Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Up next: your future.

You know that the world is changing in unprecedented ways. There was a time when you could expect to have one job over the course of a lifetime. Right now? People change jobs, on average, every four years. You can’t count on your past to be your future, too.

You’ve read about business schools with renowned faculty, cutting-edge research, and a high-achieving student body. We have those things, and the rankings to show for it.

So what sets us apart?

At the Weatherhead School of Management, we don’t depend on what’s come before to determine what we do next. That’s why we’re leading the way to a management science for the 21st century with our signature graduate curricula in Manage by Designing and Sustainable Enterprise. We’ve infused business basics with ideas and practices that change individuals, organizations, and societies, so our graduates leave Weatherhead primed to be part of what happens next.

We’ve found that textbook examples occur mainly … well, in textbooks. Real problems aren’t solved by choosing between answers a, b, and c. That’s where Weatherhead’s Manage by Designing techniques come in. What designers know that managers need to is that solutions don’t occur in a vacuum, any more than problems do. Be ready to throw out what isn’t working and try again. Sometimes, you try a, b, and c—and you keep going, to the end of the alphabet.

Industry and business professionals too often share an “either … or” mentality. We prefer a “both … and” kind of thinking. Today, corporations and businesses are only beginning to assess the potential financial benefits of sustainability, having assumed for a long time that you can’t go green without losing greenbacks. At Weatherhead, Sustainable Enterprise, one of our transdisciplinary themes, has shown us that sustainability is a business opportunity of unmistakable worth. Profitability and responsibility are not mutually exclusive—they can go hand in hand.

Changing any human system can seem slow and cumbersome—even impossible—whether that system is a team, a community, an industry, or a society. Appreciative Inquiry, a groundbreaking theory developed by faculty at Weatherhead, provides ways for people to identify and build on strengths and to align their creativity for positive change. An action-research technique on an epic scale, Appreciative Inquiry is a tool that gets amazing things done.

What will set you apart when your “next” arrives?

Passion. Creativity. Knowledge. Optimism. Clarity. Ingenuity. Empathy.

You’re up next.