Results:
In XB as in Other Classes, the Student is There to Learn.
XB Organizes Differently.
What happens? Members do not work and learn peacefully ever after. At Saint Michael’s many students
begin the semester with considerable knowledge, having observed their roommates last semester scared,
bothered, angry, gossiping, and generally obsessed with a course – a regrettably infrequent occurrence
at this college. “I can’t explain it,” the roommate taking XB had said, “It’s like an addiction.”
The new XB member often leaves the first couple of classes with grave apprehension after the Senior
Manager invites questions: “I’ll answer anything this week. Next week I will probably refer you to the
appropriate department.” When people finally find positions in the organization and it begins, new
discoveries await.
XB starts slowly, in confusion that only in retrospect is recognized and appreciated as an important
initiation rite. The myth of the “smoothly functioning organization” is usually an early casualty.
Following the manual doesn’t make this organization work (or any other): some members sit back
and let others work, and then important sectors of the organization do not function as they should.
Most groups don’t work effectively because they only know their own material; the organizing people
don’t control; the planners don’t motivate etc. Each group considers its product the most important;
“XB would work smoothly if everyone did what we tell them to.” Those with experience in the world of
work recognize the departmental mentality. As a work organization, XB in its early efforts falls flat on
its face. Most teachers want students coming out of every class enlightened. XB sometimes goes
nowhere for weeks. But it wouldn’t succeed as a learning organization if it functioned smoothly.
Disorder creates opportunities for learning, and theories and concepts of management and
organizational behavior offer excellent diagnostic tools for understanding what is going on and for
making the organization more effective. Groups learn to recognize situations where their skill or
theory is needed. As they provide a missing concept or teach a relevant skill, the organization slowly
begins to work. Thus a modicum of chaos motivates and provides the opportunity for people to learn
the fundamentals of management: setting and reaching objectives, rational decision making, functional
authority, effective delegation, how to recover from failure, the necessity of communicating, and above
all, continual learning from experience. Perhaps more importantly, members soon realize that they are
dealing with an organization of real people. One hears the foul language of the dorms for the first time
in the classroom as XB members realize that for once they don’t have to check their personalities at the
door. Truth to tell, 20 year olds like interacting with each other more than listening to that bald old geezer
(me). And I encourage it; one department is required to give a party as soon as it can in the semester.
Cultural Transformation
Cultural transformation begins subtly. The group moderating the class either comes on too heavy-
handed, provoking a fight, or doesn’t dare steer conversation and needs to be told to tighten up. In
fact most of the 12 groups need direction and encouragement. Some come to me for help. In my office,
I actually teach.
In the beginning, students dully repeat material from the book, only to have their peers complain.
After seeing half-hearted work fail, a member faces a major hurdle deciding to take the job seriously.
Having just established social relations with other members, they now have to influence others’
behavior, to take themselves seriously as managers and to get others to take them seriously. A crisis
often occurs the first time a group must grade each other face-to-face, in rank order, no ties allowed.
Groups of older students sometimes refuse. In fact other Senior Managers sometimes don’t dare ask
the students to rank order each other. I warn new Senior Managers to get to the Dean’s Office before
the students.
Meanwhile, at Saint Michael’s, I work in what other Senior Managers have termed a “morphogenetic
field.” No one has complained to the Dean about grading in ten years because our bizarre grading
system has become part of the myth of the course. From the outset I wanted XB to become part of the
culture. In fact I first knew the approach was working the day a bemused student mentioned that he
had talked about nothing but the course in a bar the night before.
The transformation builds as the semester goes on, as more and more students take themselves
seriously as managers and learners. But not everyone. Within a few weeks people know each other;
they know who takes XB seriously and who doesn’t. The peer group has split into attitude factions.
It fits neatly into the theory we study of stages of group development. A manager or teacher who
respects the power of the peer group should work with it and let it resolve its internal divisions. So
one group stages a class where cliques meet physically and tell other cliques how they perceive
them and what they would like to see them do. They call each other names! It is hilarious, but they
learn more in one day than they ever thought possible.
So Much Becomes Suddenly Evident, and Changes Occur Swiftly:
- We think as group members, not as individuals. Even people classified as “isolates” get together
and feel comfortable with their identity as a group of isolates. Having stated our values, we stand by
them in opposition to what others stand for.
- We learn what others really think of us. We can take pointed, unvarnished criticism as group members.
- We reconsider our values and understand what others want from us. The “slackers” protest that they do
want to learn, and, having said so publicly, begin to change their “it’s just a class” attitude. The “brown-
nosers” don’t need to be quite so business-like and prickly.
- Each class, of course, lives its own history. In candor, I must mention that sometimes cliques triumph.
Three or four of my forty-odd classes have actually split into two groups that, angry with each other,
continue learning in the spirit of competition. Whether in conflict or cooperation, after this confrontation,
the pace of learning accelerates. Students now know each other better than in any other class; they hate
missing class because no one knows what is going to happen. Learning becomes socially acceptable,
and people begin to value a level of interpersonal honesty seen elsewhere only in encounter groups.
I emphasize in this context, however, that we discuss personal issues at the level of “I asked you to let her
speak, but you just kept right on jabbering!” - class issues, not depth psychology. Our conflict is a tempest
in a teacup.
- By this time responsibility for learning is widespread. Members have the attitude: “This is our organization,
and we are here to learn.” They feel responsible for the learning outcomes of their organization. And they
do what managers everywhere do: they discuss organizational issues, laced with gossip, over lunch, in
bars, at parties. Members of very different stripes greet each other all over the campus and don’t hesitate
to talk shop. This behavior changes an important campus norm.
- Members who have jobs outside the college start seeing the organizational context that they had never
thought about before. They take responsibility; they make suggestions; they speak up; they run effective
meetings; they listen. Back on campus and back at home communication improves because of techniques
learned and events lived through. Class-taught techniques of active listening, assertiveness, and percep-
tion clarification change communication widely in our culture. XB members have further developed a
tolerance for anger, appreciation for differences, and patience about unresolved issues.
Reservations
Before concluding, I hasten to qualify my suggestions. First, I have only a vague idea of how I might teach
subjects other than Management and Organizational Behavior. I have made only slight progress in adapt-
ing XB to other subjects that I do teach (e.g., leadership, cross-cultural management). I have spent years
finding and developing the routines that enable the complex XB class structure to work. Truth to tell, I
prefer adding fillips to XB than undertaking the total reorganization of another class.
Secondly, linear subjects may not work with XB’s structure. Management and Organizational Behavior
covers a great breadth of subjects from statistics to anthropology. Since many subjects have equal impor-
tance, many students can have their own topics simultaneously. In this class the students can present
subjects of which they have no great knowledge; the medium is the message. Other academic subjects
are more linear; students must master one subject and then proceed to the next. Moreover, the teacher
clearly knows more than the students.
Suggestions
Tentively, therefore, I offer suggestions based on my experience with this class of a different color:
1) Trust the peer group.
Ultimately the peer group determines the learning environment. It is there, whether we want it or not,
whether we recognize it or not. The teacher either distrusts or builds trust. I have found that students
really want to learn, as long as the social structure for learning meets their prepotent social needs.
2) Delegate.
Entrust the students with vital class functions; the teacher should intervene as the last resort - I
exaggerate a little here, but one has to find a balance. We could more feasibly delegate real responsi-
bility if we had a general model of the functions of the peer group in class and a general understanding
that it can measure and control its own performance. Between where we are now and that state lies a
chasm: we would have to be able to talk about the peer group in a French, math, or history class.
3) Provide tools.
In order to delegate, program. Think “cookbook.” Make a list of exactly what you want done; then get
a student to do it.
Differentiate the classroom structure horizontally; as in an organization, individual students can have
different responsibilities – different jobs - throughout the semester. Subjects where people have
different skills can use this approach. We should neither assume nor pretend that all students in a
class have equal skills. If you are teaching French and find that one student has a good accent, a
second knows grammar, and a third knows the Montreal Metro, each could teach. A class doesn’t
have to be working together on one subject. Different groups can work on different subjects.
Keeping track of learning becomes a challenge, but not necessarily a challenge to the teacher.
Consider rank-order grading as a powerful, albeit dangerous, tool. Today’s student, obsessed with
grading, will pay attention when you tell them they will be grading themselves. They cannot fool
each other. I believe that students can take over some grading responsibility in any course.
4) Give it time.
You may have to devote class time to working through issues such as rank-order grading. Expect
kicking and screaming.
It will take weeks to develop. You are dealing with a living, changing entity (the peer group).
Students must work out their relationships with each other, because they fear each other much
more than they fear the teacher.
Be patient; beware of your own perfectionism. The teacher, able to do most things better than any
student, constantly faces the temptation to intervene. My students occasionally kick me out of class
because I am getting in the way. Holding class without me changes their self-image. I take great
pride in being kicked out.
Legitimize (reward) first-time mistakes and use them as live examples. Facing and overcoming
fear would be the subject of another paper.
5) Go where the design leads.
This paradigm (a new way of organizing in business adapted to the classroom) tends to challenge
assumptions and therefore cause trouble outside the classroom. It must be protected. It can also
be used as an engine of change. Once the gestalt forms, new logic will suggest changes both
inside class and outside. You will see opportunities for change outside the classroom that would
enhance learning inside the classroom. I have caught glimpses of a new curriculum based on
objectives-based credit and multitasking. Students could work to satisfy one list of goals in a
classroom along with students with very different lists. A new grading or assessment system
could track many avenues of progress without having to have one teacher always leading
the way.
We could completely separate teaching from evaluation. In our society everyone envies the coach
because coaches and players often establish close, productive working relationships. Coaches
don’t referee; perhaps teachers shouldn’t grade. A new grading system could be built on top of the
crude rank-order methods that I use. Statistical sampling methods and labor-intensive evaluation
of ranks could replace the present method of testing each individual and all equally.
The learning culture of an institution would change if many classes were taught this way. I have
often thought of XB not as a class at all but as a different model for a university or school. I know
of one school (The Hyde School) that uses peer pressure to control behavior, but they deal with
children with behavioral problems, and I do not know whether the peer group works in their
classrooms or not. Schools prepare students to work in the institutions of their era (Toffler, 1980).
Post-industrial institutions work more informally and cooperatively than the hierarchies of yore.
But we have yet to develop a network model of the classroom or university. XB points in this
direction. Conclusion The preceding section makes me uncomfortable; speculation makes
more sense in the context of my experience with XB than as the conclusion to a paper.
XB is crude. I have never had the luxury of working closely with a team of other teachers to
develop it. Its structure expresses my philosophy and fairly reeks of my personality. Others
could develop a classroom run as an organization that would look very different and might
work better.
But I write with confidence of a new paradigm. With XB, I have experienced an exhilarating,
new learning culture, and I don’t want to go back to the old way.