Davenport on a recent trip to Boston. During that meeting, Davenport was impressed that Nakani brought with him a number of smart protégés, whom he often turned to for ideas. "Most leaders don't really take advantage of others' in- put. They assume, 'I must be pretty good at this or they wouldn't have hired me to lead in the first place,'" he says. "Great leaders surround themselves with people they think are smarter than they are." IMPROVISATION People who can think on their feet "can help their organizations become more agile," says Davidson of Darden. To help business students develop that skill, Davidson often forces his students to improvise in his courses. "I might have had students prepare for a certain reading or simulation, but then I'll draw from something they didn't expect. Or I'll say, 'I'm going to sit over there and it's up to you to make something happen.' The most frustrating and challenging thing for students to do is to have to 'turn the ship' suddenly," he says. "When you force them to improvise, it can be a great learning experience." Peiperl agrees that responding well to change requires one part planning and one part extemporization. He draws an analogy to jazz. "People think jazz is all about improvising, but it actually starts with a basic structure, and then the musicians build and layer notes on top of that structure," he says. "It's no different in business. There must be interplay between a plan for change that suits the market and the opportunism that's nec- essary to go with the flow. That interplay makes some people uncomfortable." EXPERIMENTATION To be masters of change, individuals and organizations must have systems in place that support experimentation. Dav- enport describes how Nakani has created "parallel systems" of experimentation within the structure at the Tokyo Uni- versity of Science. "Many faculty aren't comfortable with change," says Daven- port. "By setting up parallel environ- ments where he can develop new ideas on a small scale, Nakani can insulate those faculty, rather than force the entire existing structure to change" Nakani thrives on change, which is a rare characteristic among leaders, Davenport acknowledges. The question is, can business schools help those who fear change learn to become more like Nakani? Yes, by providing them with the same opportunities to experiment themselves. "We need more simulations and experi- ential approaches that allow students to explore what happens when an organiza- tion is headed for disaster—when it will crash and burn if students don't act," says Davenport. "But we don't have many of those, and they're hard to develop." COMFORT WITH AMBIGUITY From Davenport's point of view, busi- ness schools could produce more gradu- ates who are true change makers by of- fering more multidisciplinary learning opportunities. "Business schools tend to break the world up into little pieces, like finance or strategy," he says. "Even when we offer courses that combine different approaches, they still have one professor who comes in and says, 'Today we're going to talk about the informa- tion systems perspective,' and another who says, 'Today we're going to look at it from an operations perspective.' Stu- dents really need to see the big picture so they can better determine where the world needs to go." As all-encompassing as 9/11 was, the ways companies responded produced some of the best "big-picture" case stud- ies for leading through turbulent times, says Davidson, who worked for several clients after the tragedy. "Those leaders had to manage through changes in the business, changes in politics, changes in the world, and as much as anything else, changes in the psychology of the indi- viduals and groups they were leading." Business schools could immerse their students in such case studies as a way to boost their "comfort with ambiguity," Davidson says. To produce individuals ready for the future, these experts agree, business schools must create more tools that put students directly into the center of change, both the slow and subtle and the sudden and unthinkable. With the right experiences under their belts, their grad- uates won't want to hide or be isolated from the effects of change. Rather, they'll be comfortable right in the midst of it, ready to lead the way. change management