Harvard Graduate School of Education - Leadership: an Evolving Vision 2007

 

Outside Longfellow Hall where all our lectures take place

One of the interesting things we were introduced to on our first day was “The Harvard Way”. These are the protocols or norms which govern the way Harvard learning takes place.

The Harvard Way:

The starting point is that we should behave in the same way would expect our own learners to behave in class. We (collectively) should not accept standards which fall below that expectation.

Required and optional – some readings are optional and some are required – if it’s required then it must be read - How often do we go to a meeting at home where people have not read the papers circulated prior to the meeting?

Reading can be followed up by a lecturer in one of three ways:

“cold call” – picks a member of the audience and asks for an opinion (you better have read the paper)

“warm call” – give the person some warning that you are going to ask them a question in a five minutes.

“Hot call” – hands up.

Take account of “air time” – don’t hog all the time – use the small group seminars if you want to follow up on an issue

“Bio Breaks” – we all have different bio clocks, i.e. if we need to go to the toilet in a two hour session (the norm in Harvard). If you do need to leave slip out the side and when you come back remain in a aisle seat.

“Lateness” – not tolerated – we all know the starting times and all sessions start prompt. If you are late then the same rule applies as above – slip in the side and sit on an aisle. Too often in our country lateness is taken as the norm and accepted too readily - “I was busy”

Technology Free Zone – they call it a “disconnect from technology” – I’m not sure of I agree with this but I think their driving point is to make sure that people are not distracted by work issues back at the office the say – “be here!”

Institute – not a conference. These are learning programmes – conferences have a laissez faire attitude to attendance – not here – some of our sessions start at 7. 00am Prompt.

Temperature control – it’s warm in Boston –80 degrees plus – dress in layers –

Last point – and a good one – “you are not in charge of anything here” – in other words relax and focus leave the organisation up to those in charge of the course.

Our Practice

I sometimes think we need to explore our norms at the beginning of meetings – all too often – and I’m guilty of this myself – we arrive late; push through crowd; hog all the air time; and generally behave in such a way as to interrupt the learning process for others.