My Way

It is hard to read these two words "My way" without my mind starting up a memory tape of Frank Sinatra signing "I'll do it my way".

Is this not what our forthcoming OBTC 2008 at Babson College is all about?

Are we not drawn to this special annual moment when I get to talk about, demonstrate, and, most importantly, refresh my own way of teaching. To refresh is to give new freshness or brightness to; restore. Out ways of teaching are not set in stone. We come to OBTC's, read and write for the Society's Journal of Management Education, and open our minds to all sorts of influences to keep our teaching fresh, relevant, and, admittedly, personally rewarding.

Is there one best way to teach organizational and managerial behavior?

Walking the halls of our classroom buildings, looking in to classrooms through the windows on the doors, it may look like there is one and only one accepted way of teaching. There are the students, sitting where they are supposed to, acing as they are supposed to. Here is the teacher, in position at the whiteboard, PowerPoint clicker in hand. We see some pens moving, so that must mean knowledge is being transmitted from teacher to learner. Yes, I know this sounds like I am panning the lecturer. Perhaps I am. However, that professor may well be lecturing brilliantly. It may well be her way of teaching honed over years of careful, self-reflective practice.

Now, come by my door and you will see students sitting in teams, a Vista Blackboard image projected from the ceiling on the screen up front.I will be somewhere in the room, coaching, cheer leading, observing as learners work through an exercise. A blended course with high involvement and interaction on the ground, bolstered by a tightly designed learning module accessed 24 x 7 in the air, is my way. There might be a business leader guest in there, as you walk by.

Or, if you were to walk by next Tuesday, the room will be empty. We are going to tour a highly successful health and fitness club on the road next to campus. Look on my Vista discussion site and you will see over 6,000 postings to date, as each of each tasks x 14 units require written postings of several sorts. My way includes reading all of these.

Watch me on about any night, here at my desk at home. I am going over 60 Unit Sign Offs, 32 questions in which learners account for their performance of the tasks and all that pertains to accomplishing them. It makes for some long days. It makes my days to see how the teaching is turning out so far. It is my way.

What is your way?