Watching the local news or reading the most recent reports on the state of manufacturing, one would wrongly assume heroes of innovation, such as The Wright Brothers, Robert Goddard, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs are just part of manufacturing history.  That somehow leaders and visionaries of manufacturing are things of the past. Yet clearing away the negative veil, there is an underlying beauty growing beneath.  Visionaries of today exist and are sharing their light through [...]

From the title and the timing of this column, you may have thought this column will be about the presidential election, state of the economy, or some other rant about our country’s future. But it’s not – I’ve learned long ago not to discuss politics with colleagues, friends, or even enemies! But in a way I am talking about our country’s future, because if we don’t think long-term within our organizations, we won’t have well-functioning, [...]

“Why the specific focus on aviation and aerospace leadership?”  Behind this often asked question lurks (or seems to) a notion the leadership is, well, simply leadership.  So why emphasize aviation and aerospace leadership when some suggest the practice of leadership is essentially the same for all disciplines/professions? These are really good questions, and are at the heart of our Center for Aviation and Aerospace Leadership (CAAL).   The response is somewhat complex (multi-part).  First, being a [...]

Guest writer USAF Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Robert Kelley Most articles about leadership start with principles, actions and activities that take a group or organization somewhere.  For me leadership begins with me! Who am I? What is my identity? When I was a student at The National War College; Princeton Professor Merion Levy lectured there and said something I have never forgotten – “The ultimate aggression is to know thyself.”  I have struggled with this statement [...]

Most people know that, in college, a major refers to an array of courses that have been developed over time to meet the needs of a particular discipline.  But when one considers what it means to be best-in-class in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), the answer is not necessarily so clear. In 1958, the National Defense Education Act authorized the Department of Defense (DOD) to “increase the flow of talent into science and engineering, [...]

Goldman Sachs was in the news recently as an employee resigned via the New York Times op-ed page. The resigning employee indicated the trajectory of the corporate culture at Goldman Sachs had resulted in a toxic and destructive environment. According to this employee, the firm is certainly at the forefront of establishing how work will be performed in the organization, what will be valued by the organization and the market values corporate culture as demonstrated [...]

How many of you have played an instrument in a band or an orchestra? Perhaps this was as a child. Do you remember those rare times when everything came together and suddenly your section (in my case it was the trombones) became part of the greater whole, and the music was suddenly coming from the entire orchestra instead of simply a collection of sections defined by the instruments played? How about NASCAR fans who watch [...]

Dr. Robert Materna (2011) writes clearly about a national issue “With the U.S. government shutting down the shuttle program without a new vision for space – very little has been done to excite and educate the next generation about the opportunities in the industry and, as a result, there is little enthusiasm for entering the field. The good news is that there are some very good reasons to enter the field. The challenge is to help students shift [...]

As a nation, the United States clearly has to accomplish some type of reshaping of our existing education system to stay competitive, in an increasingly competitive global economy. In previous editions of this weblog, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math + Manufacturing (STEM + M) have been discussed. A recent article in the 4 August 2011 edition of The Washington Post by Paul Otellini entitled,“How the Private Sector Can Help Curb Our Engineering Shortage” inspired me [...]

The more we practice, the more critical thinking becomes part of our natural thinking process. This is important, because we are normally wired to take shortcuts in an effort to conserve our energy, to survive, or just to move on. If our thought processes are normally intellectually lazy, can we expect to be able to turn on the critical and creative juices in a crunch?