The visitor is remarkably articulate, especially for a gorilla. He challenges the students to think about their work, about the importance of their families, and about the way that they treat the planet. This is not where the class expected its discussions to lead. Forget just running operations, he argues. Forget a spreadsheetlike focus on short-term financials.
Real leaders make emotional connections.
And forget the corner office. The Learning Journey draws from a wide range of disciplines to help executives challenge their assumptions about leadership. And on one occasion, the pianist Michael Jones came to class to demonstrate how music can foster other varieties of creativity. There's no question that the program reshapes many students' worldviews. An otologist and neurotologist, Syms had been on his way to becoming a department chairman at the Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center, in San Antonio.