Sunday, October 25, 2009

WILL Forum@Wharton


Why Wharton Shines!


Participating at The Wharton School Advanced Management Program – we come to understand why Wharton is a “living laboratory” of the finest minds of key executives from global industry and the distinction and rigour that academia brings to business and innovative thinking.

It also brings home the reality that the Wharton School has the deepest commitment to building a better society – that will nourish future business leaders for future markets, who will find ways to be “cooperatively competitive” and take responsibility for the common good and bring high performance to their business goals.

Clearly, Wharton is not engaging its advanced management program participants in a series of traditional workshops and management principles – but it is it pushing the limits of their minds to leverage their deepest energies and potentials to visualize the forces that will shape the future leadership-- and that each of us should be able and willing to make a substantive contribution to it.

At the same time, Wharton tends to build and encourage a critical process of reflective listening, an understanding that there is no linear-line -- but that each culture, each country, each company, and each organization will define the future business scenarios differently -– and that it important to bring a collective thinking to the mission for best rewards to business and society.

In fine analogy to the discourse in the classrooms, Wharton takes us on a “river-boat-experience” that reminds us that unless the high momentum and energy created by those who are leading in front-positions of the boat is well balanced by the last person on the “bow” of the boat – the boat will continue to rock on unsteady waters. The “High Performance” team will always be the one that will “get its rhythm right” and not just have the high energy and skills.

So, when did we last hear the terms “en-noble” , “collaborative competition”, “vicious cycle to virtuous cycle”, “active learning”, “intelligent failure” , “discovery driven planning”, “creativity not hyperactivity”, “network based thinking,” “Law of Requisite Variety,” “peripheral vision”, “social glue for structural holes,” and “meta-thinking” ? These will be the “jewels” that we will take back with us – if we know how to treasure them.

And, when did you last feel that you are truly a part of an on-going “larger story” – that is larger than yourself and your current goals – which if recognized well on time, will make you the authentic leader you want to be?

This is what spending time at the Wharton School can help to redefine-- for your life and thought-leadership.


Poonam Barua

Founder Convener

Forum for Women in Leadership

pamasia@vsnl.com

1 comment:

  1. Hi Poonam,
    Very thought provoking post.
    I've commented on LinkedIn forum as well.
    Cheers,
    Charu.

    ReplyDelete