Check out LeTourneau University. We’re a Christian polytechnic. Our program is very technical and very Christian. We’re working on making the liberal arts better integrated.
I also believe that it is critical to teach leadership to engineers. But leadership is only half the story. In fact, I believe it is equally critical to teach our students how to be strong, engaged, ethical followers. Items 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all strongly associated with followership. There is a growing body of evidence that great followership is what makes for great teams.
I've been teaching engineering leadership courses at one of the top engineering schools for over a decade now. In those courses, I integrate both leadership and followership developmentg. I have had many students tell me that the most valuable lessons they have learned have been about followership. Why is this? Because followership is how engineers ensure they are solving the right problems for the people they serve. Followership also happens to be the linchpin of civil society. One could argue that the democratic deficit we are currently facing has more to do with a lack of strong followership than of poor leadership. After all, it is passive followers who enable autocratic leaders.
Interestingly, in just a few weeks the 4th Global Followership Conference will be taking place at Claremont McKenna College, just steps away from Harvey Mudd. It is telling that, as of today, there are no faculty from Harvey Mudd attending. Seems like a shame (followershipconference.com).
Hi Marc, great point. Thanks for introducing me to the concept of followership and sharing a brief primer. I agree that this is an aspect of leadership that is often under appreciated and discussed. Leaders in one team are often followers in another.
Also neat to hear that the conference will be taking place in our backyard at CMC this year. Regrettably, this is the first I've heard of it. At least we're having this conversation a month before the conference instead of a month afterward. Perhaps I can remedy the fact that no faculty from Harvey Mudd are currently registered to attend. At the very least, maybe we could grab coffee or lunch when you are in town. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment.
All of us who went through (i.e. survived, conquered) Mudd know in what many ways the college excels in its highly Humanities-laden STEM education, which as you pointed out was by design on the part of the college's founders. It was no less than another HMC president, the third one, I believe, Jon Strauss (going from memory here) who pointed out the college's accolades, but then opined in a Mudd magazine article that we still lacked one thing! He pointed out that a shortcoming of the Mudd education was (hold on, sit down first)... spirituality and spiritual development. When I read this in the official Mudd magazine, I was floored and saved the entire magazine so that one day I could point this out to someone in the future. Now if only I could find where I keep that magazine. I feel that President Strauss' observation is complementary to what you are desiring to champion in terms of leadership development, given your total outlook on what it means to help humankind flourish. I also concur with his conclusion.
I really like the framework you're thinking of for teaching leadership at Harvey Mudd. The Leading Yourself, Leading Others, Leading Your Cause progression and direct tie in to the humanities holds a lot of potential. I didn't study engineering leadership in college, but leadership was a big focus of my university (US Naval Academy '06). If I think back to my experience, one of the most powerful aspects of learning leadership was having a tight feedback cycle between learning about leadership and having opportunities to practice it.
I'm working on creating a private middle and high school built around very similar themes. Tight integration between humanities and math, teaching students to lead themselves and others, work on projects that align with the Leading Your Cause idea. Thank you for an insightful piece that helps me also think through this.
Great post, Josh. It is uncanny how often you hit themes that are in my head. The focus on your institutional setting is so important. As academic disciplines have structured the incentives for faculty around national and international questions, our curricula have lost their capacity to speak to institutional mission and local circumstances. I love the idea of our course as distinctly Harvey Mudd.
Check out LeTourneau University. We’re a Christian polytechnic. Our program is very technical and very Christian. We’re working on making the liberal arts better integrated.
Thanks Jo. I'm an LETU alum (BS '13, MS '14) :) Deeply shaped by my time at LeTourneau!
Here are a few posts reflecting on my time at LETU that you may enjoy: https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/the-one-pot-system
https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/no-struggle-no-progress-know-struggle
I also believe that it is critical to teach leadership to engineers. But leadership is only half the story. In fact, I believe it is equally critical to teach our students how to be strong, engaged, ethical followers. Items 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all strongly associated with followership. There is a growing body of evidence that great followership is what makes for great teams.
I've been teaching engineering leadership courses at one of the top engineering schools for over a decade now. In those courses, I integrate both leadership and followership developmentg. I have had many students tell me that the most valuable lessons they have learned have been about followership. Why is this? Because followership is how engineers ensure they are solving the right problems for the people they serve. Followership also happens to be the linchpin of civil society. One could argue that the democratic deficit we are currently facing has more to do with a lack of strong followership than of poor leadership. After all, it is passive followers who enable autocratic leaders.
Interestingly, in just a few weeks the 4th Global Followership Conference will be taking place at Claremont McKenna College, just steps away from Harvey Mudd. It is telling that, as of today, there are no faculty from Harvey Mudd attending. Seems like a shame (followershipconference.com).
Hi Marc, great point. Thanks for introducing me to the concept of followership and sharing a brief primer. I agree that this is an aspect of leadership that is often under appreciated and discussed. Leaders in one team are often followers in another.
Also neat to hear that the conference will be taking place in our backyard at CMC this year. Regrettably, this is the first I've heard of it. At least we're having this conversation a month before the conference instead of a month afterward. Perhaps I can remedy the fact that no faculty from Harvey Mudd are currently registered to attend. At the very least, maybe we could grab coffee or lunch when you are in town. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment.
All of us who went through (i.e. survived, conquered) Mudd know in what many ways the college excels in its highly Humanities-laden STEM education, which as you pointed out was by design on the part of the college's founders. It was no less than another HMC president, the third one, I believe, Jon Strauss (going from memory here) who pointed out the college's accolades, but then opined in a Mudd magazine article that we still lacked one thing! He pointed out that a shortcoming of the Mudd education was (hold on, sit down first)... spirituality and spiritual development. When I read this in the official Mudd magazine, I was floored and saved the entire magazine so that one day I could point this out to someone in the future. Now if only I could find where I keep that magazine. I feel that President Strauss' observation is complementary to what you are desiring to champion in terms of leadership development, given your total outlook on what it means to help humankind flourish. I also concur with his conclusion.
I really like the framework you're thinking of for teaching leadership at Harvey Mudd. The Leading Yourself, Leading Others, Leading Your Cause progression and direct tie in to the humanities holds a lot of potential. I didn't study engineering leadership in college, but leadership was a big focus of my university (US Naval Academy '06). If I think back to my experience, one of the most powerful aspects of learning leadership was having a tight feedback cycle between learning about leadership and having opportunities to practice it.
I'm working on creating a private middle and high school built around very similar themes. Tight integration between humanities and math, teaching students to lead themselves and others, work on projects that align with the Leading Your Cause idea. Thank you for an insightful piece that helps me also think through this.
Your students seem like they're quite lucky.
Great post, Josh. It is uncanny how often you hit themes that are in my head. The focus on your institutional setting is so important. As academic disciplines have structured the incentives for faculty around national and international questions, our curricula have lost their capacity to speak to institutional mission and local circumstances. I love the idea of our course as distinctly Harvey Mudd.