I don’t remember courses or programs on “leadership” when I was in college or in law school. Now I’m becoming aware of more and more classes, workshops and programs focusing on leadership. Last week I met with Barry Posner, who is the “Professor of Leadership” at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Barry has been organizing a lecture series know as the “Santa Clara Leadership Lectures” for the Santa Clara University community for the last 9 or 10 years. One piece of his methodology particularly interests me. A week or so after each lecture he asks the students to write down what idea(s) stick with them the most — what they actually remember from the lecture. Then he sends a selection of these back to the speaker. I’m intrigued by the idea of learning what people remember after some time has passed, and what they are thus likely to pass on. I’m also intrigued by seeing written responses, where the person reformulates what they think they remember in their own words.
I’ll be giving a talk to the SCU community as part of this series in February and am very interested in learning what sticks with people. If I learn something interesting I’ll summarize it here.