“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not,” is a famous quote attributed to everyone from brilliant scientist Albert Einstein to Major League Baseball’s king of the comedic malapropism, Yogi Berra. No matter who’s ultimately responsible for coining the canny phrase, when it comes to higher education, requiring students to brainstorm theoretical solutions to lived examples of practical problems has long been shown to be an extremely effective method of learning. According to veteran CEO and sought-after business lecturer Mark Lamberti, nowhere is the practice of integrating real-world challenges with academic concepts more productive than in the pursuit of business education.
It should come as no surprise that Mark Lamberti’s approach to both research and teaching is informed by his time spent in the front-line business trenches directing his troops from the strategic position as CEO of three South Africa-based multinational public corporations.While he’s greatly benefited from the invaluable schooling amassed through years of first-hand involvement forging strategy and implementing policy, Lamberti credits his own thirst for knowledge with helping him rise to the top of the corporate ranks. Concurrent with his climb up the career ladder, Lamberti advanced his own education by obtaining bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate diplomas in business administration.
Case Studies Bring Real-World Business Challenges Into the Classroom
It’s likely thanks to his annual participation in the Harvard Business School’s Presidents in Leadership Program from 2001 to the present that Lamberti is a firm believer in the case study technique pioneered at the esteemed graduate university in 1922. Per the HBS website: “The case study method, or case method, is a learning technique in which you’re presented with a real-world business challenge and asked how you’d solve it. After working through it yourself and with peers, you’re told how the scenario played out.”
“Cases expose students to real business dilemmas and decisions. Cases teach students to size up business problems quickly while considering the broader organizational, industry, and societal context,” former dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria wrote in a Dec. 21, 2021, Harvard Business Review feature. “Students recall concepts better when they are set in a case, much as people remember words better when used in context. Cases teach students how to apply theory in practice and how to induce theory from practice. The case method cultivates the capacity for critical analysis, judgment, decision-making, and action.”
In School or in Business, Preparation Is the Key to Success
While not currently a full-time professor, when Lamberti does conduct classroom discussions for graduate-level business students, the method he employs is based on modified “How would you solve this?” case study conventions. However, prior to leading a lecture, like any conscientious student, Lamberti first does his homework.
In addition to familiarizing himself with the syllabus material for a class, the assignment Lamberti gives himself is to study his students in order to ascertain what they most hope to gain from his instruction. “Before I teach an MBA class, I get hold of two or three … people from that class and say, ‘What is the MBA doing for you guys? What are your expectations of this talk? What are the particular kinds of questions you want answered, and does your view represent that of the class?’ So before I even stand up in the classroom, I’ve got a little bit of a sense of what the class’s expectations are,” Lamberti explains.
For Mark Lamberti, Leading by Example Is a Valuable Teaching Tool
Because he’s only leading one or a limited series of discussions rather than teaching an entire elective course, Mark Lamberti has worked out a scenario in which he role-plays the part of a student attempting to solve a business puzzle he’s already dealt with in real life. For the discussion itself, he likes to rely on a tag-team approach, preferring wherever possible to have an academic subject matter expert join him at the podium for a guided Q&A discussion.
As part of the dialogue, Lamberti routinely queries his co-lecturer as to why they posed the specific questions they’d asked him. “That gives me the cue to say what I want to say, and that’s a little bit different, I believe,” he reflects. “I find I get a great response [to] relatable examples from my own experience. It’s kind of bringing real life into the classroom and getting a little bit away from the theory.”
Mark Lamberti’s extensive hands-on leadership experience and years of advanced studies have created the unique lens with which he helps graduate students bring the world of business into focus with a kind of clarity they might not achieve otherwise. “The real-life business experience I had is going to enable me to have better insights than the average academic, I believe,” he admits. “But I have an academic orientation that legitimizes post graduate teaching … so I see integrating my history with my academic roots and my recent academic experience as a way of providing more accessible capabilities to aspirant C Suite executives.”
Learn more about Mark Lamberti here: https://about.me/marklamberti
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