Inside HBS » case discussions http://www.insidehbs.com Harvard Business School, MBA Blog Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:15:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 LCA: Therapy for Business Leaders http://www.insidehbs.com/lca-therapy-for-business-leaders/ http://www.insidehbs.com/lca-therapy-for-business-leaders/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:03:42 +0000 rob http://www.insidehbs.com/?p=305 Continue reading →]]> LCA (Leadership and Corporate Accountability) is easily my least favorite class this semester.  It’s basically Business Ethics – which makes for perfectly fascinating bar conversation, but impossibly aggravating 90-person case discussions.  Part of it has to do with the way it’s taught.  I think our professor was a therapist in another life, and he teaches the course like we should bare our souls with a healthy dose of group hugs and shoulder-crying. 

More it’s just the lack of structure that bothers me.  The case method is inherently fluid and without answers – which is a great thing (!): there’d be no point having a discussion if there were only one answer.  The problem with LCA is there are also no correct processes, no correct frameworks, and essentially, no way to effectively compare & contrast opinions. 

In most case discussions, you think X and I think Y.  Fine.  We can discuss the pros / cons of each and possibly arrive at a compromise or at least fully evaluated strategic options.  In LCA, you think X and I think Y.  We smile and nod congenially, and someone else chimes in that they think Z.  Oh, and A.  Or maybe C?  Does it matter?  Not really.  Where were we again?  Exactly.  Annoyed?  Me too. 

Again, this would be a great course if the class size were only five people, but it falls flat on its face with ninety. 

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