Smith School Launches New Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change

More than 200 executives came together for an exploration of leadership at “The New Challenges of Leadership: Public and Private Sector Perspectives,” the inaugural conference of the Smith School’s new Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC) on October 1. The center is led by directors Kathryn M. Bartol, Robert H. Smith Professor of Management and Organization; Paul Tesluk, Tyser Professor of Organizational Behavior; and M. Susan Taylor, Smith Chair of Human Resource Management and Organizational Change; and executive director Pat Stocker.

The center will translate the scholarly and practical expertise of the Smith faculty into insights that create value for business, government and nonprofit organizations. “We hope the center will become a fountain of knowledge for executives in the national capital region,” said Stocker. “We have a wealth of faculty who are world leaders in various aspects of leadership.”

The center provides leadership development spanning managers’ careers, with targeted leadership development programs, skill building and professional development workshops, and niche conferences in particular areas. “We can quickly translate vanguard research into practical expertise and advice for leaders,” said Taylor. “When you’re planning for the future or confronting a major problem, that type of early information can be very helpful. We will be conducting briefings and mini-conferences to share the implications of our research with organizations.” Taylor said the center directors also hope to partner with companies on research projects that address key organizational challenges.

Dean G. “Anand” Anandalingam welcomed attendees by acknowledging the leadership challenges faced by today’s leaders. “Change is the new status quo—not just in technology and in the economy, but in the way public companies, private companies and government interact. The Smith School is committed to helping senior leadership run their organizations more effectively in this era of change,” said Dean Anand.

Keynote speaker Bob Stevens, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, told attendees that leadership was the common denominator that allowed organizations to address the challenges of increasing demands in a time of decreased and constrained resources. “We are being moved by forces inside and outside our company,” said Stevens. From without, Lockheed faces changes in global security, the recession and slow growth, and the increasing velocity of change. From within, Lockheed is dealing with the challenge of a workforce that is aging and near retirement.

(l-r) Dan Waetjen, group president for BB&T's Greater Washington, D.C. area; the Smith School's Dean Anandalingam; Bob Stevens, CEO of Lockheed Martin

Because leadership is key to overcoming these challenges, Lockheed is committed to hiring the best talent available, says Stevens. As part of that commitment, the company works hard to bring diversity into its workforce—diversity of backgrounds and opinions as well as culture and ethnicity. Stevens has found that diversity brings unexpected benefits to Lockheed. He recounted a meeting in which some of Lockheed’s high-level senior leadership were discussing ways to reduce weight in a certain spacecraft. A number of ideas were bounced around, but the best came from a low-level staff person, who suggested that they simply stop painting a certain fuel cell that was only in use for the first few moments of the mission. Not painting the fuel cell resulted in a reduction of 800 pounds of weight and an enormous savings in labor and material. The idea didn’t come from an engineer, Stevens points out. It came from someone who had a very different perspective, a different point of view—and that resulted in an important product improvement for Lockheed.

Stevens also spoke about the importance of connecting employees to goals and missions bigger than just the individual. “We’re determined to be a place that people are proud to be part of,” said Stevens. “Part of that is service to others. … We want to operate with the old-fashioned values: courage, honor, integrity. Values are a true north in an age of change. … We can survive a loss, but not the loss of our reputation.”

Lockheed has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in internal leadership development. “We want leaders who model personal excellence, integrity and responsibility,” said Stevens. “We believe the quality and character of our leadership will be crucial to our success.”

Deborah Adler Myers, general manager and executive vice president of programming of the Science Channel, Discovery Communications, spoke during the morning session. When Myers came to the Science Channel in 2008, it had about $20 million to fill 335 hours of original programming, most of which attracted an audience of males over 50. Myers wanted make the channel more diverse, to incorporate more storytelling and ask big questions, rather than just report on big knowledge. But Myers said the channel found itself “brand-cuffed.” WATCH THE VIDEO 

“People on our board of directors thought science was special. It shouldn’t be funny,” says Myers. She also faced the challenge of using her tiny budget to create new programming that would attract a wider audience without alienating the existing core audience. One of their first experiments into creating interactive, question-oriented content was a program called “Punkin Chunkin’,” where people get together in Delaware to create devices that throw pumpkins the furthest distance. It was a fun and creative way to interest a new audience in physics and engineering, and it was so successful that last year they created a similar program, “Large Dangerous Rocket Ships.”

Myers’ leadership strategy was to find the gems on her staff and then protect, promote and motivate them. She painted a vision of what the channel could be at its greatest, as a content creator and “thought provocateur.” The channel’s staff was given a chance to adapt to the change of organizational culture, but those who could not were encouraged to move elsewhere. “The hardest thing to do is to make a change in a time of recession, but you have to have those people with their hair on fire about the brand,” she said.

Kathleen Matthews, executive vice president of global communications and affairs at Marriott International, spoke in the afternoon session about how to lead in the midst of constant change. She related her personal journey from a successful career in television journalism to the corporate world. She saw the changing digital technology as an opportunity for businesses, government and nonprofits to tell their stories more effectively. “I thought it was important that they embrace those opportunities and do it honestly, with the values of journalism,” said Matthews. “I was in journalism because I thought it was a way to do good, and I also believed that business could also be a way to do good—and that doing good was a way for them to do better on the financial front.” WATCH THE VIDEO 

Changes in the way travelers consume media has changed the way Marriott reaches out to customers and the kinds of services it provides. Communication has become a two-way street thanks to social media, said Matthews: “You have to play in this space because if you don’t, you’re out of the conversation.” She led Marriott though a transformation of its communications processes to incorporate new media.

Social responsibility is also a business strategy for Marriott, said Matthews, and that has proven to have a positive effect on the bottom line. We work very hard on that, because we believe it gives us an advantage with our customers, but we believe it also has a halo affect across the brands,” said Matthews. “We find that people are asking us about our sustainability policy and our diversity policy. We see this as a differentiator for us.”

Panel discussions on leading innovation in challenging times and the challenge of public and private sector leadership also gave attendees a chance to hear from industry leaders working their way through some of the same issues faced by many of those in the audience.

CLIC will hold several more leadership events during the fall semester, including a presentation by John Allison, former chairman and CEO of BB&T, on October 13 at the College Park campus; and a presentation by Jim Parker, CLIC executive-in-residence and former CEO of Southwest Airlines, on December 9 at the Smith School’s Baltimore, Md., campus. LEARN MORE