Receiving SIOP’s Distinguished Contributions in Teaching Award was a real honor for me. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the best part of receiving that award would be the opportunity to interact with other recipients of the award. From Paul Muchinsky, the first recipient, to Dan Sachau, last year’s recipient (who gave his invited address at this year’s SIOP conference), I have had the chance to get to know almost every recipient of the award. These folks continue to inspire me with their ability and passion. And every one of the award recipients will say that they know lots of I/O folks who have the same passion and ability as they do – that there are many, many talented teachers and educators in our field.
Over the last couple of years of this column, I have tried to “catch up” with prior Teaching Award winners, inviting them to guest-write a column, as happened in a prior teaching-related TIP column for the earliest award recipients. With Dan Sachau’s column below, we’re now “caught up”. Next year, this year’s award recipient, Jose Cortina, will write a column here, following his presentation at SIOP. These columns together provide a wonderful archive of thinking on teaching. You can link to all of the prior columns through the SIOP Teaching Aids Wiki (siopwiki.wetpaint.com).
In Dan’s column below, he talks about the importance of having chutzpah – and the story he tells shows that he has chutzpah to spare. The things he has accomplished at Minnesota State University – Mankato by taking chances, being willing to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, and just plain “doing it” are truly impressive. The Consulting Challenge, OERG, Psychological Frontiers radio program… it’s worth reading.
Audacity
Daniel Sachau
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Frederick Herzberg said to me, “Dan, good teachers have chutzpah.”
“Chutzpah?” I asked.
He explained with a parable:
“During the Six-Day War an Israeli fighter pilot experiences engine trouble and has to land his plane. His nearest option is a U.S. aircraft carrier. The pilot starts to make a descent to the ship. The control tower calls him off. He keeps descending. The tower threatens him. The pilot lands anyway. The Captain of the ship, who is feared by all, charges the plane and screams at the pilot, ‘What were you thinking? We should have shot you out of the sky.’ The Israeli pilot calmly replies, ‘Sorry, I thought the ship was one of ours’”
“Dan,” Fred said, “the Israelis don’t own any aircraft carriers. That pilot had Chutzpah!”
I worked for Herzberg in graduate school and he certainly modeled chutzpah. I am not sure where Fred heard the joke he told, but I’ve had this lesson in mind over the last 20 years when I created programs that were a little, well… over the top. My recommendation to young faculty members is this, if you find yourself thinking, “I’m not sure what administrators would think about this, but wouldn’t it be cool if we …”, then you’re probably on the right track. Here are some programs that I started at Minnesota State that I might not have landed had I first asked for permission. Maybe they will spark ideas for programs at your school.
OERG. The Organizational Effectiveness Research Group is a consulting practice housed in the MSU I/O Psychology program. Faculty members serve as consultants and students works as project managers. Students get to travel, meet with clients, negotiate contracts, manage interaction with clients, perform data analysis, prepare reports and make presentations. The OERG has local (City of Lake Crystal, MN), regional (OptumHealth), national (U.S. Air Force) and international clients (Atrain, GmbH). The benefit is that master’s level students get the opportunity to gain hands-on experience while they are still in school. We use income from the projects to fund student programs and buy equipment. There is a steep learning curve for the students but they love the opportunities.
Consulting Challenge. Each year, I organize a case competition for students in I/O master’s programs. Students from MSU, University of Northern Iowa, St. Cloud State and Roosevelt University participate in the three-day event. The case is based on a real-world problem that a host organization has experienced. Students meet on Wednesday morning at a hotel in Minneapolis. They are given a fictional request for proposals for consulting services and a packet of reports, data and directions. Teams get to meet with the host on Thursday and they must have a proposal and presentation ready by Friday. The presentations are reviewed by a panel of judges including executives in the host organization, faculty from the various schools and consultants from the Twin Cities. Unlike business school competitions, schools do not compete against each other. Instead, students from each school work together on teams. The Consulting Challenge is challenging. Students get very little sleep over three days. Students face tough questions from judges but they do get a very real look at the life of a consultant. 3M, Data Recognition, PDI Ninth House, Best Buy, Ameriprise, Cargill, UnitedHealth Group, Medtronic, and Target Corp. have hosted the Consulting Challenge. Case competitions are common in business schools but, oddly, not in I/O programs. I think many students would benefit from similar case competitions and I encourage faculty to start them. In fact, come join ours. We would love to have you.
International Service Learning. Every other year, I lead an international trip with our graduate students. These trips are two to three weeks in length. The first trips focused on international business and I/O psychology and involved travel to Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Portugal, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. We typically visited U.S. firms with overseas offices. We would also meet with political officials involved in human resource training and development. In the last few years we added a service-learning component to the trips, and this has increased the value of the tours. Three years ago, faculty and students traveled to South Africa to work at a school that provides basic business training for students from impoverished townships. Last year, we traveled to Ecuador and spent time at a technical high school in the rainforest. The trips are hard work for the students but they are proud of the work they do. More importantly, the trips have a long term effect on the interests and values of students. If you want assistance connecting to an international school that needs your help, just give me a call.
Psychological Frontiers Radio Show. My latest, I wonder if this could work… project involves a weekly radio show. National Public Radio runs a variety of 2-3 minute radio shows focused on science (e.g. Earth and Sky) and history (e.g. A Moment in Time). These were the inspiration for creating a show on psychological research. I contacted the manager of the campus radio station and asked if faculty could write a series of 2 minute spots that summarize current and classic studies in psychology. The manager was happy to help because most university radio station managers have a mandate to assist academic programs, but few departments reach out to the stations. KMSU provides studio and air time and the shows run twice a week. Each of the faculty members in the psychology department contributes two scripts per semester. Dawn Albertson, a psychology department faculty member is the voice of the show and Emily Stark, another faculty member, helps produce the show. We are now asking graduate students to write scripts. The scripts are a nice vita entry and I think that the writers enjoy the process of describing their favorite studies in terms the general public will understand. Interested in writing a script? We need more. Feel free to send them.
Real World Projects. All of my classes involve hands-on learning projects. Undergrads in my motivation course learn about job design by taking a job with a local temp agency that specializes in light-industrial work. Stats homework assignments include company data sets and opportunities to present analyses to managers. In addition to classwork, students at MSU participate in a weekly speaker series where alumni and local consultants talk to students about human resources and I/O psychology.
No Harm in a Little Fun. My conspirators in the MSU I/O program include Lisa Perez, Andi Lassiter and Kristie Campana. They are excellent teachers and wonderful colleagues. Andi, Lisa, Kristie and I really enjoyed our graduate experience and we wanted our students to have a similar collegial relationship with faculty. In order facilitate this, we moved all the faculty and students into a suite of offices and spent too much OERG money making the office comfortable. We also organize an annual Fall Conference. This is a three-day orientation session held at a resort on a lake in northern Minnesota. Alumni, faculty and the I/O program advisory board members attend the conference. The event includes alumni presentations, student presentations and boating. The Fall Conference is a great way for people to get to know each other. In addition, we organize yearly Halloween, Christmas, Super Bowl, and graduation parties. Further, students and faculty convene at a local restaurant every Wednesday night.
Audacity. Many of the MSU programs are a bit unusual. Had I first asked for permission, the university administrators might have argued that the OERG model was too complicated, third-world travel too dangerous, the Consulting Challenge too stressful, the temp-agency jobs to risky, the radio show too time consuming and the Fall Conference too fun. But in every case, the success of the students sold the administrators on the benefits of the programs. So young professors, have a little fun, try something unusual, challenge your students, give them a safe place to fail, offer hands-on learning experiences, and enjoy your time with them. It takes a little chutzpah to bend the academic mold, but the rewards are worth it.
More on the projects can be found at:
Albertson, D., Stark, E., & Sachau, D. (2010, May). Psychological Frontiers: The radio show
bringing psychological science to the community. Midwestern Psychological
Association Convention, Chicago, IL.
Sachau, D., Brasher, N., & Fee, S. (2010). Three models for short-term study abroad. Journal of
Management Education, 34(5), 645-670. DOI: 10.1177/1052562909340880.
Sachau, D., Fee, S., Johnson, A., & Wittrock, J. (2009, April). International service
learning. Poster at the 24th Annual Conference of the Society of Industrial/Organizational
Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
Sachau, D. & Foti, R. (2011, April). Award winning wisdom - Teaching. Panel at the 6th
Annual Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology Junior Faculty Consortium,
Chicago, IL.
Sachau, D., & Naas, P. (2010). The Consulting Challenge: A case competition. Journal of
Management Education, 34(4), 605-631. DOI: 10.1177/1052562909358556.
Please address correspondence regarding this manuscript to: Daniel A. Sachau, Ph.D., Professor, Director of the Graduate Program in I/O Psychology, 23 Armstrong Hall, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN 56001. Sachau@mnsu.edu. 507.389.5829
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