FEATURE ARTICLE
for ROI, the MIT Sloan School alumni magazine and website

REDEDICATION AND RESOLVE

Post-September 11th, the Sloan community seeks answers

How does an internationally diverse community of results-oriented business students and faculty respond to an act of unspeakable horror? Like everyone else: with numb shock, tears, and anger. With mounting frustration when the overpowering desire to DO something remains mostly unfulfilled. And, ultimately, with resolve, as the Sloan community grapples with deeper, longer-term issues of where to go from here.

Dean Richard Schmalensee characterizes the weeks following the September 11th terror strikes as "a sobering time, a somber time, and a very, very frustrating time." One measure of campus climate is the evolving set of questions people have been asking—questions that, in many cases, serve only to reveal the absence of clear answers.

Seeking truth, facing consequences

An academic community trained to process information using analytical frameworks and models seeks to apply those frameworks to make sense of an event that, at first glance, makes no sense. Professor of Management John Sterman, who heads the MIT System Dynamics Group, did just that in a special session of his introductory course, System Dynamics for Business Policy, on September 14th, attended by over 100 students.

The goal of the session: to use system dynamics concepts to think about root causes of terrorism, responses to it, and consequences of those responses. With Sterman as facilitator, students worked through the issues of how, why, and what next.

In the loop

As they talked, he captured their ideas as loop diagrams. "We all condemned the terrorists and their actions," stresses Sterman. "All agreed that they must be brought to justice, and, more important, that we develop policies to prevent such acts in the future. The question was, How could this best be done?" The group started by asking why any individual or group would resort to terrorism, noting that, in addition to perceived grievances, it takes a feeling of powerlessness in redressing them, a belief that terrorism is an appropriate response, and the ability to carry it out. Questions about preventing future terrorism led to discussion on retaliation and what students dubbed the "Escalation Loop."

When discussion turned to economic and political sanctions, students recognized side effects they labeled the "Starving Children Loop."

In other words, sanctions that marginalize peoples also recruit new terrorists. This exercise, recalls Lisa Shaler-Clark, a student in the MOT program who has served in the military, "gave us an opportunity to look at the situation from the point of view of everyone in the loop." She believes participants "had an epiphany" as it began to dawn on them that the terrorists believed they were acting rationally.

No obvious responses

The discussion turned to the effect of security countermeasures on everyday life and civil liberties. An African-American student, speaking with the energy of personal experience, observed that Arab-Americans, people of Middle Eastern descent, and Muslims would be disproportionately targeted. Policies selectively violating their civil liberties—besides being wrong—would give credence to terrorists' claims that the US sought to oppress Islam. Plus, even well-intended restrictions on civil liberties might lead to abuses not unlike those seen during the McCarthy era. Sterman recalls, "We all realized the immense complexity of this issue; that many seemingly obvious responses to the horror of September 11th might actually make things worse."

The session wrapped up with student suggestions—admittedly not unanimous—on what to do: Avoid immediate and indiscriminate military retaliation. Make it as directed and focused as possible. And publish to the rest of the world evidence identifying the responsible parties. Stand up for freedom of religion and the civil rights of all Americans, particularly the rights of Muslims.

Sterman reflects that the session was "very moving. Coming just three days after the attacks, when anger and desire for massive retaliation dominated the media, I was profoundly impressed by the students' thoughtfulness, their tolerance, and their willingness to think it through. I felt privileged to be here at MIT."

"What should we do? What can we do?"

The questions have come back full circle. Only now, as Schmalensee observes, it's less about "hot water and bandages" and more about long-term choices. Deputy Dean Gabriel R. Bitran agrees, citing a level of caring that comes from experiencing an event that ties us with people we don't know in ways we don't usually think about. And Executive Director of the MBA program Margaret Andrews notes an increased interest in community service and careers in socially responsible business.

Richard M. Locke, Associate Professor of Management and Political Science, reports that students ask him more about what can be done vis-à-vis globalization and corporate citizenship. "In their own private ways," he concludes, "people think about what 'life as usual' means. They wonder, 'How can I in my own little way do something to make things better?'"

Locke views the high interest in three late October events as signals of change. His lunchtime talk about his research on globalization, limited to 20 students, turned away dozens more. A Global Compact seminar by former Assistant Secretary-General of the U.N. John Ruggie drew an impressive audience. And over 150 students attended a Saturday panel session on globalization in the developing world at the Sloan Leadership Forum.

The question of "What can we do?" is also focusing on Sloan's opportunity and responsibility. Explains Dean Schmalensee, "This is a community of people who like to roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. It's been a very frustrating time for us because the answer to that is not obvious. I've been deluged with ‘Why don't we do something?' To which my response is, ‘You got any ideas?'" He adds, "We're already doing work on what it means to be a good global corporate citizen. Professor Locke is leading that work, linked in with the U.N.'s Global Compact [a centerpiece of Sloan's 50th anniversary celebration next year]. We're working that issue, as far as I can tell, as hard as anybody in the world. So what else?"

Rethinking, reflecting

One person trying to convert that frustration into energy is Locke. Sloan, he feels, is in a good position to complement other teach-ins sponsored by MIT. And he views his work on globalization as relevant to the issues at hand. Schmalensee agrees with him, and has put program management staff support behind a series of teach-ins Locke is organizing on global business practices in the post-September 11th world.

The first session, held November 20th, entitled "Rethinking Global Business after September 11th," addressed the premise that the behavior of multinational corporations in parts of the developing world is a factor in creating tension toward the West. "Rather than just lament that," explains Locke, "we focused on what could be done to change things." Panelists Martin Trust, SM '58, of MAST Industries, and Pierre Bismuth of Schlumberger presented the positive steps their companies have taken to improve global business practices. John Ruggie, now a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, talked about the Global Compact and proposed ways for multinationals to make a positive impact. Upcoming sessions are planned to address employee relations in a recession, intellectual property issues in the pharmaceutical industry, and media technology innovations that improve quality-of-life in the developing world. Sterman may also facilitate a session on system dynamics in the context of global business practices.

Finding the course

Will the responses to "What should we do?" involve changes in Sloan's curriculum to reflect post-September 11th reality? That question remains unanswered. A few immediate changes are driven by safety concerns. The overseas field trips of both the Sloan Fellows and MOT programs, for example, have been diverted from Asian or South Asian destinations to Europe and Silicon Valley, respectively. Other changes have to do with state-of-mind, reports Shaler-Clark, who notes that, in all her classes, "there is a heightened sense that unexpected events can change everything."

Individual faculty members are altering their courses where appropriate. The final project in Shaler-Clark's strategy class, for example, is to analyze the impact of September 11th on various segments of industry and the economy. Sterman has always spent a few sessions in his introductory system dynamics course to address social, environmental and political issues, and he expects to up the dosage. "You can't be an effective manager in the 21st century," he asserts, "if you lack a broad understanding of these issues."

Ultimately, the single best answer to "What can we do?" just may be, "We can keep looking for answers." Answers that, in Dean Schmalensee's words, lead us "to rededicate ourselves to continuing our best work and to building a world where the insanity that leads to terror has no home."

"What can I do?"

Administrators, faculty, staff, and students all began asking this question literally minutes after the terrorist attacks. The first concern of program management was to do whatever it took to support students. They opened the cafeteria to everyone, kept the TV lounges open around the clock, and made sure people could call loved ones anywhere in the world. They encouraged students to come see them for counseling or anything else. And students did flock to their offices, but instead of asking for help, most asked back, "What can I do?" They gave blood and pitched in at donor centers. The Sloan Senate set up a Web-based community outreach board to link students with cars to students who needed rides to New York City and elsewhere. Margaret Andrews, Executive Director of the MBA program, states, "I'm very proud of the way the community has rallied; from what I've seen, everyone's been very supportive of each other, and very caring, across the board."

To those who kept asking her what they could do, Andrews replied, "We're in the same boat; we don't know." In the absence of a clear course of action, what people did do was congregate: to talk, listen, and talk some more. Program management went ahead with the town meeting they had scheduled for Wednesday the 12th, but threw out the planned agenda in favor of open dialogue. Riccardo Cumerlato, MBA FM '02, comments that gatherings like these "helped people feel less alone and less lonely. And it was good to see people were trying to do something."

Mark Giordono, SM '02, and a leader of the Socially Responsible Business Club, has seen heightened interest in the club and the issues it raises since the 11th. He suspects it comes from a sense of frustration and powerlessness in reaction to the terror strikes. "It's hard enough," he says, "to figure out what you can do in response, but even harder when you're trying to find a job in a tough economy, attend classes, and do homework."