Sanger Leadership Center Report, 2017-2018 Academic Year

2017-2018 Academic Year - Annual Report

SANGER LEADERSHIP CENTER

FOSTERING LEADERS & BEST AT MICHIGAN ROSS

The heat is on as a graduate-level Crisis Challenge Team plays the role of a board of directors for an autonomous vehicle company, as they field media inquiries about one of the company’s vehicles striking and injuring a cyclist.

LEADERS AREN’T BORN, THEY ARE MADE

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s the highly regarded, successful football coach Vince Lombardi said in the 1960s: “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal which is worthwhile.”

The spirit of Lombardi’s insight comes to life at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business thanks, in large part, to the Sanger Leadership Center.

Established in January 2015 through an endowed gift from Stephen W. Sanger, MBA ’70, and his wife Karen, the Sanger Leadership Center at Michigan Ross facilitates a wide range of innovative learning communities, seminars, competitions, and other action-packed events that help students develop the character, capabilities, and connections they need to lead in a complex and dynamic world.

The 2017-2018 Academic Year proved to be yet another milestone for the Sanger Leadership Center. It expanded the scale of its offerings, reaching more students than ever from a larger number of schools at the university. It enhanced its programs, thus further increasing their popularity and impact. It surpassed its already impressive learning outcomes from previous years, while gaining momentum among students who recognize the Center as one of the school’s greatest differentiators.

Glance at a sampling of this year’s numbers, and you’ll get an idea of the breadth and depth of the Center’s impact during the last school year: • • • • •

82: Number of program sessions held 450: Hours of learning content delivered 8,032: Number of student interactions with Sanger programs 14: Number of U-M schools/colleges that participated in Sanger programs 1,822: Number of social media followers­—a 200% increase from last year

Please read on to learn more about the Sanger Leadership Center’s impactful activities during the 2017-2018 Academic Year, with highlights from the following core programs: • • • • • • • • •

Full-Time MBA Impact Challenge MAcc Impact Challenge BBA Orientation Part-Time MBA Innovation Jam Leadership Crisis Challenge Legacy Lab Story Lab Ross Leaders Academy Leader Experience (LDRx)

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Orientation Programming

ne of the essential ingredients of success at Ross is to get off to an energizing and enlightening start. The Ross experience transforms the lives of its students, enabling them to learn and grow, form lifelong relationships, clarify their personal visions, and advance in their careers. That process begins with rigorous guidance, support, and mentorship at Sanger-run orientation programs. The first four events outlined in this report provided students with the fast start they needed.

Full-Time MBA Impact Challenge

No program infuses the start of the academic year with more excitement and enthusiasm than the Sanger Leadership Center’s Annual MBA Impact Challenge, which is a core component of the first-year experience. During this past year’s event, which took place August 14-16, 2017, teams of MBA students worked with 15 Detroit-based food entrepreneurs to generate new customer insights, enhance their business models, update their marketing and online presence, and in other ways co-create significant new value. Sanger once again partnered with FoodLab Detroit, a local incubator for food entrepreneurs and initiatives, and FoodPlus Detroit, a local organization that promotes a sustainable metropolitan food system. The challenge gave students a unique opportunity to lead, collaborate, and create viable, innovative business solutions that will impact real people in the real world.

“I loved that we got to know and understand one entrepreneur’s story and figure out how we could add value and support them. I overheard one entrepreneur say, ‘this has been a life-changing experience.’ I love that our partnership with them felt meaningful to them.”

ENTREPRENEURS: Thanks to the MBA Impact Challenge, 15 small Detroit-based food entrepreneurs received an impressive 8,460 hours of consultation from firstyear Ross MBA teams, which provided them with valuable assistance in creating a business model canvas, a marketing and communications strategy, and market assets for their business. And a whopping 100 percent of the entrepreneur participants said they agreed or strongly agreed that the program: 1) inspired them to make a positive difference in the world, 2) created ideas that can build a future for their organization, and 3) positively changed their perception of Michigan Ross. In a satisfaction survey, one entrepreneur wrote the following: “I am in awe at the impact and value these students provided to all entrepreneurs.

The Impact Challenge is truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

MAcc Impact Challenge

At Michigan Ross, students don’t just take classes; in some cases, they actually develop them!

Such was the case for the MAcc Impact Challenge. For the third year, the Sanger Leadership Center partnered with Deloitte and Detroit’s Cornerstone Schools to provide a day-long Impact Challenge for incoming students in Michigan Ross’ Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program. The fast-paced event tasked 96 MAcc students with designing a Business & Leadership elective course for Cornerstone high school students that would help solidify their understanding of the Michigan Model of Leadership, in part through a final project that involved researching an inspiring Detroit-based leader.

The 2017 Challenge was an exceptional success from the perspective of our students and participating Detroit entrepreneurs.

STUDENTS: In a survey of participating MBAs, learning in the following areas received record-breaking scores when compared with previous years: teamwork, impact, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. Nearly three-quarters of students said that a new mid-program feedback session provided the individual and team insights they needed to improve their performance and successfully complete the challenge.

One student had this to say about the overall experience:

The MAcc students quickly rose to the challenge of creating effective and engaging programming for the Cornerstone students. The groups presented their final plans and prototypes to a panel of judges that included MAcc faculty, other Ross faculty, and teachers and alumni from Cornerstone. Winning teams’ ideas were actually implemented by teachers at Cornerstone through a semester-long course during the 2017-18 Academic Year.

The Sanger Leadership Center continues to receive positive feedback from students in the MAcc Program, who found the Impact Challenge to be an effective introduction to leadership skills. One student said this about the experience: “I love that we worked on developing a real, new program. I feel excited for and invested in the future success and development of this program. As someone interested in social impact, specifically in the realm of education, it was lovely meeting individuals from Cornerstone and the community.”

BBA Orientation

Coming to a large university like U-M can feel daunting, even more so if you’re entering the competitive, achievement-oriented Michigan Ross community. But a meticulously planned seven-hour BBA Orientation at Michigan Ross helps make the process a whole lot easier. Designed and organized by the Sanger Leadership Center, the 2017 BBA Orientation helped students get off on the right foot.

The 2017 BBA Orientation was called G.E.A.R. UP, which stands for Get Educated About Ross. The overarching goal of the entire program was to build a sense of community and prepare students for their Ross Experience.

All incoming sophomore BBA students (about 600 students in the class of 2020) participated in three, 90-minute sessions: 1. Defining Leadership: This session focused on helping students expand and re-define their notion of leadership and how to develop themselves as leaders.

2. Community Values Contract & Personal Development Plan: This session introduced students to academic decisions and challenges that may be in store for them and helped them craft their own Personal Development Plan.

3. Ross Resources Race: This fun, action-oriented challenge helped students identify and navigate the many offices and other resources they’d be interacting with throughout their Ross Experience. It featured a mobile app that provided prompts, clues, and fun facts as they familiarized themselves with the Ross campus.

Along the way, all students received “gear” for the upcoming school year, including a Sanger-branded water bottle, laptop stickers, school supplies, and other Ross “swag.”

More importantly, students received a plethora of vital information to help them be as productive as possible during their time at Ross and beyond.

Part-Time MBA Innovation Jam

The Innovation Jam, a fast-paced, action-based learning program, is a central part of the orientation experience for Weekend MBA students. The Innovation Jam was offered for the third consecutive year in May 2018. The pre-term challenge tasked 137 students with developing solutions for a real-world corporate challenge that was submitted by a Michigan Ross alumnus working at Amazon.

Students practiced important leadership and innovation skills, while gaining an insider’s view into the challenges and opportunities executives face in global, Fortune 100 companies. It was the Center’s third year working with Ross alumni at Amazon. After consulting with experts and completing research, students created an actionable business idea for the company and pitched it in front of 12 Amazonians who served as mentors and judges. Three finalist teams presented and discussed their solution in front of the full audience. The Innovation Jam continues to be one of the Center’s most successful programming formats, with ongoing positive feedback from participants. For instance, here’s what two different part-time MBA students said about the experience:

“The Sanger Innovation Jam to kick off the MBA program could not have been more amazing. We were tasked with a real-life issue from a real company that could actually be implemented. I love Ross’ action-based learning and am lucky to go to this school.”

“Innovation Jam gave me new methods to approach problem solving in my current role and deep insights into my own leadership capabilities for the future.”

Survey responses were also very favorable, as shown below: • • • •

92% of students strongly agreed or agreed they gained relevant leadership skills and insights.

95% of students strongly agreed or agreed they will apply the insights and skills they learned to their development as a leader.

100% of Amazon employees strongly agreed or agreed that the students’ innovation was of high quality.

100% of Amazon employees strongly agreed Innovation Jam was a valuable use of their time.

Additional Orientation Programming

The Sanger Leadership Center also created dynamic leadership learning experiences for our specialty master’s degree programs during orientation last year. These programs included: 1. A day-long summit with Global MBA students, which covered the Michigan Model of Leadership, Cultural Intelligence (with the Ross Director of Diversity and Inclusion), and a core values clarification exercise.

2. A workshop with Executive MBA students to introduce the Michigan Model and kickstart their professional coaching relationships.

3. Four workshops for Master of Management and Master of Supply Chain Management students designed to deepen their self-awareness, enhance their self-management, and prepare them to serve as authentic leaders.

Other Sanger Student Experiences

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he Sanger Leadership Center offers an extensive portfolio of impactful, actionbased learning programs. Here is a synopsis of three of them, with updates from the past year:

Leadership Crisis Challenge

An effective leader knows how to handle crisis situations, even under high pressure and close scrutiny. Organized by the Sanger Leadership Center and sponsored by PNC Bank, the 2018 Leadership Crisis Challenge (LCC) engaged students in a 24-hour simulation, during which they role-played senior corporate executives facing a highstakes crisis. The annual event, held in January for graduate students and in March for undergraduate students, is an intensive program that tests students’ ability to strategize, think quickly and critically on their feet, and perform under pressure.

Sanger continues to achieve a variety of learning objectives with students through the LCC experience. Participants nearly unanimously conclude that the program contributes significantly to their leadership development. In a survey, 94 percent of students strongly agreed or agreed with the following statements: 1) the LCC’s action-oriented format is conducive to learning, 2) it yields new leadership insights and skills that they can apply in the immediate future, and 3) the experience improves their strategic thinking and decision-making skills.

Here are summaries of this past year’s Leadership Crisis Challenge, broken down by the challenge for graduate students at the start of the year and for undergraduate students two months later: •

Graduate Challenge: January 11-12, 2018 This year’s Graduate Challenge engaged students in a simulated crisis within an Uber-like company as it launched the world’s first driverless taxi fleet. The students learned that one of their autonomous vehicles struck a cyclist. They spent the evening dealing with a myriad of complications involving supplier relations, a press ambush, a rogue employee, and ultimately the revelation that the vehicle did exactly what it was programmed to do.

A record 160 students participated this year. The winning team, The Harbaugh Associates, consisted of Michigan Ross MBAs. (See photo on inside back cover.) The other finalist teams included students from the School of Public Health, School of Information, Medical School, College of Engineering, and Michigan Ross.

One graduate student shared his experience with the LCC: “This is one of the most fascinating leadership experiences I’ve ever had.

Tough situation, ambiguity, working with diverse people, stress... I loved it. I learned so much about how to work in intense crisis-like scenarios.”

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Undergraduate Challenge: March 23-23, 2018 At this year’s Undergraduate Challenge, students were tasked with role-playing the executive team of a cruise line accused of polluting Biscayne Bay in Miami.

Sanger staff ran the challenge with the help of a talented team of BBAs from the Net Impact student club, who added an environmental twist to the case and managed the “war room” behind the scenes on Thursday night.

A total of 126 students participated: 67 from Ross and 59 from the College of Literature, Science, & the Arts; College of Engineering; School of Dentistry; and other U-M schools and colleges. Students were supported in their learning by executive volunteers from PNC, Nuveen, Comerica, and other companies. Here’s what one of the undergraduate participants said about the experience: “LCC was an excellent opportunity for me to develop my collaboration skills and leadership style during high-pressure situations. Between the friendships I made, the feedback I heard, and the new content I learned, I feel like I’m walking away as a smarter, more capable individual.”

Legacy Lab

Legacy Lab, which the Sanger Leadership Center revised and updated this year, encompasses introspective workshops that enable graduate and undergraduate students to deepen their self-awareness, expand their leadership repertoires, and articulate a meaningful and impactful career trajectory. In the workshops, students create a personal statement that articulates their purpose, core values, leadership philosophy, and learning agenda. Due to high demand, Legacy Lab was offered three times during the 2017-2018 Academic Year.

More than 300 students from across the university participated in Legacy Lab last year and, in a survey, 100 percent of winter term participants strongly agreed or agreed that: 1) they gained relevant leadership skills by participating in Legacy Lab, 2) they will apply insights and skills gained to develop as a leader, and 3) the quality of the program increased their interest in participating in future Sanger programs.

Here’s what one of the participants said about the experience: “It’s one thing to tell yourself that you’re a leader, but it’s another to prove it. It’s even more difficult to reflect on your leadership capabilities and make intentional changes to improve them. Legacy Lab provided structure to my thought process and I’m excited to utilize those tools for years to come.”

Story Lab

Effective leaders must be able to communicate with impact. One of their greatest assets is the ability to tell an authentic story compellingly. Story Lab develops students’ ability to craft and deliver stories in ways that communicate their values, influence and inspire others, and, in the more immediate term, clarify their value to recruiters.

A total of 60 students participated in the Center’s in-depth storytelling retreats last year, which were run in partnership with Wolf & Heron, a storytelling firm owned and operated by two Michigan Ross alumnae. The program’s public storytelling events, which feature student storytellers who completed the workshop, also gained a considerable following during the last academic year. A whopping 1,322 students, faculty, and staff attended! Many full-time MBAs now consider this program an essential component of the Michigan Ross culture and experience.

Here’s what one student participant said about the experience: “I think Story Lab is the most powerful program I have seen in my time at Ross, or in any academic or even professional setting!”

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Learning Communities

he Center’s deepest and most personalized investment in student leadership development takes place within two year-long learning communities: Ross Leaders Academy and Leader Experience. Here are key highlights from the last academic year.

Ross Leaders Academy

The Ross Leaders Academy (RLA), offered with generous support from Deloitte, is the University of Michigan’s premier leadership development community. This past academic year, it brought 50 students together from across the U-M campus­—twice as many as the 2016-17 academic year—to achieve four learning goals: 1) enhancing self-awareness, 2) advancing self-development, 3) strengthening professional networks, and 4) working effectively in diverse teams. The 2017-18 cohort included students studying business, environment and sustainability, public health, information, public policy, engineering, and more. This rich academic diversity gave participants a unique opportunity to learn from their peers.

The first half of the semester focused on authentic leadership, helping students enhance their self-awareness and management in ways that made them more passionate, principled, and resilient as leaders. The second semester focused on adaptive leadership, developing students’ ability to flex their leadership to the needs of others and the demands of the moment. Throughout the process, students mentored one another, while also receiving support from Sanger team members and an executive coach.

Participants emerged from RLA with the confidence, insight, and personal vision needed to advance in their emerging careers. Here’s what two students had to say about the experience: “I walked away from RLA with a vision for the future, purposeful goals to drive me, and a set of values to fall back on in times of chaos. I always looked forward to our sessions, so much so I wished we had them every Friday! This is definitely one of the best, and most valuable, experiences any person can do during their time at Michigan.”

“RLA enhanced my time here at Michigan by growing my community, challenging my thought processes, and giving me new people to lean on and learn from.”

Here are some highlights from a year-end survey of participants: • 92% of students strongly agreed or agreed RLA sessions had clear applications to their personal and academic life.

• 96% of students strongly agreed or agreed RLA sessions increased their selfawareness.

• 100% of students strongly agreed or agreed the Sanger team was energetic and easy to work with.

Leader Experience (LDRx)

Leader Experience (LDRx) is a student-led and Sanger-supported learning community that provides participants with a peer group, tools, and other support systems for developing their leadership capacity. This year, participants met once per week with a small group of peers and utilized a flexible, discussion-based curriculum. Both MBA and BBA students benefit from LDRx: •

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MBA LDRx: Last year, 85 MBA students participated, and the program’s student leaders were exceptionally intentional about the programming they organized.

Highlights included a workshop from the Center for Positive Organizations on resiliency, a low-ropes team-building exercise, and several trainings about team dynamics and team norms, goals, and chartering.

BBA LDRx: Last year, 35 BBA students participated. Highlights from the year included a team outing to a local “Escape Room” where participants solved riddles, puzzles, and other brain-twisting activities; a networking session with MBA students; and a discussion led by Dean Scott DeRue about making the most out of their Ross experience.

Students often list LDRx among their most powerful experiences at Ross. Here are two such comments from an MBA student and a BBA student, respectively: “LDRx was a unique experience for me that allowed me to gain new knowledge for future leadership situations by reflecting over my own past experiences, but also by learning from different experiences and perspectives of my team members.

Furthermore, LDRx gave me the opportunity to make new friends and a support team that was essential during my first year as an MBA.” “I believe that LDRx was very beneficial in enhancing my leadership skills and my on-the-spot critical thinking skills. The workshops and networking opportunities were very useful and I was able to hear various perspectives. Moreover, LDRx provided me with the confidence to make quick and meaningful decisions.”

Moving Forward

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s the Sanger Leadership Center embarks on its fourth year at Michigan Ross, it does so with a commitment to fulfilling three key priorities over the next one to three years:

1. Maintain Sanger’s High Standard of Excellence: Sanger will continue to run a large portfolio of high-impact

programs that reach 3,500+ different students each year. While the Center will launch new programs and implement numerous enhancements across its existing portfolio, a simultanous top priority will be to continue building on its momentum with students and offering consistently high-impact experiences that stand out above the rest.

2. Fully Integrate into the Ross Experience: Many of Sanger’s new and envisioned efforts focus on better integrating

leadership development into the required Ross curriculum and student experience. Whether they are participating in orientation programs, courses, or student clubs, all students will automatically work with Sanger to develop their leadership capabilities. In the coming year, for example, Sanger’s work will be deeply embedded in the survey business course that all 650 BBA students take during their sophomore year. Its work will also be a core component of the MBA program’s Multidisciplinary Action Projects (MAP) and Ross’s new Living Business Leadership Experience (LBLE).

3. Become a Force for Student Reflection & Learning: Finally, the Sanger Leadership Center is prioritizing the school’s efforts to enhance student learning across the large and diverse range of their Ross Experience. Research by Scott DeRue and Sue Ashford demonstrates that new and challenging experiences don’t automatically lead to learning. Instead, learning requires periodic pauses in the action, a rigorous process, and disciplined reflection. With that insight in mind, the Center is working with Ross Academic Innovation and the MBA Program Office to develop periodic, reflective touch points throughout the two-year MBA Experience. In the coming year, for example, Sanger will work with all 400+ students in both MBA classes to periodically: 1) clarify their personal learning goals, with an emphasis on leadership development, 2) create proactive and concrete plans for pursuing their goals, and 3) reflect to crystalize and articulate their learning. These interventions will serve to make the Ross Experience even more transformational for students.

Thanks to generous support from Steve and Karen Sanger, the Sanger Leadership Center continues to pursue its mission of creating a more connected, creative, and prosperous world, one leader at a time. To learn more about the Center’s programming and plans for the future, please contact the Center at rossleaders@umich.edu.

Many thanks to Steve & Karen Sanger for helping to foster the next generation of leaders at Michigan Ross!